Luxury rooms in Las Vegas are now at bargain basement prices

Luxury rooms are now at bargain rates in Las Vegas. You can pay two-star prices and stay at five-star properties by doing some shopping online at discount travel sites.

Las Vegas has become a bargain again and the days of full hotels at high nightly rates are put on the back burner for now. In Las Vegas, Digital Journal has taken a hard look at room rates and has found that room rates have plummeted and a new form of marketing has suddenly appeared. First, a new marketing trend that has swept the cities is Strip hotels, or ‘average room rate’. This new play on words is an attempt to gloss over falling room rates. The five star hotels like the Wynn, Bellagio, and Palazzo have recently seen triple-digit room rates drop to double digits. Rooms that were going for $200 a night are now falling around $75 when you use services like Price Line.

Jay David Murphy

The Palazzo on the Las Vegas Strip is one of the many of the many five star hotels offering online deep discounts.

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The multiple property room switch is stronger than ever. In order to cut costs, operators of these properties will switch tourists to another property to fill a designated hotel. This means that staffing at other properties they operate is cut. This also translates to fewer products needed to operate those facilities, like food, cleaning supplies, and laundry services. Some strip properties are now under $20 a night, like the Sahara which is can be enjoyed for $18.75. If you go to the Palms, which is one of the hottest properties in Vegas, on their website you will find the off dates with prices as low as $59 a night. Again, at bargain websites like Price Line and Expedia, they have rates even lower than what the properties advertise. The one thing that has not dropped is restaurant food pricing and goods costs, like bottled water in the hotels. There has been a huge influx of water bottle pirates who stand on the causeway bridges between hotels over Las Vegas Boulevard. They sell water for a dollar, without a license, in comparison to the $3 and $4 prices that the hotels still overcharge. The water pirates make 80 cents per bottle and it is not unusual for them to make $400 a day. With over 13% unemployment now in Las Vegas, it has become a booming illegal enterprise. Just last week Vegas metro arrested over a dozen water pirates after Strip properties complained. On one website every hotel in Las Vegas had big sale signs on its tabs trying to fill rooms that just two years ago went for $200 a night and more. One example, last week 4 nights at the Bellagio went for $180 for the whole stay, that’s $45 a night for a room facing the Dancing Fountains Strip side. That’s a 5 star room at a 2 star rate. So it’s back to Vegas being a bargain vacation spot as hotels are now giving out great deals on their glut of luxury rooms. The trick is to shop the websites that are pushing rooms for the properties at double the volume of just a year ago according to Expedia. Do not to go direct to the hotels where you want to stay and pay more. The theory behind the deep discounts is that they will make up the difference by guest gambling, dining, and enjoying the other amenities. Some hotel executives are concerned about the long-term ramifications hoping this latest trend won’t last long so they can get their room rates back up.

Jay David Murphy

Picture of City Center at the cross road of Harmon and Las Vegas Boulevard.

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But things are about to get even better for the tourist, because City Center is getting ready to open up and will have several towers of rooms ready to go. That means room rates may have to drop even lower. One other tip to save money while visiting Las Vegas is to use a service called Tickets Tonight when you get to town. They have several Strip locations and sell the unsold tickets to shows starting at noon each day for half price. They are also offering other things to do while in Vegas at tremendous discounts. Las Vegas is known as a ‘walk up’ city when it comes to concert and event ticket sales. Advance tickets sales in the Las Vegas market are significantly below other cities. Vegas is a very now town, and locals know to wait until the last second to snatch up bargains, even on some of the top events. Purchasing tickets early in Las Vegas translate to paying higher prices. Of course, for big gamblers the free stuff is still available in Vegas. But you have to be laying down big bets that are in the 10’s of 1,000’s. If you are gambling with less than $20,000 you will get a players card and standard comps. Since Vegas became corporate, the purse strings tightened up, and properties have come under the meticulous eyes of corporation accountants, who even during the good times, sought to save money and trimmed down comp dollars. Make sure, if you are gambling, to get a players card at the properties you choose to stay and play at. You may get some immediate benefits, and when you come back and stay, even more. There are also a lot of discounts on airline tickets and car rentals right now. Vegas still depend on the consumers out of southern California, but even that traffic has dwindled and the packed freeway going in and out of the city on the weekends has seen a significant drop. So do your shopping for hotel rooms for Las Vegas on the Internet and you are sure to find some huge savings right now so you can live it up large in five-star rooms at three star rates. The sale sign has been hung and the Internet is the place for Vegas bargains.