VEGAS HOTELS ADVICE.....

hotel basterdos

Best way of booking.....use fatwallet.com for deals and book direct with the hotel. Deals for May will start to come out soon.

3/4 star - 3 in a room means two queens and a rollaway or sofabed, but they surcharge the third person, so I would go for two rooms, maybe adjoining (special request).

Hotels - beware the crap rooms in the good hotels eg the Classic room in the Roman Tower in Caesars, or the unrefurbished rooms in Ballys.

I would suggest somewhere like MGM, PH, Mirage, Paris.

Something like this offer

https://reservations.mgmmirage.com/bookingengine.aspx?pid=001&host=group&code=INB323

Your 96 Hour sale offer includes:
* Complimentary daily access to the Gym
* Complimentary daily internet access
* Complimentary nightly admission to Studio 54 or Tabu Ultra Lounge
* Complimentary local and toll free calls

Most midweek nights are $62.

Book by 1st Feb. DIfferent offers have different freebies, eg some have free buffets.

If its refundable (see the T&Cs), book it now and cancel if something better comes up.

Dont go too far north or south, ie not Mandalay Bay or Stratosphere.

Dont go too cheap ad nasty eg IP, Excalubur, Luxor.

Jersey Boys at Palazzo and KA at MGM were the best shows Ive seen there. Dont do Zumanity. LOVE and Phantom were also good.

Heres a map

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en-GB&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=105863286002279699212.0004692e030c9f2196755&ll=36.10938,-115.163927&spn=0.033354,0.076818&z=14

with stuff to do.

Its good advice, however if you want advice from a man whos been over 30 times put a call out for PK01

stayed at planet hollywood great location free champagne every day centre of strip clean and tidy booked with virgin matey ok

stayed in Treasure Island, great location on the strip and one of the cheaper hotels -
more basic than the others around the middle of the strip, but nice clean and comfortable room,
and very close to many of the big hotels, Bellagio, Venetian, Wynn, Ceasars, Palazzo, Mirage.
Booked it all with Virgin. Would stay there again, but may try Mirage next time.
(If you book with Virgin you can pre-book airport/hotel transfer return, lot cheaper than taxi.)

http://www.smartervegas.com/

promo codes/deals for all hotels mate

For first timer MGM is very good and thats where you will find the best deals.
They do deal every thursday on twitter its called MGM twitter thursday, if u have twitter look out for them if not ill post them on this thread for ya when they come out. You only get 24hrs to book them tho from when they are released but they are fully refundable which is gd cos you can still hunt for better deals.
To give you an idea of the deals i got a bungalow suite at MGM for 7 nights in June for $571with lots of extras like entry to there nightclubs, spa stuff and buffet stuff for free.

gotta say, fantastic advice all round... WSOP starts around then too so gonna try and qualify for one event if possible.. just to say i played in it :)

Everone's idea of a "decent hotel" is different. It depends what you want out the hotel experience. I've stayed and seen several Vegas hotel rooms and none of them, even the Tropicana, have been that bad. I don't think you can go too far wrong.

Best value for money by far has been the Desert Rose which is just opposite the MGM and next to Hooters (five minute walk to the sky bridge), and used to be condos so are huge. I'm thinking of booking for later in the year with Expedia, and with the discounts and 10% off voucher/cash back, it's about £33 a night and that includes free wifi and breakfast. But it doesn't feel like you're in Vegas when you're in a 3-storey building and they don't even do room service.

Second best value is booking the MGM Signature privately thorugh VRBO or luxurysuitesintl. $80 a night is a reasonable price to pay for what is a luxury room and very good service. Room service above standard for Vegas.

The best hotel for luxury was the Wynn, in every possible way - best room and best room service I've ever had. It beat Bellagio hands down for me. I haven't seen the Venetian/Pallazo rooms though.

Worst hotel was Bills, which would have been great (given the price) were it not for the old air-con which competes with the street noise to annoy you. Had to wear earplugs.

Best overall when there's a good price going, especially for people new to Vegas I'd say is the MGM Grand. Rooms are a bit tired now, and don't even have a mini bar, but they're comfortable enough and the MGM is a big and fun property with a very good poker room (my favourite for low limit cash). But it's worth upgrading to a place like Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, Wynn if it's only a small difference.

going on the 21st staying at the flamingo go rooms cant wait 14 nights of avin it large with me mates cant wait

mgm twitter deals sound decent, gonna have a look at those.

can get ba prem economy for 900 quid, think business at 2.2k is prob a touch high for the journey, esp when i paid 3k business to australia just now.

book economy seat if going midweek and turn up at airport early and very well dressed. Ask at the checkin if there are any upgrades available as your secretary booked this in error. Say you dont mind paying of course.

May seem cheesey this but I have had so many upgrades (they dont usually charge you even if you look the part and smile etc) over the years including one to business class back from melbourne although that was a more complex blag. Even if they do charge you you will get an upgrade to premium economy for less than $100 usually and its well worth it.

You can get upgrades very easily at hotels, but airlines have very strict policies these days re upgrades. The days of blagging them are well and truly over. Virgin for example, there will be dozens of people with Gold or Silver cards that will be given upgrades before you - and that's only if economy is full, which it wouldn't be in midweek. And LOL at a $100 upgrade to premium - I wish! It's cheaper to book premium ahead of time than upgrade at the desk.

I'd bet my cat that you haven't blagged an upgrade a dozen times. Not in the last decade anyway.Ask anyone who works for an airline like BA or Virgin and they'll tell you that operational upgrades (economy is overbooked) go to the frequent flyers first and asking for an upgrade is almost a sure fire way of not getting one - especially if you act like some jumped up** who says "I normally fly business...". The desk hears "any chance of an upgrade" about two hundred times a day - they are never impressed.

I don't mean to be horrible or anything, but I'm not very good at allowing complete BS to pass.

my blagg to upgrade is using my ff pts, thats what i did on the way back from oz upgrading to first on the new A380 :D now that was cool!!

anyways, can anyone shed light on the differences between the various MGMs, is signature better than the normal rooms, any tips?
heard loads about slipping the 50 in with your passport when checking in and i will try that, seems to work reasonably often so good advice there.

ok, so where do I send my fluffykins, Russ?

The MGM Signature rooms are MUCH nicer than the in the MGM Grand - it's the difference between 3 star and 5 star in my mind and well worth a bit more money, especially the 1 bedroom corner suites which I happily stayed in for a month. The only downside is the location - the walk from the Sig to the MGM poker room is just as long as if you were staying in NYNY, Tropicana, Hooters (God forbid) or Desert Rose, only without the views.

Apparently a lot of the upgrades aren't really upgrades and are just a higher floor. When I stayed at encore the room was enormous and had a good view on 26th floor and I was far too gutless to try 50$ note trick lol.

mgm Twitter thursday deal is not very good this week, just some movie promo where they give you credit for the room.

BTW do you know that memorial day/weekend is on 28th may and that makes it quite a bit more expensive. Vegas will be extremely busy tho, for me thats a good thing not sure for u tho.
If ur dates are flexibl going may17thseems to be cheapest for flights and hotels.

trying to pick way through deals but there is so many to choose from :)

looks like it could be 3 of us for 26/27/28 with another lad flying in from denver on 29/30/31st..

would you recommend those stay two nights get third free type deals...

need room that sleeps 3 then prob 2 x rooms (adjoining if possible) or one of those condos..

cheers

Best tip: travel light.

I was over for a fortnight a few years back amd hauled two suitcases of gear across the Atlantic, only to discover that I could've bought the same stuff there for half the price.

There's a big outlet mall about 5 miles out in the desert from the Mandalay Bay end of the Strip. It's worth a trip out if you're going to be there for any length of time.

As for the hotels, be careful of the budget options. Some (including the Luxor) don't have safes in all the rooms. That means checking-in valuables at the front desk every time you go out, which is a pain the hole.

The MGM is a good mid-range option. Plus it has lions prowling round in the lobby.

Caesar's Palace is worth a look for the window shopping, and unlke most of the casinos which seem to have their buffets in the basement beside the boiler room, the room at Caesar's is bright and sunny and feels more lke a proper restaurant.

Be lucky.