Until I came to VMB, I never realized how widespread the practice of hotel hopping is. I thought a poll would be fun to see everyone's thoughts on the subject....
I don't know that any of the poll options fit me, so I will say I hotel hop if necessary to take advantage of comp offers.
Good call, after seeing jimboguy's post I tried to but realized I couldn't edit the poll, just the message.
We are there for 4 nights, I just cannot see, given our usual daily schedule to take the time in mid trip to pack up, move only to have to unpack and repack when we leave... Have we thought about it, yes, so we could split our time between DT and the Strip, but never ruled that it would be worth it for us
Changing hotels during 3 and 4 night stays would definitely be time consuming and annoying. We move during our 6 day trips, which are the time lengths of most of our visits to Vegas. And the only reason we do that, though, is because we get 3 day offers from hotels, so I'd rather get all 6 days free than only 3 free days while paying for the other 3. It's a little bit of work, but it does free up more money for gambling/eating. In fact it usually works out to saving a few hundred dollars extra for an hour or so of work moving from one property to the other. That's much than I make an hour, so who am I to argue with my wallet?
My husband does not like to do it. We have done it the past 5 trips however. He can't give up the strip and I want to stay at South Point...the fact that we generally stay 5-7 nights does play into it. It feels like 2 different trips. IF I were staying on the strip and hotel hopped it would only be to take advantage of offers.
I average a change every 3-4 nights, typically to correspond to comp offers. For a short trip (4-5 nights), I would try to avoid hopping beyond staying at one hotel fly in evening, not unpacking, and checking into to my main stay for the rest of a trip. I've done this to hit less desirable casinos off of my Vegas stay checklist. My average Vegas stay is 6 nights and 2 hotel stays. I prefer longer stays now (10-14 days). In June I'm staying at four casinos (Bally's, The Cosmo, South Point and The California) with all but one night comped over a 11 night stay. I normally would have condensed this trip into three total hotels, but wanted to check out South Point with the free room offer. I like the change of scenery a hotel change provides, but I also like a change in locale, changing from Strip (Bally's & Cosmo) to off-strip (South Point) to downtown (The California) and soaking in the different atmospheres and gambling. The first half of my trip (Bally's and Cosmo) will consist of BJ and live poker with occasional video poker (PHo), whereas the second portion (South Point) of my trip will focus on VP and live poker.
I am going next week. I was faced with this challenge and declined to move, instead paying about $70 for two nights at The Orleans. I have Sat-Sun comped, and could have moved to many other places "comped", but I don't like the hassle.
I've done it. I would prefer not to but it's necessary sometimes. Sometimes a night is way too expensive, sometimes you can take advantage of multiple comps and the last time I just really couldn't choose between two so I did them both.
I will be doing the hotel hop in a couple weeks. I enjoy splitting time on (or close to) the strip and downtown. This trip will also be two hotels I've never stayed at so it will be an adventure for sure...lol
I've done it for the last 4 trips in order to split my time between the Strip and Fremont. I usually stay 7-8 days. If I were staying 5 days or less, I wouldn't do it.
We have started doing it lately. If I can get free nights at Aria, I will take them up on it. There is a bank of slots there that my husband does really well on. I love their beds and the look of the casino...very classy. We have been Diamond at CET for several years, and could get comped six nights, but I don't like to gamble outside CET if I'm not staying there. I love Paris, esp. the red rooms and Calais suites! We gamble a lot at Bally's when at Paris and hop around to other CET props. As for Mlife, it seems better to play where you stay, so we mostly do that when at Aria.
I can see the appeal both for the financial benefit and a change of scenery. Still, the last think I'd want to do is go through the hassle of packing, unpacking, traveling with luggage and check back in! Seems like it would waste too much valuable time that could be spent giving the casinos my money as fast as possible
We go for 14 nights normally, although this trip was 15 nights. I would be bored if I was in the same room / hotel for all that time. We usually stay in each hotel for 3-4 nights. With luggage for 2 weeks it's not worth moving for less than 3 nights as we've done 2 nights and didn't like that. The longest wait we've had for a room was at Harrah's when we checked in at 12.30 and didn't get the room till 4pm. That was a bit of a hassle as we kept the carry on cases with us as I had the laptop, etc in there. Now we would just check everything with the bell desk. We had a really smooth transfer this trip when it took 13 minutes from one hotel till we were in the room at the next. MGM had a suite ready at 10.30am which was a bonus. We don't get comped rooms. We stay off strip at the weekends for better value as we always have a one bedroom suite. We love to see what the next room is like and each move feels like a different vacation. Because we are there for an extended period the room is important as we are not out gambling and running around all the time. It only takes 20 minutes to pack even with 2 weeks luggage and all the shopping.
An Off-beat Hotel Hopping Have only done this once... but it was fun watching everyone stare at us... --- My husband's youngest Aunt had gone with me to Las Vegas... we had 2 comp nights at the Desert Inn and 2 comp nights at the Frontier. When the time came to move, she did not want to repack her suitcases... for some ungodly reason she had brought 3 huge cases for a 4 day trip plus makeup case!!! --- Solved the problem... the Desert Inn baggage person brought a clothes rack to our room, put her clothes on it with the cases... and proceeded to march right across Las Vegas Blvd to the Frontier with the clothes rack... The Frontier baggage person caught on fast and met us almost half-way and took the rack to our room. People really looked strangely at us, but it was fun! ---
We do it if we are adequately compensated for the inconvenience (ie - worthwhile amount of freeplay). Free is good.
This is only our third trip coming up, but we have split hotels these last two times (6 night trips). Last year it afforded us an opportunity to splurge a little. Spent 1st three days at NYNY (great mid-tier option for us), then next three at Caesars Palace and were upgraded to a Palace Tower. Because it was July I think the rates at both hotels were lower than at most other times. We are doing it again this August with NYNY but haven't picked a second hotel yet.