Vacation Question

[dawnwes]

Interesting question.

When I was working too we did pay attention to cost but not nearly as much!

One of our issues is that we have three boys, two of whom are teens. A typical hotel room is NOT comfortable at all for us.

So, when we travel, we try to get something like a suite or a one or two bedroom place. Residence Inn is great because it includes a light dinner Sun-Wed nights and full hot breakfast. I can often find those for under $150.

If my husband has a work engagement/conference, we sometimes tag along and stay for free, but it is typically a 5* hotel room and not nearly as comfortable.

When we go on vacation for a week we try to use SkyAuction.com for a 2 bedroom condo. I can often get them for around $250 for the week.

My boys are campers though and like camping. In fact, my son just went on an 11 day mountain backpacking trip (hiked 100 miles!) NOT my cup of tea, but he loved it.

Dawn

[AsiaTraveler]

This is what often keeps me from doing Hotwire or Priceline. I want to know where I'm staying. Not necessarily what hotel but where it is located. If we are going somewhere like DC or Boston or NYC where we want to use public transportation, I want a hotel that is convenient to a station. If we are going to attend a particular event or see certain sights, I want a place located in the proper vicinity. When we are going for a college visit, I want to make sure we aren't terribly far from campus. Stuff like that. It isn't often that we're taking a trip where the location doesn't matter to me.

Disneysteve, you don't always have to be as flexible as you might think. In a bigger city, the city is broken down into sections where you can be pretty sure of what you might be getting in terms of location, esp. when paired with sites like BetterBidding or Bidding4Travel. I don't use either one frequently, but I did successfully bid for a hotel in New Orleans when going for a conference- my husband and I were staying on afterwards, and we couldn't afford to stay in the conference hotel and didn't want to move. After some careful research, I got a hotel on Priceline that was around the corner from the conference hotel. I could have been up to a mile from the hotel (I was willing to walk that if it happened), but I also knew that distance was unlikely.

Priceline & Hotwire are one place where the star levels matter to me. There are many 2 & 3 star properties that are great and fine- but there are also some that are complete pits. I generally stick to 4 star properties when bidding (seldom are there issues then), and make sure that I am saving money over staying at a known, acceptable 2/3 star hotel (to make up for the fact that I will likely have to pay for breakfast, etc).

In relationship to the original question, I seldom pay for hotels. If I know that we are going to be needing a hotel, I tend to accumulate hotel points (through credit cards or other bonuses). If we have to pay for a hotel, I also tend towards the under $100 rate without paying attention to stars (although amenities are very important & considered), although a lot depends on the area. A Quality Inn, Super 8, or Econolodge in small town America has, in my experience, been okay. Those same brands in a big city or near the airport have tended to be scary and/or pits in my experience.

[ruffy]

It depends on where we're going! In Vegas you can get a decent hotel for less than $40 which certainly helps with the pricey nature of the city. Other than that I try not to go over $150 if I have to stay in a hotel. We try to find hotels for like $30 when we just want to get out of town and use the pool on the really hot days.

[EarlyRetirementJoy]

Well there's camping, and then there's RV'ing, and they are really not the same. I love being outdoors, but I want to sleep in a real bed at night, have my own restroom close by, and cook away from bugs. If that makes me a softie, so be it, but I would bet you can't keep up with me on a hiking trail regardless.

Camping implies you bring everything you need, and the park provides a restroom if you are lucky. Cost in CA for this type of setup is generally $18 - $25 a night. Add running water and showers, and the state campground cost rises to $35 - $50. Add hookups and you are now at $65 - $75.

RV'ing implies the above, plus the addition of amenities like sewer, laundry, WiFi, cable, BBQ's, play areas, and often a pool and spa. Costs in CA are now competitive with State Park costs due to the recent doubling of State Park camping fees here. Outside of CA, we average $35 - $40 a night for a full amenityRV park. The tradeoff is generally in space - RV park spaces tend to be tighter than State Park spaces.

If everyone staying at a State Park were respectful of both the park and their neighbors, we'd stay in them 90% of the time. Unfortunately, they are not, and rarely are rules enforced by park rangers. Private parks have the advantage of mandating and enforcing certain actions and behaviors, meaning we can almost always count on having a pleasant, quiet experience. Which is why we now gravitate more toward RV parks, and less toward State Parks.