I'd be interested in others' views on something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Apologies in advance for what might read as ramblings !
Is there a 'best time' to make your hotel bookings (regardless of when you intend to stay), either a fixed time, e.g. durding December, or in relation to the dates of your stay, e.g. 11 months ahead of your stay ?
Let me illustrate.
I'm going to Vegas in September 07. In October or November 06 I saw average (non-promotional) room rates of $89 at Treasureisland.com for the duration of our stay. That soon jumped to $139 for the same period, which it still was last time I looked. I would expect any promotions to be bookable from maybe July 07 time, at which point I would hope to be able to get it for $100 per night or less. When they first release their prices for the period 11 or 12 months ahead, I guess they have limited knowledge of what the demand will be, based on previous years' occupancy during that period and planned conferences etc. So potentially this is a good time to get a deal, as seen in my TI example. Another example: Las October/November Wynn had the first four nights of our stay at $199 per night. That jumped to $259, and has now come down to $239. This suggests prices are regularly revised in line with demand.
This will be my 4th time in Vegas, but only really the second where I've spent time looking at prices in detail. Last September I got 10 nights at Bellagio for $199 per night. I can't match that this time, so I've just provisionally booked rooms. 4 nights at TI at $119 per night, and 6 nights at Bellagio at $199 per night. I think the Bellagio price is pretty good (includes a weekend), but the TI price is not so great (Sun-Thu). I would hope to be able to get cheaper as we get nearer to my travel dates, or get Wynn for a better price.
In my experience the hotels' own websites are normally the cheapest. The hotels I would consider are Wynn, TI, Mirage, Venetian, Caesars, Bellagio, Aladdin/Planet Hollywood (but not for the whole stay) and Paris (again not for the whole stay). I'm happy to stop either at just one, or two hotels.
And then there's exchange rates to think of. with $/£ rates still around the 1.9 mark, should I think about paying in full in advance? Decisions, Decisions !!
Cheers
Ian
Is there a 'best time' to make your hotel bookings (regardless of when you intend to stay), either a fixed time, e.g. durding December, or in relation to the dates of your stay, e.g. 11 months ahead of your stay ?
Let me illustrate.
I'm going to Vegas in September 07. In October or November 06 I saw average (non-promotional) room rates of $89 at Treasureisland.com for the duration of our stay. That soon jumped to $139 for the same period, which it still was last time I looked. I would expect any promotions to be bookable from maybe July 07 time, at which point I would hope to be able to get it for $100 per night or less. When they first release their prices for the period 11 or 12 months ahead, I guess they have limited knowledge of what the demand will be, based on previous years' occupancy during that period and planned conferences etc. So potentially this is a good time to get a deal, as seen in my TI example. Another example: Las October/November Wynn had the first four nights of our stay at $199 per night. That jumped to $259, and has now come down to $239. This suggests prices are regularly revised in line with demand.
This will be my 4th time in Vegas, but only really the second where I've spent time looking at prices in detail. Last September I got 10 nights at Bellagio for $199 per night. I can't match that this time, so I've just provisionally booked rooms. 4 nights at TI at $119 per night, and 6 nights at Bellagio at $199 per night. I think the Bellagio price is pretty good (includes a weekend), but the TI price is not so great (Sun-Thu). I would hope to be able to get cheaper as we get nearer to my travel dates, or get Wynn for a better price.
In my experience the hotels' own websites are normally the cheapest. The hotels I would consider are Wynn, TI, Mirage, Venetian, Caesars, Bellagio, Aladdin/Planet Hollywood (but not for the whole stay) and Paris (again not for the whole stay). I'm happy to stop either at just one, or two hotels.
And then there's exchange rates to think of. with $/£ rates still around the 1.9 mark, should I think about paying in full in advance? Decisions, Decisions !!
Cheers
Ian
