Reasonable Hotel Rates In Vegas
 

I have not been in LV for many, many years and now live in Tokyo.
My daughter-in-law gets married in LV come April and Mrs. Exleftseat
and I are flying in from Japan. I looked at the big name hotels and
I find no rates under $ 200.00/night. So, i figured I would look for Holiday Inn
properties, which usually are quite reasonable. Yet even a HI Express runs upwards from 120.00/night. What happened to the $59.00/$69.00 per night rates? Have things in the U.S. changed so much? That makes Tokyo prices look like a bargain. Any advice how to approach this dilemma? And has someone an idea for inexpensive car rental?

Room rates depend on what's going on in town that week.

Is your wedding near April 11-18? If so that's in the middle of the NAB show. The rates you found are cheap for that week, and I would book yesterday.

Try downtown or off-strip: Golden Nugget, Main Street Station, Binion's, Palace Station, Gold Coast. Will you be renting a car? Try a "Local's" casino: Sam's Town, Boulder Station, Arizona Charlies.

Try tripres.com .

You're also checking a little too far out so book what you desire now and make sure it is a cancellable reservation. When you find something better, book that and cancel original reservation. This way you've covered yourself in case you're there on a convention week. As the time nears, keep checking as there may be specials that open up.

The Stratosphere always has cheap room rates: they're posting $59 per night weeknights in April; double that on weekends. Check it out! https://www.stratospherehotel.com/do/reservations.aspx

There are hotel deals to be had. But for the most part if you
want those rates on SOME of the properties on the Strip?
Those rate are usually available Mon-Weds. occupancy. If you have a
rental car and don`t mind a short drive? There are alot of hotels
located just east of the Strip on Paradise Ave.

You mentioned you are attending a wedding (Congrats.) here in
April? If its anywhere near the weekend of April 5th-7th? You will not
find much deals to be had! Due to the fact that most properties will
be pretty booked and weekends before hand cause of March Madness.
Final 4 and championship games are held during that weekend and will
be pretty crowded.

OK, EXLEFTSEAT: you're now considered "armed and dangerous". :D Please let us know how it goes down!

Right you are! I will follow the advice given and sit patiently on the sidelines, check periodically and look again in earnest a couple of months before the
final event. I will keep you posted in this thread. And of course thanks for all your helpful advice. The FT community is the greatest source of meaningful information not to be found elesewhere!!!

Actually that is exactly what you have been told not to do. As you will soon see, rates in Vegas go only in one direction - up. In the past few years, most hotels sell out on weekends, and I have never seen discounts as dates draw near, except for November/December which is now really the only slow period.

As suggested above, you should immediately make a reservation based on your current options. Although many casinos and hotels now require prepaid deposits, they are almost always cancellable up to 72 hours before arrival. So you won't lose any money in the event you find a better deal.

You won't find much for < $100 in Vegas these days. Assuming you don't need to stay at a 4* casino/resort on the Strip (and you might want to reconsider if it has been 20 years, since much has changed and the Strip is quite convenient) you will find the best rates either downtown, at the airport or at off-strip casinos run by Station Casinos or Boyd Entertainment. Embassy Suites can often be had for <$200/night.

Another potential cheap option is to get a timeshare presentation deal at the HGVC (see Hilton forum). But that will only cover 2-3 nights, and you'll have to waste 90 min listening to the timeshare sales drivel.

F-Sun. Probably right.

Sun-Thur. Dead Wrong.

Not in my experience...
As with many things, rates in Vegas fluctuate depending on rising and falling demand. I have frequently been able to snag a last-minute deal on rooms that was hundreds of dollars (yes, hundreds) below the rate they wanted only weeks - or even days - earlier. As with the airlines, hotels in Vegas try to get higher room rates weeks and months out... but as the date of stay approaches, they adjust prices accordingly. Yes, that often means up - but not always.

As others have suggested, book the best deal you can find now (making sure it's fully cancelable without penalty), especially if your stay is during a major convention like NAB. Then check back from time-to-time as your departure date gets closer to look for and change the reservation to a better deal, even at the same hotel.

Sorry, I should have clarified. I just assumed OP was complaining about the weekend rates, since weekday rates are usually quite reasonable, except during large conventions :)

That's not my experience either. The hotel calendar rates this far out are normally higher than the rates that can be attained a couple of months before the target date when various casino promotions start to come out. I've also seen, and gotten, last minute deals on a few occasions that were better than anything that could have been booked in advance.

The wild card are the few very large conventions and special events. In which case rates start higher and usually stay there. The NAB convention in April is a big one, and it definitely will limit the amount of great deals to be had, but even it's not near to being the biggest one that Vegas hosts. Not sure how much impact Final Four 4 weekend will have on rates.

All that being said, I concur with the advice that it doesn't hurt to book a decent rate now if it's fully refundable.

If the OP is still checking this read, perhaps you can give us your dates now and we can see if you will be coming in during a peak period.

Two more ideas - I have scored great Vegas rooms on hotwire.com from time to time - also check for any new megaproperties opening just before your trip - I scored $219 a night at the new Palazzo shortly after their opening on Dec. 19. But if there is a massive trade show in town in can be tough. Luxor is frequently reasonable and available on hotwire, as are many off strip properties.