Whenever my uncle and I take a road trip to Augusta, GA to see his daughter, we tend to stay at the Knights Inn off of I-20 and Washington Blvd. We go there because it's inexpensive and is less than a mile from his daughter's apartment. Now, you may ask yourself, "Why don't we stay with her instead at a hotel?" That's another story for another day.
If you're just looking for a place to spend the night, I find Motel 6 to be pretty reliable. It's cheap, and you know what you are getting and most of them I find seem to be pretty well-kept for the most part.
Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn are my favorites, but I've also had good luck with Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, and Marriott Courtyard. Yes, there are cheaper hotels, but these brands are much more consistent with their quality. I'll pay a bit more for a hotel I know is nice rather than gamble on a place like Motel 6 to save a few bucks.
Embassy Suites is still my all-time favorite chain.
the first place I find that's under 50 bucks and has wireless internet. Under 30 is nice, but getting harder and harder to find. I did stay for $27 in Williams, AZ in September, but the $9/night motels in Gallup, NM are a thing of the past.
Any hotel chain that is affiliated with (http://www.pahighways.com/store/reservations.html) my website.
Quote from: realjd on June 22, 2010, 01:47:57 PM
Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn are my favorites, but I've also had good luck with Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, and Marriott Courtyard. Yes, there are cheaper hotels, but these brands are much more consistent with their quality. I'll pay a bit more for a hotel I know is nice rather than gamble on a place like Motel 6 to save a few bucks.
I have to agree with you there. During my early visits to the States I stayed at places around the $50 mark such as Motel 6, Super 8 etc. These are of variable quality and I've stayed at some really nice ones and some rotten ones. When I stayed at one in Casa Grande, AZ last year it changed my mind on budget accommodation forever. I can put up with the odd hair on linen but having the pillows stink of someone else's sweat and finding blood on most of the towels, plus the air conditioner rattled away all night I decided that was the end for el-cheapo accommodation.
Now I look at the $100 mark. It does make a week long vacation more expensive but I know the standard is much higher. Places I stay at now are Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn (& Express), Best Western, Crowne Plaza and places of that caliber. I must admit the best hotel I've stayed at was the Marriott near Denver Airport. The rooms are $200 but the airline paid as the plane was full.
There is not really a motel culture in Europe. There are plenty of hotels, but most of them are not intended for the one-night traveler. You can usually drive through an entire Euro country in one day. Only France has a slight motel culture with those F1 motels. About € 40 / $ 50 per night is the limit for me, but you can't find much for that kind of money, especially when you're traveling without reservations.
I usually go camping, it's rarely over € 12 / $ 15 per night, and it's nice to be "outside" after a long trip. I drive a van, so I carry a mattress instead of those inflatable horror things. Quite some European campings offer wifi these days, sometimes even for free. I was in Slovenia and Switzerland last year on a camping with wifi, very convenient.
We have F1 motels in the UK too. I've never had to use them as I can drive to 90% of mainland UK in one day.
Quote from: Truvelo on June 22, 2010, 02:27:58 PM
having the pillows stink of someone else's sweat and finding blood on most of the towels
that is when you go to the next motel down the street. For me, the decision was once made when I witnessed a drug deal taking place in the parking lot.
if the motel charges you even if you return the key within several minutes (something they're liable to do, given their general sleaziness), you can call your credit card company. Said drug-den motel tried that trick, but after Visa threatened to take away their merchant account, they changed their tune and reversed the charges.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 22, 2010, 03:10:34 PM
that is when you go to the next motel down the street. For me, the decision was once made when I witnessed a drug deal taking place in the parking lot.
Lol, I can see that just looking out the window from my apartment, and this neighborhood isn't even considered bad. (but then again, the Dutch are very lax (too lax) about drugs.)
Quote from: Chris on June 22, 2010, 03:16:00 PM
Lol, I can see that just looking out the window from my apartment, and this neighborhood isn't even considered bad. (but then again, the Dutch are very lax (too lax) about drugs.)
exactly. In the US, drug dealing is pushed so far underground by senseless laws, that you just don't want to interact with your friendly neighborhood drug dealer.
I usually look in the $70/night range or above (based on Midwestern standards). This typically includes Ramada, Holiday Inn, Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Best Western, etc. I tend to shy away from Motel 6.
Generally I stay in Hilton Garden Inn, Marriott Courtyard, Hampton Inn, and Crowne Plaza level places. But rarely do I ever spend a night on the road; usually I stay at these places for at least 2 nights. Last time I spent nights on the road (on my Florida trip), I stayed at the Comfort Inn, both down and back, I think.
Quote from: huskeroadgeek on June 22, 2010, 01:46:12 PM
If you're just looking for a place to spend the night, I find Motel 6 to be pretty reliable. It's cheap, and you know what you are getting and most of them I find seem to be pretty well-kept for the most part.
I usually go for Super 8s. A cut above Motel 6s, better TV channel selection, and much better availability for off-Interstate travels like I've been doing lately. The quality of the free breakfast is uneven, but it helps in really small towns with limited restaurant selection.
How safe is sleeping in your car? Any chance you could get robbed?
I would feel uncomfortable if strangers could watch me sleep in my car.
Quote from: Chris on June 22, 2010, 06:02:25 PM
How safe is sleeping in your car? Any chance you could get robbed?
I would feel uncomfortable if strangers could watch me sleep in my car.
I have done it hundreds of times, but always in rural or suburban environments. Usually a parking spot just off the main drag in a small town is perfect. I've never had any sort of a problem.
Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I've never had any bad experiences at Motel 6 or any other budget motel. I usually try to find out as much as I can about any motel first before I stay there-I check Trip Advisor and see what reviews(if any) that there are for what motel I am looking at and Street View is also useful to kind of get a feel for the general area if I'm unfamiliar with it. Safety is always my first priority though-if I don't think I can find a cheap motel that is safe, I'll go for something more expensive.
I try to stay at Wyndham hotels whenever possible (due to their rewards program that nets free hotels often)- usually it's Super 8, but I've been getting decent deals at Baymonts lately. I also have found a great service/room per dollar ratio at La Quinta. I generally won't pay more than $75 including taxes with AAA discount, and if the reviews look good on whatever website for hotels under $60 I try as hard as possible to stay in those- my problem is I'm often staying in random off-interstate towns with limited selection, so I frequently end up having to use whatever the one chain is in town (I try to use chains whenever it's even sort of cost effective, though). I have had good luck at a couple non-chains, notably the Econo Inn in Worland WY, which was a really clean (albeit really really old) room next door to the really pricy Days Inn (and close enough to use their internet!) for $40, which I stayed at for 3 nights back last September to clinch a bunch of NW Wyoming highways, and I couldn't really convince myself to pay $80/night for three nights for the Days Inn next door.
I'll always look at Hotwire too if I'm staying in a major metro area- there's generally really solid deals to be found- I stayed at a Four Points by Sheraton by KCI (MCI) in October for $54 after fees, which was incredible.
On that note, if I'm on a multi day road trip I try to alternate one night at a hotel with one night of sleeping in the car- this can be challenging in the winter, but in the summer there's no reason for me to pay to sleep for one night, particularly if I'm renting a sedan with fold down back seats where I can sleep partially in the trunk- my Jeep is about 6 inches too short for comfortable seats-folded-down sleeping, but I'll usually rent a fuel-efficient car for multi day trips because the savings in gas generally offsets the rental costs.
When I sleep in the car, I'll try to find a minimal cost campground. Wal-Mart can work too since there's generally other overnighters, the lot is well lit, and some cities (Boise, Laramie for sure) have a cop go over there to patrol occasionally to make sure the overnighters are OK. I do keep a switchblade on me and quickly accessible at all times (when in a state where possession of one is legal) when I'm doing that in case safety becomes a concern. I'll also build a fire if I'm at a campground and it's not fire season so it looks like I may be awake.
The Holiday Inn Riverwalk, in San Antonio works for me, heh-heh. Stayed there in October, with my schools volleyball team ;) (long story), and it's awesome, it's 23 stories, each room has a balcony, which is very nice when you're on the 19th floor. Had a great view, you could see all the downtown buildings (cause you're downtown), AND you could see I-10/35 (or whatever), and I-37, the Alamodome, and several other interesting landmarks. But we stayed there with the TEA discount thingamajig, which made it like $80 per night(?) But my parents (I don't really decide where to stay[yet]) usually stay at LaQuinta Inns, thats pretty much it. But in Kansas we stayed at a Ramada Inn, then in Wichita, KS, we stayed at, I think a Days Inn(?). But I think that LaQuinta's are good hotels, some Motel 6's are okay, but last time I stayed at one in San Antonio (Wurzbach Rd and I-10 Frontage Rd) I saw like 6 police cars outside a room across the drive thing (the "road" between the "wings"(lack of a better word) or the rooms), and later I saw them arrest a man.... But if I was gonna stay anywhere It'd be LaQuinta.
BigMatt
Until recently, I've been partial to the small independents (mostly because I don't like coughing up 10 percent of my room rate to some corporate conglomerate), but the quality is so variable. I've been leaning towards Motel 6 as of late, but have also tried Econo-Lodge & Ramada.
I don't have a strong preference except clean, quiet & relatively inexpensive.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 22, 2010, 03:10:34 PM
that is when you go to the next motel down the street. For me, the decision was once made when I witnessed a drug deal taking place in the parking lot.
Reminds me of a Motel 6 I stayed at a few years ago. As I was getting up there was a car circling the parking lot. About 1/2 hour later some cops pulled up and pointed guns at the man in the green top. By the time I got the camera out the man had given up. In the first picture the cop has pulled something out of the man's pocket. In the second picture it is placed on the hood.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedcam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk%2Fhotel1.jpg&hash=f87c27ba7f97fa87bdea96d648af1ec03c5a6e17)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedcam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk%2Fhotel2.jpg&hash=be1b6cfb1f9d7e070e268e4dea898789c997a2de)
Quote from: Truvelo on June 24, 2010, 07:23:54 AM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 22, 2010, 03:10:34 PM
that is when you go to the next motel down the street. For me, the decision was once made when I witnessed a drug deal taking place in the parking lot.
the next thing I hear is "that aint mine"
Reminds me of a Motel 6 I stayed at a few years ago. As I was getting up there was a car circling the parking lot. About 1/2 hour later some cops pulled up and pointed guns at the man in the green top. By the time I got the camera out the man had given up. In the first picture the cop has pulled something out of the man's pocket. In the second picture it is placed on the hood.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedcam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk%2Fhotel1.jpg&hash=f87c27ba7f97fa87bdea96d648af1ec03c5a6e17)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedcam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk%2Fhotel2.jpg&hash=be1b6cfb1f9d7e070e268e4dea898789c997a2de)
Quote from: Truvelo on June 24, 2010, 07:23:54 AM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on June 22, 2010, 03:10:34 PM
that is when you go to the next motel down the street. For me, the decision was once made when I witnessed a drug deal taking place in the parking lot.
Reminds me of a Motel 6 I stayed at a few years ago. As I was getting up there was a car circling the parking lot. About 1/2 hour later some cops pulled up and pointed guns at the man in the green top. By the time I got the camera out the man had given up. In the first picture the cop has pulled something out of the man's pocket. In the second picture it is placed on the hood.
Photos of cops do a good job :-D
Is it just something with Motel 6's?? I saw a man who prolly would have resisted arrest if it weren't for there being like 6 officers there, this was at a Motel 6 too, and that was across the street from a like 10 Drury Inn and Suites, so it wasn't the bad side of San Antonio, I've been to the bad side of San Antonio... But this Motel 6 was weird, it had all wood floors instead of carpet, which isn't bad, cause who actually like dirty carpet, I know they vacuum it, but that doesn't get ALL the dirt out of it. But other than that weirdness, the motel was fine, it even had a pool. I like pools.... ;-)
BigMatt
I normally have good luck with Holiday Inns, namely in Emporia, VA, Blacksburg, VA and just outside Petersburg, VA. I did have a really bad experience in one in Roanoke. All but the one in Blacksburg were Expresses too. I'm a Marriott member, so those are preferred and I really havent had a problem with them. I tend to avoid Best Westerns and the places that just scream out "DIVE!" after a couple bad stays, though I did find a good BW in Boston, except for its location.
Our family made the mistake of staying at an Econo Lodge at exit 94 (GA 204) off I-95 in Savannah, GA. Worst hotel ever. Smelled awful, bugs everywhere, and even a poor family living in the room next to us.
Quote from: BigMatt on June 25, 2010, 03:42:37 AM
this Motel 6 was weird, it had all wood floors instead of carpet, which isn't bad, cause who actually like dirty carpet, I know they vacuum it, but that doesn't get ALL the dirt out of it.
Wood or wood-colored vinyl? I've stayed at several Motel 6's that had wood colored vinyl flooring :-|
Quote from: US71 on June 25, 2010, 02:57:13 PM
Quote from: BigMatt on June 25, 2010, 03:42:37 AM
this Motel 6 was weird, it had all wood floors instead of carpet, which isn't bad, cause who actually like dirty carpet, I know they vacuum it, but that doesn't get ALL the dirt out of it.
Wood or wood-colored vinyl? I've stayed at several Motel 6's that had wood colored vinyl flooring :-|
Well wood colored vinyl, it looked newly installed, or as new a vinyl flooring can look :/
Quote from: BigMatt on June 25, 2010, 05:36:26 PM
Well wood colored vinyl, it looked newly installed, or as new a vinyl flooring can look :/
A lot of M6's are going to that. I don't like it, myself.
I don't really stay in hotels/motels all that often, or have nearly as bad of a horror story as most of you guys do, but the one Best Western I stayed at, in Tennessee, was kinda weird. The lighting was extremely yellow and while it wasn't obviously unclean, it just felt off somehow. When we went to pay and leave in the morning, the desk clerk was asleep on the couch and we had to wake him up to get him to take the keys back and such.
I stayed at an independent in Mississippi back in March. The smoke alarm was broken, the lamp was broken and half the light bulbs were missing. I complained to the desk clerk who suddenly forgot how to speak English, until I showed her my camera and told her I had taken photos.
5 minutes later, the owner came down to investigate. Again, no one spoke English until I whipped out my camera and took another picture. Shortly thereafter, the light bulbs were replaced, the lamp was replaced & a new smoke alarm was installed.
Kind of makes me wonder what they would have done if I hadn't brought a camera with me. :eyebrow:
I've discovered too that you can still find some old 40s/50s era "mom and pop"-type independent motels that are still relatively clean and well-kept. A few years ago, I stayed in one in Tucumcari, NM because of reservations made through Hotwire.com. It was the typical old mom and pop type motel-1 floor with about 20 rooms arranged around a pool. You park your car literally right in front of your door. What I liked the most about it was the size of the room. I've been so used to chain motels(especially Motel 6) where the room is fairly cramped that this room seemed huge in comparison. The furniture and the decor was a little old, but it was clean. The TV was good quality and had a full slate of cable channels available, something that isn't true at all budget motels. One of the more interesting things was the free continental breakfast they offered(something which I wouldn't have expected at a small motel like that). It consisted of small, individually-wrapped cereal boxes and milk and orange juice which were kept in a refrigerator behind the office desk. The whole experience had a "retro" feel to it and was quite enjoyable.
Most of the independent motels here pretty much get turned into apartments, the one across the street from my school has druggies, drunks, pedophiles, and other weird people, then the other ones used as motels are full of yet again, druggies, drunks, pedophiles, and "dancers". So if anyone comes to San Angelo, I'd stay at the new Marriott, or one of the "nicer" hotels here. The 14 or 15 story Cactus Hotel was one of the first Hilton hotels to open, but it closed a while ago.
BigMatt
Speaking of old motels:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/25/2044124/overland-park-landmark-the-white.html
Quote from: US71 on June 26, 2010, 06:58:01 PM
Speaking of old motels:
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/25/2044124/overland-park-landmark-the-white.html
I stayed at that motel one time about 20 years ago on a family vacation.
I've been doing the Wyndham route lately myself. I've joined choice, marriott and Priority club as well. For rural areas I'll trust the Super 8's. For bigger cities - I tend to the Choices, HIE's and Marriott Fairfield/Courtyards. (I definitely won't stay at the Marriott Marquis on Time Square that's for sure) I stayed at a Travelodge in Davenport IA on memorial day weekend after a flight arrival at 10:00 pm. I was lucky I reserved because they had busloads book at the last minute w/o reservations (there and the 6 acc the street). The room looked awful, I had to reprogram the TV (yes I was able to), the AC worked like shit, and there was a dirty washcloth on the Shower rod. I drove home (1 hr north) the next morning and showered there instead. You do get what you pay for.
Quote from: BigMatt on June 26, 2010, 05:56:20 PM
Most of the independent motels here pretty much get turned into apartments, the one across the street from my school has druggies, drunks, pedophiles, and other weird people, then the other ones used as motels are full of yet again, druggies, drunks, pedophiles, and "dancers". So if anyone comes to San Angelo, I'd stay at the new Marriott, or one of the "nicer" hotels here. The 14 or 15 story Cactus Hotel was one of the first Hilton hotels to open, but it closed a while ago.
BigMatt
There's a place here in Jackson called the Catalina Apartments that used to be a hotel back in the day. I don't know of the kind of people that stay there, but it wouldn't be a place where I'd wanna live.
Quote from: Master son on June 27, 2010, 03:21:52 AM
I've been doing the Wyndham route lately myself. I've joined choice, marriott and Priority club as well. For rural areas I'll trust the Super 8's. For bigger cities - I tend to the Choices, HIE's and Marriott Fairfield/Courtyards. (I definitely won't stay at the Marriott Marquis on Time Square that's for sure) I stayed at a Travelodge in Davenport IA on memorial day weekend after a flight arrival at 10:00 pm. I was lucky I reserved because they had busloads book at the last minute w/o reservations (there and the 6 acc the street). The room looked awful, I had to reprogram the TV (yes I was able to), the AC worked like shit, and there was a dirty washcloth on the Shower rod. I drove home (1 hr north) the next morning and showered there instead. You do get what you pay for.
TraveLodge has fallen from what they used to be 20-30 years ago... now that they are Wyndham, they are almost as close to scraping bottom as Knight's Inn is.
QuoteTraveLodge has fallen from what they used to be 20-30 years ago... now that they are Wyndham, they are almost as close to scraping bottom as Knight's Inn is.
I've stayed at a few Travelodges over the last few years. What I've noticed:
Ephrata, WA: Not bad
Walla Walla WA: Really really bad
Laramie WY: Good, actually
Colorado Springs CO: Really bad
Missoula MT: Not bad
The one in Walla Walla was really run down and not very clean- it didn't help that I was on a family vacation with the dogs, which meant we got the worst room of the bunch, probably. Colorado Springs just smelled really funny and the walls were paper thin. Laramie was very comfortable, and Ephrata was comfortable but had an overly active managing family that had friends over who were making noise and drinking in the parking lot. The one in Missoula wasn't horrible, but wasn't particularly clean and was really really old.
That said, I try to avoid them whenever humanly possible.
I tend toward the Super 8 and Days Inn chains of the Wyndham group myself.
My brother and I stayed exclusively in Days Inn in VA, NC and TN last month on the Charlotte trip. And, we're staying at a Day's Inn in Florida next weekend.
To me, they are a good compromise between price and quality. (Though, even the quality of the three we staying in varied significantly.)
There's also an America's Best Value Inn in Florence, KY that we frequent on the way to PA.
Something I've noticed (can't help it, worked in too many hotels): if a hotel keeps re-branding itself every few years, their standards are probably slipping.
Overall, Hilton brands (Hilton, DoubleTree, Homewood, etc) have the highest standards, but also the highest franchise & commission fees.
Wyndham (Super 8, Ramada, Knight's Inn) is widely variable, even amongst individual brands.
America's Best Value is widely variable, but generally tends to scrape bottom.
Quote from: US71 on June 28, 2010, 10:07:47 AM
Something I've noticed (can't help it, worked in too many hotels): if a hotel keeps re-branding itself every few years, their standards are probably slipping.
Overall, Hilton brands (Hilton, DoubleTree, Homewood, etc) have the highest standards, but also the highest franchise & commission fees.
Wyndham (Super 8, Ramada, Knight's Inn) is widely variable, even amongst individual brands.
America's Best Value is widely variable, but generally tends to scrape bottom.
I've seen a bunch of hotels that were previously bad re-brand themselves and stay equally subpar, so you're definitely right. I think Wyndham group does change it up with some of their individual hotels like Super 8s and Ramadas, and kind of play switcheroo with them.
Why do there need to be so many different brands within the same group?
Quote from: Truvelo on June 29, 2010, 08:50:30 AM
Why do there need to be so many different brands within the same group?
Different market segments, although there has been a little consolidation in branding (e.g., all remaining AmeriHost properties rebranded as Baymont).
Quote from: Truvelo on June 29, 2010, 08:50:30 AM
Why do there need to be so many different brands within the same group?
Short answer: different levels of service/different consumer markets
Longer answer: corporate conglomerates bought up a lot of independent hotel chains in the 80's & 90's.
We used to stay almost exclusively at Microtel, but now that they're a Wyndham brand, I'm afraid that's probably not going to happen as much anymore.
We'll see what happens, but I can see us staying at more Quality Inns (always have had luck for whatever reason) and the sort.
I can see you all have issues with the Wyndham brand. What's up with that? Of course - that's right - some sucky hotels.
Yeah, every one of those midservice chains from Wyndham just seems to be built by the Department of "well, let's slap a logo a lot of travelers remember from the Good Ole' Days on a building Motel 6 wouldn't want"
QuoteYeah, every one of those midservice chains from Wyndham just seems to be built by the Department of "well, let's slap a logo a lot of travelers remember from the Good Ole' Days on a building Motel 6 wouldn't want"
Wyndham hotels are remarkably inconsistent, but a lot of them are pretty nice buildings. Some are absolutely atrocious, but others are quite nice. The trick with Wyndham hotels is to check the reviews online before blindly booking. If you don't do your research ahead of time on the specific hotel, you very well could be disappointed. If you put the time in to make sure the hotel you're staying at is decent, you can get a pretty nice deal.
I've stayed at Super 8s that are nicer and cheaper than Ramadas I've stayed at (compare the Super 8 in Evanston, Wyoming to the Ramada on Shawnee Mission in Overland Park for example), which is really weird but I guess that's the way it is. If Wyndham would take all their hotels and start fresh, rebranding them according to quality, I think people's perception of them would be a lot better. As it is now, the quality varies so much within one hotel brand that it's hard to know what you're getting without doing a decent amount of legwork ahead of time.
Quote from: corco on June 29, 2010, 09:32:26 PM
QuoteYeah, every one of those midservice chains from Wyndham just seems to be built by the Department of "well, let's slap a logo a lot of travelers remember from the Good Ole' Days on a building Motel 6 wouldn't want"
Wyndham hotels are remarkably inconsistent, but a lot of them are pretty nice buildings. Some are absolutely atrocious, but others are quite nice. The trick with Wyndham hotels is to check the reviews online before blindly booking. If you don't do your research ahead of time on the specific hotel, you very well could be disappointed. If you put the time in to make sure the hotel you're staying at is decent, you can get a pretty nice deal.
I've stayed at Super 8s that are nicer and cheaper than Ramadas I've stayed at (compare the Super 8 in Evanston, Wyoming to the Ramada on Shawnee Mission in Overland Park for example), which is really weird but I guess that's the way it is. If Wyndham would take all their hotels and start fresh, rebranding them according to quality, I think people's perception of them would be a lot better. As it is now, the quality varies so much within one hotel brand that it's hard to know what you're getting without doing a decent amount of legwork ahead of time.
No doubt. Wyndham needs some quality control with its related chains and badly.
Has anyone stayed at the Magnuson Hotels since they started popping up everywhere (mostly from Best Westerns, it seems)
Quote from: exit322 on June 29, 2010, 09:42:41 PM
No doubt. Wyndham needs some quality control with its related chains and badly.
Probably need some inspectors who aren't wusses and will choose
for themselves which rooms to inspect rather than which ones the owner or manager wants inspected. Or else Wyndham needs to enforce their standards a lot stricter.
I'd love to be an inspector, but they only hire people with at least 10 years of management experience. :meh:
Quote from: exit322 on June 29, 2010, 09:42:41 PM
No doubt. Wyndham needs some quality control with its related chains and badly.
Not surprising, there are a number of Wyndham hotels in Birmingham that are dumps, some even in decent parts of town.
Here's one I stayed at in San Antonio:
http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/satrw/hoteldetail#Photos-Tours
Here's San Angelo's newest one:
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-photos/sjtsh-springhill-suites-san-angelo/
I've walked through the SpringHill, and of course I stayed at the Holiday Inn.
BigMatt
^^ Interesting, the Springhill Suites near where I live has the building style of a Hampton Inn.
^^
Ironically, there is not a Spring Hill Suites in Spring Hill, TN! :sombrero:
Quote from: mightyace on June 30, 2010, 01:37:40 AM
^^
Ironically, there is not a Spring Hill Suites in Spring Hill, TN!
Not only that, there is neither a Homewood Suites in Homewood, AL nor a Fairfield Inn in Fairfield, AL. :-D
Quote from: jdb1234 on June 30, 2010, 01:08:11 AM
^^ Interesting, the Springhill Suites near where I live has the building style of a Hampton Inn.
The one here is VERY modern, and it's by far the nicest in San Angelo, we have another one Microtel under construction, I've heard bad reviews about this brand....
BigMatt
I try to stay in either Wyndham or Choice Hotels properties because of the rewards program. (I got both nights of my trip to the Canton, Ohio meet free, I will be able to have two of my three nights in Marshalltown, Iowa for next month's meet free of charge and I may be able to get a night or two of the trip there and back free as well). Recently I've been sticking to Choice brands because of some of the promotions they've been running. I can't recall seeing a Wyndham promotion for free nights.
Generally, I like inexpensive. For a year or so I stayed at Hamptons exclusively but to me, $100 a night is way too much to pay for a place to sleep, shower in the morning, and surf the Internet while I'm in the room. I try to look for rooms in the $50 to $60 range and very often Super 8, Days Inn, Econo Lodge and even some Comfort Inns or Quality Inns fit that criterion. I use AAA or government employee discounts where applicable. It pays to check both rates, sometimes one will be cheaper than the other.
I've used Motel 6 in the past when other places were full, there were none nearby, or they were prohibitively expensive.
I used to try to stay at Microtel Inns because of their "stay 9 nights, get 1 free" program but they aren't in a lot of markets and they have been absorbed into Wyndham's chain and rewards program. However I was able to get my stay in Oklahoma City free when I was cashing in those nights before their program closed.
My preference is for motels with exterior corridors where I can park right in front of my room. I like rooms with refrigerators and wi-fi is a must (although on my recent trip I stayed at a Rodeway Inn in Rehoboth Beach, Del. with no wi-fi but I was able to tether my jailbroken iPad to my laptop and the 3G speeds were comparable to wi-fi). I'm not super-picky as to the level of cleanliness. It doesn't have to be spotless. But I don't want used towels on the rack or garbage in the trash cans or anything like that.
Trip Advisor reviews can be way off, in my experience. I have seen some terrible reviews of places that I love, including the Days Inn where I stay every time I have to go to Frankfort on business.
As a member of AAA, I look at their recommended properties, but a lot of their listings are too rich for my blood.
I've really had mostly good experiences at all the places I've stayed. In a few of them, the wi-fi didn't work but I was able to get online going through my iPhone so there was no problem. The last night of my last trip, at the Econo Lodge in Terre Haute, Ind., was probably the worst one I've had. I asked for a non-smoking room but was given a smoking room. I got reassigned to a different room, and it was obvious that the property was older, but everything was fine except the AC was struggling to cool the room down and it was in the 90s.
My work duties sometimes take me to expensive properties in Louisville or Lexington. Quite honestly, I don't enjoy those stays. Parking is difficult, especially in downtown Louisville, and I don't find the quality to be much better than a typical cheap place where I would normally stay.
Quote from: hbelkins on June 30, 2010, 12:47:47 PMtether my jailbroken iPad to my laptop and the 3G speeds were comparable to wi-fi
speaking of this trick, does anyone know how to jailbreak a Blackberry Curve to be able to do this? The blackberry has a perfectly good USB connector but I've never seen an app that allows anyone to use it as a wireless adapter.
Quote from: hbelkins on June 30, 2010, 12:47:47 PM
My preference is for motels with exterior corridors where I can park right in front of my room.
Ew, really? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they prefer that. While it's not a dealbreaker for me, I will usually go out of my way to avoid hotels like that.
Quote from: realjd on June 30, 2010, 01:23:07 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on June 30, 2010, 12:47:47 PM
My preference is for motels with exterior corridors where I can park right in front of my room.
Ew, really? I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they prefer that. While it's not a dealbreaker for me, I will usually go out of my way to avoid hotels like that.
For me, it depends on the area. In larger cities, I generally prefer interior corridors because of safety and noise reasons. But for smaller cities, I like exterior corridors because of the ability to park in front of your door(if you have a ground-level room of course) and the ease that it offers for packing and unpacking the car. I also like exterior corridors because of the nostalgic feel it gives me for family vacations when I was growing up-my family nearly always stayed at independent motels with exterior corridors.
I actually prefer exterior corridors, particularly if I'm in kind of a sketchy area. For one, if somebody tries to break into my car I'm only 10 feet away from it so I can A) hear it, B) see it, and C) either act on it or call the cops and have a good description of what's going on. I also don't like walking through lobbies for whatever reason, so if I'm in an interior hotel I'll usually find the back door, but I generally prefer to have my own door to the outside.
I see no validity to indoor corridors - it's just one more door I have to open, usually while being laden down with luggage, and with the door requiring a keycard access. Until I learn to use a keycard reader with my nose and forehead, they will remain an obstacle.
with an outdoor corridor, I pull right up to my door, open it once, and then shovel everything in with several short trips.
Quote from: corco on June 30, 2010, 03:32:18 PM
I actually prefer exterior corridors, particularly if I'm in kind of a sketchy area. For one, if somebody tries to break into my car I'm only 10 feet away from it so I can A) hear it, B) see it, and C) either act on it or call the cops and have a good description of what's going on. I also don't like walking through lobbies for whatever reason, so if I'm in an interior hotel I'll usually find the back door, but I generally prefer to have my own door to the outside.
Security is exactly why I prefer interior corridors, especially in sketchy areas. It's too easy for someone to break into a hotel room if they don't need to go through a lobby/keycard door to get to the room. I avoid first-floor rooms often for this same reason. Plus, with indoor corridors, I don't have to worry about getting robbed on the way to the ice machine.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but hotel breakins and robberies are in the news constantly here in the Orlando area, even in the touristy areas. It's almost never in a hotel with indoor corridors.
I do always take my electronics in when I'm parked at a hotel though (GPS, satellite radio, radar detector, etc.) to make my car a less appealing target. Other than that, I'm not too concerned about someone breaking into my car for whatever reason.
I figure with a deadbolt and lock the room is fairly secure. My thought is that especially in the more inexpensive hotels, there often isn't somebody sitting behind the front desk all the time (hence the ring bell for service bells), so if they want to break in all they have is one extra unlocked door to open. That admittedly is a pretty big psychological barrier to cross, however. That said, it seems that most robberies/breakins happen when the person is not in the room- it's pretty dumb to break in to a hotel room when somebody is in it (especially with exterior entrances where it's easy to tell if somebody is in the room or not- if there's no car nearby there's probably nobody in the room), so I just keep my valuables with me at all times. If I'm in the room, they're in the room and out of sight. If I'm in the car, that's where my valuables are.
My Dad actually last a laptop a few years ago at the Red Lion in Kennewick WA. He was on a first floor room with an indoor entrance, but he left his laptop visible from the window and the thief broke the window to get to the laptop.
I figure if they break in and I'm in the room, I am capable of semi-defending myself to the point that help can arrive. If I can't defend myself, I'll be dead and I won't care because I'll be dead. If somebody knocks on the door and I'm in the room, I'll call the lobby before opening the door to verify that they are supposed to be there. If I'm not in the room, there's nothing I can do, so if I'm not in the room my valuables aren't either.
I don't really care if somebody breaks into the hotel room- my concern for hotel property isn't that great. My concern for my car is, however, so I like to be near it. If someone broke into my hotel room and didn't find anything (as they won't when I'm not there) I'd just say "well that guy is stupid." but if they broke into my car and didn't find anything (as they won't when I'm not there) I'd be pretty pissed.
There's certainly not a correct answer to the indoor/outdoor debate for safety- I think it's just a matter of personal preference.
Quote from: realjd on June 30, 2010, 05:15:54 PM
Security is exactly why I prefer interior corridors, especially in sketchy areas.
I try not to stop in sketchy areas. If I can't find some nice quiet sensible-looking town, I'll just keep driving until I can.
I'll add my comments regarding inside vs outside corridors. I prefer inside ones for the security reasons mentioned. I also prefer them due to the luxury of walking on deep pile carpets. I agree that outside corridors are handy for quick access to your car but a 5 minute walk to car is no problem to me.
When choosing a hotel in advance I look at a website called tripadvisor and read the reviews. I also check the area for crime statistics and poverty so I avoid sketchy areas at all costs. When I stayed in Phoenix last year I avoided the area to the west of Sky Harbor for this reason.
Quote from: Truvelo on June 30, 2010, 06:21:57 PM
I'll add my comments regarding inside vs outside corridors. I prefer inside ones for the security reasons mentioned. I also prefer them due to the luxury of walking on deep pile carpets. I agree that outside corridors are handy for quick access to your car but a 5 minute walk to car is no problem to me.
I tend to travel fairly heavy (i.e. self-sufficient for trips of several weeks or even months if need be, with the possibility of not seeing civilization at all for several days), so a 5-minute walk with luggage is not a fun thing, and certainly not something to be repeated.
as for carpets... I figure it's my money that's being used to install them, so I may as well save my money instead! :sombrero:
I prefer indoor corridors, I won't be upset if it's an outdoor corridor, I don't really have any say on where we stay, but I can't wait till I get my licence, I should start planning some road trips now. :-D
BigMatt
I generally prefer indoor corridors. I like being able to get out of the room at 10 o'clock at night or later and just sort of walk around, exploring the corridors. Find the ice machine, look at the pool, look at the vending, look at the laundry. Plus, for really tall hotels, it's fun to go up to the highest floor and look around at the city.
If you're just staying for one night, outdoor corridors are okay, since you can just get up and go in the morning. On the other hand, if it's a one-night stay, you may as well leave a lot of non-essential, non-valuable crap outside, to save you the trouble of carting it back out in the morning.
Is your stuff actually safe if you lock it up in the room safe?
QuoteIs your stuff actually safe if you lock it up in the room safe?
I've worked at hotels before- pretty much every employee where I've worked knew the master safe combination because it guests often forgot their combos, so it depends on how much you trust the employees, I would guess
Generally, I prefer hotels that have a "business center," with a working PC, but I'm willing to spend nights in cheaper hotels. There are some Comfort Inns in North Carolina that are pretty nice. My mother likes the fancier hotels, like the Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount on US 64 or the new Hilton Garden Inn at Exit 171. For my father, a cheap place to sleep is good enough, as long as it isn't a rat hole. I've been in places that are so bad, porno movie makers don't even bother to rent out rooms, and you'd think the manager was ready to invite some rock band over to get blitzed and trash the place so he can get a refund check from their record company.
Quote from: D-Dey65 on July 03, 2010, 12:39:02 AM
... I've been in places that are so bad, porno movie makers don't even bother to rent out rooms, and you'd think the manager was ready to invite some rock band over to get blitzed and trash the place so he can get a refund check from their record company.
Well, you know hotel upkeep can be expensive and a lot of these owners are probably worried about having enough $$ to put fuel in their Cadillac SUV's. :-P
Comfort Inn is probably the only one I can think of that I never have had a complaint against. I don't mind Holiday Inn or Super 8 though, personally.
I think Candlewood Suites has some really great interiors, but lousy service.
I tend towards places that have a decent free breakfast and are fairly new and clean--generally Holiday Inn Express, Hampton, Fairfield by Marriott, or Drury Inn--things in those price ranges. I'll stay away from things like the Hilton Garden or the Courtyard by Marriott because I don't like the idea of paying more versus the Hampton or Fairfield and losing out on the breakfast. Sometimes I'll do a Comfort or Days or so to save money, but typically will check out reviews with those brands. I like that with the HIE, Hampton, or Fairfield, I generally know what I'm getting as the quality is fairly consistent.
Quote from: realjd on June 30, 2010, 05:15:54 PM
I do always take my electronics in when I'm parked at a hotel though (GPS, satellite radio, radar detector, etc.) to make my car a less appealing target. Other than that, I'm not too concerned about someone breaking into my car for whatever reason.
Ditto that, and my list of electronics is getting larger by the day. (cell phone, iPod, radar detector, iPad, laptop, GPS, camera, video camera...)
If I'm just staying one night, I don't pack my luggage in. Just my toiletries. I'll get my change of clothes out of the bag/suitcase and leave it in the vehicle.
Quote from: hbelkins on July 08, 2010, 11:42:11 PM
Ditto that, and my list of electronics is getting larger by the day. (cell phone, iPod, radar detector, iPad, laptop, GPS, camera, video camera...)
mine too - I am completely self-sufficient on the road except for needing to do laundry - so I pack at least a week of clothes.
am I the only one that does not use a radar detector? I figure the police are always one step ahead, and they'll nail me using some previously undiscovered frequency band, so why bother.
Radar detectors and other ticket-avoidance techniques are discussed at https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=3087.0
This one ;) :
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh4.ggpht.com%2F_WYYeXvkUoUE%2FSvOHqrU-MvI%2FAAAAAAAADDE%2FVgDFI7mnC6I%2Fs400%2FDSCF1410.JPG&hash=eadc5caaa6263948c02f39773d174a0c3341dee7)
BigMatt
and that is? :P
If I can keep this thread alive, there was a cheap "Relax Inn" in New Castle, Delaware I stayed in on my previous road trip up north. I stayed there on the second day of the trip, and the old lady who worked in the office had some quaint electronics there from between 1970 and roughly 1984.
:) :nod: :biggrin:
You should see the big, bulky "business" telephone she had.
Quote from: Master son on July 11, 2010, 09:29:46 PM
and that is? :P
My bad, I didn't see that.. But someone reposted on here.
It's the Holiday Inn Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.. It's nice..
BigMatt
"I love me a Hampton breakfast," he said contentedly.
I stayed at a Hampton for the first time a month and a half ago when I went to Gettysburg for one night, and the only reason I stayed there was it was available at a reasonable price. But I liked the breakfast and they told me it was standard nationally.
So in this week's road trip I stayed two nights at a Super8 in North Attleboro, Mass. (hard to beat $65 a night that close to Boston) and last night at a Hampton in the Albany area. Those chains will probably be my preference moving forward.
One minor peeve: I like a hotel TV that's on the local cable system, for a broader selection of channels (I like at least putting the local news on, if not paying full attention to it - this is how one learns things like how to pronounce "Claverack" - turns out it's "CLAH-ver-ick," at least on the weather report I was watching an hour ago) and particularly for the version of the Weather Channel that has an actual local in the "Local on the Eights."
The Hampton in Gettysburg had cable; this place has Dish Network or something. Most, but not all, Super8's I've stayed at have cable. I'll never stay at a RedRoof again after my first two - on the same trip - didn't even have PBS. I have yet to figure out how you can tell in advance what the TV provider will be, and I may be the only one who cares.
Today, I'm thinking of driving out US 20 from Albany to I-81, then 81 and 476 home....
I've been really enjoying Days Inns lately- I stayed at them exclusively on my 4-night Louisiana/Arkansas/Texas trip last month and like them a lot. They seem much nicer than comparable Super 8s and run roughly the same price and are usually in the same point reward tier as Super 8s in the same city.
Quote from: Michael in Philly on June 11, 2011, 09:42:54 AM
"I love me a Hampton breakfast," he said contentedly.
I stayed at a Hampton for the first time a month and a half ago when I went to Gettysburg for one night, and the only reason I stayed there was it was available at a reasonable price. But I liked the breakfast and they told me it was standard nationally.
Hampton Inn is my preferred hotel chain nowadays. Prices can be well over $100 at some locations but I know I'll be getting consistent quality wherever I stay. The breakfast does mean there's no need to buy one separately which compensates for the higher prices somewhat.
When planing a trip, I prefer Motel 6. Most of the time they are cheaper than the others. However there are some that are rediculously expensive. Like my past trip, the Motel 6 in Roswell, NM was more expensive than the Super 8 accross the street. And the Super 8 is nicer and has compilmentary breakfast, free wifi, reclining chair, and overall looks like a luxury hotel. I bet you can guess where I stayed that night... (Super 8).
Super 8 and Days Inn are the preferred places on trips for my brother and I.
The rates are relatively low and they have a continental breakfast and some locations have waffles.
We generally don't go too high on the hog as we often arrive late and just beat out check out time. In such a case, we're mainly just paying for a bed, so as long as it's reasonable clean, it's OK.
America's Best Value Inn gets our money sometimes.
Super 8 rules for me, but I also like Drury Hotels: snacks in the afternoon and happy hour in the evenings for about three hours....includes alcoholic drinks (limit 3 per day). :)
When i am out on my storm chase, we stay at Best Western, Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Fairfield when possible. We figure between 70 to 100 is reasonable for a 2 queen bed room. Days Inn we will do only in emergencies. Too much variance in the quality. Olathe KS Days Inn was fine. North Okla City off I-35 was terrible. I used to be fine with "mom and pop" motels until a couple of years ago in Masillion OH with one of my best friends Craig. There was a roadside motel on US 30 across from the State Police HQ. We stayed there because it was 2 in the morning and we couldnt make it to Canton. So we payed the $30 for the room. it was A bed. As Craig was changing in the bedroom, I decided I was going to put the TV on for the weather the following day. EVERY channel was porn. That was a bit of a shock to the system. When we got up in the morning, sure enough, the hookers were on the corner. Needless to say, the next night when we were on the way home from State College, we slept for a couple hours at a rest area on I-80. That was still a good trip despite the "hooker hotel".
Motel 6 is where I stay, except once when traveling I-69 south from Lansing. I saw a Motel 6 at the Saginaw Highway exit, but did not stop cause I thought I would find another one further down the road to Indy. However, I was dead wrong! I reached Coldwater thinking I would find one there. Of course, no! Then at the I-69 and I-80/ I-90 Junction I did not find one either. I then checked other places out as I sometimes need to if I cannot find a Motel 6. All the motels at that place were $70 or more! I could not believe that a rural area like this is so expensive!
I ended up at a small motel on US 6 a mile east of I-69. Not the best, but a bed where I can crash. Later when I woke up, I found some cheaper chain motels later in Fort Wayne and all cities to Indianapolis.
I find this chain to be cheap and have a good room and some even with pools. All except Piscataway, NJ that charges $80 or more, but that is cheap compared to the other hotels in the area. I have no choice except the roach motels along US 1.
America's Best in Dothan, AL on the Circle (Ross Clark that is) had a good rate and clean room.
In the southern states police do not bother you even if you sleep in your vehicle at rest areas. I do not know if they do up north or out west, if any are left as I do know in NJ they seem to be closing the rest areas there. On I-10 and on US 231 at a rest area near Troy, AL; I slept all night and was not hassled.
America's Best Value is decent if they have a 3* rating, and often a couple dollars below Motel 6.
I've always leaned towards "independents", but overall quality seems to have suffered in the last few years... too much "take the money and run".
Quote from: roadman65 on October 26, 2011, 08:49:02 PM
Then at the I-69 and I-80/ I-90 Junction I did not find one either. I then checked other places out as I sometimes need to if I cannot find a Motel 6. All the motels at that place were $70 or more! I could not believe that a rural area like this is so expensive!
You're at the intersection of two major highways. It's a rural area, but there is a high demand for lodging in a place like that.
I used to do the drive until I'm tired and then find a hotel thing, but lately I find myself prebooking online before the trip. I know how far I can drive until I get tired, and I can often find a better hotel at a better rate if I do a bit of research ahead of time. There have been times where all of the motels along the major highway were super expensive ($100+) but I was able to snag a Hilton or an Embassy Suites in the city for less than $75. Last time I was driving through New Orleans, even the Motel 6's along I-12 were up around $100. The Holiday Inn right on Bourbon Street was $65. I never would have found that if I hadn't booked ahead of time. Knoxville was another city that I stayed downtown in that ended up being a surprisingly cool place.
I'm a huge fan of Embassy Suites. They have a complimentary manager's reception in the evenings with snacks and a decent bar (beer, wine, and some nicely poured well drinks).
I usually go to Hilton hotels (Embassy, Hilton Garden Inn, etc) not because I enjoy contributing to that brat Paris' trust fund, but with a Hilton Visa, it's nice to rack up points for free stays.
BEST hotel I've ever stayed at though would have to be the Kona Inn on the big island of Hawaii. It's where my wife and I went on our honeymoon, and it's awesome. No phones or TVs in the rooms. The rooms look like tiki huts, and the grounds are beautiful, the food great, and the staff was incredible. Can't suggest it enough if you're on that island!
I always read the reviews on Trip Advisor, but sometimes I think the reviewers are too harsh. I have stayed in places that got terrible reviews but found them to be perfectly acceptable. Occasionally a lot of bad reviews will scare me off -- I'm expecting to stay in Williamsport, PA next month and chose to avoid the Econo Lodge there because of bad reviews.
Although I pretty much stay wherever the company books me (they tend to package the hotel + airline to get the best deal on the combo), I'm starting to like the "apartment hotel" style of places...Residence Inn, Staybridge Suites, and Summerfield Suites, for example. Some of them serve up some meals in the evenings, which is nice if I can't decide (and sometimes have a couple of free drinks). Sometimes I'd rather cook or whip up something in the kitchen instead of eating out, and having a little kitchen table that's not a computer desk is nice change of pace; the additional space is also a boon. It's absolutely not necessary unless you're staying 4+ nights; oddly, I prefer the simpler places for 2-3 night stays.
That said, my company doesn't put us in any motels, and usually they're slightly above average places. Sometimes the locations aren't the best, but sometimes that's actually more interesting than anything else. There are some females on our traveling staff, and they'll make a fuss if they feel the slightest bit endangered or imperiled, that usually means middle-of-the-income places which have rarely given me problems (broken irons and boards are about it).
When people review things online, I tend to err on the side of assuming people's expectations were set completely sky-high to begin with. Most people inherently do not take the time to type out good news or helpful advice, unless they're tied into the company or location, or were absolutely blown away by their experiences. Rather, most "reviewers" just want to vent their spleen...usually, those who have a lot of reviews are going to give more rounded advice than the one-and-done complainer. It all depends on whether it's a nationally-recognized chain, or a unique local spot, from my experience.
That said, gimme a free breakfast at 6am sharp, free Wi-Fi, a clean room/bathroom, and a working iron, and I'm good to go. I barely turn on the TV, and unless it's bitterly cold/raining outside, I'll exercise outdoors. But I guess that's because I get almost no choice in the matter, so it's potluck.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 27, 2011, 02:57:29 PM
I always read the reviews on Trip Advisor, but sometimes I think the reviewers are too harsh. I have stayed in places that got terrible reviews but found them to be perfectly acceptable. Occasionally a lot of bad reviews will scare me off -- I'm expecting to stay in Williamsport, PA next month and chose to avoid the Econo Lodge there because of bad reviews.
I read the reviews and also note the date of the review. If there are 4 reviews and 3 are bad, I see how recent they were. More recent reviews carry more weight, though I've been fooled a couple times.
Also, I'm wary whenever there's a cluster of reviews - good or bad - within a short time span.
Usually wind up at a Best Western, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, Sleep Inn, even Hampton Inn. Lowest I'll go is Super 8. Motel 6, Days Inn, and HoJos are a no-go, IMHO.
Money is an issue, but I like Westins if I can manage to pay for one. We have a Westin mattress at home and so staying at one of their hotels means a very comfortable sleep.
Quote from: Brandon on October 27, 2011, 08:15:56 PM
Usually wind up at a Best Western, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, Sleep Inn, even Hampton Inn. Lowest I'll go is Super 8. Motel 6, Days Inn, and HoJos are a no-go, IMHO.
Days Inn and Super 8 are a roll of the dice. Ditto Motel 6, but many have remodeled, though are still noisy. I've seen one HoJo in my travels and it was nasty.
But worse are Travelodge and Knight's Inn.
Quality Inn and EconoLodge are borderline. I've had better at Econo than Quality overall.
A sure sign a motel is bad: regular name changes. Bentonville, AR: Comfort Inn to Quailty Inn to Econo Lodge in 5 years time. I'm sure with each change, service standards were lowered.
QuoteA sure sign a motel is bad: regular name changes. Bentonville, AR: Comfort Inn to Quailty Inn to Econo Lodge in 5 years time. I'm sure with each change, service standards were lowered.
That's sort of weird- all three of those are Choice hotels, right? I'm surprised Choice lets them downgrade and doesn't just say "You know, this isn't working out" and drops the affiliation entirely.
Quote from: corco on October 27, 2011, 10:17:05 PM
QuoteA sure sign a motel is bad: regular name changes. Bentonville, AR: Comfort Inn to Quailty Inn to Econo Lodge in 5 years time. I'm sure with each change, service standards were lowered.
That's sort of weird- all three of those are Choice hotels, right? I'm surprised Choice lets them downgrade and doesn't just say "You know, this isn't working out" and drops the affiliation entirely.
May be market conditions. Bentonville, as I predicted would happen 6 years ago, is glutted with hotels. There is a new Comfort Suites across the street behind Holiday Inn Express. The Sleep Inn/Clarion Hotel Convention center just closed up shop last month. Maybe "Tom" (the owner) downgraded to save franchise fees? Still, all the changes seem to point to a problem, at least to someone with my experience (10 years as desk/audit at various motels).
Fayetteville had a Guest House that changed to Quality, then America Best Value, now Travelodge. This shakedown took 6-7 years. All reports say the place is in poor condition (it's 10-12 years old).
If you get a bad room at a Hilton brand, there will be Hell to pay if HQ finds out: they have some of the highest standards (plus highest franchise & commission fees).
QuoteIf you get a bad room at a Hilton brand, there will be Hell to pay if HQ finds out: they have some of the highest standards (plus highest franchise & commission fees).
As far as Hilton- there's definitely a ton of pressure from corporate to hotel management to maintain good numbers. I would love to comment more on that, but this probably isn't the place
Quote from: hbelkins on October 27, 2011, 02:57:29 PM
I always read the reviews on Trip Advisor, but sometimes I think the reviewers are too harsh. I have stayed in places that got terrible reviews but found them to be perfectly acceptable. Occasionally a lot of bad reviews will scare me off -- I'm expecting to stay in Williamsport, PA next month and chose to avoid the Econo Lodge there because of bad reviews.
I read them too, but take them with a grain of salt. I pay more attention to comments about the safety of the surrounding area than I do the quality of the room. I have lower standards than a lot of people do for room quality, but I'm more concerned about whether the surrounding area is safe.
Brand changes doesn't have to mean an establishment is going downhill. A former Holiday Inn I stay at became a Quality Inn because Holiday Inn wanted too much to use their name.
Quote from: Truvelo on October 28, 2011, 10:59:11 AM
Brand changes doesn't have to mean an establishment is going downhill. A former Holiday Inn I stay at became a Quality Inn because Holiday Inn wanted too much to use their name.
Holiday Inn has been working hard at upscaling recently. They've been kicking out a lot of older properties that aren't up to their new image and standards. Not that they're bad hotels necessarily; they just don't fit with Holiday Inn's new brand image.
Quote from: realjd on October 28, 2011, 12:26:48 PM
Holiday Inn has been working hard at upscaling recently. They've been kicking out a lot of older properties that aren't up to their new image and standards. Not that they're bad hotels necessarily; they just don't fit with Holiday Inn's new brand image.
I find it funny that "Holiday Inn Express" usually means a nicer and more expensive hotel than a plain vanilla "Holiday Inn."
Quote from: Truvelo on October 28, 2011, 10:59:11 AM
Brand changes doesn't have to mean an establishment is going downhill. A former Holiday Inn I stay at became a Quality Inn because Holiday Inn wanted too much to use their name.
Last fall I spent two nights at the Best Western Marshall Manor just north of Horseheads, NY, when I went to the Rochester meet. The place got pretty consistently good reviews on Trip Advisor and I liked it. Found out recently that it's no longer affilliated with Best Western and is soon going to become a Choice Hotels brand.
Quote from: corco on October 27, 2011, 10:48:55 PM
As far as Hilton- there's definitely a ton of pressure from corporate to hotel management to maintain good numbers. I would love to comment more on that, but this probably isn't the place
Why not? We're discussing hotel quality here.
Quote from: Brandon on October 27, 2011, 08:15:56 PM
Usually wind up at a Best Western, Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, Sleep Inn, even Hampton Inn. Lowest I'll go is Super 8. Motel 6, Days Inn, and HoJos are a no-go, IMHO.
Super 8 and Days Inn are both Wyndham brands, and my experience is that the prices are usually similar if both are in the same market, but Days Inn is usually better than Super 8.
When I was young and my family traveled, my dad didn't want to stay anywhere else besides either Holiday Inn or HoJo. The quality was usually pretty consistently good.
I like the old motor lodge style where there are exterior corridors and you can park right outside your room, but those are getting very hard to find.
Microtel or Red Roof Inn for me, with a slight preference to Microtel these days because they have a free breakfast, but that's not a huge thing.
QuoteWhy not? We're discussing hotel quality here.
Conflict of interest prevents me from comfortably discussing it on a public forum
Quote from: corco on November 01, 2011, 11:01:22 AM
QuoteWhy not? We're discussing hotel quality here.
Conflict of interest prevents me from comfortably discussing it on a public forum
Post w/ an alias ;)
Or, if confronted, claim someone hacked you. :-D
Quote from: hbelkins on October 28, 2011, 02:44:59 PM
Quote from: realjd on October 28, 2011, 12:26:48 PM
Holiday Inn has been working hard at upscaling recently. They've been kicking out a lot of older properties that aren't up to their new image and standards. Not that they're bad hotels necessarily; they just don't fit with Holiday Inn's new brand image.
I find it funny that "Holiday Inn Express" usually means a nicer and more expensive hotel than a plain vanilla "Holiday Inn."
That's because Holiday Inn doesn't come with Breakfast - where Holiday Inn Express does.
Quote from: Master son on November 01, 2011, 06:07:03 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on October 28, 2011, 02:44:59 PM
Quote from: realjd on October 28, 2011, 12:26:48 PM
Holiday Inn has been working hard at upscaling recently. They've been kicking out a lot of older properties that aren't up to their new image and standards. Not that they're bad hotels necessarily; they just don't fit with Holiday Inn's new brand image.
I find it funny that "Holiday Inn Express" usually means a nicer and more expensive hotel than a plain vanilla "Holiday Inn."
That's because Holiday Inn doesn't come with Breakfast - where Holiday Inn Express does.
One would think it would be the other way around. "Express" usually means bare-bones.
Quote from: hbelkins on October 28, 2011, 02:44:59 PMI like the old motor lodge style where there are exterior corridors and you can park right outside your room, but those are getting very hard to find.
Almost every Red Roof Inn, many Days Inns/Super 8s, many Motel 6s, and almost every older, locally-owned joint...
Quote from: hbelkins on November 01, 2011, 09:49:43 PM
One would think it would be the other way around. "Express" usually means bare-bones.
Not "bare bones", just "reduced service" (no Valet, no Room Service, etc). DoubleTree Club is similar as is Hilton Garden Inn. Not full service, but more than you'd get at most Super 8's or MicroTel's.
QuoteI like the old motor lodge style where there are exterior corridors and you can park right outside your room, but those are getting very hard to find.
I don't get why they're moving away from that- it's so easy to park your car right there, unload all your stuff, and then you have the piece of mind of having your car right outside your window (so if somebody tries to tamper with it you hear it). If you've got a lot of stuff you don't have to make five long trips or leave your car full of stuff in an unfamiliar city, and that's awesome.
I guess the concern is room security, but if you engage all your deadbolts you should be able to hear them trying and take appropriate action (call 911, grab a gun if you've got one, whatever) well before they actually get into the room.
Speaking of constant hotel rebranding, a hotel near my area started out as a Holiday Inn Express when it was built, then went independent, then became a Holiday Inn Express again, after a while it was re-branded as Best Western Mountain Brook (this isn't in the same county as Mountain Brook :banghead:) and earlier this year was re-branded as a Days Inn. All of this happened within a span of about 15 years.
Quote from: jdb1234 on November 02, 2011, 01:32:27 AM
Speaking of constant hotel rebranding, a hotel near my area started out as a Holiday Inn Express when it was built, then went independent, then became a Holiday Inn Express again, after a while it was re-branded as Best Western Mountain Brook (this isn't in the same county as Mountain Brook :banghead:) and earlier this year was re-branded as a Days Inn. All of this happened within a span of about 15 years.
HIE going indy then HIE
may be a quality issue. The one I worked at came close to losing it's "Flag" (to use their vernacular) but then worked hard to bring it back up to standards.
Bentonville, AR had a Super 8 then went unbranded ("Super Inn") for a couple years before buying back into the franchise. Last I heard, they were barely up to standards.
Quote
Quote
Quote from: hbelkins on November 01, 2011, 09:49:43 PM
I find it funny that "Holiday Inn Express" usually means a nicer and more expensive hotel than a plain vanilla "Holiday Inn."
That's because Holiday Inn doesn't come with Breakfast - where Holiday Inn Express does.
One would think it would be the other way around. "Express" usually means bare-bones.
It usually is more bare bones. Holiday Inn hotels are full service - they always have a restaurant/bar. HIE never does. This is also one of the big reasons why HIE has free breakfast while Holiday Inns usually don't. That's also the distinction between Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn.
Holiday Inn previously had a Holiday Inn Select brand that was upscale - think more like a full Hilton. They dropped this brand and have been working on making all Holiday Inn hotels on the same level. I don't think you'll find any Holiday Inns with external hallways anymore for instance.
Remember that the nicer the hotel, the less likely you are to get stuff for free. This includes things like wifi and breakfast. The reason is that the nicer hotels cater more to business travelers traveling on expense accounts than families on a budget. If I'm traveling for work and staying in a $200/night Marriott, I have no problem expensing $15/day wifi. If I'm traveling on my own, I wouldn't be staying at that expensive of a hotel to begin with.
-- fixed nested quotes --ms
Quote from: US71 on June 29, 2010, 10:40:03 AM
Quote from: Truvelo on June 29, 2010, 08:50:30 AM
Why do there need to be so many different brands within the same group?
Short answer: different levels of service/different consumer markets
Longer answer: corporate conglomerates bought up a lot of independent hotel chains in the 80's & 90's.
Anybody know of a list of brands sorted by corporate owner? I've stayed in just about every brand hotel there is and I can't keep them straight!
EDIT: Like, you know...Wikipedia? Pay me no mind...
Quote from: realjd on November 02, 2011, 08:41:25 AM
It usually is more bare bones. Holiday Inn hotels are full service - they always have a restaurant/bar. HIE never does. This is also one of the big reasons why HIE has free breakfast while Holiday Inns usually don't. That's also the distinction between Hampton Inn and Hilton Garden Inn.
Holiday Inn previously had a Holiday Inn Select brand that was upscale - think more like a full Hilton. They dropped this brand and have been working on making all Holiday Inn hotels on the same level. I don't think you'll find any Holiday Inns with external hallways anymore for instance.
Remember that the nicer the hotel, the less likely you are to get stuff for free. This includes things like wifi and breakfast. The reason is that the nicer hotels cater more to business travelers traveling on expense accounts than families on a budget. If I'm traveling for work and staying in a $200/night Marriott, I have no problem expensing $15/day wifi. If I'm traveling on my own, I wouldn't be staying at that expensive of a hotel to begin with.
I guess that's a change from the Holiday Inns that I grew up with. They were known for being "motor lodges" when I was a kid. My dad preferred HI or HoJo when we traveled. HI must have tried to reinvent itself in the years between when I was a kid going on family vacations, and when I started doing traveling on my own.
Agree on the last point. I hate staying in places where I have to go when attending conferences. Breakfast isn't a big issue with me, but no free wi-fi stinks. I actually like the $69 Quality or Comfort Inns or $99 Hamptons over the $159 Marriotts or Galt Houses. And when I'm staying overnight for work but not attending a convention in that hotel, I try to stay on the cheap to save them some money. I can save my employer a lot of money if I stay at Days Inn in Frankfort vs. the Hampton, plus I accumulate Wyndham points and I get to put $7 for my breakfast per diem in my pocket. (Can't do that at the Hampton since they serve a hot breakfast for free).
Quote from: corco on November 02, 2011, 12:12:31 AMQuoteI like the old motor lodge style where there are exterior corridors and you can park right outside your room, but those are getting very hard to find.
I don't get why they're moving away from that- it's so easy to park your car right there, unload all your stuff, and then you have the piece of mind of having your car right outside your window (so if somebody tries to tamper with it you hear it). If you've got a lot of stuff you don't have to make five long trips or leave your car full of stuff in an unfamiliar city, and that's awesome.
I guess the concern is room security, but if you engage all your deadbolts you should be able to hear them trying and take appropriate action (call 911, grab a gun if you've got one, whatever) well before they actually get into the room.
I can guess some other reasons.
* HVAC: if individual rooms are accessed via exterior corridors there are potentially two outside walls per room, whereas if they are accessed via interior corridors, there is at most just one outside wall per room.
* Access control: if the corridors are on the outside, motel management can't supervise comings and goings and thus has no convenient means of enforcing a no-overnight-visitors-in-room policy (the ulterior purpose of which, I suspect, is generally to prevent guests from taking prostitutes back to the motel).
* Handicap accessibility: it is more difficult to make multistory exterior-access motels handicap-accessible. Elevators have to be provided, which can be a costly retrofit for older properties. Elevators also have to be either indoors or capable of tolerating exposure to the elements. Exterior walkways tend to be narrower than interior corridors and at many motels are narrow enough to prevent a person on foot from getting around a person in a wheelchair.
* Zoning and insurance: in some jurisdictions, zoning boards and insurance companies may penalize motels with exterior corridors, either by preventing them from being built in the first place, or extending insurance to them on less favorable terms. The justification for such policies would be that motels with interior corridors have a more favorable loss experience and are less likely to become meth or hooker motels as they age and change ownership.
It also has to be noted that, from the standpoint of carrying in luggage, exterior access to rooms has an advantage only if the property is all on ground level. If there are multiple stories, then the key to reducing carrying distance is to park as close as possible to the stairwell that is nearest your room. This is no different from parking nearest the closest exterior door at an enclosed motel.
Speaking for myself personally, I have a slight preference for motels with exterior corridors solely because I usually travel alone and hate dealing with self-closing doors (especially card-locked ones) when I am carrying luggage. I don't worry about the security of my car since I (try to) travel light and carry the majority of my luggage in the trunk. I can virtually guarantee that nine times out of ten, however, the mother of your children will insist on a motel with inside corridors (given the choice) "because it is nicer."
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 02, 2011, 02:35:39 PM
* Access control: if the corridors are on the outside, motel management can't supervise comings and goings and thus has no convenient means of enforcing a no-overnight-visitors-in-room policy (the ulterior purpose of which, I suspect, is generally to prevent guests from taking prostitutes back to the motel).
I was staying at one of the Embassy Suites just outside of LAX a few years ago - the one off of the 105 - when I got into the elevator after dinner to go up to my room with a woman who was clearly on her way to a "client". She looked at the elevator panel and very confused asked me where the 8th floor was. I told her the hotel only had 4 floors. She pulled out a piece of paper and said she was supposed to go to room 8-something of the Embassy Suites by LAX and was running late. She was very surprised when I told her that there was a second Embassy Suites at LAX just off of Century Blvd. She said "oh shit", thanked me, then literally ran to the front desk to get directions, then ran out to her car.
The moral of the story kids is that if you get a hooker, be sure she knows which hotel you're at. That and hotels with interior hallways don't prevent prostitution.
The access control is a security benefit though. You're less likely to get robbed going to the ice machine for instance, and less likely to be next to a drug dealer, meth lab, etc. Also, for me personally, if the weather is nice, I like to leave the window open at night. I can't do that on a room with an exterior hallway.
It is certainly true that architecture is unimportant if motel management is willing to turn a blind eye to the guests' sexual carryings-on, as I suspect is the case for high-class call girls even in good-quality motels.
In regard to the HVAC issue, I also remembered that motels with exterior corridors open directly on the outdoors, so the rooms can get quite cold in winter if the room doors aren't tight in their frames and properly weather-stripped. I can remember having to get an emergency blanket out of my car trunk so I could pack it at the bottom of my door when I was staying in one of those cheap (sub-$25 at the time) motor lodges in Lordsburg; the gap between door and sill was at least half an inch wide.
I actually worry more about the HVAC itself than I do about the corridors. I once stayed in a pretty decent-looking Days Inn in Santa Fé (interior corridors, about $45 a night, Cerrillos Road motel strip) but discovered that it had no working humidification. As soon as the heater had been on for about twenty minutes (freezing temperatures outside), the static built up to such an extent I felt like I was restarting my heart every time I touched metal.
You're also more likely to encounter a couple of rude chatterboxes just outside your room at 2:00am at a hotel with exterior corridors.
QuoteThe moral of the story kids is that if you get a hooker, be sure she knows which hotel you're at. That and hotels with interior hallways don't prevent prostitution.
And what room you're staying in.
Craigslist has made this especially fun. I worked overnights as a bellman for several months on weekends, and the number of random hookers that would pull up at 2 AM looking for a specific room with someone they had made email contact with was staggering. What made it more amusing was that they often had a non-existent room number, or a room number that sounds correct but could match several different rooms. Since the deal was arranged via email, they had no phone number or even a name to confirm with the guest.
I do like them though- offer them water, don't tell on them, valet their car for them and they'll usually hook you up (with cash. cash!).
Quote from: formulanone on November 02, 2011, 03:45:37 PM
You're also more likely to encounter a couple of rude chatterboxes just outside your room at 2:00am at a hotel with exterior corridors.
And sometimes interior corridor. But you can usually ask them to go to their room or GTFO. Only once did that not work and the manager dealt with them the next day.
My own preferences on this topic will be somewhat different than others'...I often spend many months at a time in hotels all over the U.S., but they are selected and paid for by my company, so while I don't have a say in what brand hotel I'm in, I have experienced a wide array of choices and formed a fair number of personal preferences. To wit:
-Location: Ideally, the hotel will be centrally located to the city I'm in and the place I'm working...assuming, of course, that there's anything going on in that city as far as food & drink, retail, and general cultural and commercial activity. In general, I'd rather be in a city than its suburbs, though in some cases the core city has lost pretty much any value, beyond the fact that any place I haven't been is worth seeing (recent example: Florence, SC). Walkability is paramount, since I don't usually have transportation at my disposal, which make location a problem when it's your typical cluster of hotels around an Interstate exit along a high-speed divided highway. Then again, these locations often have lots of dining/retail choices nearby, but then again again, some hotels seem to build in complete isolation from almost anything else around!
-Interior/exterior: Each has its benefits...but exterior corridors are more likely to mean no elevators, which is a problem when you have 6 months worth of luggage. Then again, interior corridors often means more interior doors and sometimes steps through which you have to haul all of that. Holiday Inns tend to be an interesting mix, with some being purpose-built as interior hotels, while others have the exterior design but with an extra windowed wall built around the "exterior" corridors. My preference for the HI brand is similarly rangy...sometimes they're really nice, sometimes they seem pretty dumpy. As more of them are refurbished the scale will seem to tip upward.
-Amenities: I am always a fan of the hotel bar, especially if there's nothing in the neighborhood! This comes at the 3-star level and up, of course, and thus excludes some otherwise reliably comfortable brands like Hampton or HI Express. I have found I enjoy Red Lion hotels for their uniqueness, variety and generally good food/drink options. Sticking to the advertised hours for the bar/restaurant is also crucial...it's become a running joke that the closing time for the hotel restaurant is always "15 minutes before you got there," which is usually half an hour before the scheduled closing. We now routinely ask upon check-in whether the bar/restaurant will be open when we get back from work, and if not, would they keep it open knowing that a bunch of people will come in later?
For breakfasts, I'm pretty much over the whole thing...the free continental breakfasts at 2-2 1/2 star brands are often worth little more than their cost, while those places that have a buffet usually charge $10-$11 while I usually eat about $4 worth of food (buffets are not cost-effective for me). So unless I can order ala carte, I'd just as soon head next door to McDonald's or Bob Evans or Sheetz or whatever there is, relying on the hotel breakfast only where necessary.
Wifi should be free, period. There are enough brands offering it that there's no excuse for any competing brand to charge (and the free ones usually provide better connectivity anyway). Of course when you get to 3-stars and up it's going to cost...the more they charge, the less comes free...but I've found that I can often get the wifi comped just by mentioning to the front desk that it didn't work properly (which is rarely a lie).
Those are my generalities...if I have a minute I'll put together some further thoughts on specific brands.
I carry an RJ45 cable for the times the Wi-Fi is particularly weak. My work also gives me a 3G/4G modem card, but surfing via 3G isn't much help. There's not much consistency, but sometimes rooms in the middle of the building versus the ends of hallways gathers a better signal.
That said, some of the fancier places that do charge for Wi-Fi, tend to have a good level of bandwidth; rack up enough stays with some places like Hyatt, and they'll comp it.
Quote from: empirestate on November 03, 2011, 01:36:55 PM
-Location: Ideally, the hotel will be centrally located to the city I'm in and the place I'm working...assuming, of course, that there's anything going on in that city as far as food & drink, retail, and general cultural and commercial activity. In general, I'd rather be in a city than its suburbs, though in some cases the core city has lost pretty much any value, beyond the fact that any place I haven't been is worth seeing (recent example: Florence, SC). Walkability is paramount, since I don't usually have transportation at my disposal, which make location a problem when it's your typical cluster of hotels around an Interstate exit along a high-speed divided highway. Then again, these locations often have lots of dining/retail choices nearby, but then again again, some hotels seem to build in complete isolation from almost anything else around!
I dislike staying in the downtown of any city, primarily because of accessibility and safety concerns.
I have to attend conferences in Louisville and invariably they are held downtown, and I am not fond of the dining choices nearby. Parking is also problematic with parking in garages, often at great distances from the entrance. The parking situation and difficulty in getting to the interstate makes it hard to be able to drive out to where there are better food choices. (I do prefer fast food or places like Cracker Barrel or Bob Evans over the expensive places usually found in downtowns.)
The most miserable stay I had was five nights at the Renaissance in Washington, DC in February several years ago. Driving for meals was obviously not an option. I didn't think there were a lot of choices that were within walking distance, and since it got dark at 5:30 I was even more hesitant about walking to some of the places down the street or one block over. The hotel restaurant wasn't great, and I wasn't impressed with the fare at the hotel's sports bar. I had prepared by taking a bunch of lunch meat, cheese and bread and mostly subsisted on that for evening meals -- and sometimes for lunch if the lunch the conference supplied wasn't very good.
In summary, give me a suburban motel out by the interstate with Arby's or McDonald's or Bob Evans nearby, and a Walmart Supercenter or other department store in the area, and I'm a happy camper. Put me downtown where it's either impossible or a pain in the ass to get in the car and drive, and I'm miserable.
Which is why every year I lobby for one of those Louisville conferences to be held out on Preston Highway or Hurstbourne Lane. :-D
Quote from: hbelkins on November 04, 2011, 09:24:20 PM
I dislike staying in the downtown of any city, primarily because of accessibility and safety concerns.
What about when you're in a city where the downtown is safer and more accessible than the surrounding areas?
This also brings out the difference between lodging choices for those with cars versus those without...obviously safety becomes a much greater issue in the suburbs or at rural interchange areas, when you have to walk across an array of frontage roads, on and off ramps, drainage ditches, and often many-laned arterials with highly channelized intersections. Some places are better than others at accommodating pedestrians, of course, with proper sidewalks, crosswalks and ped signals...but sometimes it's pretty much a jungle safari to walk from the hotel to any nearby dining or shopping.
As for safety and accessibility downtown, well...a lot of the venues I work are located in downtown districts, so obviously they're more accessible to me if I stay downtown (and if they're located outside of town, they're usually on a college campus and thus not walkably close to anything else). Furthermore, in most cases if the downtown district is of the type than can support the existence of such a venue, that typically means there is enough commercial and cultural activity in the area that safety is of no abnormal concern. (Not always though...while I don't usually feel unsafe in the downtown districts, my recent gig in downtown Florence, SC felt much sketchier than usual. Then again, I didn't get a whole lot better vibe from the suburb where my hotel was!)
So, again in summary, though I tend to need and prefer the opposite of what H. B. does (we're probably not likely to cross paths too often at the hip coffee joints and brewpubs on Main St.!), I will say that months on the road can give one a certain appreciation for those few optimal suburban experiences (lots of familiar choices walkably close, in a well-equipped and safe area).
Quote from: empirestate on November 05, 2011, 11:51:12 AM
So, again in summary, though I tend to need and prefer the opposite of what H. B. does (we're probably not likely to cross paths too often at the hip coffee joints and brewpubs on Main St.!)
No, because I don't drink coffee and am not a beer connoisseur. :bigass:
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 02, 2011, 03:37:53 PM
It is certainly true that architecture is unimportant if motel management is willing to turn a blind eye to the guests' sexual carryings-on, as I suspect is the case for high-class call girls even in good-quality motels.
In regard to the HVAC issue, I also remembered that motels with exterior corridors open directly on the outdoors, so the rooms can get quite cold in winter if the room doors aren't tight in their frames and properly weather-stripped. I can remember having to get an emergency blanket out of my car trunk so I could pack it at the bottom of my door when I was staying in one of those cheap (sub-$25 at the time) motor lodges in Lordsburg; the gap between door and sill was at least half an inch wide.
I actually worry more about the HVAC itself than I do about the corridors. I once stayed in a pretty decent-looking Days Inn in Santa Fé (interior corridors, about $45 a night, Cerrillos Road motel strip) but discovered that it had no working humidification. As soon as the heater had been on for about twenty minutes (freezing temperatures outside), the static built up to such an extent I felt like I was restarting my heart every time I touched metal.
I've been wondering specifically about this two-year-old topic for a long time, and I figured I might as well ask, since I don't know of a better place to pose this question: Does anyone know of any sources for conclusive or more-concrete information regarding the merits and detriments of exterior corridors versus interior corridors in hotels? I'm disappointed that three of the most prominent hotel companies--InterContinental, Hilton, and Marriott--banned exterior corridors in recent years, and I would like to see more research to determine whether interior corridors have truly made exterior-corridor hotels obsolete.
From what I gather, the two main areas of concern seem to be safety and energy efficiency. I don't know of any empirical evidence showing interior corridors to be safer than exterior corridors, but a study to determine this would not be prohibitively difficult to conduct, and it would be both possible and necessary to control for other factors such as neighborhood crime rates.
Energy-efficiency may be easier to demonstrate, but I haven't found anything that demonstrates whether and how the energy savings of interior corridors outweigh the other material costs, which are mainly (1) increased maintenance and cleaning costs for the interior corridor, (2) energy used to heat and cool the interior corridor, and (3) extra pipes to carry plumbing across the interior corridor (in contrast to exterior-corridor hotels, where the bathrooms are usually back-to-back).
If anyone knows of any studies or journal articles that address one or both of these main issues, I would love to read them. I feel like I've Googled the topic to death, but most of what I can find are generalized hospitality industry articles that talk about higher consumer preference for interior corridors but don't address the material performance measures of the two respective building types. If there's really nothing else out there, then I suppose I'll let this thread rest in peace. This would make a great topic for a thesis, but I'm not really in college anymore.
If it is just me, I am easy to make happy, less expensive but a good location is fine.
However,
three college friends wanted to meet up with me in Chicago for a 3 day weekend. They INSISTED on the Palmer House, and I thought what the heck, and went along.
It really was a blast. I'd never go by myself, but these old friends were great. We had 2 connecting double rooms and enjoyed the sights, the food, and caught up on all our lives since college days.
Big surprise was the Chicago River architectural cruise. I know, it sounds dull as toast, and for some folks it would be. But it really was an amazing tour of downtown and the buildings are all different and grand. I lived in Wisconsin and Illinois in the late 70 and the latter 80s and had visited Chicago then. Well, they have erected MANY 80 story buildings since then and the tour gave great views.
Also, most of you here would love this part:
you go underneath all those amazing bascule bridges!!!!
Nice views of LSD from the large ferris wheel at Navy Pier too!
We asked 2 cabbies to take us thru Lower Wacker but neither would do it. Phooey.
:wow:
Word from an ex of mine who worked up there is that Sullivan County uses the no-name motels in Liberty, NY as places to house sex offenders who need an eye kept on them. I wonder how common this practice is. Something to think about when deciding where to spend the night. :spin:
I've become personally rather fond of Super 8... pretty much by chance. The first couple times I grabbed a room for the night that wasn't reserved in advance they were something slightly more upscale (I think one was a Fairfield Inn), and they were nice but not cheap. At some later date I found myself in a Super 8, with a reservation, having read the reviews and gone for it... and decided that the price and the quality were both satisfactory. So now I tend to gravitate towards them because I'm unadventurous with this stuff - I tend to stick with the first thing I find that I like, rather than rolling the dice with more unknowns.
Man, my preferences have changed a lot since I first posted in this thread.
I still stick to Wyndham quite a bit, but also try to throw some business towards Hilton (I spent two years working for them since I first posted here and learned a lot about the hotel industry and like them).
Since I make a bit more money now, I'll stay at Hamptons/Hilton Garden Inns if the rates are somewhat reasonable- I typically look at both the Wyndham properties and Hilton properties in town and weigh accordingly. I'm taking a trip this weekend, for instance, and am staying at the Days Inn in Billings, the Super 8 in Ogallala, NE, and then the Hilton Garden Inn in Laramie. My last overnight trip had me at the Super 8 in Lethbridge, the Days Inn in Edmonton, and the Hampton Inn in Calgary.
I actively shoot to earn rewards with both chains and have a branded Wyndham credit card I use for Wyndham stays, and am planning on getting the HHonors Reserve card in the spring to replace the Chase Sapphire Preferred I use right now. When I went to the Wichita Meet, I spent four of six nights in Wyndham hotels because they were doing a double point promotion, so that was a no brainer.
Where I geographically want to stay depends on my objectives. In the last year or so, I've felt less inclined to just drive from sunrise to sunset several days in a row, and enjoy finding a nice town/city and staying in the middle of it, giving me time/energy to explore it. If I'm just passing through, I'd rather stay out in the suburbs where rates are typically lower.
In larger, unfamiliar cities I pretty much shoot for Hilton chained (Hampton/HGI/etc) hotels these days because those tend to be in better neighborhoods. If I'm out in the middle of Nebraska, I'm totally cool with the cheap Wyndham hotel. I did stay at the Days Inn in downtown Edmonton a couple months though, which would be an exception. In that case it seemed like a decent hotel and had (free!) garage parking so I felt like the car was safe. The hotel was clean and in a decent but not posh part of downtown, though the internet was basically non-functional. I'd stay there again for the price. The thing with Wyndham properties is that they're wildly inconsistent- a Hampton is a Hampton is a Hampton, so sometimes it's worth paying more to know I'll be staying at something decent.
But yeah, I weigh rate:location:what i want to do that night:reward points:reviews roughly equally when choosing a hotel. I don't do third party bookings anymore- I've been on the hotel side of that enough now to know those are a disaster if anything goes wrong, plus no reward points. My rate ceiling is probably $120 now- I won't willingly spend more than that unless I just have to, and my preference is to keep it to around $100 in a city, $70-80 in a rural area.
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 06, 2013, 10:15:21 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 02, 2011, 03:37:53 PM
It is certainly true that architecture is unimportant if motel management is willing to turn a blind eye to the guests' sexual carryings-on, as I suspect is the case for high-class call girls even in good-quality motels.
In regard to the HVAC issue, I also remembered that motels with exterior corridors open directly on the outdoors, so the rooms can get quite cold in winter if the room doors aren't tight in their frames and properly weather-stripped. I can remember having to get an emergency blanket out of my car trunk so I could pack it at the bottom of my door when I was staying in one of those cheap (sub-$25 at the time) motor lodges in Lordsburg; the gap between door and sill was at least half an inch wide.
I actually worry more about the HVAC itself than I do about the corridors. I once stayed in a pretty decent-looking Days Inn in Santa Fé (interior corridors, about $45 a night, Cerrillos Road motel strip) but discovered that it had no working humidification. As soon as the heater had been on for about twenty minutes (freezing temperatures outside), the static built up to such an extent I felt like I was restarting my heart every time I touched metal.
I've been wondering specifically about this two-year-old topic for a long time, and I figured I might as well ask, since I don't know of a better place to pose this question: Does anyone know of any sources for conclusive or more-concrete information regarding the merits and detriments of exterior corridors versus interior corridors in hotels? I'm disappointed that three of the most prominent hotel companies--InterContinental, Hilton, and Marriott--banned exterior corridors in recent years, and I would like to see more research to determine whether interior corridors have truly made exterior-corridor hotels obsolete.
From what I gather, the two main areas of concern seem to be safety and energy efficiency. I don't know of any empirical evidence showing interior corridors to be safer than exterior corridors, but a study to determine this would not be prohibitively difficult to conduct, and it would be both possible and necessary to control for other factors such as neighborhood crime rates.
Energy-efficiency may be easier to demonstrate, but I haven't found anything that demonstrates whether and how the energy savings of interior corridors outweigh the other material costs, which are mainly (1) increased maintenance and cleaning costs for the interior corridor, (2) energy used to heat and cool the interior corridor, and (3) extra pipes to carry plumbing across the interior corridor (in contrast to exterior-corridor hotels, where the bathrooms are usually back-to-back).
If anyone knows of any studies or journal articles that address one or both of these main issues, I would love to read them. I feel like I've Googled the topic to death, but most of what I can find are generalized hospitality industry articles that talk about higher consumer preference for interior corridors but don't address the material performance measures of the two respective building types. If there's really nothing else out there, then I suppose I'll let this thread rest in peace. This would make a great topic for a thesis, but I'm not really in college anymore.
I think it's mainly consumer preference. I doubt you'll find much hard info on safety or energy efficiency.
IHG and Hilton have absolutely not banned exterior corridors; they banned old style low rise motels. I know of many Hilton and Holiday Inn brand hotels with exterior corridors. They tend to be high rises, often beach front or resort locations, or multiple building apartment type layouts. Here's a list of ones off the top of my head that I've stayes in the past year:
Doubletree Melbourne FL
Doubletree San Diego Golf Resort
Holiday Inn Resort Las Vegas
Holiday Inn Resort Fort Walton Beach, FL
Holiday Inn Resort Kissimmee, FL (Disney)
QuoteIHG and Hilton have absolutely not banned exterior corridors; they banned old style low rise motels.
In fact, I worked at a Hilton for two years (until December 2012) that had about 150 (of 426) exterior-entrance rooms.
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 06, 2013, 10:15:21 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 02, 2011, 03:37:53 PM
It is certainly true that architecture is unimportant if motel management is willing to turn a blind eye to the guests' sexual carryings-on, as I suspect is the case for high-class call girls even in good-quality motels.
In regard to the HVAC issue, I also remembered that motels with exterior corridors open directly on the outdoors, so the rooms can get quite cold in winter if the room doors aren't tight in their frames and properly weather-stripped. I can remember having to get an emergency blanket out of my car trunk so I could pack it at the bottom of my door when I was staying in one of those cheap (sub-$25 at the time) motor lodges in Lordsburg; the gap between door and sill was at least half an inch wide.
I actually worry more about the HVAC itself than I do about the corridors. I once stayed in a pretty decent-looking Days Inn in Santa Fé (interior corridors, about $45 a night, Cerrillos Road motel strip) but discovered that it had no working humidification. As soon as the heater had been on for about twenty minutes (freezing temperatures outside), the static built up to such an extent I felt like I was restarting my heart every time I touched metal.
I've been wondering specifically about this two-year-old topic for a long time, and I figured I might as well ask, since I don't know of a better place to pose this question: Does anyone know of any sources for conclusive or more-concrete information regarding the merits and detriments of exterior corridors versus interior corridors in hotels? I'm disappointed that three of the most prominent hotel companies--Intercontinental, Hilton, and Marriott--banned exterior corridors in recent years, and I would like to see more research to determine whether interior corridors have truly made exterior-corridor hotels obsolete.
From what I gather, the two main areas of concern seem to be safety and energy efficiency. I don't know of any empirical evidence showing interior corridors to be safer than exterior corridors, but a study to determine this would not be prohibitively difficult to conduct, and it would be both possible and necessary to control for other factors such as neighborhood crime rates.
Energy-efficiency may be easier to demonstrate, but I haven't found anything that demonstrates whether and how the energy savings of interior corridors outweigh the other material costs, which are mainly (1) increased maintenance and cleaning costs for the interior corridor, (2) energy used to heat and cool the interior corridor, and (3) extra pipes to carry plumbing across the interior corridor (in contrast to exterior-corridor hotels, where the bathrooms are usually back-to-back).
If anyone knows of any studies or journal articles that address one or both of these main issues, I would love to read them. I feel like I've Googled the topic to death, but most of what I can find are generalized hospitality industry articles that talk about higher consumer preference for interior corridors but don't address the material performance measures of the two respective building types. If there's really nothing else out there, then I suppose I'll let this thread rest in peace. This would make a great topic for a thesis, but I'm not really in college anymore.
I would suppose that if consumers prefer interior corridors, hotels are being built with them for that reason above any having to do with energy or construction costs. Even if the corridor costs $100 to maintain per month, you only need to sell two extra $50 rooms per month due to that corridor to make it worth it, and then any extra rooms you sell because of it are profit. You can easily justify the added cost.
There's a Hampton somewhere along the I-75 corridor in the southern part of Tennessee (Cleveland, perhaps) that has exterior corridors. Or at least it was a Hampton when I was researching possible places to stay in that area at one time in the not-too-distant past. It may have changed brands by now if Hilton's trying to get away from exterior-entrance motels/hotels, as someone said upthread.
A number of Comfort Inns with exterior entrances have converted to Quality Inns in recent months. Both are Choice Hotel brands; I was told at one last year that had converted that Choice is pushing all exterior-corridor facilities to switch to Quality and keeping Comfort Inns as interior-corridor properties. (The Comfort Inn at Weston, WV, hasn't changed yet and it's an exterior-entrance motel).
I still prefer exterior entrance motels, especially if I can park right in front of the door. This allows me to keep an eye on my vehicle, and makes it a lot easier to get my stuff into the room.
I'm a member of both the Choice and Wyndham reward programs and try to stay at the one that offers the best points promotion whenever possible. I've also joined Best Western, IHG, Marriott and Hampton because I occasionally have to stay at one of those properties for work and I might as well earn points if I can. I'd earned enough Best Western points to get two free stays on my trip to Dubuque for the meet there earlier this year.
I still like cheap; I cringe at the thought of spending more than $75 a night for a room, and actually I think that's too high.
For hotel prices, it really is location dependent. $75 may be a lot of money for some place like Dubuque but would be an excellent value for a hotel in San Diego.
A good gauge of hotel prices is the GSA Per Diem rates:
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104877
That lists the maximum amount that the government will pay for a hotel in a given area and is followed my many corporate travel policies as well. It usually pays for a Hampton Inn level hotel.
You are right about location as $75 in Florida is a lot of money, yet in New Jersey it would be ideal. If you could find anything less than that in the Garden State, it would be a roach motel. However, the Motel 6 at Exit 4 off the New Jersey Turnpike shocked me at $38 a night back in 2000 that surprised me and it was not a bad room for the money. I think that one was either the exception to the rule or parts of South Jersey do have cheaper overhead. Then again this is over 13 years ago.
Geez, my per diem rates are on the low side by comparison. I tend to eat on the thrifty side anyhow ($15-20/day, less if breakfast is included, more if stuck in an airport), which gives you a little managerial goodwill on the few times a year when you really want a $30-50 dinner and drinks.
Every now and then, someone doesn't do the research and puts us in a overpriced hotel which has few nearby amenities, serves breakfast too late for us crack-of-dawn risers, is loaded with hundreds of meeting room/convention-goers, et al.
When Hampton Inns started they had reasonable rates. I remember my dad got a room for $40 back in the 80s and it included a somewhat of a breakfast. Then in Miami on 36th Street near the Miami Airport it was about that as well. Back in 92 when I stayed at the one on Old Route 66 in Countryside, IL it was not too expensive then either and even in 97 when a friend of mine stayed at another one near MIA, it was just starting to go up, but there were two of us who could afford a somewhat expensive room.
Back in the 80s forty dollar rooms were considered real good for the times, and I cannot remember what I payed in the 90s in Illinois, but it was cheap as I would have never picked it. Now they are over $80 at least these days.
One recent problem i have had are certain chains are purposely putting in curtain rods which make it impossible to close the curtains at night, meaning a huge gap between the ends of the travel rod. Then with the outdoor lighting, it is impossible to fall asleep with all the light travelling through the window.
Quote from: Duke87 on November 06, 2013, 10:54:56 PM
Word from an ex of mine who worked up there is that Sullivan County uses the no-name motels in Liberty, NY as places to house sex offenders who need an eye kept on them. I wonder how common this practice is. Something to think about when deciding where to spend the night. :spin:
When a train derailed in Paulsboro, NJ a year or so ago, some of the town was evacuated to a nearby Motel 6 off Exit 17 of I-295. A few people with children found out a sex-offender was living there. They were not too happy about the situation.
An aside - this motel used to be the Dutch Inn, with a large windmill out front. Used to be a very nice place to stay at, or for a formal dinner/reception, etc. For whatever reason it went out of business many years ago. Today, the banquet hall side is completely closed, and it's rather run down now.
Since this thread has reopened...
My preferences are Hilton or Marriott branded hotels. And rarely will I not have a hotel picked out beforehand. Even when I just on the road looking for a place to stay, I'll glance at my phone to see the hotels coming up based on how much further I'll be traveling, and see what's either reasonably inexpensive or doesn't require a lot of points to stay at.
I even sat outside a Days Inn one time to use their public Wifi (when I had a laptop) to locate and book a Marriott branded hotel about 15 minutes down the road!
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 12:14:50 PM
When Hampton Inns started they had reasonable rates. I remember my dad got a room for $40 back in the 80s and it included a somewhat of a breakfast. Then in Miami on 36th Street near the Miami Airport it was about that as well. Back in 92 when I stayed at the one on Old Route 66 in Countryside, IL it was not too expensive then either and even in 97 when a friend of mine stayed at another one near MIA, it was just starting to go up, but there were two of us who could afford a somewhat expensive room.
Back in the 80s forty dollar rooms were considered real good for the times, and I cannot remember what I payed in the 90s in Illinois, but it was cheap as I would have never picked it. Now they are over $80 at least these days.
$40 in 1980 = $114 today. A $90 room today is actually cheaper than you were paying back then. Yay inflation!
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
Quote from: formulanone on November 07, 2013, 12:00:34 PM
Geez, my per diem rates are on the low side by comparison. I tend to eat on the thrifty side anyhow ($15-20/day, less if breakfast is included, more if stuck in an airport), which gives you a little managerial goodwill on the few times a year when you really want a $30-50 dinner and drinks.
Every now and then, someone doesn't do the research and puts us in a overpriced hotel which has few nearby amenities, serves breakfast too late for us crack-of-dawn risers, is loaded with hundreds of meeting room/convention-goers, et al.
My company pays flat per diem at the GSA rate for meals and incidentals regardless of what I spend. Ate cheaply? Pocket the extra. Ate expensive? You're still only getting the per diem back. It's nice not having to save receipts for meals though.
We just get an AMEX card, tie it into the software, and manage the bills quite easily. Problem is that it's not a per diem, it's more of a spending limit. There's very few cases when I have to save receipts; usually just office supplies and non-AMEX expenses.
Quote from: realjd on November 07, 2013, 01:33:20 PM
My company pays flat per diem at the GSA rate for meals and incidentals regardless of what I spend. Ate cheaply? Pocket the extra. Ate expensive? You're still only getting the per diem back. It's nice not having to save receipts for meals though.
I get actual reimbursement for lodging, and a flat-rate per diem for meals if I'm "in travel status" during the entire specified period. For an overnight trip to Frankfort, that usually means the evening meal the night of my stay, and breakfast and lunch the day of my class/meeting/whatever. Per diem is not allowed if the hotel serves a hot breakfast, so I try to avoid the Hampton and Holiday Inn Express in Frankfort to make a little extra money. (Per diem is $7 for breakfast, $8 for lunch and $15 for dinner). If I'm in Louisville, it usually ends up costing me money to eat dinner because it's hard to find something under $15 that's close to the downtown convention hotels. And lunch always costs me money if I'm in Frankfort because the cafeteria at the KYTC building is overpriced.
Quote from: Truvelo on October 28, 2011, 10:59:11 AM
Brand changes doesn't have to mean an establishment is going downhill. A former Holiday Inn I stay at became a Quality Inn because Holiday Inn wanted too much to use their name.
While it isn't a 100% lock, a brand change
is a very strong indication that a property is headed downhill. There are some brands–Quality Inn, Days Inn, and Ramada immediately come to mind–that consist almost entirely of conversions (as opposed to new constructions). Almost nobody ever
builds a Quality Inn–they were operating a '70s era Holiday Inn that was starting to get shabby, the inspectors from the corporate office mandated that the hotel owner make hundreds of thousands of dollars in property upgrades, and the owner said "Screw that....I'm joining a chain with lower standards." So the original '70s Holiday Inn became a Quality Inn in the '90s, then an America's Best Value Inn circa 2000, and finally the unbranded "Executive Inn and Suites - Monthly Rates Available" today.
Quote from: realjd on November 06, 2013, 11:21:37 PM
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 06, 2013, 10:15:21 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 02, 2011, 03:37:53 PM
In regard to the HVAC issue, I also remembered that motels with exterior corridors open directly on the outdoors...
Does anyone know of any sources for conclusive or more-concrete information regarding the merits and detriments of exterior corridors versus interior corridors in hotels? I'm disappointed that three of the most prominent hotel companies--InterContinental, Hilton, and Marriott--banned exterior corridors in recent years...
I think it's mainly consumer preference. I doubt you'll find much hard info on safety or energy efficiency.
The trend is driven both by consumer preference as well as concern for containing utility costs and addressing safety issues. I read a report Motel 6 released about 10 years ago in which they indicated that their prototype, going forward, would be an interior corridor motel for four main reasons: 1.) lower utility costs from HVAC units, 2.) lower maintenance costs and liability by avoiding railings and walkways exposed to the elements, 3.) increased safety for guests and employees by controlling access points, and 4.) a three to four-story interior corridor motel is the sweet spot of having a lower footprint, and therefore lower land costs, but still having a vertical visual presence that travelers can see from the highway.
With the exceptions of some atypical and resort-type properties, the top tier hotel companies
are most definitely striking exterior corridor properties from their rolls as franchise agreements come up for renewal. Much of that is due to clientele. The top tier hotel companies (Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, IHC) make most of their profits from business travelers who are incredibly loyal–primarily because of the hotels' rewards programs. If you're a Marriott Rewards guy, you're going to stay at a JW in Atlanta, a Courtyard in suburban Milwaukee, and a Fairfield Inn when you get stranded at the airport in Wilkes-Barre. And every one of these hotels had better be up to your junior executive standard. You're already going to be irked that the Fairfield doesn't have a concierge lounge or an on-site martini bar, but if you get to that Fairfield Inn and you find out that it's a freaking
motel with stairs that you have to walk up and doors that are outside...are you for real?! You'd rather die or be forced to drive a Ford or do something else equally unconscionable.
Now I don't agree with this point of view, but when you're an international hotel company and your primary goal in life is not pissing this guy off, you can't afford to have locations with exterior corridors in your portfolio. The rewards programs, most of which involve staying a minimum number of nights per year to maintain an "elite" status, tend to be an "all-in" or "all-out" proposition. If Marriott ticks you off in Wilkes-Barre, you might jump ship to Hilton HHonors, and Marriott will have lost literally hundreds of thousands of dollars that they otherwise would have made off you in the next decade.
I actually like being able to park, and walk right into my room. that, though, requires some advance planning. for Motel 6, it is sufficient at time of online reservation, to request "first floor".
... and hope you're not getting a corridor motel, but an old-fashioned motor hotel.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 07, 2013, 05:05:15 PM
While it isn't a 100% lock, a brand change is a very strong indication that a property is headed downhill. There are some brands–Quality Inn, Days Inn, and Ramada immediately come to mind–that consist almost entirely of conversions (as opposed to new constructions).
Most Super 8s seem to be conversions as well. And almost always the dreadful America's Best Value inns, where I've had my very worst motel experiences (one refused to honor my confirmed reservation, another was a four-story building with no elevator).
I mentioned way upthread that I was a Super 8 fan. I still use them, largely for the rewards points, where there is no Motel 6 in the area. But lately the Super 8s have gotten uneven, while some Motel 6s have been improved (and the others remain reliable if bare-bones). Microtel is another favorite option, modern construction, though the rooms are always really snug. Sometimes I'll splurge on a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn, especially if I've been roughing it for a few days and need time to recover when I return to civilization.
In Canada, the Motel 6s are new and pretty nice (multi-story with elevators and interior corridors), while I try to avoid Super 8s which up there are really old and uneven (except the one in Vaudreuil-Dorion west of Montreal is pretty nice). Comfort Inn is usually my plan B in Canada. That's especially true in Quebec, where I'm more confident that a chain (which is usually a Comfort Inn) will be at least minimally accommodating to English-speaking guests -- though I had no problem the one time I had to stay at an independent (the Château Madelinot in Cap-aux-Meules).
Free or cheap (like $3 a night at many Motel 6s) wi-fi is a must for me. Nowadays even the el cheapo places often have it, though if I'm scrounging for a motel at the end of the day I'll look for the ones that advertise wi-fi. Some of them, though, don't have desks or tables with chairs to set up your computer gear, which means an uncomfortable posture for a surf session lasting more than a few minutes.
Quote from: oscar on November 07, 2013, 05:49:25 PMthe dreadful America's Best Value inns, where I've had my very worst motel experiences
the only motel in which I've ever gotten bedbugs. the east Bakersfield location (Brundage Road at highway 184), btw.
Quote from: oscar on November 07, 2013, 05:49:25 PM
Most Super 8s seem to be conversions as well...
That's the way it's fast becoming, but Super 8 wasn't always a dumping ground for frowsy old motels. Originally, all Super 8 Motels were new constructions in a pseudo-Tudor style, and the chain was known for high customer satisfaction and loyalty. Red Roof Inn also built a very devoted base of price sensitive business customers and a reputation for extreme consistency. Knights Inn–today, probably the most disgusting national brand operated by a legitimate national lodging company (Wyndham)–was actually founded by a prefab building manufacturer and likewise originally had a consistent, purpose-built motel prototype.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F193AoDy&hash=0baa06c58c8f6fa8a6b5c8417e68457f5023ae65) (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F1eqDMAn&hash=475f283e33dcbf193b7b76bed56093fa5daacbd8) (https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F1bfEZFs&hash=315f44b1a8892a1c8342ad2f3d8e8b16a032637d)
In all three cases, the chains were bought by larger conglomerates, the visionary founders left, the new owners started franchising instead of operating company-owned units, and quality control standards were allowed to slide. Any attempt at maintaining a consistent product fell by the wayside, and honestly, now the brands probably mean nothing more to average consumers than "this is a cheap motel brand name that I have heard before".
Today, probably the only true economy lodging brand that has any consistency to its product is Microtel. And not coincidentally, they're the only budget brand that consistently scores well on customer satisfaction surveys.
Wyndham is really an oddly run company- they have a ton of brands, but I have yet to determine what the hierarchy is. I think it's something like:
Bad:
Knights - just don't (stayed at one in Needles, CA. What a dump, and why are hotels in Needles so overpriced?)
Travelodge- usually bad, sometimes okay
Decent:
Super 8 - all over the map. Can be nice and can be terrible. Worst I've been at is the one in Fort Madison, Iowa. Best in Las Vegas, NM (Trinidad, CO being a close second)
Days Inn- all over the map, seems like maybe they try to position themselves more upscale than Super 8, but I can't pin why. Best in Medicine Hat, AB (hotel rivaled a Hampton in quality), can't really pin a worse. On the whole they seem nicer than Super 8s, I guess.
Somewhere in the middle:
Howard Johnson- Better than a Super 8/Days, worse than a Baymont, but no idea how they fit into the hierarchy
"Better":
Ramada- Ramadas seem to be universally sketchy in the US, universally decent in Canada.
Baymont- Eh, they're like Hamptons but a little bit less nice in my experience.
Microtel- As was briantroutman says, I know what I'm getting into when I stay at a Microtel. It's going to be a tiny room, but it'll feel semi-modern and clean.
Best:
Wingate - Like a Hampton
Wyndham - What happens to resorts when none of the real companies want them anymore.
I feel like they need fewer brands and better consistency. I feel like they could get by with:
- Travelodge (rebrand all Knights Inns, Travelodges, and the shittier Days Inns/Super 8s as Travelodge). This becomes a Motel 6 competitor, low frills, low cost, hopefully sort of clean.
- Super 8/Days Inn (merge and keep one of the names. This would consist of all the decent Super 8/Days Inns that are decent, any hotels from other brands built with a motel style exterior corridor)
- Howard Johnson (all shitty Ramadas, all Howard Johnsons)
- Baymont/Ramada (call it Baymont in the US, Ramada in Canada) (all Baymonts and better Ramadas)
- Microtel (as is)
- Wingate (as is)
- Wyndham (as is)
They also need to better their rewards system if they're shooting for Wingate + customers. Right now you earn points, but there's no elite status/chance for room upgrades/etc. They did launch "Wyndham Gold" which I think basically just gives you an extra free night, no perks included. What I'd do is exclude the bottom rung (Knights/Travelodge) hotels from the reward system and then allow point accumulation/redemption to only occur at Super 8 or better hotels.
I've noticed some innkeepers visibly pissed that I'm redeeming my Wyndham points at their property, and that needs to change. Yeah, you don't get full rack from corporate on a redemption stay, but that's part of being a franchise and builds brand integrity so don't take that out on your guests. It's a franchise system that needs more corporate oversight, in my opinion, though maybe that raises rates.
I have found Howard Johnson to be slightly better than Knights Inn or TraveLodge, but not by much
Ramada is a little better. Maybe a bit above Super 8, bit not much.
Microtel a bit above that.
I don't have any first-hand knowledge of Wingate.
Not of the Wyndham family, but Americas Best Value is generally sleazy...often older hotels that should have been bulldozed. Muskogee was OK, except the roaches in the breakfast area.
EconoLodge is a crapshoot: some good, some bad.
I stayed at a Clarion near Memphis once that was a dump(!)
Quote from: corco on November 07, 2013, 08:11:30 PM
Wyndham is really an oddly run company- they have a ton of brands, but I have yet to determine what the hierarchy is.
You couldn't possibly plan a brand portfolio as messy as Wyndham's. Theirs is the result of 20+ years of mergers and acquisitions, and their total pool of lodging brands includes even
more names that have been disposed of, such as Budgetel, Villager, AmeriHost, and Arborgate Inn.
There really isn't a hierarchy to it–and that lack of coordination, brand image, and consistency is what makes Wyndham such a joke.
Quote from: corco on November 07, 2013, 08:11:30 PM
I feel like they need fewer brands and better consistency...
I've noticed that Wyndham has subtly made a few changes to the brand roadmap at the bottom of their web pages that might hint at future adjustments to their lineup. First, they've added the Wyndham name and insignia to the logos of their more consistent brands–Wingate, Hawthorn, and Microtel. Second, they've moved all of the other brands below a very obvious dividing line. With the exception of Dream, Planet Hollywood, and Night, which are small-scale boutique brands, I could see ones "below the fold" being spun off into their own Crappy Lodging LLC, with the ones above remaining the Wyndham Hotel Group.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F1bbtW20&hash=8ba8c0bba6de157ae03200ed20c3f78238792c05)
Quote from: corco on November 07, 2013, 08:11:30 PM
Decent:
Super 8 - all over the map. Can be nice and can be terrible. Worst I've been at is the one in Fort Madison, Iowa. Best in Las Vegas, NM (Trinidad, CO being a close second)
Days Inn- all over the map, seems like maybe they try to position themselves more upscale than Super 8, but I can't pin why. Best in Medicine Hat, AB (hotel rivaled a Hampton in quality), can't really pin a worse. On the whole they seem nicer than Super 8s, I guess.
Somewhere in the middle:
Howard Johnson- Better than a Super 8/Days, worse than a Baymont, but no idea how they fit into the hierarchy
I think Days Inns are even more "all over the map" than Super 8s. And I would rank Howard Johnson on the low end of "decent" rather than higher than Super 8/Days Inn.
QuoteI could see ones "below the fold" being spun off into their own Crappy Lodging LLC, with the ones above remaining the Wyndham Hotel Group.
Whoa, yeah. That would make sense. They seem to be building those higher end hotels at a pretty good clip, and I just can't see how they'll ever lure business travelers with those other brands in the portfolio or how you manage a rewards program with such varying levels of quality. A traveler that normally stays at a JW can handle a Fairfield for a night, or a traveler that normally stays at a Waldorf should be able to deal with a Hampton, but I can't see a Grand Wyndham traveler staying at a Knights Inn.
QuoteAnd I would rank Howard Johnson on the low end of "decent" rather than higher than Super 8/Days Inn.
That's certainly possible- I've only stayed at a couple HoJos- one in Beaumont TX that was pretty nice and one in Vancouver, BC that was actually very nice for the price (right downtown, clean room, mediocre but not sketchy neighborhood). When I booked the one in YVR though, I was with friends, and one of them was very reluctant to stay there because of bad experiences with Howard Johnson in the past.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 07, 2013, 09:01:27 PM
I've noticed that Wyndham has subtly made a few changes to the brand roadmap at the bottom of their web pages that might hint at future adjustments to their lineup. First, they've added the Wyndham name and insignia to the logos of their more consistent brands–Wingate, Hawthorn, and Microtel.
That's good, now they need to add it to the logos for every brand they own. Seriously. Stop misleading your customers into thinking Super 8 and Days Inn are two different establishments when really your money goes back to the same boardroom either way. It's goddamn false advertising.
Unless brian's theory is correct and they are planning a spinoff- either way it seems like they're trying to build equity with the Wyndham name and they probably don't want it associated with the Super 8 in Fort Madison Iowa or the Days Inn in Gallup New Mexico. Those brands are too inconsistent for any corporate entity to want to slap their name on.
I don't know that a lot of people think they are different establishments or that it's important to make that distinction- if you travel infrequently you shouldn't care, and if you travel frequently you probably have a Wyndham Rewards account and know they are the same thing.
What ever happened to the original Fairfield Inn concept? I remember all of their hotels had both exterior and interior corridors. The ground and second floors were exterior while the third floor was interior. Do not quote me on this, but I believed the third floor was King sized bedrooms, as the one in Morrow, GA I checked into at 1 AM back in August 1990 as I did work for Marriot, that offered all of its employees a room discount as a benefit, put me in a King size bed that was on the top floor.
Now I see Fairfield has sold all of their original buildings and in Orlando two of them converted to another brand name and the third torn down. The newest Fairfield Inn in Lake Buena Vista, FL is a high rise of six floors (about) and no exterior corridors or anything like its original concept.
I know that Fairfield, Residence, and Courtyard are all part of Marriot which each individual brand name being for some different type of lodging. Residence and Courtyards are both the same that give ammentities the same as the regular Marriot Hotels, but at a somewhat cheaper price and without the high rise buildings. Fairfield Inns were to be the budget hotels for interstate travelers, and of course Spring Hill was not yet invented when Marriot first expanded. Obviously now, things have changed. It would appear that Marriot got out of the typical overnight stay type of motel altogether.
Also, does anyone know what happened to Welleslly Inns? I liked them when they were in business that seemed to be only a year or two and stayed at the one on US 1 in Edison, NJ (now a Comfort Inn) back in the late 90s.
Quote from: corco on November 07, 2013, 08:11:30 PM
I've noticed some innkeepers visibly pissed that I'm redeeming my Wyndham points at their property, and that needs to change. Yeah, you don't get full rack from corporate on a redemption stay, but that's part of being a franchise and builds brand integrity so don't take that out on your guests.
Thanks for the info; unfortunately, my company rarely puts us on Wyndham properties, except if nothing's available. Usually that means a Super 8 (which are consistently okay, I get spoiled by some of the Hampton Inns and Courtyards out there), but from work and vacation experience, just what you need. Stayed at a number of Wyngates with a previous job, and they were all pretty good on finish, hospitality, and amenities...it's a pity we can't squeeze them in, but to be fair, they do seem to a rare find except in large cities.
I'd prefer to be loyal to one brand, but 90% of our stays are with Hilton, IHG, and Marriott properties; still being in the highest level in all of them has its advantages. All of them have been great about last-minute cancellations with points, although sometimes you seem to get blacked out within a 3-4 day period...sometimes a phone call solves that problem (if you don't mind the occasional handicapped room).
I do like that the Fairfield Inns are getting away from the pre-packaged breakfast concept - the hotel breakfasts are already a bit of a caloric splurge.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 07, 2013, 05:05:15 PM
...but if you get to that Fairfield Inn and you find out that it's a freaking motel with stairs that you have to walk up and doors that are outside...are you for real?!
My wife and her mom stayed at a Fairfield like this once in SC - all outside corridors. Reeked of some sort of musty odor. They moved to another room but had the same problem. We've stayed at Fairfields quite often. Most of them were indoors though. And none had the problem this one had.
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
I know that Fairfield, Residence, and Courtyard are all part of Marriot which each individual brand name being for some different type of lodging. Residence and Courtyards are both the same that give amenities the same as the regular Marriot Hotels, but at a somewhat cheaper price and without the high rise buildings....
I've always known Residence Inns to be a real nice suite - nearly full size fridges, stoves/ovens, etc. And an excellent complimentary breakfast. Courtyards were right between a Fairfield Inn & Marriott, but without the free breakfast, although some if not most have some sort of restaurant/café/bistro.
As an aside - anyone ever go to a nearby hotel in the morning just to grab their free breakfast? I've thought about doing this many times at my nearby Residence Inn, but haven't done so yet (mostly because I hate waking up early in the morning if I don't have to!).
Quote from: briantroutman on November 07, 2013, 05:05:15 PM
The trend is driven both by consumer preference as well as concern for containing utility costs and addressing safety issues. I read a report Motel 6 released about 10 years ago in which they indicated that their prototype, going forward, would be an interior corridor motel for four main reasons: 1.) lower utility costs from HVAC units, 2.) lower maintenance costs and liability by avoiding railings and walkways exposed to the elements, 3.) increased safety for guests and employees by controlling access points, and 4.) a three to four-story interior corridor motel is the sweet spot of having a lower footprint, and therefore lower land costs, but still having a vertical visual presence that travelers can see from the highway.
I actually read that Motel 6 document several years ago, and I remember most of the basic points, but I can't remember the details. I tried looking for it a few days ago, but it's not on the Motel 6 website, and the brochure explaining the
new Motel 6 prototype (the "Phoenix" prototype) doesn't include a justification for interior corridors.
Do you know if the Motel 6 document to which you are referring is still available? I'm curious as to the extent to which points 1 through 3 are grounded in empirical data rather than being based on assumptions (the logic behind the relationship between building height, footprint, and visibility, however, is self-evident).
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 07, 2013, 10:46:49 PM
As an aside - anyone ever go to a nearby hotel in the morning just to grab their free breakfast? I've thought about doing this many times at my nearby Residence Inn, but haven't done so yet (mostly because I hate waking up early in the morning if I don't have to!).
I figure if you're well-dressed enough, you could probably score one quite easily...cameras in the parking lot might give you away, if they checked them. Yeah, thought about it before, but I wouldn't want to pick up a level of bad goodwill with the brand, on top of the whole "theft" thing.
Quote from: corco on November 07, 2013, 10:08:41 PM
Unless brian's theory is correct and they are planning a spinoff- either way it seems like they're trying to build equity with the Wyndham name and they probably don't want it associated with the Super 8 in Fort Madison Iowa or the Days Inn in Gallup New Mexico. Those brands are too inconsistent for any corporate entity to want to slap their name on.
I don't know that a lot of people think they are different establishments or that it's important to make that distinction- if you travel infrequently you shouldn't care, and if you travel frequently you probably have a Wyndham Rewards account and know they are the same thing.
The distinction is important for two reasons: one, because if I decide that one of their brands pisses me off so bad that I never want to stay there again, my boycott is meaningless if I stay at another hotel owned by the same company instead. Two, because on principle I feel I am being lied to when I'm just being sold the brand and the sign doesn't say who actually owns the hotel. If I say "Hi, I'm Copernicus and I love heliocentrism" to one group of people and then turn around and say "Hi, I'm Ptolemy and geocentrism is the way to go!" to another group of people, I'd get called a two-faced liar and a cheat. So why are companies allowed to do this if I'm not? If Wyndham owns the hotel, the sign should say "Wyndham" on it somewhere. It's OK for them to own hotels all across the spectrum of quality, but it is not OK for them to wear 11 different masks to disguise that fact and say "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".
On another note, I don't care how much I like an establishment or how frequently I patronize it, I will NEVER sign up for a rewards card from anywhere. I don't want that crap bulking up my wallet, and I don't want to enable anyone to data mine off of me if I can avoid it.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 07, 2013, 10:46:49 PM
As an aside - anyone ever go to a nearby hotel in the morning just to grab their free breakfast? I've thought about doing this many times at my nearby Residence Inn, but haven't done so yet (mostly because I hate waking up early in the morning if I don't have to!).
When I've had breakfast in the motel where I was staying, sometimes I've been asked to show my room key.
QuoteTwo, because on principle I feel I am being lied to when I'm just being sold the brand and the sign doesn't say who actually owns the hotel. If I say "Hi, I'm Copernicus and I love heliocentrism" to one group of people and then turn around and say "Hi, I'm Ptolemy and geocentrism is the way to go!" to another group of people, I'd get called a two-faced liar and a cheat.
Welcome to America! Lots and lots and lots of things are owned by one company but not broadly advertised as such. Most things you own/things you buy/stores you go to/hotels you stay at are. Did you know that the 2008 Chrysler Sebring was built by the same company that owned all of the Albertsons grocery stores in Arizona? Or that Guitar Center and Burger King are partially owned by the same company? Or that Gillette and Braun and Oral-B come from the same company? Or Hilton Hotels and Orangina sodas? Is the Kellogg's brand prominently marked on Pringles? Are Lexuses clearly marked as Toyotas? Or Enterprise and National? Or Kroger and King Soopers? Or Safeway and Dominicks? Or Red Lobster and Olive Garden? Or Steak 'n Shake and Cracker Barrel? Or Facebook and Instagram? Or Magnavox and Phillips? Or Chevron and Texaco? Or Volkswagen and Lamborghini? Or even Coke and Sprite (like Wyndham, not blatantly obvious but it's very very easy to figure out)? I could go on all day
Days Inn and Super 8 are hardly as different as heliocentrism and geocentrism anyway. They're...basically the same. If you told one person "I'm Days Inn, and I sell mediocre hospitality at a low price" and turned around and said "I'm Super 8, and I sell mediocre hospitality at a low price" and somebody figured out you were doing that, the likely reaction would probably be "Oh...that makes sense." It's not even really hidden. If you walk into a Days Inn or Super 8 you'll see Wyndham promotional stuff on the walls- they just don't blatantly flash it on the logo.
If you're on a vendetta against a company in this day and age, I feel like a reasonable person would research that out- "I hate Days Inn! Wait...who owns Days Inn? Ah...Wyndham. Never going to any Wyndham properties again." Though I would say having a vendetta against Days Inn/Super 8 would be pretty weird except in the highly unlikely event that corporate did something to piss you off- those hotels are just about all franchisee owned and operated and have nothing to do with each other beyond giving corporate money in exchange for a recognizable brand name.
QuoteOn another note, I don't care how much I like an establishment or how frequently I patronize it, I will NEVER sign up for a rewards card from anywhere. I don't want that crap bulking up my wallet, and I don't want to enable anyone to data mine off of me if I can avoid it.
You know you can give fake information right? As long as you swipe a valid credit card at check in it's fine. That's what celebrities and paranoid people do (I know this from working at Hilton). And you get free nights! And room upgrades! My roadgeek budget is quite heavily dependent on getting free nights every once in a while.
I mean, I guess power to you, but that's a fairly unique stance on life.
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 07, 2013, 10:58:28 PM
[Do you know if the Motel 6 document to which you are referring is still available?
I managed to track it down through the Internet Archive (http://bit.ly/1cHE99O (http://bit.ly/1cHE99O)) They don't cite many specific stats or study findings, but since their money is on the line, I would be surprised if they didn't have the data to support their conclusions.
And if you're interested in highway-bound hotels and motels in general, I highly recommend the book The Motel in America (http://amzn.to/1bbZuEV). The authors follow the development of independent motels and chain motor lodges along with the growth of the US and Interstate systems, and they cover the topic of motels with as much detail and enthusiasm as roadgeeks discussing unbuilt freeways.
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
What ever happened to the original Fairfield Inn concept?
Marriott's revoking their franchises at renewal–trying to get every last trace of motel-ness out of the entire system. I read an article (http://bit.ly/1d1tnXO) where the author refers to Fairfield as an "upper midscale mainstay" brand. Apparently, Marriott has no interest in even pretending to serve the "budget" segment anymore.
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
Also, does anyone know what happened to Welleslly Inns?
This one's almost comically complicated.
Prime Motor Inns was a New Jersey-based owner-operator of franchised hotels, and by the mid '80s, they owned about 70 hotels operating as Holiday Inns, Ramada Inns, and Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges. In 1985, Prime bought the remains of the moribund Howard Johnson Company–which to that time was an independent, publicly traded corporation and running huge losses annually.
Later in the '80s, Prime bought some smaller regional chains, including Wellesley (which had about two dozen locations) and AmeriSuites. With public sentiment on the famous Howard Johnson name still decidedly negative, Prime hedged their bets by converting several former Howard Johnson Motor Lodges to Wellesley Inns and even added a "by Howard Johnson" to the Wellesley logo (http://bit.ly/HC3EuE).
By 1990, Prime Motor Inns bought the Ramada chain and found themselves overextended and in bankruptcy court. They sold the Howard Johnson and Ramada franchise systems to the Blackstone Group. Blackstone, in turn, spun Howard Johnson and Ramada off into a new company called Hospitality Franchise Systems...which would later buy Days Inn
in bankruptcy, Knights Inn
in bankruptcy (do you see a pattern here?). And then the whole mess got spun into Cendant (of accounting fraud scandal fame) and then merged into Wyndham Worldwide.
But back to Wellesley–Prime managed to hold onto Wellesley and AmeriSuites through the bankruptcy. They set about rebuilding by growing their two brands. But in over a decade, they never managed to grow Wellesley to more than about 80 locations (and 150 AmeriSuites), and with lackluster financial performance ended up selling out to Blackstone (yes, them again) in 2004, who basically put the Wellesley brand out of its misery. Many of the locations were converted to La Quinta Inns (which Blackstone acquired a year later).
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
I know that Fairfield, Residence, and Courtyard are all part of Marriot which each individual brand name being for some different type of lodging. Residence and Courtyards are both the same that give ammentities the same as the regular Marriot Hotels, but at a somewhat cheaper price and without the high rise buildings. Fairfield Inns were to be the budget hotels for interstate travelers, and of course Spring Hill was not yet invented when Marriot first expanded.
Residence Inn is an extended stay type place, similar to Homewood Suites (Hilton) or Staybridge (IHG). A basic room has a living room with couch and TV, a small dining area, a full kitchen, and a separate bedroom with a TV and bathroom.
Courtyard competes with Hilton Garden Inn. What sets them apart from Fairfield and Hampton are that Courtyard and HGI almost always have restaurants and bars on site.
Quote from: Duke87 on November 07, 2013, 11:45:47 PM
On another note, I don't care how much I like an establishment or how frequently I patronize it, I will NEVER sign up for a rewards card from anywhere. I don't want that crap bulking up my wallet, and I don't want to enable anyone to data mine off of me if I can avoid it.
Store rewards card? Use a fake name and then do lookup by fake phone number. No physical card needed. Hotel or airline rewards plan? You're really missing out. You also don't actually need the card, just the account number, and the rewards can be significant. Airline miles and hotel points covered the bulk of my wife and my trip to Australia last spring.
I keep the account numbers handy, and leave the cards at home. When you book the reservation, your account is attached at least 99.5% of the time, so it's rare I've had to mention which rewards number I am.
Give them a secondary webmail address, and you're set. Biggest problem are the monthly credit card offers, which can be resolved by tearing them up and throwing them out. Although some have good perks for semi-frequent travellers.
Data mining...free stays (et cetera) for whatever you're giving up. Not much, really: name and mailing address. A state driver's license office sells much more of your personal information than that.
To be fair, if you're staying in a hotel only 4-10 nights a year, you're probably not earning enough points to redeem them, unless it's a very high-end brand in exchange for a night at an economy-brand inn...which comes in handy when you've had unexpected travel plans occur.
Quote from: Duke87 on November 07, 2013, 11:45:47 PM
On another note, I don't care how much I like an establishment or how frequently I patronize it, I will NEVER sign up for a rewards card from anywhere. I don't want that crap bulking up my wallet, and I don't want to enable anyone to data mine off of me if I can avoid it.
What are they going to do - send you coupons and discount offers? The horror!
Sometimes rewards clubs can help you especially when traveling in a market where the hotel room rates are astronomical in prices. You have to look at the pros as well as the cons.
how exactly do you go about giving fake info to a motel? they always ask to see my ID.
how did John Lennon ever get away with signing in as "Joe Ramone"?
At least with Hilton what you do is make your HHonors account with fake info. At check in, you would need to show your HHonors card to prove you're actually the person the reservation is intended for (sorry Duke), and then they'd want a picture ID to match the credit card. The property-level system would have your actual information, but all corporate sees is the name your HHonors account is registered under and they'd have the ability to see the last four digits of your credit card and have the ability to initiate refund requests, but they'd have no ability to see the full credit card number or associated name and the final refund request is processed through property level accounts payable.
The only people who would know who you are are front desk folks and management that actively try to check (in the Hilton system it's a couple screens deep from "this is who this person is registered as" to "this is the name on their credit card")- every other person on and off property would know you only as your alias.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 08, 2013, 09:21:25 AM
how exactly do you go about giving fake info to a motel? they always ask to see my ID.
I was wondering this, too...I guess many of our fellow roadgeeks are afraid to arouse suspicion. :paranoid:
You can't rent a car without a photo id, and boarding a plane is also more difficult (but not impossible (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/04/tsa-travel-tips-tuesday-can-you-fly.html)) without a picture id. Maybe some hotels/motels don't ask for your ID if you didn't have a reservation, which I think I've done twice...many, many years ago.
Quote from: formulanone on November 08, 2013, 09:41:02 AM
You can't rent a car without a photo id, and boarding a plane is also more difficult (but not impossible (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/04/tsa-travel-tips-tuesday-can-you-fly.html)) without a picture id. Maybe some hotels/motels don't ask for your ID if you didn't have a reservation, which I think I've done twice...many, many years ago.
Yet even mention needing a photo ID to vote, and... (ducking)
My Wyndham Rewards card has a Days Inn logo on it.
I've run into good and bad establishments of just about every brand, which is why I now read TripAdvisor religiously. I can overlook a lot of bad reviews from people who are obviously hotel/motel snobs ("Avoid this place at all costs. The TVs aren't LCD flat panel." Well, I've got news for you, my televisions at home are still tube-type TVs and will stay that way until they quit working, and I'm perfectly OK with that.)
My encounters with Knights Inn (Ashland, Ky.) and America's Best Value (Watertown, N.Y., which was the most reasonably-priced place in town when I went to the meet there a few years ago) were good. And I've generally had good luck with EconoLodge, although the one in Terre Haute, Ind. is a dump. Conversely, I have not been impressed with the two HI Express units where I stayed. While generally clean, they weren't nice enough in my eyes for the price I was paying. Most Motel 6 units get terrible reviews, but I've stayed at a couple that were pretty nice.
Someone else mentioned the Super 8 buildings. It's easy to tell a unit that was built as a Super 8. Same for most Red Roof Inns, although there's a former Red Roof in Florence, Ky. that is now a Comfort Inn.
I wish that most motels/hotels listed whether they are interior or exterior entrance, as sometimes it's not always easy to tell from the photos. Since I prefer being able to park right outside my door, that is usually the determining factor in where I stay if on a trip if prices are not an issue.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Conversely, I have not been impressed with the two HI Express units where I stayed. While generally clean, they weren't nice enough in my eyes for the price I was paying. Most Motel 6 units get terrible reviews, but I've stayed at a couple that were pretty nice.
Motel 6s do tend to bring out the "motel snobs" on TripAdvisor, with unreasonable expectations about what you can get for the price. I discount the ratings there, unless nobody has anything nice to say about a particular property, *and* there are specific and important complaints among the negative reviews. That happened with the Motel 6 I'd planned to stay at on my way to this year's Portsmouth NH meet, so I switched to one to the west (which might've been a former Hampton Inn, or at least that's where they got some of their towels).
The one thing I like about HI Expresses is the plain bagels almost always on the breakfast menu. That's especially nice in the western states, where the McDonald's don't have bagel sandwiches on their breakfast menu, and there's no Carl's Jr./Hardee's in town to provide the next best thing for me (Frisco sourdough breakfast sandwiches). As a general rule, a bagel slicer in the breakfast area (so not only will they serve bagels, they aren't pre-sliced) is a good sign. I've seen them at some lower-priced places too, like the occasional Microtel, Days Inn, or Travelodge (in Marathon ON, which is now an independent).
Quote from: corco on November 08, 2013, 12:16:26 AM
QuoteOn another note, I don't care how much I like an establishment or how frequently I patronize it, I will NEVER sign up for a rewards card from anywhere. I don't want that crap bulking up my wallet, and I don't want to enable anyone to data mine off of me if I can avoid it.
You know you can give fake information right? As long as you swipe a valid credit card at check in it's fine. That's what celebrities and paranoid people do (I know this from working at Hilton). And you get free nights! And room upgrades! My roadgeek budget is quite heavily dependent on getting free nights every once in a while.
I mean, I guess power to you, but that's a fairly unique stance on life.
Fake information doesn't solve the "I don't have spare slot in my wallet for that card" problem. I don't know where people keep all these rewards cards they sign up for, I don't have any of them and I already have a couple more cards and card-like things than I have slots in my wallet, forcing unpleasant doubling-up.
Beyond that, though, I also have the problem that I was raised in an environment where someone soliciting you for something usually equals homeless person begging for change or something similar, and I am well trained on how to avoid and firmly say NO to such people. So, when the cashier asks me "would you like to sign up for a Walgreens card?", in my mind it's the same sort of situation, and to do anything other than curtly say "no thanks" and avoid making eye contact just violates instinct.
As for the benefits... well, problem with a Wyndham card or whatever is that it's only good at hotels owned by that brand. I have allowed myself to sign up for hotels.com, which offers something similar except it doesn't matter what brand you stay at, only that you book it through them. Though I've yet to see if the "rewards" are actually worth anything. My experience with the rewards program on my credit card has given me a high dose of skepticism about such things.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Quote from: formulanone on November 08, 2013, 09:41:02 AM
You can't rent a car without a photo id, and boarding a plane is also more difficult (but not impossible (http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/04/tsa-travel-tips-tuesday-can-you-fly.html)) without a picture id. Maybe some hotels/motels don't ask for your ID if you didn't have a reservation, which I think I've done twice...many, many years ago.
Yet even mention needing a photo ID to vote, and... (ducking)
My Wyndham Rewards card has a Days Inn logo on it.
I've run into good and bad establishments of just about every brand, which is why I now read TripAdvisor religiously. I can overlook a lot of bad reviews from people who are obviously hotel/motel snobs ("Avoid this place at all costs. The TVs aren't LCD flat panel." Well, I've got news for you, my televisions at home are still tube-type TVs and will stay that way until they quit working, and I'm perfectly OK with that.)
My encounters with Knights Inn (Ashland, Ky.) and America's Best Value (Watertown, N.Y., which was the most reasonably-priced place in town when I went to the meet there a few years ago) were good. And I've generally had good luck with EconoLodge, although the one in Terre Haute, Ind. is a dump. Conversely, I have not been impressed with the two HI Express units where I stayed. While generally clean, they weren't nice enough in my eyes for the price I was paying. Most Motel 6 units get terrible reviews, but I've stayed at a couple that were pretty nice.
Someone else mentioned the Super 8 buildings. It's easy to tell a unit that was built as a Super 8. Same for most Red Roof Inns, although there's a former Red Roof in Florence, Ky. that is now a Comfort Inn.
I wish that most motels/hotels listed whether they are interior or exterior entrance, as sometimes it's not always easy to tell from the photos. Since I prefer being able to park right outside my door, that is usually the determining factor in where I stay if on a trip if prices are not an issue.
With Holiday Inn Express, part of what you're paying for is brand consistency. A stellar Super 8 may match HIE in terms of amenities but even a bad HIE is going to be miles better than a bad Super 8.
For people on the road as much as myself and formulanone, brand loyalty comes into play also. I'm IHG Platinum. When I stay at an IHG property, I routinely get free drinks, room upgrades, executive floor access, and other perks. Keeping my reward points within one brand also let's me do things like get three free nights in the penthouse rooms at the Holiday Inn in downtown Sydney without paying a dime. In exchange for the perks, I'll pay moderately more typically to stay in an IHG property. The same goes for airlines. I'll gladly pay more to fly Delta because as Platinum, I get free checked bags, early boarding, preferential rebooking with weather and mechanical issues cause delays, and more often than not, a free first class upgrade.
Of course traveling for work, company travel rules trump all.
QuoteFake information doesn't solve the "I don't have spare slot in my wallet for that card" problem. I don't know where people keep all these rewards cards they sign up for, I don't have any of them and I already have a couple more cards and card-like things than I have slots in my wallet, forcing unpleasant doubling-up.
I pick my rewards programs carefully. I don't sign up for rewards programs at stores I rarely shop at, or where benefits aren't there. In the case of something like hotels or rental cars or airlines, though, the MO is to build brand loyalty, and they do that through generous loyalty programs. I don't carry the cards in my wallet either- every hotel/etc can easily look up your rewards number when you give them your name.
QuoteAs for the benefits... well, problem with a Wyndham card or whatever is that it's only good at hotels owned by that brand. I have allowed myself to sign up for hotels.com, which offers something similar except it doesn't matter what brand you stay at, only that you book it through them.
The thing that's nice about Wyndham, and why I suspect a lot of roadgeeks use their rewards, is that they're everywhere.
Third party booking through hotels.com or any other site...it works 95% of the time, but that 5% that it doesn't (mainly your trip plans change at the last second) (you were hoping for a specific bed type and booked at the default "run of house" rate that leaves you in whatever room you got stuck in) (added fees often make it more expensive than booking directly through the hotel) prompts me to avoid it always. Third party bookings leave you with very little leverage to talk to the hotel, because you give hotels.com your money, and then hotels.com gives the property some negotiated rate that's less than rack. Since you're not giving the hotel as much money, you're more likely to get bumped to the shitty room on a sellout night. If you need to cancel at the last minute, there's two middle men to jump through and it's all but impossible (the hotel has to refund to the booking agency, who has to give you a refund. I was under strict orders not to ever do this, since there's no guarantee the booking agency is passing the money back to you), where if you can talk to the property directly and have a good story, it's almost always doable. Brand loyalty is the name of the game, and when you book through hotels.com you're considered "price loyal," which is why you can't earn loyalty points at whatever hotel you've booked at when you go through that channel.
Okay, like for instance tonight I'm staying at the Hampton Inn in Billings. The hilton.com rate is $114 a night. The hotels.com rate is $149 a night. Tomorrow I'm staying at the Super 8 in Ogallala. The wyndhamrewards.com rate is $63.27 (with 2000 bonus points! That's about 1/5 of a free night). Hotels.com's non-refundable rate is $65.48. If I want to be able to cancel, like with the Wyndham rate, it's $76.94. With AAA, you can lower those rates even further by booking through the property directly.
And it makes sense- typically, would you rather do business through a middleman or directly with somebody? There's a transaction cost involved with having a middleman- in this case the hotel gets less money and you pay more money.
Quote from: empirestate on November 02, 2011, 10:23:25 AM
Quote from: US71 on June 29, 2010, 10:40:03 AM
Quote from: Truvelo on June 29, 2010, 08:50:30 AM
Why do there need to be so many different brands within the same group?
Short answer: different levels of service/different consumer markets
Longer answer: corporate conglomerates bought up a lot of independent hotel chains in the 80's & 90's.
Anybody know of a list of brands sorted by corporate owner? I've stayed in just about every brand hotel there is and I can't keep them straight!
Best Western:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg14%2F5192%2Fckhl.jpg&hash=1e2874794eb3f6cde10351fafbbf3d4d562318b5)
(the split into 3 brands came in recent years, not sure why they felt like they had to do that, other than to show travelers that there are different styles of hotels within Best Western)
Carlson Rezidor Hotels:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg36%2F6981%2F2lj7.jpg&hash=2fff664d5fe29df90279574d610b0a05f10786c6)
Choice Hotels:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg28%2F2723%2Fw0br.jpg&hash=39a346c859b99535ef4b25746c148ca9fe825c63)
G6 Hospitality:Motel 6, Studio 6
(for a few years, they were owned by Accor Hotels, they mainly have properties in other overseas markets, much of which in Europe)
Hilton Worldwide:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg28%2F9658%2Fv54v.jpg&hash=27448c593d703573729b42f297400dda0b080832)
(Home2 is a new extended-stay brand; Conrad is a chain named for Hilton founder Conrad Hilton and are found mostly outside the US; I'm not sure why Hilton felt like it had to make a chain out of Waldorf-Astoria (to me, there's only 1, in New York City), but they did)
Hyatt Hotels:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg547%2F406%2Fgyry.jpg&hash=252c20bced0f98c804dc19561c6dc6731f89059c)
(Hyatt House is largely made up of the former Summerfield Suites brand, Hyatt Place is largely made up of the former AmeriSuites brand)
Inter-Continental Hotels Group:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg855%2F6146%2Fg65n.jpg&hash=df595dbac9d2a054542132166c138d1bc05907e2)
(Hualuxe looks like an all-China chain (by the looks of the website); Even Hotels looks like a new health & wellness-oriented chain that is early in development)
LQ Management, LLC:La Quinta Inns & Suites
(currently their only brand, but for a time, they owned the Baymont Inns brand before it became part of Wyndham)
Marriott International:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg543%2F9871%2Fzql5.jpg&hash=0e35d39cfaca37bde4869f78335b0f844aa266a2)
(Gaylord is a recent addition which Marriott now manages (Gaylord, the company, turned it's hotel division into a REIT, and they are the owners of the properties); Edition is a small upscale boutique chain; Autograph is made up of independent hotels/resorts but are affiliated with Marriott; AC is a new chain that started in Europe but Marriott wants to introduce it to the US; Bulgari is a small luxury chain which is a joint venture between Marriott and Bulgari, a luxury goods maker)
Starwood Hotels & Resorts:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg19%2F139%2F5k6n.jpg&hash=c3c24596a75a73cb26846a9e2dfdb67c4929bcbf)
(Element is a spinoff brand from Westin that touts itself as environmentally responsible; Luxury Collection is largely made up of local/independent/upscale hotel & resort properties, an example of which is the Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas; Aloft is like a smaller-formatted version of W Hotels; LeMeridien became a part of Starwood in 2005; St. Regis started with the original hotel namesake in New York City, but like Hilton's Waldorf-Astoria brand, Starwood felt like they had to make a chain out of it)
Wyndham Worldwide:(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimageshack.com%2Fa%2Fimg62%2F9344%2Fzrz6.jpg&hash=4b55c31c11583b389534be645abf4e577872c88b)
(the corporate parent of this group has grown largely by acquisitions--I'm not sure if there's even one chain that was developed in-house, except for maybe Wingate)
As if the above weren't enough, more hotels are at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Hotel_chains
Quote from: corco on November 08, 2013, 03:15:14 PM
.... I don't carry the cards in my wallet either- every hotel/etc can easily look up your rewards number when you give them your name.
....
Another option is to put the numbers in your phone if you have a smartphone. I've found that to be a good way to deal with some cards I don't use very often. I have the "CardStar" app on my iPhone. Trying to display a barcode for scanning using the app proved worthless, but a cashier can always punch in the number.
Quote from: 1995hoo on November 08, 2013, 04:10:05 PM
Quote from: corco on November 08, 2013, 03:15:14 PM
.... I don't carry the cards in my wallet either- every hotel/etc can easily look up your rewards number when you give them your name.
....
Another option is to put the numbers in your phone if you have a smartphone. I've found that to be a good way to deal with some cards I don't use very often. I have the "CardStar" app on my iPhone. Trying to display a barcode for scanning using the app proved worthless, but a cashier can always punch in the number.
Or, for the really low-tech option I use, just write down the numbers on a business card-size piece of paper, and periodically replace it as it wears out or the numbers change/expire.
I use that also to remind myself of the license plate #s of my two vehicles, which I sometimes get confused about (such mashing up the first three digits of my car plate, and the last three digits of my truck plate), so I don't have to walk back to the parking lot when the motel clerk asks for my plate #.
Quote from: oscar on November 08, 2013, 04:18:44 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on November 08, 2013, 04:10:05 PM
Quote from: corco on November 08, 2013, 03:15:14 PM
.... I don't carry the cards in my wallet either- every hotel/etc can easily look up your rewards number when you give them your name.
....
Another option is to put the numbers in your phone if you have a smartphone. I've found that to be a good way to deal with some cards I don't use very often. I have the "CardStar" app on my iPhone. Trying to display a barcode for scanning using the app proved worthless, but a cashier can always punch in the number.
Or, for the really low-tech option I use, just write down the numbers on a business card-size piece of paper, and periodically replace it as it wears out or the numbers change/expire.
I use that also to remind myself of the license plate #s of my two vehicles, which I sometimes get confused about (such mashing up the first three digits of my car plate, and the last three digits of my truck plate), so I don't have to walk back to the parking lot when the motel clerk asks for my plate #.
I tried the piece of paper thing once and it didn't work for me because I kept forgetting it was there and throwing it out when I would clean out the various charge slips and ATM receipts and such from my wallet.
I've never had any problem remembering license plate numbers for whatever reason, although now it's especially easy since we have personalized plates on all three cars.
Check to see if you have any discounts that can be applied on your brand's site. For instance, I get my vehicle and home insurance through Kentucky Farm Bureau, and they have a discount program that gets you 20 percent off a Wyndham or Choice room if you book on the brand site and punch in the discount code. That way you get your points and a decent rate both.
I'm very hesitant to do hotels.com or Priceline or anything like that. It's hard to establish a preference or desire (first floor, non-smoking, etc.) and if you do "Name Your Own Price" you don't even know what property you'll be staying at until you've already paid.
Hasn't it occurred to rewards program participants that there is, at the very least, potential for a Jevons paradox--you save so much through the program that you wind up spending more overall?
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 08, 2013, 08:17:40 PM
Hasn't it occurred to rewards program participants that there is, at the very least, potential for a Jevons paradox--you save so much through the program that you wind up spending more overall?
At least once you get status with a reward program, the benefits must be considered as well as the points.
Jevon's paradox is a concern though, although I've never heard it by that name. Just as maximizing points earning is part of the game, maximizing equivalent value per point is similarly part of the game. Booking a $300 per night Holiday Inn in Manhattan is often the same point redemption rate as a $70 per night Holiday Inn in Omaha. One provides a much better value per point.
Same goes for airline miles. The lowest value per mile is usually domestic coach tickets. The best value per mile is op usually international business class. If I can get a $300 domestic coach ticket for 25k miles or a $3,500 international business class ticket for 100,000 miles, it's apparent which provided the better value.
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 08, 2013, 08:17:40 PM
Hasn't it occurred to rewards program participants that there is, at the very least, potential for a Jevons paradox--you save so much through the program that you wind up spending more overall?
I mean, maybe so? As realjd said, the benefits of spending more have their own value, so I try to weigh that as objectively as possible. In any case, my goal is to take as many roadtrips as possible, so as long as the rewards programs aren't causing me to spend beyond my means (they aren't), I'm cool with it.
I'm not gunshy about going off Wyndham or off Hilton if there's a major discrepancy in rate/quality, but between those two chains that's rarely the case- I stayed at an Oak Tree Inn in Fremont, Nebraska a few days before the Wichita meet because there is no Hilton property there and the Wyndham property looked pretty meh for the price. In that case, I forewent the rewards points because it didn't make sense otherwise to accumulate them- if I recall right I would have basically paid $20 to stay at the Wyndham, which would have gotten me 900 points (I think it was $90/night to stay at the Wyndham and $70/night to stay at the better-reviewed Oak Tree), which is about 9% of a free stay, so I would have paid $20 for roughly $9 of rewards points.
On the flipside, I'm staying at a Super 8 in Nebraska tomorrow night and am paying the $63 regular rate with 2000 bonus points, giving me 2,630 points (about 26% of a free night) instead of the $56 AAA rate with no bonus points, which would have given me 560 points. In that case, I'm paying $7 for 21% of a free night, which is well worth the extra expenditure.
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 08, 2013, 08:17:40 PM
Hasn't it occurred to rewards program participants that...you wind up spending more overall?
Right, but these rewards programs are really intended for people who
aren't spending their own money–in other words, business travelers on the company dime. In fact, for anyone who is spending his or her own money and travels infrequently, the rewards programs are essentially worthless.
To maintain Platinum status with Marriott, for example, you'll need to stay at least 75 nights a year–every year. So at a conservative average nightly rate of $150 (which would be easy to exceed), you're looking at over $11,000 dollars annually–about 1/4 of the median household income in the US. Quite a sum to the average Joe.
And even with that kind of a dollar outlay, getting free nights (or free flights or free car rentals) is rapidly becoming less of an incentive as the programs are making point redemptions closer and closer to impossible. Now, the primary carrot is special treatment–exclusive elite member check-in desks, concierge level rooms, room upgrades, etc.
So the game is all about amassing points from months and months worth of company-paid hotel stays and redeeming them for a few nights in Paris–if you're lucky. But even if not, you can count on special butt-kissing on your travels. But as for "saving money"–it isn't even part of the equation.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Yet even mention needing to pay to vote, and... (ducking)
Arse.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 08, 2013, 02:15:14 AM
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 07, 2013, 10:58:28 PM
[Do you know if the Motel 6 document to which you are referring is still available?
I managed to track it down through the Internet Archive (http://bit.ly/1cHE99O (http://bit.ly/1cHE99O)) They don't cite many specific stats or study findings, but since their money is on the line, I would be surprised if they didn't have the data to support their conclusions.
Thank you so much for finding that! While I still wish that document gave numbers to support its claims, I feel it is the best "case for interior corridors" out of any that I have read.
The issues of energy efficiency and maintenance costs are two of the most important concerns, although that document still doesn't demonstrate interior corridors being safer. Fewer access points may provide a
mechanism for controlling access, but it doesn't guarantee that such access is controlled. I've stayed in a Motel 6 with interior corridors where the non-lobby entrances were left unlocked. Even if everyone had to enter through the lobby, it wouldn't be prudent for the desk clerk to question everyone who enters. Questioning people who enter would not only annoy paying guests, but, depending on whom the clerk decides to question, it could also open the door to claims of discrimination and profiling. Furthermore, with exterior corridors, there could be more potential witnesses on the
outside of the hotel, although that is never a guarantee either. At any rate, I think the use of security cameras is becoming a standard practice. I've been to a Motel 6 where I could see the exterior corridors on camera from the front desk.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 08, 2013, 02:15:14 AM
And if you're interested in highway-bound hotels and motels in general, I highly recommend the book The Motel in America (http://amzn.to/1bbZuEV). The authors follow the development of independent motels and chain motor lodges along with the growth of the US and Interstate systems, and they cover the topic of motels with as much detail and enthusiasm as roadgeeks discussing unbuilt freeways.
I remember finding material by Jakle and Sculle when I was doing research in college. They're written a lot of material on the artifacts of American culture. I'll definitely check out that book sometime soon. It seems to be exactly along the lines of what I've been looking for.
Quote from: briantroutman on November 08, 2013, 02:15:14 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on November 07, 2013, 10:11:58 PM
What ever happened to the original Fairfield Inn concept?
Marriott's revoking their franchises at renewal–trying to get every last trace of motel-ness out of the entire system. I read an article (http://bit.ly/1d1tnXO) where the author refers to Fairfield as an "upper midscale mainstay" brand. Apparently, Marriott has no interest in even pretending to serve the "budget" segment anymore.
What's curious about hotel chains' reluctance to be associated with the word "motel" is that there are two distinct, commonly accepted definitions of the term. By one definition, a motel is differentiated from a hotel by having exterior corridors instead of interior corridors, and the exterior corridors make it a "motel" by providing greater convenience to guests who travel by automobile. However, by another definition, a motel is simply a limited-service hotel, lacking a restaurant and bar. I used to thumb through
AAA TourBooks, and they used this latter definition of "motel" to distinguish them from hotels with restaurants, bars, and other services. Note that Motel 6 still refers to its interior-corridor properties as "motels." By this second definition, a Fairfield Inn with all-interior corridors is still a motel, whether Marriott likes it or not.
Quote from: NE2 on November 09, 2013, 10:23:19 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Yet even mention needing to pay to vote, and... (ducking)
Arse.
Who said anything about paying? The state-issued IDs are free. Of course, you need one to buy booze, cigs, etc...
Quote from: briantroutman on November 09, 2013, 12:23:18 AM
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 08, 2013, 08:17:40 PM
Hasn't it occurred to rewards program participants that...you wind up spending more overall?
Right, but these rewards programs are really intended for people who aren't spending their own money...
Pretty much. But for an economy-grade hotel, getting one free night for 7-10 nights a year is a nice perk.
QuoteIn fact, for anyone who is spending his or her own money and travels infrequently, the rewards programs are essentially worthless.
This depends on the air route(s) taken and how often per year. I have a relative that amassed about 40,000 miles a year on 5-6 international trips; enough for a free round-trip domestic coach ticket. But if you're only going on domestic routes, that's much tougher...although my job consists of 80-90k actual annual air miles.
But one big perk with being a high-tier member is that the miles can double with every flight. So in a year with 90k miles, I bank 180k towards flights. So there's quite an incentive to be loyal, but you really have to pay your dues.
Since the company requires a "cheapest-fare within $100" among logical time or distance limits, I get some flexibility to pick my own airline. But sometimes you get whatever's actually flying into that city. A little creative routing and a desire to drive an extra distance pays dividends (nice for county collecting, too).
For folks that take only one or two round trips per year (on most flights, that's actually 50-60% of the passengers, so I've heard), there's no incentive to bother with a frequent flier program - you couldn't redeem the miles/points for anything. A few of the airlines have offered magazines, because they're supposed to give you something for the 1200 air miles...although the offerings are usually quite slim once Sports Illustrated and National Geographic have been selected. (Why are no car magazines available? Conspiracy by the airlines?)
People will shop on price, unless it's woefully inconvenient.
QuoteAnd even with that kind of a dollar outlay, getting free nights (or free flights or free car rentals) is rapidly becoming less of an incentive as the programs are making point redemptions closer and closer to impossible.
Car rentals, yes. I get one compact/sub-compact car per weekend, per month on my plan. Which is pointless, because I have a car of my own I'd rather drive...the only advantage would be if I dropped my car off at a repair shop for a weekend, and could pick it up Sunday afternoon. Knowing the car repair industry, very few shops operate that way.
But I'll use my free hotel nights quite liberally; a weekend here or there. Haven't paid for a personal-use hotel stay in three years.
QuoteNow, the primary carrot is special treatment–exclusive elite member check-in desks, concierge level rooms, room upgrades, etc.
I'm rare about these, but early check-in and a high floor are the only things I ask for. Occasionally, I'll get a free room upgrade or a small refrigerator for no charge.
QuoteSo the game is all about amassing points from months and months worth of company-paid hotel stays and redeeming them for a few nights in Paris–if you're lucky. But even if not, you can count on special butt-kissing on your travels. But as for "saving money"–it isn't even part of the equation.
People are going to be loyal to gain rank and appreciation, also because they found a brand and a familiarity they're comfortable with. But most people are going to buy the cheapest airfare, least expensive hotel, and lowest-priced rental car, or whichever is offering some sort of discount...which rarely promotes loyalty.
But yes, the catch is that you aren't likely to save money. It's also fair to say that saving money isn't always the most important thing for some people, if the intangibles are worth it. Time is precious, and getting preferential treatment is also nice. I suppose the the perks and goodwill by the company translate to positive stories that a member tells others, whereby you get a "promoter" of the brand.
Quote from: Brandon on November 09, 2013, 04:54:18 PM
Who said anything about paying? The state-issued IDs are free.
Bullshit. Getting the required documents to submit is not free.
It should also be noted that yeah, Hilton/Starwood/Marriott gear their rewards programs towards business travelers, but for reasonably infrequent leisure travelers Choice/Wyndham still have usable rewards programs- their elite tiers (especially Wyndham's) are a lot less elite but are more geared toward getting travelers as many reward points as possible for redemption use.
I have noticed point inflation with Wyndham over the last couple years (you used to realistically be able to get a free room for 5,000 points but now it's more like 10-12), but if you use your points as soon as you have enough to redeem that should be okay. You'll still get a free night roughly every 7 stays and can increase that further if you follow the promotions carefully (Wyndham does double points sometimes, or pay $5-$10 more for 2000 bonus points, etc)
Another factor not mentioned yet is branded credit cars tied to reward programs. Someone with a Delta Reserve amex can get silver status on spend along ($60k spend in a calendar year earns 30k elite qualifying miles which is silver). Hotel cards are similar. Even someone with infrequent paid travel can often amass large quantities of points and get free stays without actually patronizing a hotel chain or airline.
Non-branded cards usually earn points as well but they often aren't as lucrative as branded cards. For me personally, having the Delta Reserve card is what gets me into the SkyClubs and what bumps me from gold to platinum most years.
Those credit cards are the main way I earn points. Had a Marriott card, and I got quite a number of free nights/stays out of it, but point deflation combined with an increased annual fee caused me to look around. Now, I have a Hilton branded card with no annual fee. Just having the card gets one to the 2nd of 4th levels - making $20k of purchases on the card gets one to the 3rd level for the rest of the year plus the following year. Taking advantage of online bills that you can pay via the credit card for no surcharge definitely helps towards that goal.
With the Hilton card, you get 3 points per $1 spent...more points depending on promotions, hotel purchases, etc. The Marriott gave you 1 point per $1 spent. Of course, no surprise here, you need about 3x the points to score a free room with Hilton branded hotels.
I keep a spreadsheet that, using my own criteria, tells me if I should reserve a room with points, or if I should just pay the nightly rate. More often than not, it pays to just pay for the room, and keep those points accruing.
As far as hotel loyalty goes, I tend to gravitate to those hotels which I have the credit cards for, although in all honesty, I probably wouldn't stay in a "cheap" hotel anyway. It depends on the area though - this summer for example, I stayed in a private lodge near Mt. Rushmore, passing up Hilton/Marriott branded hotels nearby. And while the cheaper hotels tend to have higher rates on the weekend, the business hotels such as Hilton/Marriott hotels tend to lower their prices on the weekends, and often the rates are fairly close to each other.
Quote from: Brandon on November 09, 2013, 04:54:18 PM
Quote from: NE2 on November 09, 2013, 10:23:19 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Yet even mention needing to pay to vote, and... (ducking)
Arse.
Who said anything about paying? The state-issued IDs are free.
Not in Oklahoma. They even print the price on the back (I believe the non-driver ID is $10 and the typical driver license is $23, or something like that). Not to mention the additional cost of going down to the DMV/tag agent, possible opportunity cost of going there instead of to work, etc.
Hampton and HIE are my favorite chains by a long shot -- very consistent, have never had a bad experience. HIE's cinnamon rolls for breakfast are worth the price of admission.
I like bidding on Priceline in the 2.5* category, and have gotten a lot of nice rooms in the $40-$70 range. Even got a Courtyard for $30 once, an absolute steal. The only really bad experience I can think of was at a Hawthorne Suites outside of Atlanta that I got pretty cheap, but it was a buggy converted apartment complex with busted internet and awful employees. Oh well -- one bad experience is worth the cash I've saved cumulatively. If you're willing to put the time into it, there are ways to research the possibilities in a given area (and even entire internet forums dedicated to helping).
Quote from: realjd on November 09, 2013, 09:06:11 PM
Another factor not mentioned yet is branded credit cars tied to reward programs...
That is definitely a pertinent point–and in my case with a Marriott Rewards Visa, it amounts to a 50% bonus on top of the points I would have earned paying for stays with another card. And as you indicated, even an infrequent traveler with very high charge volume (like $50K+ annually), can reap some decent points/miles from a rewards credit card.
But moreover, what I was getting at (without spelling it all out) is that for the typical middle-class family earning somewhere around $50,000 a year, traveling relatively infrequently, and being fairly price sensitive, they're probably better off booking a non-comissionable bargain bin price through a service like Priceline or Hotwire, trying their luck with the hotel coupon books (http://bit.ly/1gAmzFq) stocked in the rest areas, or just staying at Motel 6. I'd think that's the budget traveler's best shot for saving real money.
Quote from: corco on November 09, 2013, 08:03:40 PM
...but for reasonably infrequent leisure travelers Choice/Wyndham still have usable rewards programs...
From my pre-Marriott days, I remember that Choice used to run special sales where you could earn a free night after staying twice. That was a pretty decent deal.
Quote from: formulanone on November 09, 2013, 05:28:55 PM
Quote from: briantroutman on November 09, 2013, 12:23:18 AMAnd even with that kind of a dollar outlay, getting free nights (or free flights or free car rentals) is rapidly becoming less of an incentive as the programs are making point redemptions closer and closer to impossible.
But I'll use my free hotel nights quite liberally; a weekend here or there. Haven't paid for a personal-use hotel stay in three years.
I do think that the companies are intentionally trying to move member expectations from free stays or flights toward special treatment and other perks (especially in the case of the legacy airlines), but my emphasis on the point is probably colored by personal experience somewhat. I've managed to amass hundreds of thousands of points with Marriott Rewards, mainly because there's always some special incentive to
earn the points (like 20,000 bonus points when you stay 20 nights by December 31st) and there's always a lingering thought that I should save the points I have for an extravagant European trip in the future. But anyway, I've used promotional certificates for free stays with no problem, although the few times I've tried to use actual
points for a location and date that would have been really helpful to me, there's been a problem. In fairness, there were Marriott rooms in countless other cities I could have had, but the real value of making a redemption (for me) would be knowing that I could get a free stay almost anywhere (as long as rooms were available) with very little notice.
Quote from: stridentweasel on November 09, 2013, 04:33:41 PM
What's curious about hotel chains' reluctance to be associated with the word "motel"...
"Motel" is one of those terms which has become toxic in American culture. Kind of like "station wagon"–and perhaps equally unjustly. Just think of what gets associated with "motel". Bates Motel, roach motel, no-tell motel...almost nothing positive. Notice that the American Hotel-Motel Association is now the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and Super 8 Motel is now just "Super 8". Motel 6 has kept the term, in part because it makes up about 80% of their name, but also because that intentionally unglamorous, honest, self-effacing streak is part of who they are.
Jackle, Sculle, and Rogers use "motel" to cover almost any lodging establishment that serves motorists–which is almost everything other than the downtown hotel rooted in the 19th century. Under the motel umbrella, they discuss postwar building layouts as being motor courts (the stereotypical "motel"), motor inns (the '50s/'60s Holiday Inn/Howard Johnson-type property), and highway hotels. The typical Fairfield Inn or Comfort Inn would probably qualify as a highway hotel using their classification, albeit without restaurant services.
Quote from: Scott5114 on November 10, 2013, 01:04:49 AMNot in Oklahoma. They even print the price on the back (I believe the non-driver ID is $10 and the typical driver license is $23, or something like that). Not to mention the additional cost of going down to the DMV/tag agent, possible opportunity cost of going there instead of to work, etc.
In Kansas there is provision for free state-issued identification in cases where it is being obtained specifically to vote or to register to vote. The identification itself is free, as are any state-issued documents that are required to obtain it, such as a certified copy of the birth certificate. This, however, does not eliminate the associated time costs, which in Kansas also include the burden of proving indigency since the availability of free ID is means-tested. There are lingering equal-protection concerns as well. Kansas does not undertake to reimburse the cost of obtaining documentation from outside the state, and the paperwork requirements bear more heavily on married women who take their husbands' last names since they have to supply proof of the name change as part of the documentation to establish the identity chain. Since Kansas has a citizenship proof law as well as a voter ID law, but has not closed down voter registration at driver licensing offices, there are 18,000 people statewide (the number increases on a daily basis) whom county elections officers have to chase down and ask to supply citizenship proof since this is not required to obtain a driver's license in Kansas--you just have to prove legal residency.
The most damaging thing about the voter ID and citizenship proof laws in Kansas, I feel, is the FUD they create about the whole act of exercising your right to vote, especially for
bona fide citizens with irregular documentation, such as middle-aged Southern-born blacks whose birth records were fumbled by racist white registrars, or very elderly people whose birth documentation dates from a time when civil registration was not designed to support a system of identity proof. My grandmother fell into the latter category: her actual date of birth (in Saline County, Kansas) was February 27, 1919 but the date of birth on her birth certificate was February 28, 1919. As a result, she had two US passports, both with the false date of birth since that was what was supported by the documentation that the US Passport Service accepts, but had the actual date of birth on her driver's license (she was licensed to drive from the late 1940's onward, long before driver's licenses became photo ID in Kansas in the late 1970's/early 1980's).
As it happened, my grandmother (who died in 2011) had been continuously registered since 1940 and had voted in every presidential election following registration, so she would have been exempt from the citizenship proof law, as am I. (She was even a poll worker in several elections!) But if she had allowed her registration to lapse and had been forced to re-register when the citizenship proof law was in effect, she would have had no assurance that her registration would not have been rejected as a consequence of the discrepancy in dates. It is possible to amend a birth certificate, but it typically requires eyewitness testimony as to the actual date of birth, which she would not have been able to supply since her last surviving parent was her mother, who died in 1982.
At the moment there are two pending lawsuits which might result in overturn of the Kansas voter ID and citizenship proof laws. One, filed by Jim Lawing (Wichita-area attorney and former Democratic state legislator who was involved in the fight against the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in the mid-1970's), challenges voter ID on behalf of several nursing-home patients near Topeka who don't have access to their birth certificates. (Precisely why they don't has not been reported in any newspaper accounts I have read.) The other, filed by Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach and his counterpart in Arizona, seeks to force the Federal Elections Commission to incorporate a citizenship proof requirement in the federal voter registration form, which requires only an oath or affirmation that the registrant is a US citizen and which--per a recent Supreme Court decision overturning Arizona's citizenship-proof law--states must "accept and use."
In the event the Supreme Court rules against the two states, Kobach has suggested that Kansas could have two separate electoral rolls, one for people who have supplied citizenship proof and can vote in all elections, and the other for people who have registered using the federal form and can vote in federal elections only. This idea has attracted much criticism from county elections officers and is almost unanimously opposed by the editorial boards of the major newspapers in Kansas. It is also a reminder that Kobach, who went to Oxford on a Marshall scholarship, did his doctorate there on South African politics under apartheid, where of course separate voting rolls for whites, Coloured, and blacks were the norm.
Quote from: Scott5114 on November 10, 2013, 01:04:49 AM
Quote from: Brandon on November 09, 2013, 04:54:18 PM
Quote from: NE2 on November 09, 2013, 10:23:19 AM
Quote from: hbelkins on November 08, 2013, 01:06:20 PM
Yet even mention needing to pay to vote, and... (ducking)
Arse.
Who said anything about paying? The state-issued IDs are free.
Not in Oklahoma. They even print the price on the back (I believe the non-driver ID is $10 and the typical driver license is $23, or something like that). Not to mention the additional cost of going down to the DMV/tag agent, possible opportunity cost of going there instead of to work, etc.
In Washington, I see the state ID card costs $45, same as a driver's license.
(mods, maybe we should split the voter ID discussion into a separate thread...)
Florida's voter ID law is fairly lax as to what they accept:
Florida driver's license
Florida identification card issued by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
United States passport
Debit or credit card
Military identification
Student identification
Retirement center identification
Neighborhood association identification
Public assistance identification
Do other states limit it to official state IDs?
Quote from: realjd on November 11, 2013, 09:05:56 PMDo other states limit it to official state IDs?
If memory serves, Texas is being sued right now for attempting to disqualify college/university ID cards from being used to meet the voter ID requirement.
Quote from: realjd on November 11, 2013, 09:05:56 PM
(mods, maybe we should split the voter ID discussion into a separate thread...)
And then it would be locked faster than the thread on same-sex marriage was.
Quote from: hbelkins on November 12, 2013, 11:18:29 AMAnd then it would be locked faster than the thread on same-sex marriage was.
Frankly, if that happened, I would not be sorry.
After I made my long post on Sunday, I noticed that there were no replies for the entire day, though the thread did not have a "locked" icon in the board listing. Then, when I woke up and checked the board first thing on Monday, I noticed that all of the voter ID-related posts had been removed. Later that day, the removed posts were restored, presumably because the management team reached a consensus that discussion on the issue had been civil and could be permitted to continue.
I would not have objected, however, if the decision had gone the other way. I would not have been personally injured (through withdrawal of access to my own copy) since I maintain a local archive of my own posts. Voter ID is an extremely controversial issue, so it is very questionable whether there is even one genuinely undecided person who comes to the board prepared to be convinced one way or another by a forum thread where that is the main topic of discussion, let alone by a hijack of a completely unrelated hotel/motel thread. Many members find political discussion offputting in general. While I try to stick with the factual aspects, as do many of those who disagree with me, we are fooling ourselves if we think we aren't putting on "infomercials" for our own positions.
So, if management decides to hive off the voter ID posts into a separate thread and then lock that thread, I really don't think I could object. The last thing we need is a polarized MTR-style political discussion which goes on and on because neither side wants to be seen as conceding "ownership" of the discussion space by shutting up and going away.
Quote from: J N Winkler on November 12, 2013, 12:16:12 PMI would not have been personally injured (through withdrawal of access to my own copy) since I maintain a local archive of my own posts.
good lord! I'll bet you're the only forum member who does so.
that said, deleted posts are not outright expunged, but instead moved to a secret admin forum (you'll never guess the forum's title) so if you absolutely need access to the content of one of your posts, just ask one of the admins.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 12, 2013, 01:33:14 PM
if you absolutely need access to the content of one of your posts, just ask one of the admins.[/color]
Can I have the full text of my second 'yawn' post?
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 12, 2013, 01:33:14 PM
that said, deleted posts are not outright expunged, but instead moved to a secret admin forum (you'll never guess the forum's title)...
Alanland. Page 31.
Quote from: jeffandnicole on November 12, 2013, 02:16:28 PM
Quote from: agentsteel53 on November 12, 2013, 01:33:14 PM
that said, deleted posts are not outright expunged, but instead moved to a secret admin forum (you'll never guess the forum's title)...
Alanland. Page 31.
Or not Page 31. It is or is not Alanland, after all.
*Clutch. Shift.*
As has been mentioned before, Hilton seems to have some of the highest standards in the hotel industry.
Wyndham Brands are a crap shoot and Choice is (in general) a little better.
America's Best Value is asking for trouble, IMO. I've had more bad experiences there, than anyplace else, including the front desk telling me I needed a CAT5 cable to access the wi-fi. :pan:
As for the photo ID voting issue, there's a surprisingly simple reason why the outcry exists: Jim Crow. Our country spent 100 years discriminating against black and other minority groups to keep them from voting with methods such as literacy tests, poll taxes, proof of property ownership, grandfather clauses (their grandfather had to have voted in order for them to vote), etc. Requiring a photo ID can be seen as a discriminating factor against the poor and elderly.
You'd be surprised how many people do not have valid identification in this day and age, and there are legitimate barriers to doing so. My grandmother doesn't even have a legal photo ID — she has an expired driver's license with the wrong address. If such a law was passed, sure, one of my family members could take a morning off from work and take her to get one, but if she didn't have one of us, she'd be stuck.
Also, I think the issue is totally irrelevant. I have never been asked for my non-photo ID voter's card when I've gone to vote. I didn't even bother to take my voter ID card out of the envelope when I voted in 2012.
As for hotels...
I don't have any brand loyalty to any particular hotel or motel. When I go somewhere, I usually search for the cheapest deal that isn't run down, partially relying on reviews. My favorite hotels are the cutesy motor inns circa 1950. I've stayed at quite a few that are well-kept and aren't sketchy, such as in Bennington, VT, Bedford, VA, Timberlake, VA, and many beach resort towns (Ocean City, MD, Wildwood, NJ, Virginia Beach, VA). On my honeymoon, we stayed at the Old Stone Inn in Niagara Falls, which was an independent hotel that was definitely a throwback to an earlier era, but still quaint. There were pictures of Canadian prime ministers from the 1970's and 80's who had stayed there. When I was a kid, when we stayed at a chain, it was always Days Inn, but I feel like the majority of Days Inns today are past their prime and can be a grab bag in quality. After reading this thread, I may look more into the reward programs for Choice and Wyndham, but I don't know if I travel enough or could be loyal enough for it to be worthwhile.
Yes, there's barriers from getting photo ID that keep a fair number of people from getting them if they don't really need them. They no longer drive, the bank knows who they are. My dad spent several years without having a photo ID. For most of his life, California didn't care that his name on Social Security records was "Dick" while it was "Richard" on his birth certificate and driver's license. When California decided they had to match, it took him three visits to Social Security and two visits to DMV, with multihour waits at every visit, hour each way trip by bus to get to either one. I took him to one when I visited, but I live out of state so I can't take him to every visit. Appointments could be made, but only for people with internet access, so no.
Quote from: US71 on November 12, 2013, 08:31:54 PM
America's Best Value is asking for trouble, IMO. I've had more bad experiences there, than anyplace else, including the front desk telling me I needed a CAT5 cable to access the wi-fi. :pan:
Might've been on to something, even if s/he was totally confused about the lingo. Of the places I've stayed that had only wired (no wi-fi) Internet access, the majority were ABV dumps. Of course, they offered to rent you an Ethernet cable for $10. Fortunately, after the first time that happened, I bought an extra Ethernet cable, and put it in my laptop bag, next to the three prong-to-two prong adapter for the dumps with ancient electrical fixtures.
These days, I tend to stay in places like Red Roof, Best Western, or LaQunita. If I'm in one place for an extended stay (5 days or more), I've usually had good luck with EconoLodge - but will check reviews first. Although I personally have never had a bad experience the few times I've stayed with them (usually when traveling with relatives), I tend to avoid Super 8.
In my 25+ years of traveling on the road, I can easily say that the worst hotel/motel I've ever stayed in was the Days Inn in Washington, PA - this was in 1999 on the second day of a trip from Massachusetts to the Twin Cities. Not bug infested or smelly, but the room had a definitely tacky feel to it and was stuffy - even though the AC seemed to be working OK. Plus, it was a heavy rain all night, which turned the room into an echo chamber. Fortunately, no rain actually dripped into the room while I was sleeping, but the fresh (and large) water stain on the ceiling the next morning made me glad I was only staying one night.
Quote from: Laura Bianca on November 13, 2013, 09:12:33 AM
You'd be surprised how many people do not have valid identification in this day and age
Indeed, prior to this issue coming up I had no idea. I'd kind of always operated under the assumption that for an adult, having a government issue photo ID was a basic requirement of existence.
Also, Connecticut has always (as long as I can remember, at least) required ID when voting and I was surprised to learn this is not the case everywhere.
Quote from: Duke87 on November 14, 2013, 11:35:22 PMAlso, Connecticut has always (as long as I can remember, at least) required ID when voting and I was surprised to learn this is not the case everywhere.
Interesting to know; especially since CT is a
blue state and the loudest opponents to any Voter ID rules elsewhere are typically Democrats.
http://www.ct.gov/sots/LIB/sots/ElectionServices/HAVA/HavaPDF/IDRequirements.pdf
Not quite the voter suppression stuff in red states.
Quote from: PHLBOS on November 15, 2013, 08:36:57 AMInteresting to know; especially since CT is a blue state and the loudest opponents to any Voter ID rules elsewhere are typically Democrats.
http://ballotpedia.org/State_by_State_Voter_ID_Laws
Connecticut's ID requirement strikes me as barely stricter than the one in the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which requires ID for registration and applies in all states (Connecticut additionally requires ID for voting for the first time, but this does not have to be photo ID and can consist of something that proves residency, like a utility statement--basically, this is the type of documentation you submit to obtain a public library card). Compared to highly restrictive measures from preclearance states like AZ, TX, NC, and SC, CT's voter ID law is not even on the radar.
To bring this back to the topic...
I used to stay at hotels earlier in my career, usually for soil or groundwater sampling in areas such as South Bend or Goshen, Indiana. Based on my experience (YMMV),
Hotel chains I'll stay at a lot:
* Best Western - I've found them to be a decent value compared to the Hilton or Marriot chains (which do many of the same things for a lot more money).
* Choice Hotels - Never really had a bad experience with them, even in converted Quality Inns.
* Extended Stay America - Nice if you need to stay for longer than a few days.
* La Quinta Inn - Never had a bad experience, and the price wasn't bad.
Ones I like, but are expensive:
* Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express - Nice, but pricey, IMHO. I do like the cinnamon rolls at the Holiday Inn Expresses
* Hampton Inn - Nice, but also pricey.
Ones that are so-so, depends on location:
* Red Roof Inn - Some of them are good, some, not so good. I'd like to check out their refurbished rooms sometime.
* Super 8 - Some good, some bad.
* Ramada - Not bad, but not Holiday Inn either.
Ones I will never stay at ever again:
* Motel 6 - I've had smelly rooms, torn sheets, and a so-so experience with them.
* Howard Johnson's - What the hell did Wyndham/Cendant do to this chain!?!
There are several I've never been to such as Drury Inn (they seem nice from the ads) and America's Best Value Inn (they don't look too good from the road). Had a coworker who stayed at the Days Inn in Elkhart, Indiana. She had a rather bad experience with them, so I figure it's a good one to stay away from.
Days Inn is about on par with Super 8.
Americas Best Value is about on par with TraveLodge or Knight's Inn.
Ho-Jo(ke) is *slightly" better that America Best Value, but below Super 8
I've been burned a couple of times by Choice, and I'm skeptical about going back to them.
Motel 6 works OK for me - except for the one off New York Avenue in Washington, DC.
Quote from: elsmere241 on November 15, 2013, 01:36:48 PM
I've been burned a couple of times by Choice, and I'm skeptical about going back to them.
Motel 6 works OK for me - except for the one off New York Avenue in Washington, DC.
Location, location, location. That particular stretch of New York Ave is not exactly a nice part of DC. It's no Anacostia, but it's not exactly Georgetown either. As a general rule, avoid anything in NE or SE DC, especially at night. There are exceptions (the area NE around Union Station is fine), but it's a good generalization.