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Las Vegas Room Rates as low as $20 per night By Anthony Curtis, Las Vegas Advisor  |
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This year’s numbers are nothing short of extraordinary, especially considering that they’re compared with numbers we thought were equally extraordinary last July.
From a survey of 84 casinos (same as last year), we found a whopping 60 with rates of $49 or less—65 if you include distant outliers like Whiskey Pete’s, Railroad Pass, etc.—compared to 42 last year. Fully 50 casinos had rates of less than $40, compared to just 30 last year. The total below $30 was 32, compared to 13. And in the most telling result of all, last year there was one lone entry in the $20 and Under category, the first time since 2004 that it had any entries at all, while this year there were 16 casinos with rooms for $20 or less (the lowest being $11.55 per night at Boulder Station).
As we’ve done in the past, we made phone calls, surfed the Web, and checked third-party booking companies to search the best rates throughout July. We have a great deal of research firepower to investigate all those avenues, so perhaps we found a rate or two that can’t be duplicated (plus, rates change daily). But this is the way we do it every year, so the annual comparisons above are valid and anyone's results in reserving rooms are almost certain to yield lower—make that much lower—prices than in years past. Also, remember that the rates we list are base prices that might be subject to any combination of taxes, booking charges, and resort fees. Still, this list provides strong leads to search out low rates.
Under $20: Binion’s, Boulder Station, El Cortez, Fiesta Rancho, Four Queens, Gold Spike, Golden Gate, Hooters, Palace Station, Plaza, Sahara, Sam’s Town, Terrible’s, Texas Station, Vegas Club, Wild Wild West.
Under $30: Arizona Charlie’s Boulder, Arizona Charlie’s Decatur, Circus Circus, Eastside Cannery, Fiesta Henderson, Fitzgeralds, Fremont, Gold Coast, Imperial Palace, Main Street Station, Orleans, Riviera, Silverton, Stratosphere, Tropicana.
Under $40: Aliante Station, Bill’s Gambling Hall, California, Cannery, Ellis Island Super 8, Excalibur, Flamingo, Harrah’s, Las Vegas Hilton, Longhorn Super 8, Lucky Club, Rio, Sahara, Santa Fe Station, Silverton, Suncoast, Sunset Station, Tuscany.
Under $50: Bally’s, Casino Royale, Golden Nugget, Hard Rock, Luxor, M Resort, Monte Carlo, Royal, South Point, TI.
High End: Prices are much lower at the high-end resorts, as well. In fact, five of last year’s high end entries are in this year’s $50 and Under and three are in the $40 and Under group. The difference between this year and last for the Palms is $55 to $82; Paris is $64/$90; Planet Hollywood is $71/$89; the Venetian is $110/$199, and the Four Seasons is $229/$275 (and many of these high-enders come with add-ons).
New York-New York $53, Palms $55, JW Marriott $59, Paris $64, MGM Grand $66, Planet Hollywood $71, Green Valley Ranch $75, Mirage $79, Westin Casuarina $79, Caesars $96, Mandalay Bay $96, THEhotel $110, Venetian $110, Bellagio $112, Red Rock $125, Palazzo $127, Encore $149, Wynn $155, Four Seasons $229.
How do you lock in these bargains? By shopping around via the methods described above, with a definite lean toward the Web. Last year we emphasized that booking online is the way to go for the best rates (the hotels want to incentivize us away from the human interface—it saves them money) and we suggested that signing up for emails from your favorite properties can result in even better deals. That advice is even stronger today.
Case in point: After we’d completed the survey, we received an email from Luxor offering room rates starting at $38 on select dates if booked by July 3rd (down from $42 when they’d emailed us a couple of weeks prior). Similar is an email deal just in from Venetian/Palazzo starting at $109 (applicable to the date range we checked and down from $129) and including $50 off one round of golf with complimentary club rental, 20% off the total bill at Restaurant Charlie and Pinot Brasserie, 2-for-1 drinks at Salute Lounge, and $25 in slot free-play.
Be aware that landing these types of deals takes effort, along with a willingness to embrace new and rapidly evolving technology. This includes signing up for texts to your mobile phone and monitoring social-networking interfaces like Twitter and Facebook. The hipper resorts—think Planet Hollywood and the Palms—often give additional discounts to their Twitter and Facebook members. Just sign up to “follow” a hotel’s Twitter feed if it has one, or as a “fan” on its Facebook page, to keep abreast of the latest deals, including offers like “First 50 people to ReTweet this get an additional 30% off next weekend’s already discounted rate.” Yep, we’ve seen offers like that over the past few months.
Finally—and getting back to creativity—Nevada residents can get a “Freecation” at Primm Valley until July 9 (800/386-7867 or primmspecials.com). That’s a room for two nights with breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, attraction passes, and $50 slot free-play—all for no charge! How the heck can you beat that?
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