Vegas Q&A: Will Ads Really Give Me Free Hotel, Show?

Rick Garman, Vegas4Visitors.com

UPDATED: 3:27 pm EST February 20, 2006

Question: I keep hearing radio commercials for resorts in Las Vegas that are offering free nights and show tickets, but they are for places I've never heard of. Are these scams?

Mark in Tucson, Ariz.

Answer: Scams may be too tough of a word, but they are certainly not all they are cracked up to be. What you're getting yourself into is usually a high-pressured sales pitch to buy a time share.

The come-ons usually sound something like this: "How would like to stay in a fabulous Las Vegas hotel and see a glamorous show for free? You can! And it's all brought to you by Las Vegas' newest, most luxurious resort [insert name here]!"

I called one of them to get details and got the run-around practically from the moment someone answered the phone. The particular commercial I heard promised three days and two nights in a hotel-casino on the Strip and two tickets to a show. When I asked what hotel, they refused to tell me. When I tried to verify that it was in fact a hotel-casino on the Strip, they tried to tell me that I hadn't heard the commercial correctly.

The actual accommodations were not on the Strip and were not at a hotel-casino, so goodness only knows what or where it may have been.

As far as the show, all I was told is it would be something like Clint Holmes or Legends in Concert, but they would not be specific on that, either.

So what do you have to do to get this vague offer? Agree to sit through a "presentation" about the time-share. A friend of a friend very recently sat through one of these things for a complex on the Strip that shall go nameless (although let's just say that I'd never stay there because I don't want to do anything that might assist Paris Hilton in any way, shape or form) and had a terrible experience. According to my source, the service was awful and the pressure to buy a unit was intense, bullying and intimidating.

It's not worth it, in my opinion. But if you are ever tempted, be sure to ask a lot of questions before you agree to the offer. If the promoters won't specify the hotel or show, forget it. If they do specify and it's a place you've never heard of, forget it.

If it is something you've heard of and wouldn't mind staying there for free, just remember that nothing in life is actually free.

In most instances the old maxim is firmly in place here: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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