Hotels 4 Finals

[LovePBR]

I didn't want to have to pay $1400 for a package at the Gold Coast or the other sister casino/resort of theirs so I booked "nosebleed" seats @ the Thomas & Mack, found some GREAT airfare to VEgas and now it seems that since I have been to vegas (10 yrs ago) inflation has set in there and all hotels are $160/nt or more!

I'm sure that the hotels peak the price when there are major events such as the PBR going on, but good grief, I thought they wanted to take your money in the casinos not when you checked into the hotel.

I guess they know people are going to come to major events and need a hotel so they will charge whatever.

Any suggestions? I wanted to stay @ Harrah's & ride the monorail (my favorite casino) to MGM and walk to Thomas & Mack (monorail is new since I've been there too).

Hmmmm, need a place to stay, what to do what to do?

[dairymary]

well i did thee gold coast package...to me that was the best deal for hotel and tickets. terri or kelly should be able to help u get a hotel there!!!

[milo]

The last few years we stayed at Terrible's. Average night price was less than $80 - rooms are clean and comfortable, and their restaurants have pretty good food. If you join the Player's Club (you don't have to be a gambler), you can get 2/1 buffet and other specials, which helps on the food expense. It's within walking distance of T&M for those who like to hoof it, and they do have a shuttle, but not sure what their schedule is or where they go besides the airport, 'cause we had our own car. But, you're not that far off the Strip.

[WI8SecFan]

How many days are you going for? Assuming that you are going from Thursday through Monday (the way most people do) here are some of your best options:

1. The Flamingo-Average price of $105.00 a night. I have stayed there every time that I have gone to Vegas except last year when the room I had was free and this year I won't because I am doing th Gold Coast package. Great rooms, very clean well located on the strip and the Monorail is more conveniently located in the casino then it is at the other casinos. Also have a fairly decent comp rate and check in is available right at the airport.

2. The Gold Coast or sister casinos- Now wait before you say but they want $160.00 a night! That is true but their rates drop so dramatically for your Thursday night and Sunday night stay that the average price a night is significantly lower then some other casinos. Only $115-$120 depending on property. Plus if you stay at any of their three locations there is a shuttle that will run you to the other two that is free for hotel guests.

Two other recommendations.

1. Do not book through a travel site! Book directly with the hotel. They will match and beat any deal that you find on the travel site AND they have a much easier cancellation policy.

Here is how you work the system. It worked really well for me even during the NFR, which is larger then the PBR finals. Find a hotel you would like to stay at now and put in your reservation making sure to review the cancellation policy. Most of them allow you to cancel up to 72 hours in advance with out penalty. Then monitor the rates. Rates tend to fall the end of July beginning of August if they are not seeing the volumes expected. If you see a lower rate at the same casino or another casino that you would like to stay at cancel your existing reservation and rebook. If rates skyrocket or sell out you are assured a room and a decent rate. Also make sure to request promotional e-mails from the hotel you are interested in (this can be done on-line for most casinos) a lot of times they will send rate codes and specials that way first and then drop the rates to the general public if they do not get the numbers booked that they want to.

2. I would not advise walking from MGM to Thomas and Mack. If you like to walk that is fine and going it might not be bad. However, the two are further apart then you may think and your route takes you past a lot of construction sites or some not great neighborhoods. So I guess I would not advise it at night. Either take the shuttle from Mandalay Bay (one of the quicker ways to leave after the event) or find someone to share a taxi. We found that if you go to the MGM and take a taxi from there it is cheaper then catching it on the strip and you can almost always find someone to share the taxi and cost with you.

Hope that helps!

[rossjustinfan]

You could try the Luxor or Excalibur for hotels. Last year, they were around $99 - 129 (or so) per night and they have the tram that takes you to Mandalay Bay so you can catch the schuttle to Thomas & Mack. One thing to do is when you book your hotel, keep looking at the internet rates because they can go down and you can call and get the lower rate. We booked at Mandalay 2 years ago (through the hotel, not the PBR) and the rates dropped three times before we actually went and ended up saving $100 on two of the nights we stayed. Even though the rates dropped via the internet, and I called the hotel directly, they still gave us the internet rate. Hope that helps. October is considered "high season" in Vegas, but there are hotels that will drop rates for one or two nights so keep checking.

[LovePBR]

I appreciate everyone's responses, thanks so much it helped a lot. This is my first trip to the PBR and although I have been told to buy the package, we didn't b/c we can only go for 2 nights.

We booked our airfare through MLT (dumb me should've done the hotel, but thought I could get it cheaper) They changed our flight from departing @ 4:30 to leaving @ 9:30 am so now I could've gone for the Friday night, only have tickets for Sat, Sunday.

One question about the shuttle, who do you get the tickets from? If we stayed @ Harrahs or Flamingo is the Mandalay Bay close to get to, then take the shuttle?

REally I appreciate everyone's response it has been very helpful and I won't be walking from MGM, but may consider the taxi from there, we'll see.

Let me know about the shuttle and the relationship to Mandalay Bay - Harrah's or Flamingo. I have been to Vegas but it has been over 10 years ago and I have forgotten a lot about the location of the hotels.

I will go ahead and book the hotel as suggested and then watch the rates, thanks for reminding me to review the cancellation policy, sometimes a person forgets.

I look online almost every night for specials.

Thanks guys so much!