Rooms ar DEF CON 25 at Caesars

[TheCotMan]

At the close of DEF CON 24, it was announced that we would be at Caesars. On Monday or Tuesday, the @defcon twitter account announced room reservations at Caesars was open. I checked shortly after, and saw rooms were available, but no DEF CON rate. Then a link was added to the top of the page on the main site for DEF CON 25 and room reservations ( https://resweb.passkey.com/go/SCDEF7 )

Announcement that we are moving to Caesars: (Tweeted Aug 7)
https://twitter.com/defcon/status/762459635806633985

First announcement on twitter that room reservations for DEF CON are live: (Tweeted Aug 9)
https://twitter.com/defcon/status/763207438874972161

Followup tweet with reservation link: (Tweeted Aug 10)
https://twitter.com/defcon/status/763462344676483072

I checked on Monday and saw rooms available at Caesars which included rooms with 2 Queen sized beds, but starting prices were around $200+ for all rooms. Same was true Tuesday.

When I finally found the link on the main defcon web page (the top-left DEF CON 25 link had the reservations, but the lower-left only lined to the older DEF CON 24 pages) and checked status, I could see there are choices of several hotels, including Casears. Clicking on Caesars showed several rooms where each had a single King sized bed and 2 or 4 choices for rooms with 2 Queen sized beds. Today (Aug 10, one day later) all of the "cheap" rooms with 2 Queen beds show up as sold-out. Even the more expensive rooms show up as sold out for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday of DEF CON 25. The only 2 Queen bed rooms with any of the DEF CON dates only included Wed through Saturday with checkout on Sunday for around $211 to $231 per night plus tax and resort fees.

It is crazy to think that all of the rooms with 2 Queen beds could be gone in less than 24 hours. I've asked the @defcon twitter account if they really are sold out of 2 Queen rooms at the cheaper rate at Caesars to confirm.

Checking directly with caesars.com shows the cheapest 2 queen rooms (without the DEF CON rate) are "Nobu 2 Queen Deluxe" for Tue ($189), Wed ($219), Thur ($249), Fri/Sat ($319), Sun $249 , plus tax and resort fees. The rooms still show up as available without the DEF CON rate, though.

[bubba-hawk]

I was able to book my room yesterday at the Defcon discounted rate of about $150/night. Def much cheaper.

[TheCotMan]

I was able to book my room yesterday at the Defcon discounted rate of about $150/night. Def much cheaper.

When you booked your room, were the only rooms available at the DEF CON rate ones with single King sized beds, or were there any rooms with 2 Queen sized beds?

[bubba-hawk]

When you booked your room, were the only rooms available at the DEF CON rate ones with single King sized beds, or were there any rooms with 2 Queen sized beds?

They had both CotMan.

[SolarBear]

Looking forward to DC25, but Caesars is too rich for me. I booked a room across the street at the Linq.

[TheCotMan]

Looking forward to DC25, but Caesars is too rich for me. I booked a room across the street at the Linq.

I made the mistake of staying in a hotel that was not the same as the hotel containing the convention one time, when we were at the AP. I think I stayed at an Amerisuites. It was far from all of the "action" and the walk to/from the room made using the room as a "base" or anything beyond sleeping, a problem.

After that happened, I learned it was better to split a room with other people I knew, when I had little money, and gain the benefit of being close to the convention. Yes, Caesars is expensive, but if you can get their cheapest room with 2 Queen sized beds, and get 4 people sharing the cost (or more if you find ways to check in with 4 people but have more in the room) then the cost per night per person can be much closer to a single night charge for one person at The Linq.

Of course, splitting a room with 3 or more people at the Linq could mean even lower costs.

I did DEF CON "on the cheap" one year, even riding Greyhound to get to Las Vegas, and share a room, so I recognize issues with trying to save money, but encourage you to explore other options to lower your expenses...
* Greyhound is cheaper that flying or train, but there is no guarantee at any connecting stop for you to have a reserved seat. Lines form for various routes. When the bus is full, if you were not close enough to the front of the line, you have to wait for the next bus. This make Greyhound very unrelable for travel when you want a higher probability for getting you where you want to be, on-time.
* If you have a car and will be driving, take on passengers to/from if they are willing to pay for gas and your food on the way there. 3 more people in one car, only paying for gas and splitting the cost of your food could make your travel cost nearly zero.
* If you fly into Las Vegas, do not rent a car when in Las Vegas. Consider a shuttle from airport to hotel, or if travelling with 3 or more others, share the cost of a cab from the airport to the hotel.
* On your way to the hotel, stop by a grocery store to buy cheap food, water and a cheap foam cooler (in case your hotel room has no fridge.) Ice machines can be used to fill cooler with ice, and keep food cool, helping to save you the ~$10 to $40 per meal at hotels. Be careful. Some coolers may leak; some foam construction is more porous than other foam in coolers. A crack in the cooler could risk water leakage, and water damages in a hotel may cost you after check-out.
* A "ghetto" cooler in a hotel is also an option, but less efficient than a cooler: put your sealed items to be kept cool in the sink, and dump ice on them. This is not a great solution; if you have only one sink, you create a DoS against its use, and being exposed to air means air heat has easier access to the ice to melt it faster resulting in more trips to the ice machine more often. On the plus side? You do not have to worry about spilling water from a cooler, since liquid water can just go down the drain. Consider covering with a towel as a little bit more insulation. Leaving the drain open for liquid water to drain may work better than plugging drain and letting water accumulate. If you use this in Las Vegas heat, test both ways and share results. (Retaining liquid means absorbing more calories in temperatures from "freezing" to room temperature, but liquids are better conductors of heat energy to solid ice.) If you use this method, leaving the Air Conditioning running all the time will extend the life of the ice, as will keeping the drapes closed to reflect more light/heat out of the room.
* Find a good DEF CON topic and submit a paper in the CFP. If you are selected as a speaker, and you accept, a free speaker badge saves you the cost of a human badge, and if you accept Human badge as "payment" then trade it with one of the people you are travelling with to pay the person for your part in room costs or other costs.

What other ideas have you considered to save money and do DEF CON more cheaply?
(If this becomes a good topic, I can fork it over to a new thread.)