Shopping for Motels — Deep Dive

I’m all for alternative lodging — everything from hostels to camping to staying with friends — but there are times when a motel is the best or only option, so this post I’m going to stick specifically to how I try to find good motel rooms without shelling out a bunch of money, and I’ll cover other forms of lodging another time.  Depending on location, a motel doesn’t have to be terribly expensive.  The places viewed as prime locations, of course, are usually more expensive, so you’re not going to find super budget prices near airports or in downtown areas.  Small towns often have cheaper lodging, and if you’re in the city you could look for something a little more off the beaten trek.

There are several things we all unconsciously take into consideration when we look for a place to stay, besides price.  Location:  is it where we need to be?  Is it too difficult to find, or too far out of the way to make even a cheaper rate worthwhile?  Quality:  is it clean?  Safe?  Legit?  Amenities (I can’t say that word, can you?): do you need breakfast?  An airport shuttle?  A pool to keep the kids from bouncing off the walls so you don’t have to live in fear of your next-room neighbor banging for you to keep the uproar down?

Location is the most basic starting point.  If you don’t know where you will be on a given night, exactly, then the most worthwhile motel will be one that is easy to find when you’re ready to crash.  But if you are planning ahead, either a stay in a certain area or a stop along your route, you can do some comparison shopping.  For a stop on a road trip, chances are a couple of different towns might work, so you have more options that way.  If you don’t have your own transportation or you need to be close to a certain location, your choices will be narrowed down into a smaller area.

I usually start by looking for any hotel chains that I have a rewards membership with or ones I’ve had good results with in the past, sometimes followed up by a search on a site like Expedia to get an idea what kind of prices are out there.  Some locations, let me warn you, simply aren’t cheap.  That was what I found out with downtown Boston, where it seemed impossible to get a room for less than $150 per night, and many were close to $200.  (See my trip to Boston, starting here, to find out how I dealt with it).  Remember that when you see a room price, you can add about another $10 (nice round number) for taxes — often, taxes aren’t included in the quote you see, although sometimes they are.  Events in the area can drive prices up, so that’s why I like to check in more than one town if at all possible.

Now, I often lean toward chain motels.  It seems easier to find and compare prices, and you usually have a pretty good idea what you’re going to get.  But if I have time, I never turn my nose up at looking for independent motels, either.  There can be good ones and bad ones, just like chains.  I’m not wiling to sacrifice cleanliness and safety for price, so I’m cautious about those small independent motels you find in every town, just because what you can find out about them before showing up on the doorstep is often limited.  Some have websites, some just show up on a search engine where you can maybe find a phone number, and that’s it.  And that’s my only caution about the little places.  I’ve stayed in some that were fine, and some even have a character all their own, but some just look run down, if you can find photos online, and not like a place I would like to stay.  There was one in particular . . . I don’t even remember the name of the town, but it was a little town, around a bunch of other little towns.  We were tired and behind schedule, and there didn’t look like there was any other lodging coming up for a while.  The carpeting in that motel was not something you wanted to step on with your bare feet, there were some odd pipes and things sticking out of the bathroom wall, and the mattresses felt like puffy marshmallows.  But, all’s well that ends well, right?  We slept and left the next day, and nobody got any cooties or anything.

After finding some options, I often like to call the motels, unless I’m convinced I can get the best possible rate online.  Sometimes you can get discounts if you’re a member of certain organizations, or your company may have a corporate rate with some motel chains, or at least you can ask if they have any discounts that might fit you.  Be honest and courteous and don’t ask for a discount you’re not entitled to!  But we got a funeral discount once, and a returning customer discount another time.  Last summer I frequented a Super 8 when I was in town on business several times, and a couple times they gave me a free upgrade to the king-size jacuzzi suite — ahhhh!  My family has even been known to take sleeping bags along — you can usually get a couple sleeping bags on the floor of a motel room with beds for four.  Some motels ask how many people are in the room, and won’t allow more than the stated number, but some don’t ask.

Rates don’t usually seem to go up as the date of your stay gets closer, but you could certainly experience all the cheap rooms getting filled up, leaving you with only more expensive options — or sometimes, none at all.  That’s why I like to book in advance.

Your turn!  Any tips or advice you can add for us?

A Series of Deep Dives

No, I’m not going to be writing about literal diving.  I’m afraid of water.  But I’m sitting here, smack in the middle of winter.  Like this:

Not too much going on.  So it seems like a good time to take a closer look at various aspects of travel planning:  ways to save money, have a better experience, and avoid common hassles and problems.  I love lanning things almost as much as doing them.  I’m actually a little fanatical about it, but for me, it spreads out the fun of a vacation over weeks, or even months.  So I’m not often the person you’ll find driving around looking for hotel signs or picking up bargain airfares at the last minute.  My vacations are carefully calculated affairs, achieving a delicate balance between cost, experiences, comfort, and action.  If you like the adventure of not knowing where you’re going to wind up next, the thrill of the hunt, or the relaxation of not having to stick to a schedule — keep reading.  You might pick up some tips, as well.  But it’s not my preferred method of doing battle.

I like to go over all my options.  And over.  And over.  Narrowing it down, bit by bit, weeding out less attractive options, until I have a plan that seems as good as I can possibly make it.  And then, sometimes, I go back and change things again.  If the airlines make a change to my flight ahead of time, I might get irritated for a minute, but right away my fingers are itching to tinker with it and see how I can make my plans fit better.  Not everybody’s cup of tea, but it does mean that I’ve found out a lot of ways for shopping.

As you can probably imagine, the internet is a huge tool for this kind of thing.  Not only can you access websites put together by the airline, hotel, or car rental company you’re interested in, you can read reviews of others who have used that company.  I like TripAdvisor especially, but search services such as Google and Yelp often have reviews as well.  Negative reviews don’t necessarily discourage me from using a product or service, because I know that more people are motivated to comment about a bad experience than a good one.  But sometimes, it’s just nice to know some of the worst possibilities; and it’s always best to make an informed decision.  If I go with something that has bad reviews, just because it’s cheap or convenient, then I have only myself to blame if something goes wrong.  I haven’t been fooled; I’ve just taken a gamble in hopes that it pays off.

There are other websites that make comparison shopping easier.  Priceline, Expedia, Travelocity.  There are others, but I haven’t used them.  Sites like these often show search results from a number of airlines/hotels/rental car companies at once.  I usually go there to get an overview of what’s available and for how much.  The going rate for lodging in downtown Boston is very different than small-town Illinois.  When I have a feel for the general parameters, I go to individual websites to narrow down the search, and usually finish up by reading reviews before making a final decision.

What I plan to do (Deo volente) for upcoming posts in this series is to walk through the steps that I use to find the deals I’m looking for.  If there’s a specific topic you want covered, let me know in the comments!  Do you have any ideas yourself, any tried-and-true shopping methods for travel?  Share with the rest of us!