Dives vs. Chain Hotels

[imoldernu]

Our overnight travel has been 90% IL to FL. We simply stop at the state's welcome center, and pick up the "green" and ""red" travel coupon books so rarely pay more than $50/night.
Since we're only looking for a place to lay our bodies for the night, clean is the criterion. DW always asks to see the room, so the desk usually picks the room we're least likely to reject.
Vacationing would be a different story.

For a few years, I'd check the online sites for low prices, but always found the "green book" lower.

 

[Sarah in SC]

I remember a trip to the Florida Keys maybe 15 ago, with a little book in hand that I requested from some tourism board down there, called Superior Small Lodging Guide to Florida. What a great resource! It was the first time I'd ever really looked at sourcing cool (and quite inexpensive, for the time) and funky smaller hotels.

We are dive folks, though when I have points at somewhere or another, we'll happily stay in that version. We stayed at a Days Inn in Bozeman on our cross country trip, and that one night's stay was our sole hotel stay in 4 1/2 weeks. Camped the rest of the time, plus a couple of nights sharing a living room floor in Colorado.

In less, ahem, touristed parts of the world, you have to be prepared for hotels to look anything like a regular hotel room. We always send in a couple of firm negotiators to take a look at the rooms, check out the showers, and talk price with the proprietors. Inevitably, we have been pretty lucky, or maybe just so tired we overlooked the sketchier elements.

I think that chain hotels took away a lot of the charm of road trips in the USA. I know that we have a lot better recollection of our nights at little state and county campgrounds and parks than if we'd spent every night in anonymous and identical hotel rooms. Instead, we can remember the park with the Bald Eagle nests, or the one with the Mennonite family next door, or the hot springs just a short walk away from our tents.

 

[LeavingOhio]

For me, not only is it chains, but specific chains.

My favorite by far is Hampton Inn. Nice breakfast, decent clean rooms, and the price is good. If I can't find that where I want to be, then Holiday Inn Express is next on the list.

In both cases, I will check Tripadvisor.com before booking for any bad stories. In both cases, I will do a bed bug check before even bringing luggage into the room, and even if I see nothing, I will not put the luggage on the beds, and all items within are sealed in large ziplock bags. When I get home, all clothes, whether worn or not, are washed and HOT DRIED. Outside of luggage is wiped with an alcohol-based cleaner OR dried with a hair drier or both.

Reason -- daughter brought bed bugs home from a high school track and field overnight trip two springs ago. Had to pay $1900+ to have the whole house heated to make sure they were all gone. Did the trick, but I don't want to go through that again.

 

[MichaelB]

If we're on the road and only want to get where we're going the chain hotels are plentiful and adequate. No specific brand, I just check to sure it has clean decent beds, hot water, coffee and ice machines.

When we travel for pleasure we rarely stay in chain hotels. While that does occasionally lead to some unexpected surprises, we have mostly great experiences and wonderful memories.

 

[mpeirce]

We don't like surprises, so we've pretty much standardized on Marriott Courtyard when we're on the road. If ones not available, Hampton or Holiday Inn Express are OK.

Decent prices and a pretty consistent level of cleanliness and showers with decent water pressure.

My one great pet peeve is noisy A/C. Especially those room units that cycle on and off all night long.

 

[Rustic23]

Fifty years ago Holiday Inn ran an add "Never a surprise at Holiday Inn' We bought in and have use HI, for the most part since. Now days we use HI Express, and true to form we have never been surprised. Well a couple of times. Twice service better than expected and once in Keystone S.D. worse but still OK.

We have had a couple of noise A/C's but for the most part clean rooms and good beds!

 

[Moemg]

I prefer boutique hotels or funky B&B's but sometimes a chain hotel will do . We have had great stays at boutique hotels that we got on Hotwire for great prices . Plus there nothing better than a funky B&B in Key West .

 

[ER_Hopeful]

dumb question, but what are Dives ?

 

[MichaelB]

dumb question, but what are Dives ?

The kind of place where the passenger in your car takes one look and says "keep driving"

 

[steelyman]

dumb question, but what are Dives ?

That's not dumb. A dive is a low-class place where you just want to dive into something that resembles a bed (it can also refer to a bar). Another term is "flop house". That's where you go if you mess up ER plans.

 

[steelyman]

There's also this Dive:

http://youtu.be/AulfHyY60rY

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

On our frequent road trips we prefer holiday inn express bit if the room is over 100/night we'll shop around to comparable chains such as Hampton Inn.

At our destination, we like either a VRBO condo/house, B&B or similar place with character, if possible and in budget. If not, then an Embassy Suites level chain.

 

[Dancer373]

I prefer chains as I usually am traveling with either 2 or 4 gkids. A certain level of cleanliness, wifi, a pool and free breakfasts are must haves for us.

 

[Dancer373]

As I usually travel with either 2 or 4 gkids the following are must haves: cleanliness, wifi, a pool and free breakfast so I prefer chains.

 

[sengsational]

Our overnight travel has been 90% IL to FL. We simply stop at the state's welcome center, and pick up the "green" and ""red" travel coupon books so rarely pay more than $50/night.
Since we're only looking for a place to lay our bodies for the night, clean is the criterion. DW always asks to see the room, so the desk usually picks the room we're least likely to reject.
Vacationing would be a different story.

For a few years, I'd check the online sites for low prices, but always found the "green book" lower.

Thats us! Never know where we will be when we get tired of driving. We like to see the price before walking in, so the coupon book is essential.


If we get way far away from the interstate, then we will do mom and pop outfits because the chains tend to be more than 100 often. But the coupons usually are 59 to 79, depending a lot on location.

 

[calmloki]

We stay at mid and lower prced chains but we have found the lower priced chains to be fine. On our bike trips, we have good experience at what I will refer to the 'Indian' hotels since they all seem to be managed by people from India. These are the old hotels that were once in the center of town until the highway was built. The rooms are typically clean but might still have old fixtures or some paint required. (Some of the TVs might be the first ones placed in the room The people at the desk are typically very friendly and helpful. It is likely however, our experiences make us more flexible when it comes to accommodations.

See also: "Patel Motel". Patel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As a landlord I've been impressed by the bootstrap family-centric progress of the Patels.

 

[Koolau]

Most of our (car) travel starts when we wake up and ends when we feel tired. Therefore, we rarely make reservations except at our final destination. We are willing to pay more at the final destination since we typically stay there for a full day or more. Overnight stops may be as short as 7 or 8 hours - just enough time to sleep and shower. For these short stops, we typically use the booklets (mentioned elsewhere) that can be had at any of the welcome centers and many tourist stops along the way. We look for chains with lower prices or occasionally take a "flier" on what turns out to be a dive (or else a pleasant surprise.) Rarely do we call ahead because we have learned that even if one Interstate interchange is booked up for some reason (local or regional "event") there will be an "oasis" within 25 to at most 100 miles. We typically (well, I specifically) have the reserve energy to drive that far in my sleep (er... forget I said that.) I hate the process of obtaining a room for the night while on the road. It's absolutely necessary when going TO a destination of 1000 miles, for instance, but, on the way "home", I've traveled into the wee hours just to avoid picking from another batch of bad to mediocre or expensive choices. 2 years ago, we wrapped up a visit to St. Augustine Fl at about 12:30 PM. We got in the car and drove for 15 hours (well, I drove for 15 hours) to get to our home base. While not necessarily prudent, it seemed better than another crap shoot at a decent room.

We have found that many of the well known chains are generally clean and comfortable, but we balk at paying $10 to $12 per hour to sleep and shower. It just goes against the LBYM mentality that got us to FIRE. We could afford it and probably should - just to avoid the occasional bad surprise (and the typical smell of curry). But then we think of our home in Paradise, where we own, but could instead rent for less per night than many of the higher cost chain hotels. Mentally, I guess we struggle to make the "value equivalency" between a 2br 2bath condo overlooking the Pacific vs a small (clean) room with a king or queen bed and a bath - in the middle of a corn field. The only "water view" is overlooking an Interstate pond created when they needed the fill for the road. Instead of the sound of palm trees swaying in the trade winds, there is the sound of jake brakes as the 18 wheelers exit the Interstate.

I guess both of us are simply "wired" to avoid paying very much for "consumables" like hotel rooms. So YMMV.

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

Brother-in-Law who is a doctor had a son graduate from med school so he generously booked motel rooms for everybody who attended. I won't mention the chain but it had a red roof. He got the cheap rate. There was no coffee maker, no fridge, for the kleenex box that's usually stuffed under the counter, they gave us 6 tissues in a plastic pack. No breakfast of any kind, and coffee offered in the lobby was crummy. We were on the 3rd floor and the toilet didn't flush right (what happened to the people on the 1st & 2nd floors?) A bunch of Indians (from India) showed up for a big wedding. There were 10 of them in the room next to us (they were very quiet since I guess they knew they were violating the rules). Am guessing spicy curry & alcohol don't mix--next morning there was barf on the deck, barf outside the elevator, barf inside the elevator, barf on the stairwell, and barf in the parking lot. I wrote a scathing report on the comments card and said if you're trying to do the cheapest rates available, why not just dig a 8' x 4' hole in the ground and throw a piece of plywoood over it?--you could offer a super low rate then. Saw the cleaning girl down the hall from us and left a $15 tip because she was pregnant and the room didn't cost me anything. Worst stay at a motel ever!

 

[freebird5825]

Stay at a dive ?
Bed Bug Registry - Check Apartments and Hotels Across North America

Stay at a mid-range cost chain hotel ?

 

[Payin-the-Toll]

We prefer Holiday-Inn Express or the Drury Inns (in the midwest). Anything around $100 or less with full breakfast and heated pool and hot tub is fine with us. I always look up the cheapest rate I can find on the net, then call the hotel direct and ask if they'll match the price. They always do and that way I have a confirmation number from the hotel and employee directly in case any type of a discrepancy comes up.

 

[AnIntentionalRoad]

We prefer Holiday-Inn Express or the Drury Inns (in the midwest). Anything around $100 or less with full breakfast and heated pool and hot tub is fine with us. I always look up the cheapest rate I can find on the net, then call the hotel direct and ask if they'll match the price. They always do and that way I have a confirmation number from the hotel and employee directly in case any type of a discrepancy comes up.

That's a great idea! We stopped booking on the discount sites because the chains used it as an excuse to not provide adequate customer service, eg you're not happy with the room? Sorry, we can't do anything because it wasn't booked through us.

BTW, though we tend to stay at HIE, when I was a kid it was dives galore! My DF took pride in finding the cheapest looking flea motel he could spot from the highway. Lol.

 

[athena53]

We have found that many of the well known chains are generally clean and comfortable, but we balk at paying $10 to $12 per hour to sleep and shower. It just goes against the LBYM mentality that got us to FIRE. We could afford it and probably should - just to avoid the occasional bad surprise (and the typical smell of curry). But then we think of our home in Paradise, where we own, but could instead rent for less per night than many of the higher cost chain hotels.

<snip>
So YMMV.

Well, I guess that's why there's a whole spectrum of hotels out there on the road! DH and I are really frugal in some aspects of our lives (bought a house well below what we could afford, lived for 10 years with only one car), but we like our creature comforts when we travel. Payin-the-toll's description of the unnamed hotel "with the red roof" made me shudder (although the smell of curry would just make me hungry).

DH grew up poor, as in sometimes not enough food in the house, and we share the same LBYM values. I had to laugh, though, at how his standards have been raised; we'd already decided on our recent vacation to Alaska that we'd spend the 7-hour layover at Denver in the airline club ($100 for day passes for 2 people). On the way back, faced with a 2-hour layover but with both of us worn out (6:20 AM flight out of Seattle, both of us had caught a bad cold), DH said, "since we're both worn out, let's use the airline club again". Yeah, OK.

I think that comes out to a lot more per hour than a Hampton Inn, but at least it includes open bar and munchies.

 

[brett]

We travel a fair amount. We use Priceline bidding extensively, and on occasion Hotwire. Also look for specials, advance booking on chain web sites. We have done extremely well with Priceline bidding-in NA and in parts of Europe. You need to do your homework and understand how it works though otherwise you may be disappointed.

 

[FUEGO]

The comments about the curry smells are funny. We arrived very late to Montreal after some seriously scary car trouble in the middle of nowhere (the Adirondacks) and as soon as we walked in to the hallway to get into our apartment rental for the week, the strong scent of curry overtook me. I was starving and thought to myself "OMG that smells so good!", then thought that overpowering curry smells are typically frowned upon by most. But not me.

Sadly, the fridge contained no curry when we entered the apartment.

 

[youbet]

In the past, we've had excellent luck using Priceline and bidding on rooms. Out of 12 bookings, we've had 11 very good experiences and 1 so-so experience. The problem with Priceline is that you need to know where you'll be on a given night, something we don't do very often.

We also like B and B's but are cautious and only book rooms where we have a trusted recommendation or that are highly rated in directories DW has. (I do the Priceline bidding. She does the B and B vetting.)

For quick stays along the highway on road trips where we don't have reservations, we typically go for lower tier (two star) major chain motels. We had a couple of bad experiences with mom and pop independents (yeah, we should have checked the rooms before we took the keys!) and DW has crossed "dives" off the list for now.