Spinning off from the hotel conversation in the So Expensive You Refuse to Buy It thread…
I’m in the camp that for vacations, I am very willing to spring for a nice hotel. Thankfully my H travels a ton for work so we typically have Hilton points. Hilton owns Waldorf Astoria and Conrad so we can usually get very nice rooms with points. We also like their boutique brands - Curio and Canopy, especially in Europe.
For just regular travel, we typically do Hampton Inns or Embassy Suites if we need a bit more space (ie if our D is traveling with us).
We find that as Hilton Diamond Members that even if we aren’t using points, we get the best rates booking right through them plus we always get free upgrades, free breakfast if it already isn’t included, and then the members floors with free snacks, cocktail hour, etc…
My D has her loyalty through Marriott so occasionally if we are together and there isn’t a Hilton brand property that we like, she’ll use her loyalty number to book the stay. Marriott own Ritz and St Regis brands. They also have some very cool boutique properties in Europe (we stayed a converted convent in Spain owned by Marriott).
In terms of pricing, we’ve found that the bigger the city, the more competitive the pricing . Small towns are the worst! Guess it’s a supply and demand thing. I get surly if I’m paying something ridiculous somewhere we are passing through or when D was at school and we were trying to visit when something was going on (ie big sporting events, homecoming, graduation, etc…)
I looked at our Holiday Inn Express. I live in a tiny city/town in the middle of nowhere. Holiday Inn Express - you can get it in the $100s on some Mon-Wed, but weekends look like it’s in the $200s-400s! We found that our when I invited my aunt to town last year for my Dad’s bday. The cheapest place I could find (Holiday Inn Express, Hampton, Courtyard, etc.) was in the $200s - well except for the dives that rent by the hour where they sell drugs in the parking lot… I can’t believe how expensive hotels are here. We are a super LCOL town!
Sometimes I wonder what is the trick to getting lower hotel quotes - is online best? Making a phone call? Becoming a member? (I really hate that you have to sign up for all the different memberships - can we not just have one hotel rewards app?!! ).
We rarely do hotels for vacation opting for AIRBNB’s instead. Outside of work conferences where it IS so nice to have that room to pop up to throughout the day and for quiet at night, other times a hotel is literally a place to spend 12-15 hours mostly sleeping. For $200+!
It depends - I normally stay in Augusta Georgia for work - under $130. Forget the Masters, which would be way more - one time everything was $400+. I couldn’t figure out why. When I asked the dealer what was going on - it was a military technology convention.
Visit your kid at college whenever - $130. Football Saturday in Tuscaloosa - $500+.
Airfare into a cruise city the day before - and a hotel that night - super pricey. Day after the cruise ends - sometimes half the price.
Supply and demand - no matter where you are. And they know…..
Maybe a new thread, but IMO priceline is best. But you have to monitor things. I have gold/diamond jubilee super status at a few hotel chains and their app pricing never gets close to what I can usually get on Priceline. Example, I was just in Manhattan and stayed at the Hilton Millennium UN hotel for $150/night, which is crazy low (resort fee and taxes take it over $200 tho.) Generally it’s tough to get Manhattan for less than $300 per night all in, and that particular hotel can be over $1K per night for regular rooms. Manhattan doesn’t allow short term airbnb which keeps hotel prices high , but when I’m traveling alone I would never stay in an airbnb anyway.
When we were younger we traveled cheaply. Think Days Inn. Now that we are older, we look for deals, but want comfort (not necessarily luxury). When we used to go to Boston regularly to visit my daughter, I would put in my dates and compare the 5-6 back bay hotels and pick the cheapest (all around the same luxury level 3-4 stars).
I belong to the Hilton and Marriott clubs. The best prices are typically on their website (not a third party site). I check for senior rates, as well as AAA rates.
Hotel prices are odd. My friend’s son was working for Marriott and she got a very discounted “family” rate. On the same trip, their luxury Boston hotel at Long Wharf, cost her less per night, than the Courtyard hotel in a MA suburb.
I prefer independent hotels if they are nice. I check reviews on TripAdvisor. Spouse travels for work occasionally, and he likes business class hotels (Marriott and Hyatt). I don’t mind staying at a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn.
We normally stay at what I’d call mid range type hotels. It seems like when we are skiing here in the West many of the places we stay are Holiday Inns or Holiday Inn Express. H tries to find places that have free parking and don’t charge resort fees. We also like someplace that includes breakfast especially when we are skiing.
When we go to Europe we look for smaller hotels and have found many nice ones. We had a two room suite in Paris last summer since D2 was with us. The hotel was lovely and the breakfast delicious which we have found to be the case at most European hotels.
We will be visiting family in Bermuda in July and this year we needed to rent a place as there is not enough room for all of us at SIL’s or nephew’s. We wanted an Airbnb since our GD will be on this trip and will be just under 10 months old. We found a great Airbnb on the water within walking distance to our nephew’s for 10 days. D1, SIL and GD will stay in the Airbnb with us and D2 will stay with her cousin and his family.
Same here, @momofboiler1. DH’s 17 years of 100% corporate travel have gifted us with enough hotel and other points/status to make travel (when we infrequently do it) pretty painless. We also have to stay in Hilton properties and are treated extremely well even when not using points. DH always calls Hilton to book through an agent rather than online as he knows what and how to ask for the best deal. And, when we check in, the front desk will almost always find an upgrade for us if available.
I posted our best hotel story on the Are You Loyal to a Hotel Brand thread that DS and DIL just happened to choose a Hilton boutique property for their wedding. When DH realized it (we weren’t paying for the wedding), he called the hotel and was able to get them the Presidential Suite for the entire weekend free, and the hotel comped our room as well. Also, the events manager used DH’s status to apply a discount to the catering bill. The hotel also spontaneously closed their rooftop bar to the wedding party/family/friends the night before when DH approached the manager and offered to open an unlimited tab until closing time. (I don’t think the hotel made out on that deal.)
So, Hilton all the way.
ETA: This is why we’ve never been able to make VRBO or AirBnB work for us; they’re never less than Hilton (and I don’t plan to cook or do laundry when I’m traveling/vacationing).
I would say generally I’m a mid-range but safe and clean hotel kind of person (when not doing VRBO/condo rental), and I try to find good deals.
BUT, lately especially my husband has been willing to pay more for what we really want (which would be “panache” as he calls it) when we are in a nice place.
BUT, we try to find balance. We are going to the Canadian Rockies for 2 weeks in July. We are spending well over $1,000 a night for 4 nights in one lodge. BUT, for an entire week we are paying less than $1,000 for a fine but not great 1 BR timeshare.
I was surprised by this one - we are going to Santa Barbara for a week in September. We could find a decent enough place for much less expensive, but H decide we want to 1 BR suite in an on the beach (well technically across the street, but with the straight on view) place. OK by me…
Had 2 college graduations last May, a week apart. Paid $1000 for one night in Clemson (at a property where we had paid $125 a night for a suite before, for graduation we were in the motel side of the hotel. We were scheduled to stay 2 night in Boston for $500 a night, but unbeknownst to us, they were canceled, so we scrambled for an $800 room in a residence inn last minute (originally staying at the commonwealth), and decided to go home the night of graduation rather than paying another $800. Living in a big urban suburban area, I was shocked at how high hotels in otherwise sleepy town charged during football weekends and graduations, because there just isn’t a lot of options. This May our nieces wedding is in Seattle, across the country, paying for flights for 4 of our kids and hotel, the month of May is now our annual vacation budget.
I’m fine in a mid level hotel like Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express. I have points/status with IHG ( the parent company) so I use that sometimes to stay at an Intercontinental. Unless I am traveling with the family, I prefer a hotel over AirBNB or VRBO.
I’ll be in Chicago for a (family member’s) memorial service the last weekend in May. For some reason the hotel prices that weekend are $$$. A midrange hotel was $700/night! So I booked a little nicer place because it wasn’t much more. S is a travel agent so he does the research and booking for me.
I have Hilton Diamond and Marriott Platinum status.
The quality of the hotel depends on the location and not the brand. The main properties - Hilton and Marriott are often old and run down unless it’s a resort type location. They are especially run down if theyre next to an airport. Theyre the ones with popcorn ceilings and old sticky furniture.
In general, if you need space, Homewood Suites are a great option. They tend to be newer and may offer a real suite instead of fake suites like Home2Suites or Springhill Suites or even Residence Inn.
The best free breakfast is Embassy Suites. But many Embassy Suites are in that run down category. It’s like a giant enclosed motel environment usually with fake plastic plants in the main central square but it depends on the location.
The most run down properties in the Marriott line are Sheratons. I avoid those and DoubleTrees (Hilton).
I always look on Trip Advisor before booking a hotel because if it has less than a 4 * review, it’s usually not going to be great.
If Ive reached my status at both Hilton and Marriott, I usually stay at Hyatt. Hyatt gives the fewest points but also requires the fewest point redemptions. They did not use dynamic pricing but that may have changed. I found Hyatts to be the best because they tend to be less crowded and many are newer. I converted all my Chase Sapphire Reserve points to Hyatt before I cancelled my card.
It depends on the trip and how I plan to use the hotel. If I am going on a beach holiday (i.e. Caribbean to escape winter) where that will be the focus of the trip, I will pay a lot to be on a beautiful, uncrowded beach with lovely grounds. Put differently, if I am going to be at that location for most of my trip and that’s the purpose of the trip, paying is fine. I’m using the location and amenities and their quality impacts my trip.
If I just need a room, like a night at an airport the night before a departure, I don’t need amenities, just a clean room and comfy bed. Hampton Inn for the win!
Cities are trickier. The location matters, but there is usually choice among tiers in most neighborhoods. It’s rare that in a city I’d be spending a lot of time in my room or hotel, so I wouldn’t be thrilled to pay for services I’m not using. With that said, there have been a couple of times that a concierge at a high-end city hotel has been worth the cost of the room. (Like when my wallet was stolen, and said concierge not only arranged the visit to the police, but negotiated with the car rental agency in the next city to rent the car without seeing my license and then arranged for the front desk to give me cash from the card on file.) Or one who can get reservations. If there’s a pattern, I’m more likely to pay more when I first arrive in a country as I might want the extra comfort and assistance as I adjust.
I’ll pay more for a bigger room/suite when we’re on the road for a while and staying somewhere a bit longer and may want to unwind somewhere other than a bed. This is especially true in places where the typical room is very small (Europe, Japan, etc.)
But often, there’s little difference in the experience I have in a more or less nice hotel in a city so long as it is safe and clean.
I had the same experience at both my daughters’ colleges with football/basketball weekends and graduation (a real “Hunger Games” scenario).
I am an unapologetic hotel snob. I would rather stay home than book a sub-par property under the guise that I will only be sleeping there (that’s the biggest part of needing the hotel in the first place!) I am perfectly fine at Hamptons, Holiday Inn’s, Courtyard’s, etc., as long as they are squeaky clean, updated and the reviews are stellar. I literally spend hours vetting and cross-checking reviews on hotels to make sure I am choosing wisely.
I’m generally not a VRBO/Airbnb fan unless it’s for at least a week at a location where rentals are commonplace (the beach, for example). I am simply at a point in my life where I don’t want to have to grocery shop, take out garbage, load a dishwasher and do laundry on my vacation. The exception is our annual college girls’ trip where rental homes are our only option for 13 people who want to be together. Those rental experiences have ranged from great to borderline escape to a hotel, but I do my best to focus on the company instead of the lodging.
I’ve never rented Airbnb or VRBO, but for our annual trips with the kids/grands, we rent a beachfront condo from a local property management company. Not cheap, but we have some sort of repeat guests status with them, so whenever I call, they offer a discount off the online rates.
With hotels, we divide and conquer: husband is a Hilton guy, and I am a Marriott gal. I milk Marriott’s credit card points and occasional fancy stays, but Mr. B suffers to earn his! Over his career, Mr. B has racked up a giant amount of points by staying at dumpy Hilton hotels while traveling on business. Hotels located in business parks are the worst IMO no matter the brand because business travelers are often locked in to whatever property their employer has contracted with. Why would a hotel spend $$ on updates when the travelers will come anyway? The worst are paper thin walls… and alarm clocks that require a PhD in engineering to turn off!
I tend to rely on booking.com. It has great variety and is easy to use. I also use it for vacation rentals.
When I am on a real vacation, I avoid chains, unless using Hilton points (don’t do much of that now because hubby has fewer work trips.) I’ve stayed at 6 wildly different hotels in March and April: A Georgian townhouse in London; a converted Art Deco Town Hall in London; a former prison in Helsinki; a new all-wood architectural marvel in Helsinki; a traditional wooden house in Turku, Finland; and an old-timey main street Gold Rush-era hotel in CA. I like to move around and see different places
2 were booked on the hotel websites because they were only available that way. The other 4 were on booking.com. The prices were all better using booking than on the hotel websites.
If I’m on a longer vacation, say with family, and we want to cook, I will use VRBO. I’ve completely gone off Airbnb.
In that situation with Priceline did you know the hotel you were booking at the time or was it the case that you were given a few options and they chose for you?
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I milk Marriott’s credit card points and occasional fancy stays, but Mr. B suffers to earn his! 