Budget Travel
July 8, 2009
Auto-posted while I am in Washington, DC for the Campus Progress conference.
When most people think of budget travel, images of dirty, run-down hotel rooms and cheap continental breakfasts come to mind. I have stayed in plenty of these "budget hotels" in my life. Thanks to my many years of high school and college policy debate, I stayed at complete dumps, like Red Roof Inn and EconoLodge; typical suburban hotels like Courtyard and Residence Inn. I once stayed at the only hotel in Ann Arbor that had vacancy the weekend of a big Michigan football game. But these places are affordable, so I fully understand why people stay at them. Recently though, I've discovered a new type of "budget hotel" and while it is cheap from a cash perspective, it might not necessarily be like any of the places I just described.
I am a huge fan of the "opaque hotel market" better known as Priceline and Hotwire. At both of these sites, you book hotels without knowing what you're booking. Sound ridiculous? It's actually not so scary.
In the past year or so I've used Priceline to book five hotels and I've never paid more than $100 (plus tax). Where did I stay? There was a Renaissance, Monaco Hotel, Marriot, and a Hilton. In some instances, the rack rate at the Holiday Inn Express across the street was more than what I paid. I used Hotwire once, to book the Wynn Las Vegas for $143 (plus tax), although in fairness, it was a solid 5-diamond hotel and it was on the Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend.
Thanks to websites like BetterBidding (my personal favorite) you can fairly easily determine the going rate for hotels in a given area, strategically calculate your opening bid, and rebid multiple times per day. The website has great guides for everything Priceline and Hotwire, so there's no need for me to discuss them here.
Of course, there are a few caveots. Remember how I said you were blind to where you would be staying? It's true, but you can usually figure out the possible hotels you could be staying using the BetterBidding website. Plus, you select an area where you want to stay, and your hotel will never fall outside of the boundaries marked on the map. The other caveot is that, with Priceline, the rooms are guaranteed for two people, but there isn't always a guarantee you can get a room with two beds. Depending on the city, it is usually worth rolling the dice.
There are also a few disadvantages to staying in nice hotels. Since they typically don't compete with each other on price, you should expect to pay more for everything. Internet access won't be free (in fact, it will often be really expensive) and forget about continental breakfast in the morning. Sometimes this gets on my nerves, but it's ultimately not a huge deal. When I travel, I don't find it very fun to spend time in the hotel anyway.
When most people think of budget travel, images of dirty, run-down hotel rooms and cheap continental breakfasts come to mind. I have stayed in plenty of these "budget hotels" in my life. Thanks to my many years of high school and college policy debate, I stayed at complete dumps, like Red Roof Inn and EconoLodge; typical suburban hotels like Courtyard and Residence Inn. I once stayed at the only hotel in Ann Arbor that had vacancy the weekend of a big Michigan football game. But these places are affordable, so I fully understand why people stay at them. Recently though, I've discovered a new type of "budget hotel" and while it is cheap from a cash perspective, it might not necessarily be like any of the places I just described.
I am a huge fan of the "opaque hotel market" better known as Priceline and Hotwire. At both of these sites, you book hotels without knowing what you're booking. Sound ridiculous? It's actually not so scary.
In the past year or so I've used Priceline to book five hotels and I've never paid more than $100 (plus tax). Where did I stay? There was a Renaissance, Monaco Hotel, Marriot, and a Hilton. In some instances, the rack rate at the Holiday Inn Express across the street was more than what I paid. I used Hotwire once, to book the Wynn Las Vegas for $143 (plus tax), although in fairness, it was a solid 5-diamond hotel and it was on the Saturday night during Memorial Day weekend.
Thanks to websites like BetterBidding (my personal favorite) you can fairly easily determine the going rate for hotels in a given area, strategically calculate your opening bid, and rebid multiple times per day. The website has great guides for everything Priceline and Hotwire, so there's no need for me to discuss them here.
Of course, there are a few caveots. Remember how I said you were blind to where you would be staying? It's true, but you can usually figure out the possible hotels you could be staying using the BetterBidding website. Plus, you select an area where you want to stay, and your hotel will never fall outside of the boundaries marked on the map. The other caveot is that, with Priceline, the rooms are guaranteed for two people, but there isn't always a guarantee you can get a room with two beds. Depending on the city, it is usually worth rolling the dice.
There are also a few disadvantages to staying in nice hotels. Since they typically don't compete with each other on price, you should expect to pay more for everything. Internet access won't be free (in fact, it will often be really expensive) and forget about continental breakfast in the morning. Sometimes this gets on my nerves, but it's ultimately not a huge deal. When I travel, I don't find it very fun to spend time in the hotel anyway.
