So I'm travelling to Vegas in about two weeks Friday - Monday (June 26th - 29th if anyone cares and wants to chill/poker), but in order to cheap on the flights and use free flights for my friend, we had to book a 6:45am flight to Vegas, and a 8:30pm departing flight back (Originating Airport is SFO - San Francisco International). We are staying at TI, and I'm wondering how we should handle our bags before check-in time (3pm) and after check-out time (12pm) on Friday and Monday, respectively.

I understand we can check bags in with our hotels front desk? How much does this cost?

Also, does TI offer any type of early check-in or a late check-out to help alleviate this problem at all?

And finally, on an slightly unrelated note, anyone have experience with the 20 dollar tip at TI at the front desk with hopes of a room upgrade or better view/floor?

Thanks :P

you should be able to check your bags with the bell staff free of charge.

I haven't stayed at TI, but I'm pretty sure all hotels will hold your bags for free, but you should tip the bellman. I usually tip when dropping bags off and picking them up. The general rule is $1 per bag, I usually give at least $5. (Last time I was with a friend and we each had two bags; one of us gave $5 when we dropped them off, the other $5 when we picked them up. As a side note, you could see $1 bills in many people's hands, and the guy we gave the bags to seemed very happy with the $5.) The way I see it, if you were already thinking you might be paying for this service, why not be a little nice with the money.

I'm sure you could call TI before you arrive to ask about early check-in/late check-out. My experience at hotels is that you have to ask for the late check-out the morning of. But you're probably not going to be able to check-in as early as you are arriving or check-out as late as you're leaving, so it might not matter anyway if you still have to check your bags.

Again, I've never stayed at TI, but I just used the $20 trick a few weeks ago at Excalibur and it worked very nicely. We ended up on the 25th (of 28) floor with a strip view looking across at New York New York and MGM. From EVERYTHING I've read about the trick, if it's not going to work, the clerk usually hands the money back to you if they can't get you an upgrade. So you might as well try.

GL.

You can check bags pretty much at any hotel. I've checked mine at Rio before while playing events. Just go to the bell desk and they'll give you a claim check (don't know about TI but I've done this at lots of hotels on the strip before regardless of staying there or not).

Okay, thanks for the information guys!

In addition to using (and tipping) the bell desk, you should try to check in as soon as you arrive. Maybe 30-40% of the time, they'll check you in right away. You can ask for a late checkout as well, but they'll give you a 1-2 hour extension at most so if your flight isn't until 8:30 pm that won't help.

Bell Desk is free, but give them a tip (as stated above).

On the early check-in, if they do not have any rooms available, you can request them to call you on your cell when there is one available. Some hotels do this and actually follow thru with it. As far as TI goes, I don't know. But it never hurts to ask!

Definitely try to check in when yu get there. More times than not I have just been checked right in as early as 10:00 am. If they do not have a room available they will let you know, it is really no big deal. Actually I have also had it work where they did not have a room ready yet but still checked me in and all I had to do at "check in time" was go to the VIP line and pick up the keys. Check the bags with the bell desk and it is simple as can be.