Las Vegas Tips, Entertainment and News

It is not uncommon that you hear of someone running to the casino to make a big first bet as soon as they land in Las Vegas.  Whether it’s red 18 on the roulette wheel, or a Yo at the craps table, that precious first bet might just be a nice predictor of your luck for the rest of the trip.  Unfortunately, as any statistician will pound into your head, more often than not, you will lose that first bet, which by no coincidence will likely be the tone for the rest of the trip.

 While most gamblers understand that the odds are stacked against them, there may still be one bet in Las Vegas that may give you an edge: The Twenty Dollar Tip. 

Tipping the front desk attendant can pay dividends!  When checking in at a Las Vegas hotel, you will always be asked for your credit card and state ID.  Try sandwiching a twice folded $20 bill between the two cards and politely ask, “Are there any complimentary room upgrades available?”  You would be surprised at what this easy trick can accomplish.  From complimentary champagne, to rooms with better views, and even suites, Mr. Jefferson can bring you a lot!  And, as if this wasn’t a nice enough bet already, often when the attendant isn’t willing/able to divy out an upgrade, you will be given your $20 back.  You won’t find that at a craps table! 

Still not sure? Try checking out FrontDeskTip.com for some great stories about this trick.

You may feel a little bit nervous, but as we pointed out in our last post, Las Vegas runs on tips (something front desk attendants are usually left out of).  Unless your attendant is a rookie, he/she will know exactly what you’re after.  Give it a shot.  What if it fails and you lose your $20?  Well, you just lost your first bet, welcome to Las Vegas!

If you’re a regular at Vegas Hotel Hunt, you may have noticed a few changes. Besides a couple design improvements, we’ve decided to add a few lighter posts on our blog. We understand that while you may not always be planning our next trip to Las Vegas, it is still fun to stay in the loop of Sin City. While the primary focus at Vegas Hotel Hunt is to find the best hotels rates around, we still know a few other websites that can help give you that Las Vegas fix. With the addition of these posts, we hope to bring to you some fun online resources for your own Las Vegas pleasure. From travel tips, to Las Vegas news, to just plain entertainment, we hope we can show you the lighter side of Vegas Hotel Hunt!

Beyond our new blog posts, we also wanted to let you know that we’re continually expanding our All-In-One search to include more and more online booking sites. Just recently we added TravelRes to the search, a booking engine with very competitive rates for Las Vegas hotels. Finally, all of the Spring 2008 package deals are flowing in, so take advantage of them before the hotels are booked, and enjoy a spring getaway in fabulous Las Vegas!

Everyone who has ever gambled in a Las Vegas hotel knows about the cocktail waitresses that come around, enticing you to keep gambling by offering free drinks.  What’s the price of a gin and tonic to them when you sit at the blackjack table for another half hour enjoying a drink (or worse, gamble irresponsibly from inebriation)?  What’s it matter to you though?  You came to Vegas to have a great time.  Free drinks?  A win-win situation.

To be more succinct, while the drinks are free, the service is not.  Cocktail waitresses/waiters (don’t worry Rio, I didn’t forget about your male servers), work hard and expect a tip.  Now, I’ll be the first to say that tips should not be something seen as a guarantee.  To Insure Prompt Service, right?  Given that, though, I would be hard pressed to find an instance when a cocktail waitress didn’t deserve a tip.  These people work long, hard hours on their feet (often in high heels)!  The question that comes then, is how much are we supposed to tip these waitresses?  Well, if you want the facts straight from the horse’s mouth, just listen to Dollie, a cocktail waitress gone webmaster over at Cocktaildoll.com.

While her site doesn’t look too fancy, Dollie has pages and pages on everything you could possibly want to know about the job of a cocktail waitress.  Many pages of the site are pretty useful, giving you tips on how to tip the waitresses, what they expect from you, and what you should expect from them.  Other pages such as “who orders what?” and her frequently asked questions have a lighter, sometimes comical tone.  Check out her site, and enjoy the free drinks!

With that, have you ever been at a casino just waiting and waiting for that cocktail waitress to come?  Well, if you plan on staying for awhile, and you’re sitting at a machine (I’m not sure how well this would work at a table, as their rounds seem to be better defined), give the cocktail waitress a large tip when she brings you your first drink.  More often than not, they’ll be back around before you can finish your first drink.  For additional drinks, just go back down to something more normal (say, $1).  It’s really amazing what a nice gesture on the first drink can do!

VegasRy is a Las Vegas blog we’ve been following since its inception just about a year ago.  It’s run by Ryan Morris (who happens to be a fellow Chicagoan *Go Bears*), and Ryan Johnson.  Together the Ry’s (ahhh, now it makes sense) make pretty frequent trips to Las Vegas, and blog about pretty much anything that comes to mind.  When they first started out, they posted on everything and anything in Las Vegas.  Their March 2007 archive alone shows 146 posts!  Sheesh.  Everything seemed a bit overwhelming, and our interest was subdued.

Over the last year, however, VegasRy has really found its focus.  Blog post counts are down, and each post is uniquely interesting.  Beyond that, what makes it a real fun blog is all of the multi-media they incorporate.  Specifically, we enjoy their somewhat frequent podcasts, or “Gin and Tonic Hours” (more affectionately, “G & T Hours”).  Recently, they’ve also added a little visual presentation to their podcasts, which definitely give them a nice touch.   

If you’re counting the days until you next lay eyes on The Strip, get your Las Vegas withdrawal fix at VegasRy.com.   

Louis Theroux is an amazing documentarist (easily my favorite) who usually dabbles in more taboo subjects.  A while ago, he did a documentary about Las Vegas for the BBC.  In it, Louis follows around several high rollers.  Their personalities and backgrounds are diverse, ranging from a “whale” brought in by a personal host, to a local woman who lost $4,000,000 (yes, 6 zeros) over the course of seven years. 

If you have seen any of Theroux’s work before, you’re familiar with his quaint “likable” attitude while balancing severe undertones of sarcasm and even condescension.  It makes for a perfect mix, as he really brings into question some of the potential pitfalls of Las Vegas.  From asking how much fun a gambler his having when down $250,000 to questioning a woman’s son on how he feels about his lost inheritance, Louis is a master at pushing the envelope without coming off too hard.

In the end, Louis really brings to light some important aspects and questions with the Las Vegas culture.  I think the main take-away here is simply: Have fun in Las Vegas.  Set a budget, stick to it, and never let Sin City get the best of you.

If you have a little time to kill, enjoy a 20 minute clip of Theroux’s work, Gambling In Las Vegas.

As requested, we’ve updated our Special Promotions page. It lists the free included extras that come along with many of the deals that we post here at Vegas Hotel Hunt. Although it may clutter the page a little, we feel that these extras are important to be listed along with each deal. After all, when you add in their value when calculating a promotion, it makes your stay that much cheaper!

Our All-In-One search continues to be a popular destination on our site, and we’re glad you like it! We know our search takes away a lot of the effort required in manually browsing the Las Vegas promotions, and we’re glad to save you a little time and money!

Greetings to all! We’ve been completely thrilled with the feedback we’ve received over the first operational month of our site! The promotions have been updated, and many of the Spring 2008 deals are here. One that looks particularly interesting is Mandalay Bay’s Gold Key promotion. For those looking to really turn up the luxury in Vegas, this is the way to do it! There are sorts of amazing VIP extras that can be tacked onto this deal for a really great rate! Also, the All-In-One Search is growing, as we’re adding more sites to its online hotel rate search.

One thing that we wanted to ask you all is whether or not we should list the “extras” or “includes” that come along with many of the promotions listed on our Special Promotions page. To get an example of what this may look like, check out our older site, Vegas-Promotions. Would this sort of a layout be helpful, or just clutter up the important details? Please let us know. Enjoy your mid-winter Vegas get-aways and, as always, we hope our site will bring you one step closer toward beating the house!

We’ve added lots of new Las Vegas deals over the weekend. Visit our Special Promotions page to check them out! Our list of hotels is now expanded beyond the MGM Mirage properties to include many more popular destinations on and near the Las Vegas Strip. For now, we’re planning on just sticking to publishing deals for hotels that are on or near The Strip, as those seem to be the locations people are most interested in. If you are interested in staying off The Strip (perhaps around Fremont St.?) there are a few sites that publish some of their deals. Look around on google, and they’ll surely come up.

We are also working hard to expand our All-In-One search. We established the search with the intention of giving patrons the ability to simultaneously search a list of sites that includes specific Las Vegas hotel websites, and now we’re even moving beyond that! Many of the promotions listed on our Hotel Deals page are included in the search already, but we’re looking to do better. Make sure to check back soon, as we continue to develop and expand our All-In-One search capabilities. That’s all for now. As always, we welcome any comments or suggestions. See you in Vegas!

Welcome to Vegas Hotel Hunt!

We are just getting off the ground and are still trying to finalize a few things throughout the website. Please bear with us in this process. Still, we hope that you enjoy what we have to offer thus far.

Make sure to check back frequently as we will be expanding our Special Promotions page and improving our All-In-One Search. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or bug reports, please fill out a message form or contact us via email at webmaster@vegashotelhunt.com. We would love to hear from you, and we’re always interested to see how we’re doing.

Thanks for visiting our site. We hope we can find you a great deal for your Las Vegas trip!