Las Vegas Hotel

What does $40,000 buy? If you're an average American, it's nearly your annual household income. If you're a well-heeled traveler, it's one night at the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa, a two-story, 10,000-square-foot hideaway with a $700,000 cantilevered Jacuzzi that juts over the Las Vegas Strip, a rotating bed beneath a mirrored ceiling and around-the-clock butler service.

The Playboy-themed digs, which opened last fall at the Palms Casino Resort (www.palmsfantasy.com), is the most expensive of 101 hotel suites featured in a just-released annual survey by Elite Traveler (www.elite-travelerdigital.com), whose readers make more than $5 million a year. Southland hotels on the list include the Hotel Bel-Air, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons hotel. In last year's survey, top-priced rooms cost a mere $25,000 per night.