I did the meeting with Khaled Amr, who is the very sweet events guy at the Ramada. I also brought the HICC bid - the full official package, complete with all the numbers - for him to see.
Result is, they knocked the room price back ten bucks a night, to $109. Not as good as the HICC's $99, and remember that all rooms still have that tax attached to them. The hotel has a few pluses; we'd have our choice of rooms that would be suitable for the hospitality suite, they'd bring a small fridge in, and we could either go with their TV/DVD suppliers (for a cost) or bring in our own without any resentment on their part.
The big plus for the Ramada is the space for Prom. It's HUGE, beautiful, big glass double doors into the hote lobby (and if we went with the lobby hospitality suite, it's literally twenty feet away from the ballroom), and it has a gallery. Their catering manager, Marcello, sat down with me, and we had the conversation about wanting the room comped with a minimum catering/bartending met.
So, Khaled's putting their revised bid together, and I should be getting it in email early next week. Since I'm in San Diego this weekend, I told him there was no huge rush to get it down this week.
I guess I'm in the minority of loving the Luxor. It's totally over the top but I always have fun there.
There's also the Boardwalk Holiday Inn right on the strip. I've stayed there quite a few times too.
ND, I've never even been inside the Luxor. I'm so creeped out by the exterior, I've never wanted to go near it.
Every time we've flown into Vegas at night and seen that Big Giant Eye shooting a spotlight straight up? All I've been able to think is "Don't see the fnords! Don't see the fnords!"
It's just too damned Illuminati for me.
The Excalibur and The Luxor are where I have won the most money on craps.
And I just got feedback from LV Hilton (I asked why so many hotel were turning us down).
She said it was the amount of lead time. As in, too much. Because it's a weekend and we require less than 100 rooms.
shrug.
I guess tourism in Vegas is a whole different animal from other places.
boggles that it wouldn't be worth a half hour of someone's time to write out prices...
But why give us the rooms on the cheap before they know if they can sell them for more?
I suppose it depends on their average % of capacity.
On a weekend in May, nearly 100%. Even Excalibar wants 109 for Thurs and Fri and 119 for Saturday night. And $30/person/room/night for the meeting space.
