Hard Rock Hotel

Las Vegas is one of the best places in the world to ring in a New Year (they don’t call the celebration on the Strip “America’s Party” for nothing). Not only are the crowds huge as midnight approaches on Dec. 31, but the spirit is unusually festive as most revelers are on vacation and away from the responsibilities (and inhibitions) of home. The New Year’s Eve festivities at Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas have traditionally been a locals’ favorite.

Free stuff I like: no-fee checked bags on planes, hot hotel breakfasts, Wi-Fi anywhere. Free stuff I don’t like: a re-gifted Chia Pet (unless it’s SpongeBob). It took half a nanosecond to decide I also like the Hard Rock Hotel San Diego 's holiday gift tucked in a package deal for December: a free hybrid car for a day with your stay. The deal: I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas offers rooms starting at $149 plus tax for a studio that sleeps two. Guests pick up the free wheels, part of Enterprise Rent-A-Car's fleet, at the concierge desk.

Through April 30 The King's Ransom Where: Imperial Palace Highlights: Observe the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth (Jan. 8) by visiting this collection of movie costumes, personal artifacts from Graceland and more. Info: (866) 523-5660, www.imperialpalace.com Jan. 15-17 International Sporting Arms Show Where: Riviera Hotel Highlights: Dozens of vendors will display their wares. The Las Vegas Antique Arms Winter Show runs concurrently.

As hotels and restaurants continue to bleed jobs, thousands of people are applying for newly opened positions, overwhelming hiring staff and pointing up how hard the recession has hit service-sector workers. Nearly 11,000 people have applied for 400 jobs at the swanky W Hollywood Hotel & Residences slated to open in Hollywood early next year. About 3,500 have applied for 550 openings at the new Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles near Staples Center. And it's not just happening in Southern California: Thousands have sought work at the new CityCenter project in Las Vegas, the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans and other properties across the country.

Hoping to keep its 119 rooms filled, Hotel Erwin on Venice Beach is offering an unusual promotion for its countercultural clientele: an Ink and Stay package that includes $100 toward a tattoo and a bottle of tequila to numb the pain. Down the coast at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, guests who get the Hard Rock and a Hog deal can roll through the All-American City on a Harley Davidson motorcycle that comes complimentary with a two-night stay. But for hotel perks, it's hard to beat the deal offered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, where your stay comes with a free rental of a Mercedes, Porsche or BMW convertible.

From the start of his Thursday set at the refurbished Joint in Las Vegas' Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Carlos Santana made clear what historical moment he hoped to invoke, if not revive. As the 11-piece group got the polyrhythms of Santana's early hit "Soul Sacrifice" simmering, images flashed across the large screen behind the musicians of an earlier, more famous rendition of the song. It was from Woodstock, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

FOR A certain L.A. party crowd, Labor Day weekend can mean only one thing: Everyone into the pool. In what's become a rite of summer -- and, for that matter in L.A., any given day in the fall and spring too -- partyers in their 20s and 30s are flocking to pool bashes. Not the typical throw-down at your friend's cousin's place in the Hollywood Hills, mind you, but at upscale hotels, with DJs providing a soundtrack that goes on well into the night. On the Las Vegas scene, similar pool parties have become massive moneymakers for the promoters and hotel-casinos that host bacchanalia lasting up to 12 hours.

Upscale hotel operator Morgans Hotel Group Co. has agreed to buy the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas for $770 million in cash from the property's founder and chairman. The sale of the 647-room hotel and 30,000-square-foot casino on 41 acres near the Las Vegas Strip will net Peter Morton more than $731 million, he said Thursday. "It was just time to take the chips off the table," Morton said. "I'm looking to do some different things in my life. That was it."