Motel Prices

[JakeBrake]

Prepay? Not me. Truthfully, I have occasionally prepaid for reservations in national park lodges or on the beach very close to the water.

When I make reservations online, I always check the cancellation policy. Most Motel-By-The-Road locations offer cancellation up to check-in time. Most of these places also offer prepaid non-refundable discounts, which I don't take.

Also, I don't buy green bananas.

 

[imoldernu]

About bad rooms...
No matter where, my bride always asks as we sign in, "I'd like to see the room... is that ok?"
Now whether that changes the desk person's selection or not, we really have not been disappointed.

One of the things we look for, on the coupons, is "new" or "remodeled" or "award winning" ...

Back to the coupons for a minute... Almost always, the coupon price is lower than any of the online prices, despite the claims of having the lowest price "or else"... As far as I can see, the difference is "reservations"....
Since we only travel on the Illinois to Florida route, it's all thruway, and there are hundreds of motels along the way. Except for one time out of hundreds, we have never had a problem with getting a room... If one motel is filled, the next one will have rooms.

Also... on more point that may have gone by the wayside... the "GREEN book" or the "REDbook"... are usually the lowest prices across the board... Last year, on our trip back from FL, we stopped at the Tennessee Welcome Center. There were some folks there, who had found a coupon for the same motel we ended up stopping at. They had made reservations with the welcome center, using a different coupon book. As we checked in (behind them), we heard the clerk give them the rate of $69.00... When we checked in with our Greenbook coupon (with no reservations of course)...
our rate was $54.95.

This is an interesting game...