Will you spend on hotels?

[audreyh1]

I guess I'm an oddball, because I usually don't book a hotel until I'm parked outside. That way I can go somewhere else if it turns out I don't like the way it looks or the area.

We book lodgings at destinations well in advance, especially national park lodges. But for the single nights on the road, we don’t book ahead, but late in the afternoon or close to arrival once we’ve decided where to stop for the night.

 

[Ronstar]

I guess I'm an oddball, because I usually don't book a hotel until I'm parked outside. That way I can go somewhere else if it turns out I don't like the way it looks or the area.

We stay 95% of the time on road trips in Hilton Hampton Inns or similar Hilton hotels. They are very consistent and we haven't run into a problem with the Hilton hotels.

That said, booking ahead can be a problem. We booked every hotel on our Seattle to LA pacific coast highway trip ahead of time, spacing out our projected stops evenly along the route. In a few projected overnight stop areas, there weren't any Hiltons. There I relied on Tripadvisor, booked ahead, and we ended up staying at a couple nasty hotels.

Since then, I've upped my research game and we haven't had any nasty stays since.

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

We book lodgings at destinations well in advance, especially national park lodges. But for the single nights on the road, we don’t book ahead, but late in the afternoon or close to arrival once we’ve decided where to stop for the night.

We call that "Going Gypsy-style"

It's fun without a mobile phone. We have to find a Barnes & Noble or (worst-case) McDonalds, park close to the building, fire up the laptop and go online using their free wi-fi, then select a motel nearby and make a reservation online.

Before we travelled with a laptop, we used to stop in the welcome centers on the interstates once we crossed the state line into the state we wanted to spend the night and go inside the rest area / welcome center and find one of those travel guide brochures with the discount motel coupons.

(I wonder if those are still available. - Probably not - it's probably all apps and QR codes for phone people nowadays)

 

[TripleLindy]

also don’t like having to give them my driver’s license in order to rent.

Driver’s license? I don’t recall ever doing that. I just checked my VRBO profile to make sure it’s not something I entered years ago, but nope. My mobile number isn’t even in my profile - just an email address.

 

[mystang52]

Marriott is our first choice. If that's not viable, we'll go with any of the higher end brands. I'd never go to one of the deep discount places; too long a story for this thread but I had a bad experience many years ago at one of those cheap chains.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I prefer to not even stay at the level of Hampton Inn or Courtyard/ Residence Inn if there are full 4 to 5 star Marriott or Hilton hotels. Won't go near a Holiday Inn Express. We tried that twice on the same road trip 15 years ago. The floors would have been softer than the wood plank feel of mattress beds.

 

[disneysteve]

As I mentioned, we hit lifetime platinum with Marriott last year. We have had a Marriott Visa for years and in 2025 I also got the Marriott Amex to get us the credits we needed. We get 15 elite night credits each year with each card, so 30 total. You only need 50 for Platinum. Then you get 1 night credit for every $5,000 charged. That gets us another 10 nights. Then they run a double night credit promo once a year so we do our best to travel during that period. In the end, we finished the year just short of titanium status. I think we had 69 nights.

The best part of platinum is access to the lounges. Free breakfast, drinks and snacks throughout the day, and sometimes a light dinner in the evening.

Right now, we've got just over 1 million points saved up but we're going to start using them now that we don't need paid stays to get credits. I booked our stay next month in Philly on points. I do wish you could use points on all room types but it's just standard rooms. That's fine but we do sometimes want a suite so we just pay for those (and earn points in the process). We're also eligible for free upgrades so that may happen on occasion though I tend to just book the room type we want rather than aim low and hope for an upgrade.

 

[audreyh1]

We call that "Going Gypsy-style"

I will already have scoped out several acceptable hotels and locations along our route via Google maps or from experience. So it’s more a matter of whether we want to drive another 50+ miles or not when it’s getting late in the day.

 

[COcheesehead]

Driver’s license? I don’t recall ever doing that. I just checked my VRBO profile to make sure it’s not something I entered years ago, but nope. My mobile number isn’t even in my profile - just an email address.

I had to provide a copy of my driver’s license. We thought it was odd, but it was required to create an account.

 

[CO-guy]

Wow, I've always felt that most of the people posting on here are 1%'ers, but this seals it. $1000/night, no problem?

The last hotel we stayed at was on I-80 somewhere in Nebraska. $80 all in.

I don't think anyone's paying $1000/night for an interstate adjacent hotel. When it comes to interstate lodging, we generally pay in the $80-120/night range depending on location, availability, etc. Same with Italy. We paid $80-100/night for B&Bs in small towns largely off the beaten path.

Similarly, I also don't think anyone's paying $80/night for ski-in/out accommodations in the base area of any major US resort. Beaver Creek is pricey because lodging is limited and $1000/night is often the entry point to staying there. Of course, at other times of the year, it's more. Thankfully, we've had great luck using reward points to ski at Beaver Creek without the high overnight lodging costs.

 

[glennz]

After twenty-five years of occasional work travel using Holiday Inn/Express, that's what I have rewards points for and use exclusively. Rarely disappointed, and if I am/was, I just mentally mark that one as "never again" and find a different one nearby. Target rate is $100-125/night, and they are sooooo popular you can usually find one in that range if willing to drive a bit from the target stay area.

I did stay at a Drury Inn once, and was impressed. Might look at those again based on positive comments in this thread.

 

[disneysteve]

Wow, I've always felt that most of the people posting on here are 1%'ers, but this seals it. $1000/night, no problem?

The most we have ever paid for a hotel room was in October 2021. I had said for years that I wanted to be in Walt Disney World for the 50th anniversary on 10/01/21 and that I wanted to stay at the Contemporary so that we could walk to the Magic Kingdom that day. And that's exactly what we did. Our room at the Contemporary was $700/night for 4 nights. It was obscene and I would never do it again but I'm very glad that we did it for that special occasion.

 

[brett]

This is the Hotels folder on my phone. My order of preference is 1) Drury, 2) Best Western, 3) IHG if I'm solo OR Choice if I've got a dog. If none of those look good, I'll check Booking.com or Hotels.com to see what else is in the area. I haven't used Airbnb for years--they used to be better than hotels, and now they're far worse IMO.

View attachment 61208

I'd be curious to see other people keep on their home screen for hotels.

accor, melia, riu, expedia, marriott, agoda, thomson,
booking, royale chulan, chatrium, etc.

We stopped using hotels.com. Cannot remember why but we did get a fab rate from them on a four night stay in Tevira, Portugal. For some reason substantially below same for same on expedia and booking. Just booked a Riu in PVR for next Nov/Dec, Marriott and Royale Chulan properties in Malaysia for mid Feb.

All depends where we are, where we are booking.

 

[Fermion]

The most we have ever paid for a hotel room was in October 2021. I had said for years that I wanted to be in Walt Disney World for the 50th anniversary on 10/01/21 and that I wanted to stay at the Contemporary so that we could walk to the Magic Kingdom that day. And that's exactly what we did. Our room at the Contemporary was $700/night for 4 nights. It was obscene and I would never do it again but I'm very glad that we did it for that special occasion.

Hah, that about matches what we paid at the main "in park" hotel at Disneyland Paris. But this was back in 2011 (actually I think it was $600 a night). It really was magic though.

 

[disneysteve]

We stopped using hotels.com.

We never book a hotel room any way other than directly with the hotel via their website or app. I've heard way too many horror stories of using middlemen like showing up at the hotel only to be told you didn't actually have a reservation. I go straight to the source every time.

 

[CO-guy]

We never book a hotel room any way other than directly with the hotel via their website or app. I've heard way too many horror stories of using middlemen like showing up at the hotel only to be told you didn't actually have a reservation. I go straight to the source every time.

Same here.

The only hotel app I have is Hyatt. In 2025 we stayed over 35 nights at Hyatt properties which, combined with other branded benefits and offers, was enough to re-qualify for Globalist through Feb 2027. However, the majority of our accommodations while traveling in 2025 were at small boutique hotels, family run B&Bs, Ryokan or similar booked directly.

 

[disneysteve]

I’ve got the Marriott, Hilton, and Wyndham apps on my phone right now though couldn’t tell you when I last used Hilton or Wyndham. I use Marriott all the time.

 

[livingalmostlarge]

I greatly am enjoying people's stories. I would say the site is top 10% of Net worth which is $1.8-$2m. Sounds like a reasonable bar for FIRE

 

[skyking1]

we built a trip around a two night stay at this place on the Vancouver Island coast last spring. It was our first nibble into the ~$500 a night territory and we liked it.
To answer the OP, yes I think we will.
Akua Cabin | Nami Project

 

[YellowSubmarine]

What is 7 star rating?

Priceline rating system per customer feedback.

 

[brett]

We never book a hotel room any way other than directly with the hotel via their website or app. I've heard way too many horror stories of using middlemen like showing up at the hotel only to be told you didn't actually have a reservation. I go straight to the source every time.

Our preference is to always book direct. But this is not always possible. After 13 years of extensive post retirement travel, and plenty during our working career vacations, we have never had a single hotel issue when using a 3rd party booking site.

We have stayed at numerous wonderful small family run hotels in Europe, SE Asia, etc that did not accept direct bookings. They used booking, expedia, agoda etc. to manage all bookings. Often in smaller out of the way places where we tend to travel.

In Morocco last year Expedia went to bat and saved us money when we had to cancel a non refundable hotel res. because of the earthquake on the far side of the country. Expedia got us a credit which we used at that small hotel eight months later.

We have already booked two properties in Thailand for our upcoming snowbird trip that only accept booking on these 3rd Party sites. This has been the case for our past six trips to the area over the past 13 years of retirement travel.

We changed hotels in DaNang, Vietnam a few years ago. We were going to book on booking but decided to visit the hotel before doing so since we staying in a close by hotel. We went. The price at the hotel for the same room, same next two nights was higher than the booking rate by 20 percent or so. The clerk would not honor the booking price so we immediately sat down in the lobby and booked it on line. Same room, same days. Go figure. Perhaps it was a currency issue..no idea whatsoever.

 

[susswein]

For me, a hotel room is just a place to sleep. I mostly travel in the 3rd world and stay in local guest houses. I'll pay a little extra for a private bath, but try to keep it under $30 per night.

 

[disneysteve]

We have stayed at numerous wonderful small family run hotels in Europe, SE Asia, etc that did not accept direct bookings. They used booking, expedia, agoda etc. to manage all bookings. Often in smaller out of the way places where we tend to travel.

That's interesting. I've never been anywhere where a hotel didn't handle their own reservations but have never been to Europe or Asia. Just US travel. Certainly it makes sense to use a third party when it's the only option.

 

[brett]

That's interesting. I've never been anywhere where a hotel didn't handle their own reservations but have never been to Europe or Asia. Just US travel. Certainly it makes sense to use a third party when it's the only option.

....and on some of those hotel websites when you push the button to reserve it actually takes you to a 3rd party site like booking to make the reservation!

 

[Pointby2]

Just finished our Disney - Miami - Key West trip planning. Sixteen days and hotels averaged $821 a night. We stayed at Disney BoardWalk and resorts along the way, but how else would you enjoy a trip like that? There's no option where you can spend less than $4-500 a night.