Priceline Hotel: Las Vegas help

[dahammer]

I'm helping 5 sisters with a trip to Las Vegas, one of them turns 50 this year. Dates of travel are 4/5 -4/10/05 and backup reservations have been made at the Luxor where the standard room in the Pyramid for the first three nights runs $99 plus tax; on 4/8 the rate goes up to $169 and on 4/9 the rate goes up to $189. Two in the group have been to the Luxor already so they would like to try something different. I had heard some good things about the Monte Carlo, but also heard a comment that the staff was "snooty", I guess I'm looking for some advice on similar if not better accomodations, more central to the strip than the Luxor. Because of not being able to guarantee rooms with two beds, I'm not sure if PL or HW is an option. In addition, I know your thoughts about why you don't use these PL or HW for Vegas. Are there any non opaque deals in Vegas for a 4* property in the $100 range? Also, I thought I saw on the board that the Venetian and Bellagio (both 5*) release inventory to PL and HW about one week before dates of travel.

[thereuare]

How many rooms are they intending on getting? Many hotels in Vegas, no matter how booked, are maximum occupancy of four... as well, hotels have been hitting guests pretty hard with additional charges for occupancy greater than two (upwards of $30/nite per additional person).

Are they willing to SPLIT THEIR STAY?

[dahammer]

my bad, sorry for that, we will need three rooms total. Two of the rooms would have to have two beds in the room, the third room can go with a king if necessary. Splitting the stay would only be an option if we could get a 5* like has been mentioned on the board, since we would be fairly confident of the outcome. Do you think a $100 win is possible? I would probably need to book the weekend portion of the trip in a non-opaque property that we could identify, preferrably not too far from the 5*. The sisters will not rent a car hence, the central location on the strip would be nice. I did some checking using Easy Click Travel and it seems that there were two opaque listings that were 4* properties and a ton of non-casino hotels. These opaque properties looked like they were more expensive than the Luxor, and I believe that one was the Monte Carlo given the description of the some of the features, like the "Lance Burton Showroom". May I add that I would want to book this stay in a casino hotel; a spa would be a plus, not a requirement. The average room rate for the 5 days at the Luxor works out to about $130 without tax, so this would be a maximum bid amount for better, more "Strip Central" accomodations.

[thereuare]

How about Bally's with an average rate of $121/nite (+tax).

[TravelGuy]

Or the Flamingo @ $126/night+ through their website. You could break it up into two reservations and cancel as necessary.

[dahammer]

Thanks TG and Thereuare, I have been checking several hotel websites and it looks like the best deal for the dates of travel seem to be the backup reservation at the Luxor @ $99 per night. Also, just found out that two of the five in the party will be returning on 4/8. So it looks like we are looking at two rooms for the dates of 4/5-4/10 and one room for 4/5 - 4/8. The Bally's deal looks pretty good, I think weekday rates are at $89 a night.

[thereuare]

... and in my opinion Bally's is a better overall property than Luxor (at least where i'd prefer to stay).

[dahammer]

Thanks for the tip!! Since my post, I have found out that there is a bit of dissention among the 5 sisters and that one of the 5 reported poor service at the Luxor during her last stay about 3 months ago. The staff had plenty of attitude and that some items like spa passes, coupons, were not presented no offered when asked at check in and that the front desk manager was not very helpful. According to this disgruntled former Luxor guest, she will never go back. We might have to split the group of 5 sisters into two hotels!

[Steph58]

dahammer, you might gently mention to the sister who encountered poor service and an attitude at the Luxor that this is the norm in Vegas. I've stayed in quite a few of the hotels and to be honest I don't recall one where they were what I'd call even "nice". Apathetic is about as good as you get; helpful would be an exception rather than the rule. I can only guess that it's because they deal with so many people. The way the rates and prices have climbed over the years in Vegas, it's rather annoying--the attitude that they're doing you a favor. So when I go, that's one city where I don't anticipate pleasantries.

[dahammer]

Just wanted to close this topic out, I ended up booking three rooms directly with the Luxor at the rate of $99 per night, 4/05/05 - 4/08/05. These dates are mid-week and go up on the weekends to $159 (Friday) and $179 (Saturday).

[dahammer]

OK, so it is about 6 weeks away from the 5 sister's Las Vegas trip and some in the group are thinking that it might be fun to ditch the Luxor and to stay in the Venitian....is a $100-$120 bid possible for 3 rooms, for the following dates: 04/05/05 to 04/08/05???

[thereuare]

Doesn't look good for the Venetian for those days, but it looks like Hotwire does have what appears to be the Aladdin for those dates for under $90/nite!

[dahammer]

Thanks!!! The Aladdin looks like a really good deal compared to the Luxor....much better location