- Who this is for. Anyone booking a Las Vegas hotel for a trade show or a meeting, and the assistants who book for them.
- What Vegas VIP Me does. Matches the hotel to the venue, the schedule and the budget, and plans the week around it; you book and pay the property directly.
- What it costs. A weekend plan is $2,500 up front plus 20% of trip costs; a week is $7,500 plus 20%. Reading this page costs nothing. Full terms →
Las Vegas has four convention campuses and they are miles apart. A hotel that is perfect for one show is a forty-minute rideshare for another, and the brand on the door tells you nothing about which. This is the map I work from: for each venue, the properties you can walk from, the ones connected by monorail or the Loop, and what you give up when you save money by staying further out.
Las Vegas Convention Center
Shows: CES, SEMA, NAB, World of Concrete, MAGIC, ICSC, RE+, MJBizCon, DEF CON, NADA in 2028.
On foot. Fontainebleau faces the West Hall entrance across the street and is the shortest walk on the Strip to a convention door. The Westgate is attached to the campus on the Paradise Road side. Resorts World sits at the north end with a Loop station underneath it. Wynn and Encore are two to three blocks south; a pleasant walk in January, a rideshare in August. Remember that the campus itself is three separate buildings, and West Hall to South Hall is the better part of a mile; pick the hotel nearest the hall your badge puts you in.
By rail. The monorail station on Paradise Road serves the Central and South Halls and makes the Caesars, Flamingo, LINQ and MGM Grand end of the Strip workable. The Vegas Loop connects the West, Central and South Halls to each other and to Resorts World, the Westgate and Encore on show days.
The trade-off. Staying mid-Strip saves money on the room and costs you the rideshare queue at the open and the close. If your day runs from a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting to a 10 p.m. dinner, the queue is the expensive option.
Venetian Expo
Shows: G2E, SHOT Show, ISC West, JCK, Money20/20 through 2026, AAPEX, half of CES.
On foot. The Venetian and Palazzo are the same building as the Expo; you never go outside. Wynn and Encore are a ten-minute walk north on the Strip. Treasure Island is across the pedestrian bridge. Anything south of Fashion Show is a longer walk than it looks on the map.
The trade-off. Venetian and Palazzo rates during G2E and SHOT are the price of not commuting. For a group with early floor time, the premium pays for itself in the first morning.
Caesars Forum
Shows: SHOT Show and AAPEX share it with the Venetian Expo; AWS re:Invent uses it as a hub.
On foot. The Forum sits behind the LINQ and Harrah’s, and both connect to it directly. Flamingo is next door. Caesars Palace is across the Strip by pedestrian bridge. A footbridge from the Venetian side makes the Venetian and Palazzo practical for the split shows.
The trade-off. The LINQ and Harrah’s are the value rooms on this campus and the walk is genuinely short; the room category matters more than the brand here, and it is the thing to be specific about when you book.
Mandalay Bay Convention Center
Shows: IMEX America, Black Hat, and a long list of corporate meetings.
On foot. Mandalay Bay, Delano and the Four Seasons are on the campus. Luxor is connected by tram and walkway; Excalibur by the same tram one stop further. Everything else is a car.
The trade-off. The south-Strip rideshare queues during Black Hat and IMEX are the worst in the city. This is the campus where staying on site is not a luxury; it is the difference between making the 8 a.m. session and not.
Booking Rules That Hold for Every Venue
- Book the venue’s hotel block first, then compare. Organizer blocks are often the only refundable rate near the hall during a big show, and they release unsold rooms weeks before the dates.
- Ask for the tower and the floor, not just the category. Convention-week inventory is thin and the room you are given is not always the room you booked. The right request wording is part of what I hand you.
- Hold something refundable early. For CES and SEMA, a refundable room booked in September beats a perfect room that no longer exists in December.
- Plan the cross-town day. If your week has a session at the Venetian Expo and a meeting at Mandalay Bay, that is not a walk and it is not a quick rideshare either. Put the Loop, the monorail and honest timing in the plan.
- Dinner is the hard reservation. Every restaurant within a mile of the venue is booked by exhibitors weeks out. It goes in the plan when the room does.
Dates and venues for every major show through early 2028 are on the convention calendar. If the show is CES, the CES 2027 planning page covers that week specifically. And if you are in town for several shows a year and have started wondering whether a Strip condo beats the hotel bills, the arithmetic is here.
Common Questions
Do you book the hotel for me?
Within a paid engagement I plan the week, recommend the property and room category for your meetings, and coordinate the confirmations with you. You book and pay each provider directly and keep every reservation in your name.
Which venue does my show use?
The convention calendar lists the venue for every major show. Several shows split across two campuses; CES, SHOT and AAPEX among them. When that is the case, the hotel decision depends on which hall your meetings are in, and that is the first thing I ask.
Can you find a room when the blocks are sold out?
Often there is a property within the walkable radius that the block did not include, and there is nearly always a workable answer one Loop or monorail stop away. I will tell you honestly when the answer is a commute.
Tell Me About Your Convention Week
Which show, how many people, and what the week needs to include. I’ll come back with a plan and a plain fee quote if you want hands-on help.
I read and reply to every message myself, within one business day. Prefer plain email? show email address (new inquiries get a faster reply through the form).