Wow I just got done booking a trip to a convention at Redrock in September. Note this is for my wife and is reimbursed by her employer but I am shocked at the total travel expenses. Everything was booked conventionally and the dates were set. So I lucked out that Southwest was in a low fare week. Which translates to 303 dollars per person round trip. Which means I am going to tag along for 303 dollars for 5 days. Yea me!!! Now for her expenses $303 for the flights, $607 for the room, $167 for the rental car and $644 for the convention. Which in total is $1721 before food. Gaming is not a topic for budgets in this instance because it is a conference. Gaming will happen but will not ne the main focus of the expedition (for her Haha!). So I have decided to leave it and entertainment out of this discussion. So back to it.
Let's compare this to my travel expenses for my upcoming exposition in November. Airfare for my trip is $258 so it is comparable especially since we both had set dates which are out if our control. I feel lucky that we got the flights for both that cheap. BUT!!! That is where the similarities end.
Where as her convention is at the Redrock in Summerlin mine is at the Expositions Center just off the strip. So as I was booking the rooms at Redrock I noticed a note on the site that said that taxi fare was $60 one way. This was my first SMH (shaking my head) moment. So I hit google maps on my DROID to get my bearings. Wow Redrock is no where near the Strip or Fremont. In fact all of my normal haunts are 10-17 miles away. Btw there was a moment of sadness but that's why I booked the car. So anyway $120 for round trip taxi was shocking considering that's about what we spend on all our taxi trips back to the resort we're staying at on the strip and the round trip to and from the airport combined for a 6 day vacation. So in comparison I am staying at the Flamingo for mine so I can walk to the Expositions Center which doesn't take long and is good to clear your head every morning. ( More on morning walks in the upcoming post 'How to navigate the strip') So my only taxi fare will be from LAS to the Flamingo and back which is about $40 total with tips. The difference of $80 dollars seems crazy to me. But wait there's more.
I go to book the rooms and the rates are $250 for a standard room. At this point I went into shock and had to have a drink ,Goose and tonic to be exact. Then I looked and the convention host had a link to book for the convention rate. Whew! So I click and entered the dates and it came up $139+ tax. Wow that stinks too. But what can you do? Nothing because it is the only place close to stay. So I booked it. Ok so I booked it after grumbling to the wife and mumbling about comped rooms and driving her out every morning and picking her up which stinks. So she told me to just book it, in a not so nice tone. So I did. Now back to my trip as I said I'm staying at the Flamingo. Because its convenient and it's COMPED!!! for 6 nights. I could have pretty much stayed anywhere on the strip but it fit my needs best for my business trip. The problem I have is spending $139 a night for a standard room at Redrock when that would be a Ceasers rate. Now I'm not knocking Redrock but if it's as nice as Ceasers I'll eat a stack of $100 chips.
Just for reference the whole premise of this blog is to travel to Vegas smart, cheap and safe. And my biggest pet peeve about Vegas resorts is room rates. They should all be free. Because that gets people there to spend money. DUH right. Well most resorts are going in the opposite direction, which just burns me up. So right off Redrock is up against the wall on my review. Enough of my rant on that, for now.
So not counting the convention costs which are not optional. And mine are half what hers are. Yes we are both licensed professionals in our individual fields. So that is a question for the host of the convention. But I digress. My wifes basic travel costs are 783 dollars more than mine. Mostly due to room rate. It better be a darn nice room Redrock. Oh yea and I'm in the Strip and staying an extra day. Just saying...btw thanks for taking me with you wifey.
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