TR SNIPPET- HOW I THINK ABOUT HOTEL BOOKING

My basic hotel strategy is to book frugal nights and free weekends based on enough gambling to earn free night mailers.  I also to find some place to book cheap weekday rates where I won’t feel obligated to play much in order to break up the gambling a bit in these long trips and give me time to travel around and explore Vegas or just chill out by the pool.

Playing at the Orleans will cover at least two weekend nights (four this trip) and always my intense VP play at the Four Queens will score one three night weekend per trip and often two if the slot tournament three nights free weekend also hits during my time of visit.

I’d plan around the slot tournament weekend, but that Four Queens promotion is never arranged early enough to be available when my airfare establishes my basic trip dates. 

Other family planning moves around my block of Vegas days, so by the time the tournament dates are established I have usually lost any air flexibility.

This was a particularly strange trip for booking.  As well as a half dozen disease and family death variables continually threatening to cancel or postpone part or all of the trip, Vegas was “renovating” again ( a euphemism for replacing good frugal values with expensive bling and posh décor.)  

This meant that I was constantly scrambling for new hotel booking. 

And this time I had my weekly poker buddies going for a good part of the trip and I wanted to book on the strip near where they were staying.  One is frugal like me, although his love of workout rooms and wifi means resort fees do not affect his bottom line.  The others like strip properties, usually the Mirage, and don’t mind resort fees.

This trip I decided to stay at Bill’s to pay a bit more to stay in those old vintage rooms before the renovation eliminated the best antique aspects of their decor.   I booked and then Bill’s  closed. 

And I had my usual five nights booked at the Gold Spike until a week before flying out when The Gold Spike closed. 

Then from all reports the Quad renovation was not going to get to their rooms, and may have created in some strange, counterintuitive way a period of time in which cleaning the old rooms seemed unimportant to housekeeping. 

So staying in the Quad, even on preresort fee price deals seemed more hassle than it was worth. 

The Quad rooms seemed more risky with reports from reputable veterans laced with descriptions and photos of dirt and mold, the same check in lines of one to four hours, and the usual maze and misnumbering causing confusion as well as the continued construction eroding any vestige of artistic ambiance. 

And then I read reports of room break-ins, missing valuables, even one theft while mother and daughter slept in the room.  Through all of this I did not read that the hotel staff seemed to respond much to complaints, so I just hypothesized that everyone knew that any bad impressions left of the place could be addressed with future renovation.  It seemed to be a period of staff apathy.

I did a bit of a parody on the Quad
http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2013/05/tr-snippet-quad-humor.html

So I decided I did not need the strip this trip.

Added to that decision is that the Flamingo poker room eliminated the promotions I most liked, bonus hands, for a pie in the sky bad beat that was less likely to hit the weeks I was playing  because the required quad to be beat was a high one.

 

My early booking of rooms at the Quad and at Bills was replaced with new two for one nights at the D which saved me money in both cases because their rack rate was $30, my minimum VP play earned me 2 for 1, and coupons issued with the room basically took care of three small breakfasts each visit and added a couple matchplays and a few other coupon benefits. It was a very frugal booking.

And by the way, it was smart on their part.  I lost plenty at the 8/5 Bonus Progressive at the Vue Bar.  I just could not hit quads of higher.

Anyway, after weeks of booking and rebooking I managed a trip that once again (all taxes and resort fees included) gave me 25 nights in Vegas for under $15 a night.

And I managed this with three nice 4 night stretches, so that my check in and check out time was not so much of an interruption in my visit.

The D gave me the benefit of being downtown near my free night at the El Cortez and the Four Queens as well as giving me early check-in with no ridiculous fee (my buddy’s wife arrived by plane  a bit before noon and paid $20 for an early check-in at the Rio. I checked into the D once at 9AM and paid nothing more.)

 

However, I did have too many trips on the bus with luggage.  I’m old now.  I’m not so good lugging an 80 pound suitcase and other bags as well on and off buses.  Next trip I think I will focus on downtown and Boulder Highway.  I should get some deals both places.

I will be sorry to leave the Orleans and the Gold Coast out of the formula in future trips, but it just may not be practical to include them.

I have been conflicted about what to do in the future.  I am clearly aging out of this check in check out pattern.  I like to be in different parts of town, but I don’t like repacking and how much of the day it takes.  I like the adventure of the bus and the people I meet there, but I don’t like the weight of the suitcase when I’ve pulled a muscle or run my toes into blister.

I also don’t really want to feel obligated to play everywhere I stay as I feel this trip.  I used to use the Gold Spike as a break from gambling because it did not cost me very much.

Also moving me toward more downtown bookings is a talk I had with a Four Queens host.

I met and had a long conversation with a new host at the Four Queens named Feadolphus Curtis,(you can call him Curt) and he was patient with me and helped me map out a way to stay longer at the Four Queens then I have the bankroll to gamble without affecting my playing score.  It seems that if I either get a sale directly from the hotel or book from a discounter for nights after my three free mailer nights, and if I don’t gamble at all on those days, only my gambling days count in the statistics that generate mailers. 

Or if I skip a few days and then start gambling again, that will be seen as a separate trip, but the days of no gambling in between will not affect how I am evaluated for future mailing offers in spite of the fact I am staying in the hotel.

It may change how I book trips.  I could plan a trip where I stayed completely downtown for much longer stretches of time. 

An ideal trip might be to book the Four Queens for a three night free slot tournament, then pay for four nights when I would not gamble, then take another three free nights on my regular offer and then take the 2 for 1 offer at the D.

On my way into Vegas this time I met some interesting and friendly guys from Toronto.  They hopped off the bus at Koval and went to the Motel 6 that was located next to Hardrock.  I asked about the rooms and it turned out one of the fellows had stayed there for a month last year.  He liked it and was going back.  At $30 on average a day he said that he did not mind the sometimes loud and drunken parties that went on all night.  And he said the hookers had a room or two on one floor and did not bother him either.  I wasn't attracted to the motel and I don't think that I'll include it in my itinerary.  Besides at $30 plus tax it is more than twice the average price of what I patched together this past trip.