Bargains in Sin City harder to find

Finding a cheap room in Las Vegas is definitely a gamble these days.

Sin City is on track for its best year ever — 36 million visitors expected by year’s end, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. And its popularity as a convention and tourist destination and the success of its luxury hotels are nudging prices up.

A just-completed summer room-rate survey by the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter shows an uptick this year, with the biggest rise in the bargain-hotel category. It found nine casinos with rates below $30, compared to 16 last year.

Luxury hotels are commanding $250 or more on busy days.

“January through April I noticed fewer deals,”‘ says Trish Biebricher of Fort Myers, Fla., who visits Las Vegas every month. Scouring the Internet, she found rates were “fluctuating as much as $200 a night above the norm.”

It’s not just lodgings that are upping the ante. The cost of one of Vegas’ best bargains — the casino buffet — is creeping up, too, according to the Advisor.

For instance, the Sahara’s dinner buffet is now $8.99, up from $7.99. The Riviera’s breakfast buffet also is up $1, to $9.99.

Meanwhile, there’s no more 99-cent breakfast at the El Cortez Hotel and Casino downtown, and it’s harder to find a $5 blackjack table or 25-cent slot at the Strip casinos. And if you want to see a popular show, it’s easy to drop a hundred bucks.

Higher prices reflect “the general upgrading of just about everything in Las Vegas,” says Alan Feldman, MGM Mirage senior vice president of public affairs.

“There is an old image of Las Vegas, and that image was, ‘cheap,’ ” Feldman says. “And you got what you paid for. Now we put a lot of emphasis on the experience. It’s at a greater price, but still a value given the level of luxury.”

Barbara Jacobs, who lives in Las Vegas, agrees. “Value for the money in a major hotel far exceeds” that elsewhere, she says.

Jacobs spent Memorial Day in Washington, D.C., where a suburban hotel without Vegas-lavish features cost $230 a night. “For that money, you could stay at Bellagio or Mandalay Bay,” she says.

Though Vegas is upgrading (more than $5 billion is being spent on new hotels or renovations, the Convention & Visitors Authority says), old-style deals still exist.

“There are still bargains if you are willing to leave the Strip,” says Vegas resident Don Sampson. He and others say casinos frequented by locals — such as the Station chain — offer cheaper buffets and low-cost entertainment. Budget lodging abounds at the city’s less-glam downtown casinos including El Cortez and Four Queens.

“On the high end, hotels are getting what the market will bear. But can you still find a $29 room? Absolutely!” says Las Vegas Advisor publisher Anthony Curtis. “I just came back from Paris and London, and the prices are absurd. Even with prices up, Vegas remains a supermarket for travel bargains.

“Gamblers who lose continue to subsidize other consumers,” he adds. “Vegas is a giant mousetrap. You just have to take the cheese and avoid being snapped.”