Las Vegas is one of the best cities in the U.S. for getting “bang for your buck” on hotels.  The price-per-quality ratio here is better than any other US city I’ve visited.  For instance, for $159, I could get  a room the size of a prison cell in New York City–with a shared bathroom–or I could get a five star hotel in Vegas.  Amazing.  If you’re an established high roller (big gambler), you can probably score a free hotel room in Las Vegas any time you like. The rest of us mere mortals, though, have to fend for ourselves when it comes to getting a good deal on a hotel room.  Here’s how I do it:

Sign up for emails from casinos

Most casino resorts send out periodic emails with deals that are slightly better than rack rate to anyone on their email list.  So before your trip, go to the resort websites and sign up for their emails.

Be flexible with your dates.

Hotel prices in Las Vegas are cheaper during the week (Sunday-Thursday) than they are on weekends (Friday-Saturday). Also certain months are traditionally slower than others, such as December (before New Year’s) and January.  Try to avoid coming to Vegas during large conventions, because room prices will be higher.

Book. . .then rebook if necessary

I tend to book something, anything, at a price I can live with, and then keep looking for a better deal right up until my trip.  If I see a better deal for that hotel–or another one I’d like to stay at–I book under the new deal and cancel the old reservation.  This only works if your original reservation allows cancellations, so be sure to read the fine print before booking.

If you’re not fussy about star ratings. . . .

Cheapest hotels on the Strip are generally: Stratosphere, Circus Circus, Riviera, Casino Royale, Imperial Palace, Excalibur, Luxor, and Tropicana.  You can also get really good deals on Monte Carlo, Ballys, and Harrahs.

Stay Downtown or off-Strip

If you really want a hotel deal and don’t care if you stay in the heart of the Strip or not, look Downtown (on and around Fremont Street) and off the Strip. There are some good values here.  If you stay Downtown, you can get to and from the Strip by bus, and some off-Strip budget hotels such as the Orleans and Gold Coast have free shuttle service to the Strip.  But generally, if you stay off the Strip, you will  want to rent a car. So what you save in hotel costs, you may spend on the rental car. Do the math before you book.

Shop around for deals

There are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of hotel booking and deal sites that offer good rates on Vegas hotels.  I’ve had really good luck finding deals at i4vegas.com. Other sites to check include the usual online booking sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotels.com, as well as deal sites like TravelZoo, SmarterVegas, DealBase.com, and Quikbook. Some of these sites will link you directly to the promotion at the hotel website, which is always preferable to booking via a third party site.  If the best deal you find requires you to book at a third party site, check first to see if the hotel has a Best Rate Guarantee. If they do, then contact them and let them know where you found the other deal, and they’ll either match it or beat it.  Why is it better to book directly through the hotel itself? Because if you gamble enough to warrant comps (complimentary discounts or freebies) while you’re there, the hotel can knock some of the cost off your bill. If you book through a third party, they can’t.  Which brings me to:

Sign up for players cards

The cardinal rule is this:  If you plan to do any gambling at all while in Vegas, be sure to always sign up for a players card wherever you’re gambling, and use it. (Insert it into slot and video poker machines you play, or show it at whatever table game you play.)  This is how casinos track your play and how you earn comps that can reduce your hotel bill this trip, or to be used on a future trip.  You don’t have to be a big gambler for that players card to be worth it.  I have a small gambling budget for my trips, but I’ve gotten free room offers  and very reduced rates for rooms over the years anyway.

Take Advantage of Memberships and Rewards

Are you a member of Marriott’s Rewards program?  You can use your points at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which has a partnership with Marriott.  Same holds true with any other hotel chain that has hotels in Las Vegas, such as the Westin and the Hilton.  If you’re a member of AAA or AARP, that might also provide you with a discounted hotel rate (usually 10%-15%).  Does your credit card offer rewards at hotels in Las Vegas?  If you don’t know, it might be worth investigating.  If you’re a government employee or member of the military, you might be entitled to a discounted rate–check with individual hotels to find out.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

More and more Las Vegas hotels are jumping on the social media bandwagon, and they’re making it worth your while to do so, too.  By simply following the Twitter or Facebook account of certain Las Vegas hotels, you might hear about discount hotel deals that you wouldn’t otherwise.  You also get to hear all the latest news about dining deals, shows, and more.

Move Around

There’s no law that says you have to stay at just one hotel during your time in Vegas.  If you’re getting a great rate for a couple of nights at Hotel X, but the other nights are too rich for your blood, change hotels.  I’m staying at three different hotels during my upcoming week in Vegas; five of the nights are at a $50 rate, and two nights are free.  It can be a bit time-consuming to change hotels that much, but it also allows you to experience different parts of the Strip or of Vegas.  It’s almost like three vacations in one.

What not to do

I don’t recommend using bidding sites such as Priceline or Hotwire for Las Vegas–except as a last resort.  You can almost always get a great deal without them at a good hotel and if you book it yourself, you know what you’re getting (and where).  As anyone who has used these services knows, you’re bidding blind and once your bid is accepted at one of these sites, you can’t cancel without losing your money. It’s just not worth the crapshoot in Las Vegas–unless it’s one of those aforementioned busy periods, like New Year’s Eve.

Don’t let yourself be talked into a “free” trip to Las Vegas by a timeshare company in exchange for sitting through a timeshare presentation.  I’ve been through two of these, and they are a nightmare.  They tell you it’s only going to take a couple of hours, but I guarantee you will be there longer than that, as they practically apply police interrogation techniques to wear you down to get you to buy.  It’s just not worth giving up a significant portion of your vacation time in Las Vegas.  (Of course, if you’re a solo traveler, chances are, the timeshare companies won’t be all that interested in you anyway–Another one of the perks of traveling solo.)

Finally, don’t book the cheapest hotel available if you don’t know anything about it! Do your research ahead of time so you know if it’s a case of “you get what you pay for” or if you’re really getting a bargain.

Have you been to Las Vegas before?  What’s the best deal you ever got on a hotel room there, and how did you get it?

Las Vegas Hotel Review

If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for my RSS feed and have The Vegas Solo articles sent directly to your reader of choice. Or sign up to have them delivered to your mailbox–just use the sign-up form in the sidebar to the right.