13 INCREDIBLE TIPS TO SAVE MONEY ON LAS VEGAS HOTELS IN 2022 (with examples)

These tips and tricks focus only on Las Vegas hotels and in case you have not yet found your desired hotel, check out our TOP 10 Cool Las Vegas Hotels.

#1 Sign up for the players clubs and login to the hotel website directly

If you’re trying to strike a good deal on a Las Vegas hotel, the most important thing is to look and book directly with the hotels.

Key-points:

Search for the best prices directly on the hotel’s website, do not call them. You’ll spend way more money calling them instead of just visiting their website.

Book your stay on the hotel’s website, but make sure you are not logged into their website. Instead, make sure you’ve joined the hotel’s Players Clubs, joined M Life with MGM properties, and joined Total Rewards with Caesars properties. And after you’ve joined all of those clubs, log in to the hotel’s website with your Players Club account and only then search for the room rates. They will appear cheaper just for being a member of their accounts and signing in.

For example, if you’re thinking about MGM Resorts Honors Program - click JOIN NOW, and only then SIGN IN to see the rates.

Now, when you sign up for the Players Clubs and stay at the hotels, you will surely get a lot more perks and freebies.

#2 Sign-up for emails

Once you’re signed up for these Players Club programs, pay attention to your email. You can constantly receive emails about cheap hotels in Las Vegas. For example, we got an email about rates at the Bellagio for as cheap as $84. That’s a pretty awesome deal. We also received another one from M Life that talked about rates at Aria for $80, then MGM Grand for $44, Park MGM for $41, and Mirage for $45 a night.

Key-point:

So, once you get on their email thread for promotions, pay attention to them because that BOOK NOW link that you’ll find in the email will be the one that gets you those cheap rates just for members that they email out.

#3 Book a refundable rate and check the rates regularly

Booking hotels, you can generally book the refundable rate, which means you can cancel or change it and get your money back. Otherwise, you can book a prepaid rate, which means you cannot cancel it and can’t change it, and you can never get your money back.

Key-point:

Suppose it’s a month or two before you’re going. In that case, you should always book a refundable rate, and constantly every few days, go back to the hotel’s website and check if there are any price drops. Because the hotels might think tons of people are coming this week or this weekend, rates are really high. Then when the hotel finds out nobody is coming, they drop the rates very low.

We have saved hundreds of dollars just by rechecking our hotel rates and changing the reservation to get lower rates. For example, a couple of years ago, we went to Las Vegas. We were staying at the Waldorf Astoria, and the room rate was like $300 per night that we booked. But apparently, nobody was coming that year during that exact time at the Waldorf Astoria (it was their first year in business). And then we checked three days before our check-in the rates had dropped down to about $150 per night. So we saved $150 just by changing the rate to the cheaper one, checking it every few days to see if it dropped.

Key-point:
Rates most often drop just a few days before the check-in.

#4 Book a prepaid rate (if you’re just a couple days out)

We know we just said that we suggest booking refundable rates, but if it’s just a couple of days before you’re going, then booking a prepaid rate is the best way.

Key-points:

If you’re sure you’re gonna go, the prepaid rate is usually 10-20% cheaper.

And if it’s 1-3 days before you know you’re going, go ahead and book that prepaid rate.

For example, if you want to go to Las Vegas in 2 days, browse your rates on your favorite booking sites, and see what they offer.

When you scroll down to see all the rates, watch the magic happen. In this case, instead of paying $161 with free cancellation, you can easily save $18 by reserving a prepaid rate at $143. The check-in is in 2 days - what’s the worst thing that could happen? Hard to think of any, so secure a lower rate and don’t give yourself a hard time.

#5 Use a good rewards earning credit card

It’s great to use a good rewards earning card when you’re booking a hotel in Las Vegas.

Key-point:

We really like the Chase Sapphire Reserve card because it earns three ultimate rewards points for every dollar spent on travel, which includes hotels.

So just using this card for your Las Vegas hotel stay, you will get a 6% value back that you can use on flights, or other hotel stays in the future.

#6 Use multiple search engines & aggregators

It’s all good to book through an OTA, but let’s be honest, using aggregators for the best price is really time-consuming. Even though it’s worth this time, OTAs usually provide cheaper rates. Instead of going back and forth checking different sites for the same hotel and hoping to find the cheapest rate - use some help.

Key-points:

Recently launched browser extension RatePunk compares the prices for the same hotel live while you search for the accommodation. It supports the biggest OTAs such as Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Hotels.com, and trip.com.

It works with different currencies around the world. RatePunk is free to use and takes a second to start working.

Short know-how to use explanation: install the extension on Chrome, Safari, or any other major browser. You go on your favorite booking site (we chose booking.com) and select your dates and destination. Our pick is Polo Towers By Diamond Resort in Las Vegas. And RatePunk extension pops up, showing you that you could book the same hotel and the exact room at Trip.com, so you would save $170. The cool thing is that you need to do nothing. Here, you just saved a good amount of money quickly.

#7 Use affiliate discounts

Definitely make use of your affiliate discounts. For example, Las Vegas hotels often provide discounts for members of triple-A, who are seniors, who are first responders, military, and teachers. So take a look at some of those affiliate discounts you qualify for because sometimes they can be pretty significant.

Key-point:

If you’re wondering about AAA discounts and they might be relevant to you, we’ve talked more in-depth about it here with all explanations and examples.

#8 Stay at a hotel with free parking

Las Vegas hotels have been charging really expensive rates for parking. But certain hotels do not require you to pay for that.

Key-points:

For example, stay at a place like Treasure Island or the Venetian where parking is totally free. You’ll save a lot of money.

If you’re staying at M Life or Caesars, consider getting their credit cards because the parking is free at M Life and Caesars hotel chains. And you don’t even need to use a credit card to pay for your stay. You just need to have it.

You can still use the Chase Sapphire Reserve card - the one we’ve mentioned before - and earn all those points while holding one of their cards to get free parking.

#9 Book using points

Get your hotel rooms for free - book them with points. There are a ton of Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt affiliated hotels around the Las Vegas strip.

Key-points:

For example, the Waldorf Astoria in the city center, that is a Hilton-affiliated property, so you can use Hilton Honors points.

If you gamble a lot at the casinos, those hotel chains you’re staying at will often send you comp rooms, so you can easily get many free rooms in Las Vegas.

#10 Book your hotel as a package with the airline

We don’t mean booking it with a travel agent as a package, but we suggest booking it with the airline as a package.

Key-point:

In particular, Southwest Vacations offer great flight and hotel deals combined in one package. Many airlines also have similar offers, so make sure to check those out.

Now let’s review something here. For example, we chose to go to Las Vegas from New York. The dates that worked for us are Jun 15 - Jun 18. We browsed the flight prices, and we ended up having $507 for a roundtrip from LGA to LAS.

Then we check the best hotel in Las Vegas, and that is the famous Bellagio. The 3-night stay would cost us $1,125 (if we booked through booking.com, but RatePunk suggests booking through Seathustler and saving $35). Anyways, all in all, the total comes up to be $1,632. That’s costly.

Now, we checked the exact dates on Southwest Vacations, and we selected flight + hotel. The total came up to $1,483. That’s $149 saved dollars. And also, it’s incredible to have the whole package, so you don’t need to worry about booking a flight and hotel separately. Although it doesn’t always work like that, believe us - it’s worth at least checking.

#11 Stay mid-week and not when there’s a conference

One of the best ways to save money on Las Vegas hotels is simply to stay midweek. Everybody goes to Las Vegas on weekends, so that’s when room rates are the highest.

Key-points:

Room rates that might go for $220 on the weekend can often be had for $95 staying on a weekday.

That’s a great example of Bally’s Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. From Tuesday to Wednesday, the rate per night is $91. That’s not as expensive as it could be. But now look…

…This is the same Bally’s (the same week!) only from Friday to Saturday. The price goes up to $271 per night. That’s like over 50% more expensive.

The other thing you should look at when you’re going to avoid the crowds and go when it’s less busy, meaning that room rates are cheaper, is you’ll want to avoid the conventions in Las Vegas.

Check out some Las Vegas convention calendars, you can Google them, and they will show you when the big conventions are.

Rule of thumb, you definitely want to avoid the first few weeks in January, that's often when CES gets a hundred thousand people. You also want to prevent the World of Concrete, a vast construction convention.

And definitely, if you're looking for cheap room rates, avoid the holidays, mainly New Year and New Year's Eve - those are some of the most expensive times to stay in Las Vegas.

If you're looking for cheap around the holidays, consider right before Christmas because it gets pretty expensive after Christmas up to New Year. But the first few weeks of December are usually pretty cheap.

#12 Consider an off-strip hotel

Not just because off-strip hotels are cheaper, have less expensive parking, and have less expensive resort fees, but you can find many hotels off the strip with free breakfast. Breakfast in Las Vegas can be costly.

Key-point:

Ideas for hotel chains for free breakfast in and around Las Vegas could be Residents Inn, SpringHill Suites, Hyatt Place, and the Hilton Homewood Suites.

We’re sure there are a bunch of others that provide free breakfast, but we find these four chains have free breakfast that is super good and hearty and actually filling, not just something like a donut and some coffee.

#13 Avoid the mini bar

Our final tip to save money on Las Vegas hotels is don’t order room service and definitely don’t take anything from the minibar. Those prices for room service and minibar things are just super expensive.

Key-point:

In particular, for the minibar, make sure you don’t move anything in the minibar. This is something that often gets a lot of people because they take out things from the minibar to look at it. But the minibars in Las Vegas are censored, so if you just move something, the price for that might end up on your bill.