Hotel Reservations

[lalate]

While some may know this, others don't, so it's worth telling all.

1. Vegas hotel room rates literally can change every day, sometimes by large margins. I just finished booking my Ballys + HR and Ballys fell $10-20 a night. And believe me, it may fall more or go up more than it was before. You just don't know.

2. I prefer to book directly from the hotels themselves. Generally, they do have the lowest rates on their websites and often dont know (on the phone) that such internet rates exist. For example, I just booked a Sunday at HR. One site had it at over $220. Another had it at $100 last night and sold out tonight. HR operator said something over $200. And the HR website - $116. If you see something cheap, grab it. You can always cancel if it gets lower but you cant get it once its gone. Remember, hotel websites tend to be the cheapest 9 out of 10 times.

[greenie]

Indeed. Typically I book on the web once I see a rate I like, then follow up on the phone 2-3 times leading up to my stay to keep confirming that I'm locked in at the lowest rate.

Doesn't hurt to keep checking back. If you're heading in for the weekend, always make sure to check late Wednesday night and late Thursday night as that's when the resorts often hit the (small) panic button and put a bunch of rooms up for dirt cheap.

Final thing I'll add is that if you're looking to stay for a certain stretch -- say 3 days -- and a property is only offering a great rate for 2 of them, go ahead and book the two. Call back after a day or two and tell them you're thinking about extending... on very rare occasions they'll give you the same rate, but more often than not they'll at least offer you something you couldn't otherwise get. Got a Saturday night at the HR this way a little while back; had Sunday/Monday nights booked for the 150s, but Saturday was listed at 399. After calling and asking politely, they gave me Saturday for about 250.

[lalate]

I also do a strange thing - I book every night as a separate reservation in case I want to come into town later or somewhere else first. Easier to cancel.

[lalate]

One of my nights of my reservation just went back up $10 this mornign since yesterday afternoon (when it went down $10 and I booked it) lol. This is like watching the down jones lol.