Deluxe Hotels in Las Vegas Continue to Stun Us With Their Mid-Week Bargain Room Rates

I felt awfully proud last week at having discovered that suites at the new Vdara Hotel on the Strip in Las Vegas were being offered for as little as $109, $119 and $129 a night -- that's per suite, not per person -- in June, July and August. The all-suites Vdara is, arguably, one of the best hotels in Vegas.

I now feel somewhat chastened by the comment appended to that proud assertion by Donna Cuervo, one of the most perceptive and savvy readers of this Blog. She points out that by using Priceline.com ( www.priceline.com ), she was able to snare a suite at the Vdara, for a midweek (Sunday through Thursday) stay this June for only $70. Because readers may not have seen her comment, I'm calling it out here.

This all goes to emphasize that when hotels fear a great many vacancies for upcoming dates, they turn to Priceline or to its competitor Hotwire ( www.hotwire.com ) to fill those rooms and they do so by offering remarkable discounts. Priceline and Hotwire are the two major opaque search engines that disclose the name of the hotel offering its bargains only when you have committed yourself to accepting a hotel in a particular category after submitting a bid. Who would have dreamed that a hotel of the quality of the Vdara would ever accept a rate of $70 for one of its elegant suites?

Donna Cuervo points out, and I should again emphasize, that rates of that level are found only for mid-week (Sunday through Thursday) stays and almost never for the weekends. No matter how slow business is, most Vegas hotels tend to fill up on the weekends. By carefully scheduling your stay for Sunday through Thursday, you can obtain -- as you've just seen -- unbelievable rates at these shrines to luxury.

If you have any intention of making a visit to Vegas this summer, you should always make a ridiculously low bid on Priceline or Hotwire for the hotel category (like super-luxury) you'd like. Because -- who knows?