Hotels: How to Get the Best Bang for Your Buck | brokeGIRLrich
One of the benefits of touring is that I am a pro at picking out hotels now. We stay in solidly lower middle of the line hotels – your two to three star types – which are also the types I’m most likely to frequent when traveling myself.
This means that I’ve now spent 5 months living in a wide variety of chains and learning which ones are awesome and which ones are… not. More than a few reminded me a little too much of The Shining. So pay attention if you’ve got summer travel plans coming up.
Number Four: Sleep Inn & Suites
This is just an all around solid choice. Every one I was in was clean and the beds were comfortable. There are no real frills or extras here, but if you’re just looking for a clean place to sleep each night, this can be a great choice. Everyone I’ve been in also had a free continental breakfast. It was nothing to write home about, but there’s nothing wrong with saving money by eating a simple breakfast each morning either.
Number Three: Hampton Inn
This is another great choice that always seemed to have clean rooms and good beds. It also doesn’t have an exccesive amount of amenties although it does have adorable coffee cup cozies with cute pictures on them. They also provide a free continental breakfast and each one we stayed at also had a waffle maker.
Number Two: La Quinta
This was the winner hotel for me. Every time I’d see it pop up on the calendar, I felt very reassured about how our time there was going to go. They consistently had the cleanest rooms, best facilities, and comfortable beds. They also always had a good, free continental breakfast.
The only reason they don’t make it into the number one position is that several of the hotels have sliding bathroom doors that don’t lock. I just prefer a solid bathroom door that closes shut like normal. For individual travelers, this probably doesn’t matter at all.
Number One: AmericInn Hotel & Suites
I’d never even heard of this chain before touring. I do have to say it lost a few points with me because our room smelled really weird once. My roommate and I thought it was the whole hotel so we didn’t complain, only to find out it was some anomaly in just our room and we probably could’ve been moved. That being said, they were very clean and comfortable.
The real selling point in the AmeriInn’s we stayed in though was the daily happy hour – free wine and beer every day and their incredible free continental breakfast spread. It put every other hotel to shame.
If you’re planning an extended stay somewhere, these hotels are a great bet, and if you use their kitchen areas to cook and save money, they’re an incredible deal as well.
Candlewood Suites
Not only do these extended stay hotels have microwaves, full size refrigerators and stove tops, they also have laundry facilities that are, oftentimes, free. If you can settle into one of these at a destination, you can save a lot of money by only packing a carry on and purchasing groceries. The room also comes with basic cooking utensils, pots and pans and dishes.
The two big losers on the tour were:
Number Two: Even Hotel
This strange little hotel in Connecticut had translucent/see through bathrooms doors in that Pinterest-popular barn door style that slide shut and didn’t close all the way. Thank goodness we stayed in one four months into the tour when we were all plenty comfortable with our roommates. Of course, there’s comfortable and then there’s… pretty much peeing in your bedroom while your roommate watches TV. The place was otherwise nice, but those bathroom doors were a deal breaker for me.
Number One: Best Western
The hotel I will officially never book myself into again is Best Western. With the exception of the one in West Palm Beach, these have all been dirty, bug ridden and all around disgusting. No thanks, Best Western, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
Finally, if you ever hit up Omaha, Nebraska Hotel Deco is really cool. I doubt it’s budget friendly by any means, but it was a venue covered hotel, meaning the venue paid for it, and it was incredible. Their bar was nice and their showers were actually incredible. They also had the coolest shampoos, conditioners and soaps of any hotel we stayed in.
Funny….I get excited when I can grab a great hotel chain on Hotwire for next to nothing, which means I like the Hilton for $68 or Doubletree for $72. Good stuff. Some people don’t like Hotwire. I haven’t had many problems, and when I did I thought of it as payment for all the huge deals I’d gotten (downtown Indianapolis Crowne Plaza for $65. Amazing deals.)
If I’m forced to NOT use Hotwire, I nearly always book LaQuinta (which….little known fact, is Spanish for “next to the Denny’s”). With only a few exceptions, I’ve found them to be awesome. The one by O’Hare airport in Chicago? Not so much.
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I did a lot of Priceline when I was traveling with the circus, which was really hit or miss and always made me nervous – apparently I should’ve been using Hotwire!
I usually stay in Residence Inn when I travel for work. They have full kitchens in every room, free breakfast and a social hour. The social hour is usually held Mon-Wed and provides a light dinner with beer & wine. Perfect for a girl on a budget!
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I enjoy staying at LaQuinta when I travel to Atlanta for business because the cost is low and they have a shuttle. The only thing I wish they would change are their shuttle hours. Sometimes I have business on a Saturday and have to catch a cab because the shuttle doesn’t run on the weekend.
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I’m truly surprised by your comments about Best Western. This is our # 1 go-to chain. We’ve stayed at many locations in Canada and the US, as well as several in Europe a few years ago, and are VERY rarely disappointed. Always clean, very comfortable, fridges and microwaves in rooms, free wi-fi, most often a full breakfast included. We usually go for the “Best Western Plus” category, so perhaps our budget level makes the difference (often not much over $100/nt, though sometimes up to $130 or so). Of course, even at the basic level hotels, the conditions you found are absolutely unacceptable. I hope we never come across any of these! (Have you ever written to BW about the really bad ones? Just curious how they may have responded.) Happy travels!
I never actually did write to Best Western – I would just sign, shake my head and try not to leave my luggage on the floor whenever it would turn up in our routing calendar.
Prior to this tour, I actually was ok with Best Westerns, but after so many just gross ones, I’d rather avoid the chain altogether.
We travel the western US mostly and Best Westerns are our number 1. I have had bad hotel experiences (bugs/broken toilets and AirConditioning) in some of the others you mention as being tops on your list so I think it just depends on where you are. I am not married to any one chain and always look for deals on-line before I bite. I also like to use booking.com and read the reviews first. Sometimes I use that site and others I use it to get a feel for going rates and check the Hotel Chain’s site directly to see if they offer anything better before booking.
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I love going to hotels with the free breakfasts. So all four of those hotels would work for me. But the number one really stands out with free wine! I am going to have to look into it a bit further.
There is a surprisingly large number of hotels that have a free happy hour! You should definitely inquire when you book!