The latest trend to spread across the Strip isn't a sexy a nightclub or a swanky lounge but it may be just as important to Las Vegas' image as an upscale resort vacation destination. Plus, it will only it cost around 15 bucks a day. This is less than most Vegas hotel resort facility fees.

In the past few months, several hotels have started introducing high-speed wireless Internet access, a relatively new technology that has in many ways soared way beyond its wired counterparts in speed and quality. Especially since most business professionals now carry laptops, not to mention anybody with a little extra money to burn on one.

The Tropicana Hotel installed wireless service in its property last month including the pool area, convention, and meeting rooms. This is in part to attract business groups and individuals who might have gone elsewhere for easier Internet access.

The Stardust also went wireless last month. The property's wireless service extends to 90 percent of the rooms as well as the pools, common areas and meeting and convention areas.

The first meeting to take advantage of the technology last month was Lifestyles, an annual swingers convention that has been hosted at a variety of Nevada hotels over the years. The group has signed on with the Stardust for 2005 and 2006 in part because of its wireless access.  At least 20 percent of the approximate 6,000 people who went used wireless devices during their stay, while vendors and management used the service to display products and conduct business, he said.

A few older hotels on the Strip are using the advent of wireless technology as an opportunity to jump way ahead of the newer competitors that might not even have high-speed Internet access in rooms or other areas.

Wireless systems are  much easier and cheaper to set up and start than wired Internet access because they involve setting up mini communications towers throughout the property. On the other hand, retrofitting hotels with wired high-speed access is cost-prohibitive and would involve punching through walls and running miles of cable through rooms, experts say.

The Tropicana paid a few hundred thousand dollars to install its wireless service, Gradillas said. That's less than the millions of dollars likely involved in wiring a major resort, experts say.

Tom Gonzales, chief executive of Business Center Solutions, said his company installed the Stardust's wireless system "for virtually nothing and it took our crew under six weeks to get the building done." The four-year-old company also operates the pre-existing business center for the Stardust, where guests can pick up copies of documents they print from their laptops.

Hotel Wireless Inc., a company that started two years ago, from Calabasas, California, that installed wireless as well as wired high-speed Internet access at the Imperial Palace, also recently installed similar systems for three aging Reno hotel-casinos, John Ascuaga's Nugget, Circus Circus and the Eldorado.

The Imperial Palace's wireless service, which went live in July, is basically property wide. This includes rooms, convention space, the pool area, restaurants and public areas.

These older properties aren't really thought of as innovators of technology. Before, guests could only plug computer devices into telephone jacks in their rooms to get dial-up Internet access. At great expense, conventions and smaller business groups could obtain high-speed Internet through telephone lines by ordering ahead of time. In some cases, guests could plug in their electronic devices at hotel business centers or could access a few Internet terminals there.

While some newer hotels appear to be slower to adopt wireless technology, installers say properties now under construction also are going wireless.

The Renaissance Las Vegas hotel, a Marriott brand, is scheduled to open early next year with high-speed wired access as well as wireless service.

Wired service can be installed at minimal cost because workers already are pulling through telephone lines during construction, said Mike Henderson, vice president of marketing for Atlanta-based StayOnline, a company that started around five years ago, and is one of the nation's largest wireless service companies for hotels. Wired Internet access isn't just for surfing the Web, Henderson said.

Wireless access, which also is cost effective to install at about $110 to $160 per room is said to be just as important because people are going to go where it's available sooner or later.

The Venetian, similar to some other newer resorts, offers wired high-speed Internet access for a fee and can work with business groups to obtain any form of short-term Internet service.

The property sparked a convention renaissance in Las Vegas by selling most of its midweek rooms to convention-goers at higher-than-typical prices. It also opened its hotel with high-speed Internet access and was one of the first in town to offer a combination fax machine, printer and copier in each room.

The tech-savvy property still doesn't have wireless in its rooms. The Venetian has begun experimenting with certain areas where people can use wireless devices, around convention and meeting areas. However, the property hasn't made a commitment yet.

Mandalay Bay was retrofitted for wired Internet access around the first of the year but the property's second hotel tower, which is marketed as a business hotel, opened with wired, high-speed access. The new tower also features a fax, printer and copier in each room.

The property's convention area is offering wireless service on an as-needed basis along with any available combination of Internet services, Mandalay Bay spokesman Gordon Absher said.

However, demand is such that the convention area may become permanently outfitted for wireless within a year, he said.

As with any new technology, wireless companies are answering lots of questions about the security of their systems. Hackers have been known to drive around town seeking and stealing wireless service, acts that could lead to bigger security breaches down the road. While these concerns don't appear to be keeping anyone from adopting wireless, they are part of an extensive orientation process for hotels that may have other pressing needs, experts say.

Wireless systems may only be as safe as buying something over the Internet, they say. In both cases it's a secure transaction that requires a password and transmits encrypted information that can be difficult or relatively easy to tap depending on how the hotel sets up its system. Hotels also say the Web pages that people see when they sign up and access wireless services are completely separate from the internal hotel operations Web sites where confidential or financial information is stored.