Noob question RE travel and hotel.

[Essex]

Hello all,

A friend of mine recommended the forum to be as a hub of insight :-)

I have been looking into hotels / flights with Virgin Airways for October (from the UK) and I'm getting a price of around £1300 for return flights and hotel, for 5 nights, Ceasers Palace.

My friend said this isn't a very good deal but I can't seem to find much better out there. He said I should book flights and hotel seperate to get the best deal.

Can anybody reccomend a site which has good deals - or does anybody know of any promotions?

I stayed in the Mirage earlier this year and I thought it was a great hotel. I paid for a strip view which was excellent. Does anybody know what the equivalent to the strip view is in Ceasers Palace? There are several different titles for rooms there.

Thank you very much for any help!

[44inarow]

I can't help much with view recommendations at Caesars (I only stay at MGM places), but I would definitely recommend booking flights and hotel separate. The best thing to do for MGM properties, and probably for the others as well, is to 1) look on their website for any promotions that are advertised, and 2) sign up for their mailing lists/guestbooks/players clubs, which will often result in getting email offers for lower rates.

The reason I'd book the hotel separately is threefold. The first is that it's almost always completely refundable, which not only gives you more flexibility, but it means that if the rate goes down, you can easily call and have it adjusted. The second is that if you plan on gambling, it's much more likely that you can get charges taken off your room bill if you book directly with the hotel; if you book through a third party, there's generally nothing they can do. The third is that, while for one person a flight and hotel package can sometimes be a little cheaper, if you're going with multiple people it's often either not a deal or a full-on rip-off, due to the fact that Vegas hotels charge by the room, not by the person (there is theoretically an additional cost for more than 2 people in a room, but this is one of the least-enforced policies I've come across in Vegas).

Hope this helps somewhat.

[Essex]

Thanks for the reply.

The official website quotes £716 each for Tower Deluxe King Room and Virgin quotes £661 each for flights, which is roughly the same as booking all with Virgin.

May it be a case of I've left it too late booking for just a month in advance?

[44inarow]

I think the packages just generally don't save you much money. I know that MGM says that they guarantee the lowest room rate if you book with them directly, and often the discount offered by booking your hotel through the airline is often minimal at best when it comes to Vegas (I've occasionally found decent deals to other destinations, just not Vegas). And like I said, booking anywhere but through the hotel directly makes it difficult if not impossible to get anything comped off your room bill at the end, although if you're not gambling at all, this is less of a consideration.

[Chuck]

I NEVER see deals for Caesars...ever....at all. I just don't think they discount rooms at all. $143/night average rate isn't too bad though for a standard room at a nice property like Caesars. If you're open to some other hotel options check out the "Chuck's Hotel Deals" over on the Resorts thread and see if you find something you like. All the newer stuff is at the end so skip there and work your way backwards.

[Jhaulotte]

Agree with Chuck. Does not matter if it is a slow weekend or not, Caesars does not seem to ever budge on pricing.

[44inarow]

Also, from talking to friends have stayed there, the "base" room at Caesars is not guaranteed to be all that great; the property is nice, but the cheapest rooms are in the older towers and pretty small.

$143/night average rate isn't too bad though for a standard room at a nice property like Caesars.

It's £143, which is about $230/night. That seems pretty high for 5 nights, considering you've only got 2 weekend days in there at most. For $230/night over 5 nights, I think you could do better.

[Chuck]

$230/night...for a standard room....no way dude. You can do much better. Stay at Mirage, and walk 5 minutes over to Caesars to have a look around one day.

[Jhaulotte]

Hello all,

A friend of mine recommended the forum to be as a hub of insight :-)

I have been looking into hotels / flights with Virgin Airways for October (from the UK) and I'm getting a price of around £1300 for return flights and hotel, for 5 nights, Ceasers Palace.

My friend said this isn't a very good deal but I can't seem to find much better out there. He said I should book flights and hotel seperate to get the best deal.

Can anybody reccomend a site which has good deals - or does anybody know of any promotions?

I stayed in the Mirage earlier this year and I thought it was a great hotel. I paid for a strip view which was excellent. Does anybody know what the equivalent to the strip view is in Ceasers Palace? There are several different titles for rooms there.

Thank you very much for any help!

What are the dates for your trip?

[JCase]

Try to book directly through the hotels website or reservation line. Always try to find out the refund policies as well because some of the cheaper rates are non-refundable. Avoid "package" deals as well because most of them just incorporate the cost of the "bonus" on their rack rate. The rack rate usually isn't the cheapest either. Just keep in mind that hotel rates fluctuate heavily because a hotel can predict that they're going to be busy that week but end up having too many rooms so they'll drop rates.

As for airfare, it can fluctuate heavily as well due to the same reasons. i.e my flight was $189 total at the time and when I'm looking at it now, it's $138 total.

Just keep an eye out and check frequently. Most airlines change rates on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. Most hotels change rates on Mon-Wed.

AVOID 3RD PARTY SITES! They don't tell you the rate you're paying for bundled packages so you don't know if you're actually getting a deal or not. On top of that sites like Priceline, if you "bid" on a room it's non-refundable.

Let me know dates and I can keep a search out for you.

[Sorry4Partying]

if you are willing to drop 200 a night, you can get a way better room for that price. Venetian has been sending out a bunch of deals lately.

[ochowie]

Yeah I have never understood why Ceasar's is so expensive but they are consistently the most expensive hotel on the strip.

[Chuck]

I've been getting Wynn offers for $129 a night just from signing up for their mailing list.

[OrangeCrush]

Use the extend12 promo if you're staying on the nites that its available. Its 20% off and when you make your reservation call up instead of booking online the rates have always been lower for me calling up vs. booking online

[bobu]

I find Caesars overrated as well. After I discovered Cosmo for about the same price, i usually stay there. The regular rooms at Caesars is definitely not worth the money, and even doing a $20 trick, although very doable, is a gamble(but i guess when in vegas...).

Anyways, for the same price, you might want to check out Mirage, Venetian, Aria, etc. If you can specify your exact dates, i'm sure someone can search the best deal for you for a 4-5 star hotel.

If you must book Caesars, use the plan ahead and save promo, it should be 30% off and cheaper than all the other promos

http://www.mycheapvegas.com/hotels/s...aesars-palace/