Each and every day, the lovely Mrs. Sneed and I receive one and some days multiple emails from the casino folks in Las Vegas offering us ultra-cheap or even free hotel rooms, if we will just show up. That's all the qualifications needed, alive and show up. In case you haven't heard, Las Vegas is in the midst of a recession of Biblical proportion. Gaming revenues are down for about the 16th or 17th consecutive month. Total airline passengers arriving in Las Vegas is down 12% for the year over 2008. And 2008 was no blockbuster, so they are down from a bad year. One of the key measurements for the Las Vegas big shots is the percent of hotel rooms that are occupied on a given day. If occupancy falls below 90% the hotel operators get the shakes...bad. These days occupancy is 82% or so and not getting better. Considering the bazillion new hotel rooms under construction, things don't look to get better soon. As nearly as I can figure, a drop from 90% occupancy to 82% translates to something like 12,000 more empty hotel rooms. You think this would be alarming since the major players in the Las Vegas hotel industry are hocked up to their collective arses. So, when Mrs. Sneed said to me yesterday that we ought to go to Las Vegas over Labor Day weekend, I figured taking advantage of one of the dozens of cheap or free offers residing in my deleted email file, would be a snap. I called the MGM Grand and was told that the Labor Day weekend was "blacked out" for any cheapo deals. The same at the Mirage and NY NY. The person at New York, New York told me that their Saturday night rate is $199. The chances of yours truly paying $199 for a hotel in Las Vegas is zero. Especially New York, New York, which is pretty much a magnet for for drunken 20-somethings. The nice person at the Mirage, told me that the Labor Day weekend was blocked out for obvious reasons. "Which are?", I wondered. "Because of the three-day weekend, of course." She did tell me that their Saturday night rate is $259. I wished her good luck, but because she is just an employee and not setting the rates, she didn't seem to be worried. The Monte Carlo, not one of our favorites, did meet us half way. We have to pay $129 for Saturday, but Sunday is free and we get some free stuff. Well, as free as stuff gets in Las Vegas. I don't understand why people who are desperate to fill hotels are intent on sticking it to the schmucks who show up on a three-day weekend. But I'm just a humble hardware guy. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky