SHOW NEWS: Tips for Reducing Your Las Vegas Hotel Bill

John L. Wolz

� One fastener executive said he reserved a room on Ballys.com last year in his spouse�s name early when online prices were $99 and the fastener price was $152. When the same room dropped to $49 he reserved online in his name before canceling the original reservation. Last year the hotel asked for ID at check in.
� After the $49 online rate ended last year, one industry veteran called Bally�s and still found a $55 �senior rate.�
� There are numerous online hotel-booking alternatives such as priceline.com, orbitz.com, PlaceToStay.com, expedia.com, Travelocity.com, travelworm.com and hotels.com. A Google.com web search for �Las Vegas Hotels� yields dozens of online sources and ratings services.
� Neighboring hotels include Bellagio, Caesar�s Palace, Barbary Coast, Bourbon Street, Flamingo and Aladdin. Hotels.com recently listed both Bourbon Street and Barbary Coast at $69.95. LasVegasHotelCentral.com�s mid-week prices were recently $140 at Caesars, $103 at Flamingo and $49 at Bourbon Street.
� There are three discount chain motels near the fastener show: Econolodge on Flamingo Avenue (econolodge.com); Days Inn Town Hall Casino & Hotel on Koval Lane (daysinntownhall.com); and Super 8 on Koval (Super8.com) Hotels.com recently listed Days Inn at $39.95.
� Those with corporate rates or frequent guest bonus programs will find most hotel chains have one or more Las Vegas hotels.
� In addition to price competition the various hotels offer a variety of features. For example, Stratosphere is the fifth tallest building in the U.S. and has an observation tower, revolving restaurant and roller coaster. Hotels.com recently listed Stratosphere rooms at $55.95 and lasvegashotelcentral.com had mid-week rooms at $40.
Bringing Children? CircusCircus has child-oriented entertainment and rooms in the past year have been as low as $49 even during peak conventions and were recently $65.95 on Hotels.com and $48 mid-week on LasVegasHotelCentral.com.
� Exhibitors can also cut hotel costs by reducing booth staff. Exhibit staff has outnumbered distributors at numerous recent trade shows.
� Save by reducing the number of nights in Las Vegas. Unless they have customer appointments or are attending conferences, your booth staff may not need to arrive until Monday afternoon for the opening reception and can depart Wednesday when the show closes at 1 p.m.
� One fastener exhibitor offers staff the option of sharing a room in the headquarters hotel or having a single room in less expensive nearby hotels.
� For those wanting to spend more, top-rated hotels include the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort, Venetian and Bellagio. One rating service pegged Bellagio � which has a pedestrian bridge for easy crossing over the famous Las Vegas Strip to the fastener show � as its #3 best Las Vegas hotel with rooms recently ranging from $159 to $1,333 online. That service rated Paris #15 and Ballys #30. �2003 FastenerNews.com\