The days of calling up your favorite travel agent and booking your Las Vegas vacation — flight, hotel, a rental car and more — have pretty much gone the way of the typewriter: they’re still out there but seldom used. Today’s savviest travelers know to look to the Internet to cash in on great travel deals and this is especially true for cheap trips to Las Vegas. But if you want the best Vegas hotel deals, discounts on Vegas travel packages and savings on Vegas show tickets, you have to know where to look.
Start your search by getting up-to-date with the new “social media” – a fancy term for just another way to communicate online. Think places like Facebook and Twitter and you’re talking social media. Join these sites and you’ve got access to all kinds of special offers from your favorite Las Vegas hotels and casinos.
MGM Resorts for instance provides a number of very tech-trendy ways to get great up-to-date offers, event information and even answers to your travel questions through their own YourVegasBeat.com website and their Twitter persona @VegasConcierge.
If you’re not familiar with Twitter, it’s a free service available on the Web that links you into a vast network of users who provide all types of information in short, 140-character posts called “tweets.” Think of it as a sort of global message board. By “following” company-sanctioned accounts such as @LuxorLV and @ExcaliburVegas you can get updates on shows, restaurants, special last-minute Vegas hotel offers and promos – even the news that a big slot jackpot was just hit on the casino floor.
“We wanted to create an easy way for people to connect with Vegas and everything our resorts have to offer,” said one spokesman for MGM Resorts. “How better than to use today’s technology to give people the information they want, when they want it, in the format they choose? Much of the information is not main-stream so you can get really cool insider info – like where to get a great British ale or if there are tickets left for tonight’s concert. ”
Then there are the casino resorts you can “like” on Facebook to get tuned into the best Las Vegas vacation packages. Every, and we mean EVERY, major Vegas hotel has a Facebook account and it is a rare day when you won’t find an offer for discounts on rooms, show tickets and dining deals. We particularly like the Facebook accounts of both Planet Hollywood and Caesars Palace where the posts are interesting and full of terrific offers on Strip hotel rooms and popular show tickets.
Another tip we have for getting the best hotel deals in Las Vegas is, well, at your fingertips. Or maybe we should say on your phone screen. Use your smart phone – iPhone, Android, Blackberry – and visit the application or “app” market to get all kinds of cool free info from top Las Vegas hotels. Our favorites: the Palms Casino Resort, Las Vegas app for the iPhone which allows users to book right from their phones and Mandalay Bay with its “Hot Offers” page with such recent deals as this – a discount suite promotion with rooms starting at less than a hundred bucks per night.
Great deals on Las Vegas travel are definitely out there if you use these tech-savvy tips.