Vegas Trips on a Budget - Part 9 of 9: Wrapping It All Up

This last installment of Vegas Trips on a Budget covers the tips, hints, and money-saving ideas that didn't fit elsewhere in the series. Read on and consider how some of these things might be incorporated into your next Vegas trip.

Avoid the "just this once" mentality - This applies to gambling, dining, shopping, or even traveling. Do what you're comfortable with and don't spend too much money on anything just because you're in Vegas. If you can't afford it, don't spend money on it.

Meet for drinks instead of meals - If you're meeting friends or family in Las Vegas during your vacation, consider meeting for drinks to save money for a meal you'd really like later on (or before, if you're meeting later).

Or meet for an earlier meal - If you'd really rather meet for a meal than for drinks, think about getting together for breakfast or lunch instead of dinner to save some cash.

Scour sites for more deals and ideas - Previously mentioned sites in my other posts offer lots of options for saving money in Vegas, so look around and check out all the deals they have to offer.

Consider joining a message board to get more ideas - Online sites like LasVegas4Ever (http://www.lasvegas4ever.com/) and Trip Advisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/) offer lots of feedback and ideas for trips from people who've been there, done that.

Bring your computer along - Not only can you use it to spend some downtime in your room when you're overwhelmed by Vegas in general or when you run out of money (hopefully not!), you can make notes of your trip experiences to share with others...just like I'm doing now. Also, you can take advantage of free WiFi spots all around Vegas to relax and check e-mails or work if you really have to.

Make sure you have cash on hand - Be sure you save enough money to cover the cost of your cab ride back to the airport and/or to get you home. Some cab companies and parking garages don't take credit cards at all, so you must have cash available as payment.

Get slot cards and use them - Sign up for slot cards and use them when you play slot machines, video poker machines, and even table games like blackjack or poker in order to generate future offers on free or discounted rooms and other comps. Many places start offering discounts for very little play, and you could be missing out on possible savings and deals for future trips.

Use your rewards points, free play, and/or cash before you leave - Unless you know you're returning to Las Vegas in a couple of months, use what you've earned before your vacation is over. Why? Most points and cash back offers expire in 6-12 months unless you put X number of 'new' points on your slot card within a certain period of time. These aren't things you can pass on to your spouse or your kids, so use them before you head for the airport.

Continue to tip appropriately, not extravagantly or cheaply - Just because you're trying to save money doesn't mean you should stop tipping altogether, either. Tip 15-20% for meals and don't forget about the cocktail waitresses, bellmen, and everyone else who still counts on tips as part of their income. For a review of appropriate tipping in Vegas, see my earlier "Tips on Tipping" post from July.

Think about taking a solo trip - Let's face it: solo trips save money because you're only paying for one of everything, but that's not the only good thing about them in my eyes. You don't have to plan around someone else's likes and dislikes, set up meeting times and places, or wait for someone else to get ready or decide to move to another location. It's easier to find seats in restaurants and for shows, too, because single seats are almost always available with little or no wait. Tomorrow's post is all about traveling solo, and there are lots of good ideas and tips that may make you decide to just go ahead and go for it.

Smile! You're in Vegas! - No matter what you do on your trip and how you budget your time and money, this is the most important rule of all. You're on vacation, so enjoy yourself every moment. Do what's fun for you and have a great time. Don't stress or worry, but relax and find something to entertain yourself.

Well, I've come to the end of my series, and I hope you've found some things that will help you save money and maybe even give you some creative, money-saving ideas of your own.

Remember: When the current economic recession is over, being frugal and saving money on your vacation doesn't have to end. Keep using your cash wisely and enjoy all that Las Vegas has to offer.

Tips on tipping - some basic info for tipping in hotels and casinos

In this posting, I hope to give you an outline of tipping basics for some of the service people you may encounter day-to-day in Las Vegas hotels and casinos.

It may seem like everyone in Vegas has their hand out and expects a tip, and it's probably more true than you think; the vast majority of Las Vegas is involved in the service industry in some way, and a lot of them are employed with the expectation that at least some part of their income will come from tips.

That being said, a tip is a thank you for good service, and no one should expect to receive a tip if they A) don't perform a service, B) don't present a good attitude, or C) don't deliver what you're expecting. So, let's get on with it, shall we?

Front desk clerk - Lots of people try "the $20 trick" - i.e., asking nicely for an 'upgrade' and placing a $20 bill between your ID and credit card when presenting it to the front desk clerk who's assigning your hotel room. If there are rooms available and the clerk is able to put you into one that would be considered an upgrade from what you've reserved, that $20 may disappear when you get your ID and credit card back. It doesn't always work, but you never know if you don't ask. You could always try asking for that upgrade before presenting the $20 because you might really be able to get a free upgrade...

Bellman/bell captain - These nice men and women have to lug your suitcases everywhere to store them while you're waiting to get into your room or waiting to leave for the airport. A flat tip of $1-$2 per bag is sufficient when they deliver them to your room or you retrieve them from storage. Tipping at both times is appropriate.

Doorman (hails taxis and opens doors) - A $1 tip is a good standard. If they put luggage into a taxi for you, another $1-$2 is appropriate. If you have a large party and are trying to fit and/or configure your people into multiple taxis or a limo, a $5 tip is not outrageous.

Shuttle drivers (courtesy shuttles) - Shuttles between certain hotels and casinos are provided free of charge, but you should tip the drivers $1 per person if they've been especially nice and pleasant on the trip.

Limo drivers - A tip of 15-20% is appreciated by the driver, depending on the level of service provided. If the driver stops at the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign or any other location, you should certainly make sure you tip at least 20% of the total cost.

Valet parking attendants - A tip of $1-$2 each time the attendant takes or brings your car is appropriate and appreciated.

Maid service/house keeping - Tip daily if you ask for/receive additional towels, extra amenities, extra blankets or pillows, or if you make any other special requests. $2-$3 per day is a good baseline for a standard Las Vegas hotel room, but you should certainly up that if you're staying in a suite or an upgraded room.

Room service - Just like waiters and waitresses in restaurants, 15-20% of the bill is appropriate, depending on the service. Be sure to ask when you place your order, because some hotels add an automatic gratuity to the bill for room service orders.

Restaurant seating hostess/host or maitre'd - If you are eating at a nice restaurant and the seating hostess has done an exceptionally attentive job and made you feel special, welcome and comfortable - or gotten you some primo seating - a tip of $5-$10 (or even $10-$20 depending on the menu prices and service) is not unheard of. Otherwise, tipping the seating hostess is not required or expected.

Showroom maitre'd and ushers - If you're attending a show with table seating, you will more than likely encounter one of these when you enter the showroom. If you have pre-assigned seating, a $5 tip (per person or couple, depending on the price of the show/dinner tickets) is nice. If you are attending a show where a nice tip will get you a really, really good seat up front or in a much-coveted booth, $10-$20 per person or couple will do nicely to get you moved to a much better seat or viewing area.

Bartenders - Whether you're gambling or not, bartenders should be tipped if you're sitting at the bar and drinking. Tipping $1-$2 for each drink is a good start. If you are ordering specialty drinks or top-shelf liquor, tipping more per drink is appropriate.

Slot attendants and floor personnel - These ladies and gentlemen are getting rarer every day. With the introduction of TITO, they are hardly ever needed to make change or get coins for the machines, but they are still around when jackpots are paid. When they DO come to pay out a jackpot, a tip to both the slot attendant and floor supervisor is not out of the ordinary and is actually kind of expected. Depending on the amount of your jackpot, a tip of $5-$20 is a good start. If you win a jackpot of $1,000 or more, doubling that is not out of the question; after all, they ARE handing you your winnings! If you hit a jackpot of $5,000 or more, a tip of at least $50-$100 each would be appropriate.

Dealers - Basing a tip on your rate of play is a good place to start. For example, if you're playing blackjack, you've been winning fairly regularly, and you want to reward the dealer, ask them if they'd like to receive a tip directly (which you place on the table, away from your bet but not into the dealer's hand), or if they would prefer you place a bet for them. They will instruct you on where the bet should be placed if they choose that option. I use the rule of a $1 tip for every $5 I'm betting, so that's $2 for a $10 bet. Tip as often as you feel is appropriate. If I'm winning, I tip more frequently than if I'm losing.

Keno runners - If you're playing for a long time, tip $1 occasionally...even if you're not winning.

Spa attendants - Depending on the type and price of the services you receive, a tip of $10-$20 is not unusual for each attendant who handles your treatments. That's $10 for the manicurist, $10 for the attendant who did your facial, $10-$20 for the masseuse, etc.

And last but certainly not least...

Cocktail waitresses - Of all the people on this list, these ladies are the most deserving of the tips, in my opinion. Even though the drinks are "free", cocktail waitresses run themselves ragged getting drinks for all types of folks everywhere, and tips are an important part of their income. If you DON'T tip a cocktail waitress when you order your first drink, chances are you'll never see her again (or very, very infrequently). The general rule is $1 per drink minimum, but I would raise that if you are asking for specialty drinks or if you'd like to see her more often with a fresh drink. If you are playing a penny slot and playing only 9 lines at a penny apiece, please don't insult her by giving her a dime or quarter. Please.

My husband's tipping strategy applies to his favorite game: blackjack. He likes certain beers in the bottle only, so he tips the cocktail waitress $5 on the first round, then another $2 each time she returns. It pretty much guarantees him a quick beer every time.

For another good source of information regarding cocktail waitresses, how to order drinks, and a really good blog written by a real Vegas cocktail waitress, go to http://www.cocktaildoll.com/ for Cocktail Dollie's interesting and very entertaining web page.

That's it! A little bit of information to help you try and navigate the tipping world in Las Vegas. While it's in no way a comprehensive list of the people you might be tipping, hopefully it'll help you when you're trying to make a decision on who to tip and how much you should give.

Tipping taxicab drivers in Las Vegas

In every city that has taxicabs in service, there are certain rules for how customers tip for service - or whether they even tip at all. As everyone in Las Vegas seems to expect to receive tips, it's no wonder that the cab drivers are always trying to get you to tip them, and some of them will do almost anything to try and get a better tip out of you.

I personally have my own set of rules for tipping taxi drivers in Vegas, and not everyone will agree with me on my method or reasoning for determining a tip. They shouldn't, either; a tip is a thank you for good service, and it is obviously going to vary from person to person depending on what good service means to them. So, use this as a guide or ignore it altogether, but I try to be fair and not go broke at the same time.

I start a kind of calculator in my head when I first see my cab pulling up to the curb at the airport. By the time I get to my hotel, I have been adding or deducting depending on how things went and will pay the cab driver accordingly.

Arriving in Vegas - If my cab driver places my bags in the car at the airport and takes them out at the hotel, they are definitely the recipient of an extra 50 cents at this point. Usually the skycap will load the bags into the cab at the airport, or I may even do it myself. My tip counter starts here when I see how the cab driver does when I'm getting into the cab.

Traveling to the hotel - On the way to the hotel, I have several things I look for:
Is the cab driver trying to kill me by dodging in and out of traffic repeatedly?
Are they cursing and/or sharing their extreme religious (or racist) beliefs with me?
Are they blasting me out of the car with their loud music, smoking, or too much air conditioning (or none at all)?
Did they follow my instructions for getting to my destination (if I asked)?
If they're nice and they have avoided these issues, a $1-$2 tip is added into the total in my head.

Arriving at the hotel - If the cab driver has been polite and provided what I feel is good service up to this point, I just wait to see how they do when they take the bags out of the cab. I've had a couple who haven't even gotten out of the cab to take the bags out for me, and it's usually because they've been pretty surly on the trip to the hotel and they know they're not getting much of a tip, so they no longer make an effort to even be civil. If they get out and take the bags out for me, I mentally add another 50 cents in.

For a good ride where the cabbie was civil and helpful, the total tip is now $2 - $3 on top of the fare, depending on how happy I am with the ride. If I were carrying an extra-heavy bag or got some good info on a restaurant or something from the driver, it'd be $3 - $4 on top of the fare, but that's me.

If the ride was crappy, the driver unpleasant, and my life or health was in danger in any way, I simply round up the fare to the next dollar, say "thank you", and take my bags. I may get dirty looks or get cussed out, but I'm not tipping someone who thinks they are automatically deserving of any tip. Sorry, that's just me.

Returning to the airport - Just reverse the order above. Same rules apply.

Driving anywhere in Las Vegas - I generally walk anywhere in Las Vegas that I wish to go, or I take the monorail from one end of the Strip to the other, but if I'm traveling with my mom or someone else who isn't used to all the walking in Las Vegas, I might take a cab. In this instance, I follow the "traveling to the hotel" set of questions to make sure I wasn't almost killed, I didn't suffer damage to my hearing or my lungs, and when I asked the driver to take a certain route he actually followed my directions. If the report is good in all those instances, I will add $2 - $3 to the top of the fare, depending on the length of the trip.

I have had a couple of occasions where I have given the driver less than the fare, though, and I think it's something that should be addressed here.

On a trip from the airport to the hotel, a cab driver took the tunnel route (along I-15) instead of the route along Koval Road that I had asked him to at the airport, and I called him on it. After much arguing - and a $23 fare from McCarran Airport to Harrah's - he told me to pay what I thought the trip fare should have been, so I gave him $14. It was the average amount of my previous fares on the route that I have traveled many times. He didn't argue with me, but he wasn't pleased, either.

On another occasion, my mother and I took a taxi from Wynn to Luxor because of her inability to walk the distance. The taxi driver went across Las Vegas Boulevard to I-15 and took the highway (with rush hour traffic) to the backside of Luxor, then wouldn't drive under the portico to queue up with the taxi line like he was supposed to do. I advised him of the issues I had as soon as he crossed over to the highway, and he pretended not to hear me during the entire trip. The fare would've been $16 for that trip, and I advised him I wouldn't pay it and had a good mind to report him. He, too, advised me to pay what I thought the trip was worth, and I gave him $7 (even though I should have given him $6 or less), and walked away. He yelled a few obscenities at my back, but I stood my ground and advised the valet attendant to watch out for him. I' can't be mistaken for a shrinking violet, can I?

If you feel that the cab driver has "long-hauled" you, you should speak up and tell them so. There are strict rules that cab drivers must follow when transporting passengers around Las Vegas, and they are aware that their passengers have a right to report them to the Taxicab Authority if they feel they are cheated. Taxi drivers do not want to be given a warning by the TA, because they could very well lose their job over a couple of bad reports.

In the end, use your instincts and tip what you think a taxicab driver deserves, not what they expect. The two things are not always the same.