Why hotel hopping is no longer feasible

All other annoyances aside like repacking, most of my divvy treasures have added credit card holds like circus circus and quad where there was none before. And hotels are sticking to check in times, saying rooms are not ready yet as if they operate anywhere near 100% occupancy. Theyrightfully stick to check in but it seriously slows my flow. Between rising rates, resort fees and thes new things I am encountering, I may have to experiment again with much shorter trips and staying at one hotel. With so many changes I might stay at wynn exclusively or another hotel i fell for this trip. If the bargain is no longer a bargain and is no longer hassle free, I will cough up the cash.

 

Probably depends on the hotel and day of the week. Last week I checked into Suncoast at noon on Wednesday, Ballys at 11:30 am on Friday, and the Orleans at 11:30 on Sunday. As far as putting a hold on your credit card I have never worried about that. That being said I'm sticking to at most two hotels next trip. Hard to get into a groove when you change places every two days.

 

I agree. Last month we checked into Suncoast at 10:15 on a Friday and still got a king with the golf course view.

 

You could always try for a cash deposit and they'll give you the cash back when you check out, then use it for the next place.

We don't use credit cards so we just use the debit card associated with my "emergency fund" for deposits. So if the money take a while to get released it's usually not such a big deal. (This year I will beef it up a little to cover some of our usual expenses after vacation that can make things tighter than I'd like coming home.)

 

No longer feasible? Huh? Between the rising rates and resort fees you mentioned, changing hotels to make use of offers is the only thing that IS feasible!

 

I would recommend a one-day overlap on the change day so you can go directly to the new hotel without an 11am-3pm timeframe without a home. If you do a CET first its easier since they have the 5-day comps.

This coming trip is a 4-nighter but I have the room at Caesars for 5 nights so I don't have to worry about being out early on the final day.

 

I stayed in 3 hotels a couple of weeks ago, 2 nights at Palms, 3 nights at Tropicana and 2 nights at Cosmopolitan. I arrived at Palms in the evening, but was able to check in at both the Trop and Cosmo before noon and my room was ready. You may just have hit a bad week Sco.

I actually really like changing hotels.....it's like a couple of trips in one. I plan to do 2 or 3 hotels for my October trip (only one for July as it's for hubby's 50th Birthday Party and we are in one of the new poolside villa suites at The Trop. With all our friends staying at Trop who are coming to celebrate hubby's birthday, it is just easier to spend the whole trip there, plus I'm excited about the room and it's poolside location.

 

I'm with you on this one. sco probably just had some bad luck.

I've done as many as 5 hotels in one trip, and I don't think I ever checked a bag.

I'm filthy rich (on paper Jimmy Poon tells me) from getting in on the ground floor of one of his ponzi schemes, so I don't worry about credit card holds.

Finally, the other good thing to do is to have a car, so when you change hotels you can go do some stuff in (or out of) the city until check-in time.

 

It's good to see that there are still others that enjoy hotel hopping. I do it a lot. My next trip is at Wynncore, but decided to book a night at the NOBU to try it out. Am considering booking a couple nights at Cosmo as well to add a couple days to the trip. Hopping is just exciting to me for some reason.

 

I think if you are limited to just upscale hotels, changing every couple days would be a drag, especially since you might check out at 11 and not be able to check in until 3 or 4.

But the truly frugal traveler still has plenty of options.
Staying downtown makes moving from hotel to hotel very simple. Booking the D and the Four Queens back to back means taking luggage a very short distance and no crowds out the back doors of the hotels. A bit of play at the D gives me a 2 for 1 and my play at 4 Queens gives me three night weekends, so I expect to spend 14 nights in those two places next trip for under $100 total.
Early arrival is generally easy too.
Lately I've been asking for particular 4 Queen rooms, and they will lock one up for me if I ask early enough, but I have to wait until it is cleaned. When I was less fussy I've been able to walk over from the D, book the room with no luggage, check for bedbugs, and then go back and make a few trips without all that intricate packing needed to go in one roll.
With two rooms booked with an hour or more overlap, I take a full suitcase, unpack it, go back empty and just dump stuff in from some section of the room, take it over, unpack it all organized for that same section, and so on.
I walk a bit more but the packing is fast and easy at both ends.
My early check in experience last November at the D was like this. I
had one free night at the El Cortez Cabana and it perfectly matched my needs as the place to go first upon arrival.
Well, I was jet lagged and my clock was off. I was confused.
I thought I was checking out a little before noon from the Cabana. I walked to the D and got my room there. Up in the room those clocks still confused me, so I called the desk.
"Say, what time is it?"
"It is 9:25, sir"
So the D had checked me in that morning and not only did not charge an early check in fee, but they had not even commented with the usual patter that it was very early, and they hoped they had a room, but did not know for sure and they would look and see what they could do.
I'd expect that banter. Nothing. "Here is your key, Sir." And that was it.

I like to add in a stretch where if I run out of planned bankroll I am not either playing to keep the mailings coming or stiffing a regular casino. My nights this time will be at Arizona Charlie's Boulder.
It is my last five nights there. I booked a suite there (which means two rooms, one with a couch) for a total of $160. No resort fee. I like Boulder. I might gamble. I'll see the free shows I like there and I expect one early morning I'll go birding. And although the bus ride back to the airport will be longer and more complicated, I never really have much energy for much the last day so I might as well sit on the bus. I expect I'll stop at Terrible's and grab a cheap buffet and do a match play and then take the 108 right across the street for my final leg into McCarran.
or perhaps I'll go to the Eastside Cannery for that final buffet where it is easy to grab the 202 and then the 108.
Resort fees really knocked out the truly frugal traveler's deals. I average less than $14 a night for rooms, so I can't be paying 100% more because of some lame resort fee.
But the deals are still there if you can just have fun in Vegas without having upscale rooms.

I did think that I'd drop my 2 free nights at the Orleans because the travel there on buses and then back again to downtown was a bit of a ride and hassle, but MyVegas I hope will connect me with some free nights at some MLife combination, so I can take the Orleans freebies (usually without resort fee) and then patch some of these upscale places together just to see what they are like. Ironically, if they do charge the resort fee on the MyVegas, that fee alone on their free rooms will double my average cost per night on paid rooms.
Still, I see that five day stretch as a bit of adventure in room exploration with again no need to gamble in those upscale places. Perhaps I'll book some shows in that area. Lots of cheap stuff there.
And using the MyVegas I can cover the third weekend nights of my trip. Those are what add expense. Four Queens will pick up two of them and I'll patch some nights to catch that third one.
Resort fees do not go up on weekends, so if the basic hotel rate is free, using it on a weekend adds a good bit of value even if I pay resort fees.
When my wife goes, she likes the upscale rooms you like, so I'd like a sense of what they feel like, so I show give her a good time. She usually pays for that part of the trip, so it is still frugal in my own budget depending on the expensive restaurants her brother picks. We meet him from California. But I see that as more like other travel we do, not Vegas really. I don't gamble when she is there. Last time between us we O and Zumanity and had one free Aria and one free Bellagio buffet. I guess it was about $600 in value from MyVegas.

The bus ride from the Orleans is easy and if that is my first destination, it is a good one because they usually will give me a room when I arrive around noon and there is no early check in fee.
If not, I go have coffee at the free wifi place until the room is ready. Or just read my notes for the trip and decide what to try to do first.


Cutting a trip short does not save trip cost value. Your airfare divided by the number of days will increase your daily cost.
Even with airfare inflation, when I stay 24 nights, I get good airfare value. This year I'll only go once.

As for the hold on credit cards. I have plenty of credit, so I never sweat the hold and don't know that frustration. If I did, I think I would book each place with a different card perhaps using some of those obscure cards that are just emergency backup or just for gas. Cards are easy to get.

 

I think it's cool that people hotel hop. However, for me it's just not in the cards. I've never been offered the chance to stay in more than one spot. We usually go 3-4 times a year for 3-4 nights...
The only way me myself personally (I wayyyy over pack because I'm such a girly girl) could see switching hotels is if A. it was free. or B, if I stayed on the strip a couple nights, then downtown or someting...but that's awesome if you get compted and have the energy and willingness to pack again!!!

 

I'm just too friggin lazy to hotel hop

 

Yeah I live to hotel hop and will hotel hop between harrahs/Treasure island in july. The check in time is the killer though.I know for sure the riviera is really tiugh when it comes to check in times.

 

I have never done any hotel hopping. I do a little casino hopping, but hotel hopping never even occurred to me until I started seeing recent threads on here about it. My visits are usually just for 3 nights, though.

 

Also, while checking into Harrahs Laughlin a couple weeks ago I asked if I really needed a hold since we were just there for the one night and don't plan on charging anything to our room. The check-in guy looked at his screen and said "Oh, you're room is comped, you don't need a credit card hold." Cool I said, even though I never heard that before.

The next afternoon when checking into the Rio, I asked the check-in Gal if I needed a hold since my room was fully comped. She looked at her screen and said she would lower the hold to 50% of normal, which came out to $37.50 a night. However, the hold never showed up on my card so I think she may have waived it all together.

 

I'd probably forget what hotel I was staying at.

 

I can definitely get the room numbers mixed up.

 

I agree with you Sco, the fees for early check-in are crazy! If you are a first tier card holder, you can expect early check-in fees just about at all CET and MGM props.

I love to hotel hop with all my free offers. Staying at 3 different places for 4 nights next trip. The key is to not unpack! I live out of my rolling duffel and only hang up shirts that may or may not be ironed before the days gauntlet.

I do hate waiting after leaving one hotel at 11am, then to only wait until 3pm to check-in at the next one. I was offered an early check-in at Luxor after leaving the Rio one morning for $12. I said, "Screw you guys, I'm not paying your $12, I'll go gamble and come back at three!"

That cost me $150.00 in the 3 hours that had passed.

Next time I'll pay the $12, but no higher.

 

I've checked in well before noon at the cal,mss and el cortez , they didn't even act like they were doing me a favor either, if they have an available room, why not?

 

We always change hotels as we stay for 10-12 days. But I agree that a. it can be a hassle and b. if you have comped or reduced rates that hopping is the way to go. Our upcoming trip is 4 nts Aria (MyVegas), 3 nts MGM (comped weekend) and 5 nts Caesars (drastically reduced, had PH comped but we prefer CP if decent pricing). The total trip for hotels including resort fees is under $650. This would be impossible financially if we did not change hotels.