Finding the best rate on lodging?

[Mamma2004]

You all had great advice for finding the lowest air fare. Next week we are driving a looooong way and know approximately where we plan to spend the night on the road.

DH, DS and I will share a room at what we hope will be a clean, convenient and inexpensive motel. If I know we are planning to stay in central PA, near I-80, how on earth do I find my best deal?

Thanks to anyone with travel experience. We don't "get out" much! :wink2:

[kcimato]

When we travel we don't like to make reservations ahead of time since we don't know when we'll be exhausted and say we are done for the night. We usually get the coupon books from from the rest stops that have deals for the night. Sometimes they will call the hotel and you can see if they have rooms available. They usually do. Sometimes they are not valid on Fri or Sat nights. Good luck.

[Jen841]

Pick a destination then call the local hotels in that area. So I hear, you can get a lower rate by calling vs. on-line reservations. Central PA... State College maybe? You may be able to get some good rates around there since it is summer time and school is not in session.

Safe travels!

[c&j04]

Anyone else love Priceline as much as we do? One of our favorite hotels through them was the Red Lion in Seattle for $55 night. Not bad compared to their posted rate of $350 a night!

[Mamma2004]

I have gotten the online prices so you're right, I could just call the hotels directly to see what their rates are. We could always book a room, try to find a better rate the day of our stay, and then cancel by 6pm if we do luck out in finding a cheaper room.

We have never used Priceline and wonder whether it works for budget accommodations. Our friends lucked out at the Royal Hawaiian but that is definitely FAR above the caliber that we are seeking for a quick highway stop.

We won't be far from State College - we're trying to make it as far west on I-80 as we can before trying to settle DS for the night. We're looking at Brookville, PA as a convenient stop. We are totally open to suggestions, though!

So....Priceline? Only for luxury or ok for one star places? Hmmm.

[catsnkid]

Read reviews on tripadvisor.com Then check rates for the hotel you want and several sites will pop up with the rates during the nights you wants to stay, if rooms are available.

[Andi98989]

I would definitely try Priceline! You can pick the rating/number of stars you're looking for so that will help narrow things down. DH and I booked a 4 star hotel on the Michigan Mile in Chicago for $80/night. My sister in law just booked a 3 star hotel for several nights in Minnesota for $50/night. I've stayed at a Holiday Inn for $35 before. I've found it to be the most effective for getting a cheap price on a hotel. It can't hurt to give it a try - if you bid as low as you want and it doesn't get accepted, you're not out anything. You can also re-bid after a set amount of time and just bump it up by a few dollars to see if that gets you a room.

[american_mama]

For a motel/highway stop, definitely stop at a rest station (or sometimes a fast food restaurant catering to people coming off the highway) andpick up the coupon books. I just traveled through Penn on I-81 and used roomsaver and the other one with a big American flag on the cover. Those coupon rates are BIG savings over the regular rates, even with AAA rates.

You can look online at roomsaver.com and http://travelcoupons.com, but I am not sure they include everything that is in the book. I looked at both when looking for hotels in upstate NY, but they weren't too helpful.

Ex) I stayed at a Quality or Comfort Inn at exit 100 on I-81, most notable for not being in any town and for having a big McDonald's with a very big play area. The coupon rate was $65 a night for our family, hot breakfast included. The walk-in rate would have been more like $95.

My parents turned me on to these coupon books on one of their several trips driving across the country, and they always found the coupons to be the best deal. They say Econolodge is usually the cheapest of all the motels. When I moved halfway across the country, DH and I called several of the hotels to compare their rates with the coupon rates and the coupon rate was always much better. After that, I was sold and we always use them when staying in motels.

[Mikey0709]

I agree and LOVE those coupon books.... but just wanted to say if you have kids with you - it may be a better idea to at least have something booked and cancel by 6pm like you mentioned. I actually got stuck one night... started looking for a hotel or motel around 4pm, called EVERY place in those books, started calling chains of hotels and finally was almost panicking when hours later we could find NOTHING available. At that point, you take what you can get regardless of price. I really didn't expect places to "sell out", but i guess there's always a first and we drove for miles!