I Love This Place

I Love This Place
Photo By Matthew Field

Friday, January 22, 2010

INOLDLASVEGAS.COM

InOldLasVegas.com has an incredible collection of vintage Old Vegas Pics and videos. A MUST SEE for any VegasPhile like yourself.

From the site-

The History of Casino Culture - In Old Las Vegas

InOldLasVegas.com is a new-classic website which intends to show a complete visual history of the emergence of casino culture and design and its effect on the last built city in the USA. This is a story about All-American pioneering ideas and attitudes. Old West creators, promoters and idea makers are what made Las Vegas the unique place it is today. So, you won't hear one word about any so called Mob influence on the development of this one-of-a-kind city.

InOldLasVegas.com will present the story of how the Old West created the New West and how thousands of creative thinkers and developers envisioned this city of the future and brought it into existence.

This website will examine Las Vegas' get-rich-quick roots stemming from the days of the 1848 California Gold Rush - the silver and gold mining towns of 1860 thru 1910 Nevada - the 1869 transcontinental railroad - the founding of Las Vegas in 1905 and its early railroadtown development - the birth and death of Goldfield - the history of prostitution in the old and new west - the legalization of Las Vegas gaming and quickie divorces in 1931 - the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935 - the effect of mechanical slot machines - the pre & post war downtown casinos and dude ranches, the rise of the Las Vegas Strip in the 1940s - the reasons why Las Vegas became the wedding, romance and glamor capital of America - the impact of burlesque theater and showgirls - and the impact of Southern California road-architecture on 1950s & 60s casino design - and lastly, the impact of Kirk Kerkorian and Steve Wynn's visions for Las Vegas.

Here's the link-
INOLDLASVEGAS.COM

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Vegas Cheap Hotels

Another Hotel Promo Code Blog- VegasCheapHotels.Info

I love these hotel promo code sites. Part of the thrill for my upcoming Vegas vacations is teh planning and tracking down the best deals. I'll put a permanent link in the Hotel Promo Category in the right hand column along with the rest of them. Last year I booked Venetian through Royally Flushed who posted a promo that was not posted on any of the other Hotel Promo sites so it pays to check each one out as your trip approaches to find the best deals.

I've been watching rates for years now and the same thing always rings true. It does not pay to book way in advance. The best rates are usually found within weeks of your trip when the hotels still have left over rooms that haven't been booked and they want to fill them. The only time it doesn't pay to hold off on booking is when the weekend you are going is a special event such as New Year's Eve, Super Bowl, March Madness or weekends like that.

I usually book a room directly through the hotel that gives me the best offer within the parameters of my tastes and make sure those offers booked directly through the hotel are fully refundable up to three days before I travel. Then as the trip nears and the better offers come in I may rebook at a different hotel if a much better offer presents itself or I may toss out a bid on Priceline by checking what hotels and prices other folks have been hitting on sites like BetterBidding and BiddingForTravel

Here's the link-
Vegas Cheap Hotels

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Vegas.com Resort Fee Schedule



What many people don't know when they book a hotel through Priceline or even through the hotel directly is that many Vegas Hotels will charge you a mandatory resort fee. So when you book a room at say $69 per night for Treasure Island you may not know that when you check out you will be assessed an additional $20 per night in mandatory resort fees. These fees usually include some things that you may or may not use. In the case of Treasure Island for example that $20 gets you-

  • In-room high speed internet access
  • Admission to the fitness center
  • Admission to Christian Audigier The Nightclub
  • In-room local and toll-free phone calls
  • VIP viewing area at the Sirens of TI show
  • Printed airline boarding passes at Guest Services
  • Copies and faxes (up to 10 page) and notary services at business center
On a recent podcast of Five Hundy By Midnight , host Tim Dressen pointed out that Harrahs properties have all done away with any resort fees and have been making rather large media push to bring this to the attention of potential Vegas travelers.

So just to clarify if you are comparing two hotels and one charges $69 per night but has a $20 resort fee and another charges $79 per night without the fee and you like each hotel equally you should be aware of this.

How do you know what hotels are charging Resort fees and which don't you ask? Well Vegas.com has a fantastic chart which breaks everything's down for you

Here's the link-
Vegas.com Resort Fee Schedule

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Trippies 2009 Coming Live Jan 23, 2010



Chuckmonster's 2009 Trippie Award Ceremony webcast will be held live January 23, 2010 at 7:11PM Vegas Time. With the chat feature enabled it's usually a whole lot of fun for Vegasphiles such as yourself.

Here's the link-
Vegas Tripping