Multi-day driving trip. Where do you stay?

[OldShooter]

+1 for AirBnB. We meet nice people who can help us select a restaurant for dinner and give us other local advice. One time, in Trondheim, our hostess invited us to have dinner with her. Plus AirBnB spares us the cookie-cutter grimness of many of the properties mentioned here; obviously they have their market but it is not us.

Re flexibility, making a decision on where to stop when it's 7PM is a little problematical, but many hosts have very liberal cancellation policies. If you have pre-booked with one of them and have a change, you can cancel and hit one of the chains instead.

Re selection, we do not use AirBnB to save money though that is the stereotype and we often do. We pick a location, sort the properties highest-price first, and look for a property where we have private space including a private bathroom. Sometimes this is a large bedroom with an attached bath. Other times it is a mother-in-law apartment. One time in Vancouver we stayed in a pleasant little guest house that the host had built in his back yard. In Reykjavík we had a full two-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and ocean view. Occasionally there is a disappointment, but for us the plusses of using AirBnB really outweigh the negatives.

The only recurring problem we have had is making contact with the host where we have to pick up a key or get a lockbox code. We have learned that having a cell phone is imperative, including when outside the US. (There is an active thread here on getting SIM cards when traveling.)

 

[Chuckanut]

I have had good experiences with Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn. Privately owned hotels are sometimes good and sometimes so-so.

Worst are the so-called Pet-Friendly hotels. I am NOT talking about service animals just pets. The rooms are often smelly (animal odors and cleaning fluids), nasty and the dogs are a nuisance. Who needs to be awakened at 2 AM by somebody's dog barking loudly in the hallway?

 

[nwsteve]

We just returned from a road trip to the SW from E Wash. Our modus operandi is similar to what many as mentioned. We are also fans of Hamptons and Holiday Inn Express. We traveled with our cat on this trip and found most Hamptons do not offer pet friendly properties. We ended up spending about half our nights at Holiday Inn Express for that reason--not overwhelmed but never disappointed. We always check TripAdvisor ratings no matter which property. We also found La Quinta a surprise with newer properties as good as many of the Hamptons or HIE and sometimes with a better breakfast.
Bookings.com (sub of Priceline) is a great resource especially when in more remote areas. They use a 10 point rating system that has proved pretty reliable. Booking is based in Amsterdam and actually is a great resource when traveling independently in Europe. Book ten stays with them and get an additional 10% off on many properties.
Personally Fairfields and Comfort Inns are in the bottom of our list--too many indifferent independent operators. One Comfort Inn we stayed at 3 choices of cereals for breakfast--all cornflakes! Not hot water proof bowls for dry, instant oatmeal, etc. The Denver Airport Fairfield had so much litter in the halls you could have filled a dumpster.

 

[njhowie]

Over the past few years I've become a huge fan of Red Roof.

Most of the chain has been renovated and there is an extremely high level of consistency. Many of the locations have gone completely non-smoking, and for those which haven't, there are always a good number of non-smoking rooms.

In August, I did a cross-country round trip over a two week period and did not make any reservations in advance. Whenever I decided it was time to spend a night in a hotel, I'd go to the Red Roof website, find something close, make the reservation, and be checking in within 30 minutes. Rates are always very good, and they do provide promo codes to get even better rates. Getting and using reward nights through their loyalty program is also easy.

 

[RunningBum]

I think it's a crap shoot. You can have bad experiences with just about every brand to turn you off. I know chains strive for consistency but it doesn't always happen.

Like Cessna said earlier, I go for location and amenities. Free breakfast, nearby gas, easy on/off the interstate, etc. I read reviews on trip advisor. They aren't always accurate but usually when you get a lot of complaints about cleanliness, people hanging around in the parking lots and halls, thin walls, etc, you know to avoid them.

Usually I'll do some research and have a target or two (and know the rate I should get), and then I'll assess from the outside when I get there. If it looks ok I'll walk in with my AAA card, or sometimes I'll call while I'm getting gas to check the rate. When I'm driving long distance I don't like to book in advance because it might make me stretch the driving longer than I should that day, or I might be doing really well and want to get more miles in.

 

[Nightcap]

A few years ago when my mother-in-law's health was failing, I joined the rewards clubs for Choice Hotels (Comfort Suites, etc.), Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards (Holiday Inn, etc.) and Marriott Rewards. Almost any of them are fine if new / recently refurbed, and almost any of them can be dreadful if worn out.

A beloved family friend gave us a recommendation for a resort-type hotel on a recent trip. She's a person with great taste, so we were surprised and appalled at how bad this place was. Clearly the hotel had been coasting on its reputation for too long, and it really needed a good refurb.

Remember back in the day, before Google and GPS, when you started watching for lodging signs on the highway and hoped it wasn't the Bates Motel? Sometimes they could be fun. Beds never have Magic Fingers in Holiday Inn Express. We took Hobson's Choice in one city - the only available rooms turned out to be in a "Honeymoon Hotel." We walked in to find a heart-shaped jacuzzi in the middle of the room, a water bed under a mirrored ceiling, and a couple ponies of inexpensive champagne with plastic flutes on the night stand. First and last time we slept on a water bed. Someone gets up to go to the bathroom - tide goes out. Someone returns - tide comes in. "Now I lay me down to sleep / My water bed goes 'gurgle gleep'..."

 

[cooch96]

I tried AirBnB for the first time this year when i visited DB in DC. It was clearly a place the landlord used exclusively for AirBnB guests. The furnishings were spare, easily cleanable, and the quality of a college pad. I loved it. I was able to stay there for a week at a cost that would’ve cost me a night at a chain. Plus it had a kitchen. The location was better too, right between the Arlington cemetery and the subway.
And I’d say you get a better experience living amongst the locals who all go to bed early on school nights.

 

[OldShooter]

I tried AirBnB for the first time this year when i visited DB in DC. It was clearly a place the landlord used exclusively for AirBnB guests. The furnishings were spare, easily cleanable, and the quality of a college pad. I loved it. I was able to stay there for a week at a cost that would’ve cost me a night at a chain. Plus it had a kitchen. The location was better too, right between the Arlington cemetery and the subway.
And I’d say you get a better experience living amongst the locals who all go to bed early on school nights.

There's no doubt that you have to have a bit of a sense of adventure to enjoy AirBnB, but one of the best features is the reviews of the properties. We booked a place in northern Norway that looked great but had no reviews. Three months later we arrived only to find that the layout with narrow circular staircases, bed on the third floor and bathroom on the first just would not work for us. The host was very nice and moved us into another property that we enjoyed quite a bit. But in the time between our booking and our arrival, a number of reviews had made the layout clear. Had we been smart enough to check back, we would not have had the surprise. So the lesson was clear: If no reviews (new listing) be very wary.

Yes, in many places we have had kitchens. Buy some croissants and OJ, maybe some coffee if there is none there, and mornings can be very pleasant. Generally we eat out for lunch and dinner but I could see doing a pizza some time or re-heating takeout when we are in a place for a few nights. If it's a road trip we carry a cheap foam cooler with the croissants, OJ, and maybe some soda, beer, and snacks.

 

[calmloki]

Used to be adventure time for stays for us. Made for memorable stories about dives I chose - normally after driving too long and having very limited choices in East Podunk. Then became a Chase IHG card holder and got a fistful of bonus points and then more bonus points via a postcard sending scheme. Since then we have been traveling places based on IHG's Pointbreaks 5000 point offerings. Still using points rather than cash and look to have 5-10 stays yet to go before running out of points.

The stories aren't as good, there is a terrific meh quality to the breakfasts, but dang I'm getting used to the IHG Express quality. And for free? pretty hard to complain.

 

[LuckyDog]

We do our best to stay at Hampton Inns. Never had a bad one...

 

[Koogie]

I am typing this while sitting on the bed in a Hampton Inn in Huntersville, NC
Stayed in one just outside Pittsburgh last night.

+100 for Hampton Inns. For overnight stays on pure car trips where Airbnb isn't really an option, they can't be beat. Good quality, well kept rooms. Clean halls and common spaces and the breakfasts are fine.

Are they perfect ? Absolutely not. No hotel is. In fact, I kind of despise hotels.
But Hampton are good enough and they are all we use now for our winter drives to and from Georgia.

edit: and their wifi is great. More upscale hotels that charge for wifi should be ashamed of themselves.

 

[Yarnstormer]

Hamptom inns are pretty good tho I’m not a fan of the sliding barn doors on the bathrooms. I feel like I might as well leave the door open! But they are usually clean and the lobbies are usually ok to meet visitors if you need to. I stayed in one in charleston that had a door to the adjacent room - locked but clearly full of giggling teenagers. Ugh.

I much prefer my camper.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm finding myself pretty disappointed in a lot of Springhill Suites, Residence Inns and even Fairfield Inns. The times between refurbs seems to be getting longer and longer and some places are just flat out worn out, tired and grubby.

I will book them but always click on the room details to see how long since it's been updated...I something see ones built in the early 00's that have not been updated..gross and I won't book them.

Generally the Hamptons Inns are kept to a better refresh schedule, they would be my number one because of that fact.

 

[Snidely Whiplash]

Looks like the winner is Hampton Inns. I've stayed at those years ago and they were comparable to Holiday Inn Express hotels. sounds like they have moved ahead significantly.

 

[folivier]

We always ask for a "quiet room" which usually puts us at the end of the hall away from the ice machine, elevator, pool, etc.

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

I always check tripadvisor for the top 3 in the desired price range for a given city. Also read the individual reviews of those hotels (especially the best and worst) just to get a sense of any patterns in service. I've never had a bad experience with that method over many years of travelling.
The downside of this method is this does require some homework and if you'd rather have someone else make your decisions for you, you won't want to be bothered. But if you're the thinking type it works great.

 

[athena53]

I always check tripadvisor for the top 3 in the desired price range for a given city. Also read the individual reviews of those hotels (especially the best and worst) just to get a sense of any patterns in service. I've never had a bad experience with that method over many years of travelling.

I've also found TA very reliable and I have over 250 reviews there myself. Mine always include a picture of the gym and at least a description of the pool size, as well as notes about what was available at breakfast and what restaurants and stores are nearby. I don't always check the reviews myself for a one-night stay since I travel alone and it's more time off the road doing research instead of driving.

 

[ivinsfan]

I've also found TA very reliable and I have over 250 reviews there myself. Mine always include a picture of the gym and at least a description of the pool size, as well as notes about what was available at breakfast and what restaurants and stores are nearby. I don't always check the reviews myself for a one-night stay since I travel alone and it's more time off the road doing research instead of driving.

Yes for a one night stay I will just bring up the city on TA to make sure the hotel I'm looking at isn't near the bottom of the list. we do some 1500 mile snowbird trips and it's also important to us that the hotel is close to the interstate. This is where the Hampton Inns seems to shine a lot of the time you can see the property from the highway.

 

[audreyh1]

I've also found TA very reliable and I have over 250 reviews there myself. Mine always include a picture of the gym and at least a description of the pool size, as well as notes about what was available at breakfast and what restaurants and stores are nearby. I don't always check the reviews myself for a one-night stay since I travel alone and it's more time off the road doing research instead of driving.

I’ve booked several hotels in Spain lately, and during my research, I ended up asking on the TA review what time the hotel served breakfast. I must have posted this question 12 times, and it had NEVER been asked before on any review! Except for the international chains (nh hotel at least), no Spanish hotel published their breakfast service times on their web site. Breakfast tends to run late in Spain: 8 to 11 is more typical on a weekday, later on the weekend, so I needed to know for planning purposes.

But it amazed me that on the innumerable hotels I reviewed this information was not published and that no one had asked on TA.

This information has always been easily found in other European countries that we have traveled. It’s also in general available earlier.

And it’s not an option to run grab breakfast outside the hotel unless a pastry and coffee are all you want, In Spain breakfast places can open as late as 9am, so if you’re trying to beat the tour bus crowds at some venue, you need to be done way earlier.

In general things run an hour later in Spain which is not surprising since they stay on Central European Time, yet are quite a bit further west. Solar noon is after 2PM in May! Yet the top tourist venues open early by Spanish time standards, thus the critical breakfast timing.

 

[walkinwood]

It is a crap shoot. I've stayed at almost all the chains mentioned here and have had great and not so good experiences at each.

Tripadvisor reviews help, but you've got to read through quite a few to get a good feel for the place. And you should stick to recent reviews.

I use this site to find our the age of the hotel and when it was last renovated. It doesn't include every hotel, but the list is quite large
Hotel Search- Hotel Reviews, Rates, GDS Reservation Codes: TravelAge West

Other than that - check out the room & ask for a replacement immediately if you sense something bad. Be polite, but firm. Be friendly when you first check-in. The reception usually has quite a bit of latitude to do good things for you.

 

[braumeister]

Another site I have sometimes found useful is this one for knowing whether the hotel has acceptable wifi service:

https://www.hotelwifitest.com

 

[Beldar]

Although I don't travel as extensively as I did when I was w*rking, I can state that generally hotels/motels that cater to business travelers will more than likely have a quieter, cleaner experience with less tourista type occupants (due to fewer leisure amenities). They also usually have a decent breakfast option.

Of course, the rack rate will be at maximum, so you should shop the hotel/motel aggregators for a lower price. If all you're looking for is a decent place to crash this might be an option.

Just one POV.

_B

 

[Luvdogs]

We use Marriott and Hilton lines when doing road trips, usually Hampton if it is available. Won't do Fairfield or "below."

Haven't tried LaQuinta but their ads pop up a lot and the pics look nice but I'm not ready to try them.

Also, actually Best Western Premiers are nice. I think there are three levels, wouldn't do the bottom level. But we stayed at one in Napa and it was like an "inn/B and B."

The Best Westerns in Europe seem to be a lot nicer than the US. I've stayed at a lot of them there and they have been very nice.

 

[Markola]

I like Hotels.com. The app is easy to use, covers multiple chains and independent hotels, has good maps, customer reviews, it charges the credit card on file with the app (I use an AMEX one that gets Delta points), and all of my receipts are there in the app, nice and orderly. Every ten nights, regardless of hotels stayed, I get a free night or, more accurately, a voucher for the average price of those previous 10 nights so, effectively, it’s a 10% discount. That’s 10% above frequent sale prices. Their customer service is good too. I’ve used hotels.com pretty much exclusively for ten years or so and it’s always worked well for me.

 

[JPatrick]

We are still H.I. Exp fans provided the place is fairly new and sports some decent ratings..Actually, we have never even seen an animal in one. (the 4 legged variety) However, given the service/comfort animal explosion of late it may be different now.