Roadtrips and lodging

[US71]

Someone a few posts back mentioned trucks revving their engines. Yes, I've stayed at many places that suffer this problem. The worst ones are refrigerated vehicles that leave their engines on to keep the fridge running. I've now reached the stage where if I see one in the parking lot I will drive straight out and find somewhere else.

Some motels fobid "reefer" trucks. I worked for a Super 8 that didn't allow them. We had a lot of non-commercial customers that would object if those trucks were running all night.

[hbelkins]

I've stayed at a few Red Roof's. They are just a little better than Super 8's/Motel 6's but they suffer the same problem of poor sound insulation. One of my rooms was next to the stairwell and the banging of people walking past kept me awake much of the night. It doesn't help when the floors are creaky. The same problem also happens if you're on the first floor and there's people in the room above. Cheap wooden floors aren't really acceptable in hotels in my opinion.

I've only done Red Roof once. (The Youngstown/Boardman/Poland, OH area). That was because the Microtel next door was full-up. Red Roof advertised wi-fi but the catch was you had to buy a T-Mobile Hot Spot card. And to beat it all, after I'd checked in I found out that Microtel had had a cancellation and had a vacancy after all. The Red Roof wasn't bad, it was a comfortable, nice room, but it's not someplace I stay at frequently.

Noise doesn't bother me terribly. If I'm tired, I can sleep through a hurricane.

[mightyace]

If possible, we try to stay with friends.

But, my brother and I usually pick on the fly and go with the "coupon books" that you find at rest areas.  When we get to a place, we try to go on "gut feel," if it is not obvious otherwise.

Internet access is not key for us as my brother can use his phone as a modem for his computer and both my old phone (Treo 700p) and my new one (Motorola Droid) have fair and good internet access respectively.

When we plan ahead, we often find ourselves staying at Super 8 and, occasionally Day's Inn or America's Best Value Inn.

[J N Winkler]

It seems most people on this forum are penny pinchers and totally begrudge paying more than $50 for a room. Unfortunately in this world you get what you pay for. Of course, I would rather pay $50 than $100 but $50/night often means taking your chance with the quality of an establishment.

I don't think it is about being a miser.  Even budget overnight accommodation is priced at a steep premium compared to being at home, so people like to buy and pay for only the services they really need, such as a bed free of insect infestation, abundant hot water for showering, and free wi-fi, and they also prefer transparency in pricing and use--i.e., they would rather not have to pay extra for wi-fi or to ask at the front desk for the wi-fi key.  The real misers are those who will camp in the winter cold to save money.  (I have done it myself, but only once, at a resort in Terlingua near Big Bend National Park, where the choice was between a $8 campsite with access to a coin-operated shower which took quarters only and charged $1 for 10 minutes of hot water, or an actual motel room for more than $80 per night.)

Where overnight accommodation is concerned, I tend to be very tolerant.  I will not accept insect infestation or bed sheets which leave my skin with a burning feeling, but apart from that I have accepted pretty much anything and everything, including cigarette burns in bed linen, reclaimed property marks on the TV and other valuable furnishings likely to tempt drug addicts, walls and wall coverings which look like they are suffering from terminal cancer, gas-operated heating, broken humidifiers, hardcore porn on the TV, and a lot else.

The lowest price I have paid for a private room was M$100 (about US$10 at the time) for a cabin-type room in La Junta, Chihuahua, which had propane heating and got very cold overnight because the tile floor was laid directly on the ground rather than on top of a crawlspace.  The most I have paid was about $100 when I stayed at the Oakland Marriott, which was one of two nominated hotels for a wedding I was attending.  The most unusual room I stayed in was at a motel in Basaseachic, also in Chihuahua, where guests were issued a firewood ration which they were to use for room heating.  The motel was family-owned and the owners' 8- and 10-year-old kids helped me light the fire.  This was where I learned leña is Spanish for firewood.

I have spent many comfortable nights in motels in the $25-to-$45 range.  Probably the least comfortable motel I stayed in was a Days Inn in Santa Fé, which was relatively new and well-appointed on the inside, but did not have working humidifiers at a time when outdoor temperatures went below freezing at night.  I felt like I was defibrillating myself every time I touched something metal.

Occasionally motels have signs inside the rooms which indicate that they cater primarily to a particular clientele.  Hunters' motels, for example, often have the season start and end dates prominently posted, and sometimes notices along the lines of "Please be careful with the gun oil" or similar.  I once stayed in a motel in Kremmling, Colorado, which was heavily used by railroad employees.  I guess it also served as a first port of call in medical emergencies because there was a sign in my room urging guests not to get mud or blood on the furnishings.

I generally steer clear of establishments which charge $70 or more per night, or which market themselves largely to a business-traveller clientele, because Internet access tends to be spun off as an extra-cost service, and I really hate paying the extra charge and interacting with the access-control mechanism.  At the Oakland Marriott, for example, the cost was something like $10 per day for Internet, and I couldn't even get my computer to connect to the signup screen because it had to be done over a LAN connection and I was in a "dead" room.  In the end I did a daily email check at a coffee shop across the street which had free wi-fi, paying about $3 per cup of coffee to cover my seat for about an hour each time.

Last winter I was flying from London to Wichita when I was stranded in Chicago by a snowstorm, so I had to stay overnight in an airline-nominated hotel near O'Hare.  A daypass for O'Hare wi-fi costs something like $10, but when I finally got to the hotel, I discovered Internet access cost something like $15, and as a little sting in the tail, I had to pick up the cost of the room (about $90 at the "distressed passenger" rate) since the airlines are now so protective of their margins that they no longer will pay for hotel rooms for stranded travellers.

If I were a frequent business flyer, I would probably get a T-Mobile subscription just to make sure I had consistent Internet access while travelling, but right now I don't do it often enough even to justify the time it would take to figure out T-Mobile's pricing.  I also disagree with the expectation that travellers should have to pay for wi-fi in major international airports.

I've stayed at a few Red Roof's. They are just a little better than Super 8's/Motel 6's but they suffer the same problem of poor sound insulation. One of my rooms was next to the stairwell and the banging of people walking past kept me awake much of the night. It doesn't help when the floors are creaky. The same problem also happens if you're on the first floor and there's people in the room above. Cheap wooden floors aren't really acceptable in hotels in my opinion.

It is a very old observation, dating back to the 1920's at least, that Americans in general are more tolerant of environmental noise in overnight accommodation than Britons.  I am not sure what to suggest, other than to look for overnight accommodation which is fairly remote from Interstates and other freeways, as these are less likely to appeal to long-distance truckers.

[hm insulators]

I usually stay at Motel 6, Super 8 and the like.

[US71]

I usually stay at Motel 6, Super 8 and the like.

I stayed at a Super 8 recently that was $20 more than Motel 6. The difference? "Frequent guest" points and a bowl of cereal in the morning. Otherwise, it was no more (or less comfortable) and it was just as noisy.  For $20, I'd skip the points and have breakfast at IHOP

[Chris]

Since everybody I know lives no more than 100 miles away, my long-distance trips are exclusively leisure trips where time is not an issue (roadtrips), so I drive everywhere. In fact, I have never traveled by scheduled airlines, since my parents always went on vacation by car when I went with them.

Europe is a country where thousands and thousands of campsites are, heck, in France alone there are over 10,000 campsites for every budget imaginable. I have a three-seconds fold tent which can suit two persons, but I usually travel alone, so I have enough space. I tend to pick out campsites which offer free wireless internet, though these are still rare in Europe, but are on the rise, especially on the somewhat more expensive campsites. I carry a small cooking set with me, but also hit the McDonalds, which is everywhere on this continent.

I tend to drive low-budget. I drive on diesel, which has a better mileage (my car gets 45 mpg) and diesel tends to be cheaper than gasoline in most countries. Other than that, most campsites do not charge more than $ 15 including electricity. Wireless internet is increasingly common on the more expensive campsites. The most expensive campsite I had so far was in Spain which charged about $ 30 for a night, but I have also paid $ 8 once in Germany for a night. Somehow I'd rather pay $ 25 per night including free wireless, than pay $ 15 per night and be charged $ 3 per hour for internet. Last summer I was in Switzerland, campsite wasn't too expensive at $ 20, but the wifi was $ 8 per hour, so I only logged in a few times back then.

McDonalds offers free-wifi in some countries, for instance in Switzerland and France, and also in Germany, but you need a German cell phone number to verify by text message.

The downside of campsites is that I can't really go away in the winter. If night temperatures drop to the freezing range, it's way too cold to comfortably have a road trip. But then again, the Netherlands is at the same latitude as Edmonton, so taking pics in the winter doesn't work too well anyway. Only northbound during noon at clear days with sunshine. Those are rare. For instance, in the past 5 weeks, there hasn't been a single day without rain.

[J N Winkler]

Chris:  45 MPG US or Imperial?  My last car (Rosie) usually did a little better than 30 MPG (US) in summer open-road driving.

I have also camped, but prefer to do it during the summer when it is more likely to be warm and dry at night.  I had a KOA membership for about one year (2003) and used it fairly extensively.  The campsites I stayed at tended to have power hookups at each tent site, which was particularly convenient for recharging my digital camera and for using the laptop computer to download pictures (at the time I had a camera with its own charger and had not yet started using a SD card reader).

Campgrounds do have some disadvantages beyond those connected to weather.  At the time I used them heavily (summer 2003), wi-fi at campgrounds was almost unknown.  Some of the larger KOA campgrounds, such as the one in Calgary near Stoney Trail, had significant crowd-control issues.  I have never felt concerned for my personal safety at a campground, but because tent sites are not enclosed, there is an inevitable loss of privacy as people walk past and occasionally through your site to get to their tents.  Early curfews are common at campgrounds, which makes it difficult to inflate an air mattress using a tire air compressor if you arrive after dark.  (Hand-inflatable air mattresses do exist, but I have never seen one in the US.)

For campgrounds I ask much the same as I ask of motels:  clean sheets (only I provide these, and the pillows and mattress, myself) and plenty of hot running water.  Availability of the latter is more or less guaranteed at built lodging establishments like hotels and motels, but rather hit and miss at campgrounds in general.  For instance, I have never stayed in a NPS campground which had hot showers, and some of those I have stayed in have had pit toilets instead of flush toilets.  I think pretty much all of the KOA campgrounds do have hot showers, but some private campgrounds which are not franchised by KOA (such as the one I stayed in at Terlingua) have coin-operated showers in order to discourage outsiders from coming in to use the showers without paying for a tent site.  A general rule of thumb is that if the campground has RV slots, or better yet is a RV campground with tent sites, it will have hot showers and the plumbing will be to a generally high standard.

I decide whether to camp in a given town according to weather and the relative cost of campgrounds and built lodging.  A typical per-night fee for a tent site is around $15 to $25 at developed campgrounds with hot running water.  If I can find acceptable lodging in the same town for about $10 more per night, I will often take that instead.  Sometimes it is Hobson's choice--I remember a small town in Wyoming which had a large motel but no campground, and it was getting late with no guarantee there would be vacancies in the next town about 30 miles away, so I grimaced and paid $55.

I should mention that the coffee shop I used near the Oakland Marriott required you to ask at the counter for a dynamically generated wi-fi password which had to be entered at a browser login screen and gave you a maximum of two hours of wi-fi access.  I am sure there are still businesses out there which don't encumber their free wi-fi with anti-leeching measures like this, but I think they are getting harder to find in large metropolitan areas.

[Chris]

Chris:  45 MPG US or Imperial?  My last car (Rosie) usually did a little better than 30 MPG (US) in summer open-road driving.

U.S. Gallons. 1 liter per 19 km = 45 mpg. City driving gets a little worse mileage, about 1 liter per 16 km (38 mpg). That's the advantage of a light car (1100 kg) with a modern diesel injection engine. (1.5 dci). I have reached 56 mpg once on a tank in Switzerland, including a 40 mile downhill drive

[SP Cook]

IMHO,

I am a member of pretty much every brand's points system, because I travel for work a lot. 

I really prefer chains that are standardized.  For example, a Hampton Inn is a Hampton Inn.  Pretty much the same.  Contrasted to a Holiday Inn which will vary in quality and price relative to the local market from far below to far above the Hampton.

What I really look for in traveling is free internet, non-rip-off vending or other food, quiet, and a good TV with 60+ channels.  If someone had that consistantly, they would have my business.  I especially hate being in a motel with 12-20 channels of TV.

[hbelkins]

IMHO,

I am a member of pretty much every brand's points system, because I travel for work a lot. 

I really prefer chains that are standardized.  For example, a Hampton Inn is a Hampton Inn.  Pretty much the same.  Contrasted to a Holiday Inn which will vary in quality and price relative to the local market from far below to far above the Hampton.

What I really look for in traveling is free internet, non-rip-off vending or other food, quiet, and a good TV with 60+ channels.  If someone had that consistantly, they would have my business.  I especially hate being in a motel with 12-20 channels of TV.

Agreed about Hampton Inn, but it is a bit too pricey for me to choose consistently as a destination. Of course traveling for work is a lot different than traveling for one's self in terms of who's paying. Even when traveling for work, I tend to use a more inexpensive place. Outside conferences that are usually held in Loserville ... er, Louisville, about the only place I ever go for overnight is Frankfort. And there I usually stay at the Days Inn for $55 over the Hampton at $100 or the Holiday Inn Express at $100 or other places. I don't really want to waste my employer's money, plus I don't get a per diem for breakfast at Hampton because they serve a hot breakfast. I can stay at Days Inn for $55 and take a $7 per diem for breakfast and still get off cheaper than a night at the Hampton. Plus I can accrue Wyndham Rewards points for myself while staying there on business.

Plus there's the fact that I have to pay in advance (with a credit card) and then be reimbursed. In the interim I am accruing interest on the room charge, so in effect I am paying for the necessity of having to travel for business. So the cheaper the better.

[PAHighways]

I usually try to stay in places that my website has an affiliation with so I make a little coin on my stay.  Otherwise I go with a place somewhere in the $50-80/night range.

[Scott5114]

Other ways to save money include napping in your car at Walmart. Don't know about the situation in Europe, but in the US Walmart has spacious parking lots and stay open 24 hours, so you will not be disturbed by any store personnel. If you park on the end of the lot away from the store, you get to have some space to yourself. Obviously this situation is suboptimal if you are sensitive to noise. Cost is free, though, and if you need any food, drink, or toiletries, you can always go inside. You can't take a shower at Walmart, but some truck stops such as Love's offer trucker showers that you could use.

My roommate and her friend managed to make it from OKC to San Antonio and from there out to Orange County, CA by driving in shifts and the other sleeping. Obviously this method doesn't work well for roadgeeks because you have large portions of the trip with less than stellar photography. You can always stop and take a photo with flash, of course, but if you're rolling 24 hours a day then chances are you have need to get there quickly.

I stay in motels when we go places. On the longest trip I've ever done, we decided to not plan in advance and stop whenever we got done for the night. This was because of our experience with the Boy Scouts and their heavily scheduled, pre-planned, approved, copied in triplicate, signed, stored in a retrieval system, scrupulously followed method of stopping at motels on our trip to South Dakota. That was was too stressful. Instead, on our trip to DC, we decided on a place to stay when we were too tired to continue driving or conditions were unfavorable. Thus, we didn't have to stop while we could still make some more mileage that evening, nor have to push ourselves to make a certain destination before falling asleep. It worked fantastically, as we were not expecting to be able to make it from DC to Dayton, OH in one day on the way back.

[US71]

Other ways to save money include napping in your car at Walmart. Don't know about the situation in Europe, but in the US Walmart has spacious parking lots and stay open 24 hours, so you will not be disturbed by any store personnel. If you park on the end of the lot away from the store, you get to have some space to yourself. Obviously this situation is suboptimal if you are sensitive to noise. Cost is free, though, and if you need any food, drink, or toiletries, you can always go inside. You can't take a shower at Walmart, but some truck stops such as Love's offer trucker showers that you could use.

I have a friend who drives an RV and stops at Wal-Mart. I'd be nervous in a car (or my "war wagon") about being mugged.

[Scott5114]

I'd be nervous in a car (or my "war wagon") about being mugged.

And you don't at a motel?

Lock all the doors, and if someone knocks on your door with a gun, you can drive away quick.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I've stayed in a couple Red Roof Inns. They weren't bad, but I've been in better places.

I also had the unfortunate pleasure of staying at a Howard Johnson in Springfield, IL for one night. The first room they gave me had mold everywhere, and I didn't want to use the shower in there... I complained to the person on duty (who wasn't the manager), and he panicked and gave me a $200/night corporate suite (clean of course) for free. It was interesting walking through the office later that night to find the manager yelling at the poor guy over the phone.

[US71]

I also had the unfortunate pleasure of staying at a Howard Johnson in Springfield, IL for one night. The first room they gave me had mold everywhere, and I didn't want to use the shower in there... I complained to the person on duty (who wasn't the manager), and he panicked and gave me a $200/night corporate suite (clean of course) for free.

May have been the same HOJO I stayed at 6-7 years ago (it was an old Ramada Inn, judging by the architecture)

[Dougtone]

Other ways to save money include napping in your car at Walmart. Don't know about the situation in Europe, but in the US Walmart has spacious parking lots and stay open 24 hours, so you will not be disturbed by any store personnel. If you park on the end of the lot away from the store, you get to have some space to yourself. Obviously this situation is suboptimal if you are sensitive to noise. Cost is free, though, and if you need any food, drink, or toiletries, you can always go inside. You can't take a shower at Walmart, but some truck stops such as Love's offer trucker showers that you could use.

I've stopped to take a nap at a rest area or Wal-Mart for a few hours, as I was trying to get some rest so I could continue on my way, or in some cases, close enough to home to where I didn't feel it was necessary to find a hotel for the night.

[SSOWorld]

I've napped in a rest area once or twice - one time after I got a little stomach sick.

[realjd]

I'm a Hilton hhonors gold member (frequent business travel), so I tend to look for Hilton-brand hotels if I can. Embassy Suites is my favorite, but can be pricey. For road trips, usually I like to stay at a Hampton Inn or a Hilton Garden Inn. Every once in a while you can find a Doubletree or a Hilton that's the same price as the local Hampton Inn, but you have to book in advance. Same goes for Homewood Suites.

If I can't find a Hilton-brand hotel, Holiday Inn Express is good and consistent (although I've stayed at some real nice Holiday Inns lately), as is Marriott Courtyard and Fairfield Inn.

Personally, I've found that the cheaper hotels to be too inconsistent for my tastes. Even within the same chain, there are real nice locations and real bad ones for the cheap hotels. I'd rather pay the extra $25 per night for consistent quality. And there's other benefits to consider. Residence Inn and Homewood Suites offer a free hot dinner (with free beer) and breakfast. Embassy Suites has a free open bar every evening and a free hot breakfast. Since I'm hhonors gold, I get a free hot breakfast at HGI as well. If you add in the value of the freebies, it makes the more expensive hotel not look quite as pricey.

Of course, I'm at a place in my life where I can afford a bit nicer hotel, and all of the business travel has spoiled me, so I'm picky about hotels now!

[Truvelo]

Other ways to save money include napping in your car at Walmart. Don't know about the situation in Europe, but in the US Walmart has spacious parking lots and stay open 24 hours, so you will not be disturbed by any store personnel.

Over here most stores have notices that say parking for customers only and those near train stations or other public buildings have a 2 hour limit to stop people parking there and taking the train into town. Some stores also have barriers at the exit whereby you need to produce a receipt to prove you've bought something from the store to exit for free otherwise it's a £5 ($8) fee. To get around this you just need to purchase a small amount of candy or something.

[Scott5114]

Walmart here is a bit unique in that the parking lot often is bigger than the store itself. The Norman Westside parking lot is so large I have never seen it more than half-full. When I went on a trip with agentsteel around SW Oklahoma and Texas, we left his car at the Walmart in Elk City at 6 am and didn't return until midnight, and I believe he even slept a bit more after that before returning to Capulin. Nobody said a peep!

[US71]

Walmart here is a bit unique in that the parking lot often is bigger than the store itself.

And there is NO logical reason for that... but I'll shut up and stay on topic

[hbelkins]

Walmart has an unofficial policy of allowing RVers to park overnight in their parking lots. Reason being is that the visitors will often run in there to do some shopping. I remember reading a news story a few years ago contrasting Walmart's ways to Kmart, which actively discouraged if not prohibited overnight parking of RVs. The feedback I remember was, "OK, if we can't park there, we won't shop there and we will go somewhere that welcomes our business."

[US71]

Walmart has an unofficial policy of allowing RVers to park overnight in their parking lots. Reason being is that the visitors will often run in there to do some shopping.

Some of the RV guides will tell you which stores allow overnight parking. I've noticed a lot of semi trucks also park in their lots.