Travel Deal of the Day (Dec. 14, 2006)

Traveling to Las Vegas? If you gamble substantially, you may qualify to get a free or highly discounted room. But what if you do not gamble (or do not gamble enough)? The first rule of thumb is to avoid booking the standard rates offered by the hotel. Do not call the hotel reservation number to find rates and do not just assume that the rates that appear on the website are the best available. You can often find much better rates than those rates offered by the reservation agent over the phone or the rates listed on the websites of the major casino hotels.

The Deal:
Save money on Las Vegas hotels by taking advantage of rates offered to members of the clubs associated with the casino hotels.

How:
1) Sign up for the hotel’s marketing offers at the hotel’s website. The hotel will often send emails with very discounted rates, especially midweek and off-season. These rates are often much lower than the rates offered on the website of the hotel.

2) Check for discount codes that the hotel has created to reward returning customers. Do a google search for discount codes for Vegas hotels – there are a ton of codes out there and the hotels have amazing discounts that magically appear on the website when you have one of these codes.

3) Check out Priceline and Hotwire. You can get a five star hotel on the Strip (likely the Venetian, but possibly the Bellagio) midweek for a little over $100, which is quite a savings over standard rates.