Hotel Splurge

[jeffrey]

I'm heading to Vegas to meet a friend for a few days this weekend so I went ahead and booked a room with Expedia. I was thinking about it and decided I would stay a couple of days after my friend leaves to go to some timeshare presentations (heh -- I know, not something that anyone would normally want to do, but I figured it would give me some good writing material for the timeshare trap site and see if the sales agents are using any new techniques in trying to get people to buy) Anyway, I was just going to book an extra two days at the same hotel (Tuscany) but decided to check out their website and see what the difference (if any) was from Expedia. It turns out that they are running a web only promotion that was $7 a day cheaper than the price I had paid on Expedia.

Expedia has a price match guarantee, so I called them up and told them about the price I had found on the Tuscany website. It definitely wasn't a painless process (if you ever have to do it, run all the numbers yourself before hand -- I kept having to let the person know her math was incorrect) In the end, it all got worked out and I was refunded the money, but I also received a $50 coupon toward a future purchase. Since I had already decided I was going to stay a couple extra days, I figured with the coupon I could stay for free (hotels in Vegas during the week are dirt cheap)

So, as I was looking at what was available, there were a a number of options with some 2.5 - 3 star hotels that were in the $25 - $30 a night range. The issue is that they almost all came with resort fees of anywhere from $7 - 17 a night. Then I found South Point -- a 4 star hotel (with good reviews) doing a 72 hour sale with rooms for $40 a night (and no resort fee -- a huge bonus). So I had to make the choice of staying for free (plus whatever resort fee the hotel had) at a decent, yet nothing fancy hotel or pay $40 ($20 a night) after taxes for 2 nights at a 4 star hotel -- and I decided to go for the splurge.

Most of the time I use a hotel only for a place to sleep as I run off to my next destination, but I figured if I was going to have to suffer through the pain of several timeshare presentations, coming back to a really nice room would be nice. Would you have gone for the free rooms or splurged in a similar situation?

[GREENBACK]

I'd leave Mr. Frugal in his cage at home Jeffrey. It's Vegas after all. What happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas including your memory of a few extra bucks

[jpg7n16]

Agreed. If you were in Vegas and the worst thing that happened financially was you paid $40 for 2 days in a 4-star hotel room... you did pretty well

Besides, resort fees would have been $14-34 for the two days. So maybe you got a 4-star room for $6-26 extra. Not bad.

[jeffrey]

Originally Posted by GREENBACK

I'd leave Mr. Frugal in his cage at home Jeffrey. It's Vegas after all. What happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas including your memory of a few extra bucks

heh -- that would be always -- I'm homeless (although that is on purpose)

[jeffrey]

Originally Posted by jpg7n16

Agreed. If you were in Vegas and the worst thing that happened financially was you paid $40 for 2 days in a 4-star hotel room... you did pretty well

Besides, resort fees would have been $14-34 for the two days. So maybe you got a 4-star room for $6-26 extra. Not bad.

It was the resort fees (and the lack thereof at the 4 star hotel) that made the decision easy for me.

[snafu]

Las Vegas is a place to have fun, don't cheap out there! The 'resort' fee is just a gimmick to allow them to advertise their rooms dirt cheap! The pools and 'resort' features are not available at this time of year. They told me [Mandalay] it covered internet! The whole point is to get you to the gaming tables or slots.

Have you rented a car? There are terrific deals available and self parking is free. Wish the monorail was more extensive...

Next visit we will definitely stay off the strip. Looking forward to hearing your view on their time-share promos.

[MonkeyMama]

Actually, I've rarely paid more than $30/night for a hotel room in Vegas (the Hilton is usually pretty cheap because it's at the end of the strip and is not themed - and is a REALLY nice hotel. Compared to the Motel 6 variety that we usually go for).

OF course the whole point is to have more money to splurge while in Vegas. Definitely go cheap on the room since cheap rooms tend to be abundant anyway.

Last time we went to Vegas we got 2 nights free @ Hilton for going to one timeshare presentation. The salesman was really pissy with us when it was clear we weren't going to buy and had no plans to. (We've been to a lot of presentations where they were very nice and let us leave pretty quickly). Anyway, I could only roll my eyes. Not like they didn't come crawling and begging for us to go. It was sold as a *free vacation* but I was well aware of the catch and willing to play along. I think Vegas is the only place I have ever gone to a timeshare presentation - the compensation is usually pretty generous there.

I've been noticing airfare and hotel prices cheaper directly at website for a long time now. Last time we went to Southern California I thought it was a typo when I saw the price of our favorite beachside resort - on hotels.com or one of those places. The cost on the resort's website was literally 1/3 or 1/4 as much. OMG. Just happens to be a hotel we have been going to for decades. I couldn't find any published price anywhere near the website/direct price. So whenever I am booking rooms or flights I always check direct with the company and usually end up buying that way for cheaper. That was just the most mind blowing difference in price that I have ever seen. Usually it just saves a few bucks, but you never know.

Have Fun! I just find those timeshare talks amusing, though it is sad how many people fall for it. They were trying to sell us a $50k timeshare in the middle of the desert.