How to Book
Online Travel Sites
We’d strongly recommend trying to book your own hotels directly over the Internet. After all, why pay a travel agent to overcharge you and take a commission when you can book it yourself?
Our preferred method is to book flights and hotels separately as this provides greater flexibility and should lead to an overall savings cost. If you choose to book flights and hotels separately, the key factor are the flights. Once flights are booked, you’ll be in a much better position to source hotel offers knowing precisely which days you’ll be there.
Thankfully there are a number of UK based sites that offer hotel prices (excluding the resort fees) in GBP. However, don’t be misled into thinking that Expedia is necessarily the best option. Whilst Expedia is a good benchmark for prices, we frequently find that their price can be beaten by a number of other sites, so again, it pays to do your research. Recommended sites where we’ve found good rates in the past are:
• www.lowcostusa.co.uk
• www.atlaschoice.com
• www.alpharooms.co.uk
• www.hotels.com
Part of the pool complex at the MGM Grand
Direct Bookings with hotels
Alternatively you can book directly with the hotels and this provides another alternative way of finding a good deal. For example, a number of the hotels will offer additional free buffet passes and drinks as part of a promotion. A quick Google search (other search engines are available!) using phrases such as ‘Vegas hotel promotion codes’ should help you to find any current promotion codes for the hotels.
However, be advised that when booking directly through the hotel’s website the prices quoted will be in US dollars, and the initial price quoted will be increased by the Nevada sales tax (8%) once you proceed to the confirmation/checkout screens. Taking into account any additional bank charges, it can often be difficult to know exactly how much your stay will end up costing in GBP.
One advantage of booking directly with the hotels though is the fact that you only need to pay an initial deposit, typically the cost of one night’s stay. This deposit is fully refundable, and therefore, if you do make an early booking and subsequently find a better deal, you can cancel your original booking without any penalties.
Shouldn’t I book a package deal?
A range of websites (Expedia, lowcostusa, Travelocity, Opodo, Ebookers etc) offer the ability to book and combine the cost of flights and hotels in order to obtain a ‘discount’. Whilst these offers generally tend to be very competitive, if you are willing to spend the time to do your own research, we’re confident that you should be able to grab an ever better discount by booking your own flights and hotels separately.
If you do decide to book a complete package, again bear in mind that the prices will largely be affected by the current cost of flights and how many weekend nights your stay involves. This can easily affect the total price by hundreds of pounds!! So again, do your homework and constantly monitor the price fluctuations.
One further note, whatever booking method you choose, please, please, please do not do it the old fashioned way of going into a high street travel agent and paying the inflated price they’ll no doubt quote. By all means ask them for a quote, but we can all but guarantee that their price could be beaten if you book it online yourself (and if you’re averse to doing online bookings, please contact us and we’ll do our best to help you out).
Where will the bride and groom be staying?
For those of you who’d like to know where we’ll be staying, we're planning to split our stay between the Mirage and the Venetian.
