Priceline Hotel: Vegas in February

[ScottF12345]

Every year I head to vegas for the superbowl. This year will be the first one that I use priceline or hotwire for. I'm wondering if anybody thinks it's too early for me to start looking? I would like to start early to save on costs but I'm thinking it might be to early and be pointless to start now. Any thoughts?

Scott

[thereuare]

When bidding times of expected sold-out (or unusually high demand) i think bidding early is the best bet. If you need help with a strategy please post the dates of the superbowl (or more accurately, the date(s) you want to be in Vegs).

[ScottF12345]

Thanks for the resply. That was my thinking, and with you backing it up I feel better about booking this early. The Super Bowl is Feb 6. I think I would like to stay their from the 3rd through the 7th. These dates are very flexible. By the way I was reading some of your previous posts on Vegas and see that you enjoy Vegas as much as the next person. You should really check it out during the Super Bowl. One of the best times you'll ever have :) Just a thought. Thank, any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Scott

[thereuare]

Priceline don't look as drastic as i thought they'd be (my guess is that will change as time moves on)... what have you paid in the past (for the SuperBowl) and what type of rates have you paid. Are you looking for similar accomodations and costs this time around?

Give me an idea as to the price and/or star rating you are looking for and i'll then be able to best advise accordingly.

[ScottF12345]

In the past I have stayed everywhere from Excalibur to the Venetian. Again this is in the past before I started using Priceline. The Venetian I believe I got through Hotwire 3+ years ago at around 109. The excalibur we went with a huge group and I believe it came out to some thing like 40 a night per person, with 4 people in each room. The main thing is, we like to stay on the strip. Now i know this drastically increases price so if this doesnt make sense for this trip we can always stay a little off I'm sure. I'm looking to pay no more than about 150 a night. I love staying in vegas, and I love staying in nice hotels there. The nicer the place the better (price is flexible).

Scott

[thereuare]

First thing i would do is book a back-up reservation.

I found Bally's averages out to $166/nite and Monte Carlo averages out to $159/nite... both at their respective websites.

I believe both of these are better than Hotwire is currently offering... except if you want to go on the cheap, as what i believe to be Circus Circus is available for $66/nite.

Since Priceline requires your bid to be enough for each nite of your stay (and not the average nightly cost of your stay) this could be a tough Priceline situation unless you are willing to SPLIT THE BID.

However, even if you choose to split the bid, it may not help much since you're days of the week are Thur-Monday (since Thursday and Sunday are usually less expensive than Fri and Saturday... so no easy way to split since you'd want to bid Friday and Saturday together). You sound as if your dates are very flexible, and if they are and you are really looking to get the best rates, you may want to consider Fri-Tues (so that you could bid Fri+Sat together than then Sun+Mon together).

Those rates above are for Superbowl dates? If so, wow!, it doesn't get as crowded as i had prevously believed. I'm hoping my next Vegas trip is next year during college football season. My brother-in-law is a huge FSU fan (he lives in Tallahassee), never been to Vegas and i know that he would totally fall in love with it. Just thinking about sitting with him in the sports book watching a Michigan and FSU double-header brings a smile to my face.

[ScottF12345]

Well, I just talked to one of the people I am going with and it seems my dates are a little more flexible than his. It seems the dates that will fit in with his schedule are the 4th through the 7th. This makes it even more difficult because the option of splitting up the dates seems near impossible now. I looked at hotwire and came up with that 66 one as well and figured it to be Circus Circus as well. I've stayed their many many years ago and.....yeah I don't think Circus Circus will be the hotel of my choice :) . Planning a backup hotel is a GREAT idea though. I will definately look into having a backup that is Canceable (if thats a word)

After looking for airfare I have found some pretty good results for Fri (4th) through Tuesday (7th) so it looks like those may be the days. Then after reading some previous posts on here I see that 3* on the strip may result in some less than desirable hotels. This puts another damper on the situation heh.

Yeah these dates are superbowl weekend and to be perfectly honest I'm a bit surprised with the openess right now. Definately take your brother-in-law during football season. If he's never been, as you know, itll be an experience to remember.

One more thing. Previous posts say that it may be better to go with hotwire than priceline for vegas. Do you find this to be the case? As of right now I don't see much on Hotwire to be appealing.

Thanks again,

Scott