Frommer's Las Vegas 2004

THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU BOOK A ROOM 71
Tips Who Kept the Kids Out?
Some hotels—notably Bellagio, which started the practice—ban children
who are not staying onsite from stepping foot on the hotel premises.
Child-free adults love the ban, but families who travel to Vegas (can we
say yet again that this is not a family destination?) may be seriously inconvenienced
by it. The policy doesn’t appear to be uniformly enforced
(hotels don’t want to offend parents with plenty of dough to gamble,
after all), but we’ve seen families and teenagers get turned away from a
hotel because they couldn’t produce a room key. If you’re traveling with
your kids, or want to be free of someone else’s, your best bet is to call your
chosen hotel and ask what its policy is.
package, meaning that their slightly higher prices may be more of a bargain than
you’d think.
Still, if you want peace and quiet and don’t land in the tax bracket that Four
Seasons/Ritz caters to, there are other, less high-profile hotels without a casino.
Make certain the hotel has a pool, however, especially if you need some recreation.
There is nothing as boring as a noncasino, nonpool Vegas hotel—particularly if
you have kids.
Casino hotels, by the way, are not always a nice place for children. It used to
be that the casino was a separate section in the hotel and children were not
allowed inside (we have fond memories of standing just outside the casino line,
watching our dads put quarters in a slot machine “for us”). But in almost all the
new hotels, you have to walk through the casino to get anywhere—the lobby,
the restaurants, the outside world. This makes sense from the hotel’s point of
view; it gives you many opportunities to stop and drop a quarter or $10 into a
slot. But this often long, crowded trek gets wearying for adults—and it’s far
worse for kids. The rule is that kids can walk through the casinos, but they can’t
stop, even to gawk for a second at someone hitting a jackpot nearby. The casino
officials who will immediately hustle the child away are just doing their job, but,
boy, it’s annoying.
So, take this (and what a hotel offers that kids might like) into consideration
when booking a room. Note also that those gorgeous hotel pools are often cold
(and again, sometimes closed altogether) and not very deep. They look like places
you would want to linger, but often (from a kid’s point of view) they are not. Plus,
the pools close early. Hotels want you inside gambling, not outside swimming.
Ultimately, though, if it’s a busy time, you’ll have to nab any room you can,
especially if you get a price you like. How much time are you going to spend in
the room, anyway?
WHAT WILL I HAVE TO PAY?
The rack rate is the maximum rate that a hotel charges for a room. It’s the rate
you’d get if you walked in off the street and asked for a room for the night.
Hardly anybody pays these prices, however, especially in Vegas, where prices
fluctuate wildly with demand and there are many ways around rack rates. Here
are some tips for landing a low rate:
• Don’t be afraid to bargain. Get in the habit of asking for a lower price than
the first one quoted. Always ask politely whether a less expensive room is