This is the week for locals to grab great deals

Friday, Dec. 22, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

What a week.

Snow - "white fluffy stuff," as KLAS Channel 8 helpfully describes it - fell from the sky. Miss Nevada USA was sacked for getting loaded and lewd, which was totally outrageous behavior for someone representing this state and beauty queens, especially since she did it in Florida.

And rack rate rooms at the Bellagio were only $169.

Of course, that last one is cheating. Shocking, but cheating. Rooms are always cheap the week before Christmas, and with good reason: There were, at most, 75 conventioneers in town.

Hotel rooms are perishable goods. More like milk than tires, according to MGM Mirage spokesman Gordon Absher. You can't, given our present understanding of physics, rent Tuesday night after Tuesday night has passed. This also applies to, say, New Year's Eve, which if you could have gotten it at this week's prices, would have been $799 (it's sold out now), unlike $259 you could pay if you thought New Year's Day was as much fun.*

(*Of course if you wanted a more expensive room, they could oblige.)**

(**Of course, you can sometimes find cheaper rates online, but hush.)

Travel into town is also down this week, so it's the time of year when Las Vegans sample the Strip's offerings.

"Bargains are definitely out there this week," Absher said. "And often locals scoop them up."

Of course, the only big-name entertainer visiting town is Tom Jones. His closest competition: a South Korean pop sensation named Rain. Just "Rain."

Things are so quiet here the week before Christmas, the slowest week of the year, that only three in four hotel rooms may be occupied, if past data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is any guide. On Christmas weekend, though, it'll be more like four in five rooms occupied, ho ho ho. And then by New Year's Eve, five out of five.

But this weekend is the slowest, with hotel occupancy 15 percent lower than average.

"Traditionally, this week is the slowest time of the year," Absher said. "But the slowdown is just as traditionally followed by one of the busiest times of the year, leading up to the busiest time of the year."

So the week before Christmas, it's time for employees to take vacations and for the resorts and convention halls to enjoy a bit of touch-up work.

If you stroll around the hotels, you'll sometimes notice the odd bit of maintenance work being done, or as Absher calls it, "things that sometimes would be more intrusive for guests during a busier time of the year."

And with no conventions in town that would require anything larger than a conference room, it's when the big exhibition halls get cleaned up. Or, in the case of the Las Vegas Convention Center, set up. The Consumer Electronics Show may not open until Jan. 8, but with an anticipated 150,000 attendees and exhibitors expected, now is the time to start setting up. And, of course, do maintenance work.

For instance, two of the popular ultralounges, Studio 54 and Tabu (both at the MGM Grand), are closed through Christmas for cleaning and maintenance. A brand new club, Revolution (at the Mirage), will open tonight , so that it can work out any kinks on a weekend that most people are spending with their loved ones or volunteering at a soup kitchen or something.

"The one thing we've never been able to compete with is Santa Claus, the family and the kids' holiday programs," Absher said.

"Not that we're trying to. We enjoy the break, too."