wITH hOTEL TONIGHT you have to set up an account... Several of my sales friends use it all the time when they travel...

 

That is usually what we do. We almost never book ahead. There are too many times when we are heading to a destination and taking a different route than originally planned. We just check rates as we go and ask for the senior rate or CAA (same as AAA only Canadian)) if we don't like it ($60-00 to $80.00 Max)we move on. That being said we like to start out early (7-8:00am) and stop around 4-5:00 pm.

As for the free breakfast. Yeah that is a must. We don't need much, coffee, toast, waffles or what ever. We usually grab some fruit and maybe make a PB&J sandwich for the road and then don't have to stop (for meals) until time to book in for the next night

 

Also try to get Breakfast. Even a fast food type times 4 makes a difference... 2 kids. Solo, a walk through a wallyworld or a ziplock with cereal

I also rarely made reservations. Loved just saying here we go. Looks good. Stay here. Then one night in Olympia WA area. Lavenderfest. No room for miles. Gave up and went back to Bremmerton. Guy let us have some reserved no show rooms at 12 something in the am. Over a 100 mile circle.

Call ahead a lot now. Not a set plan so much, but will start looking around lunch at where we think we will end up. Gives a little bit of price flexibility. Of course inet phones kind of make this work. Didn't have those back then. Do this in high tourist areas

 

This might not work for you but just to throw it out there as an option is using the cabins at the KOA camp grounds. If you buy a membership you save 10%.
The down sides are no bathroom in the cabin and you need your own linens (we use sleeping bags). But there cheap, dry, have A/C and heat depending one were you are. Wiifii is free at most of them but not all. They have laundry rooms to use, showers where the bathrooms are. Pool and a small store.

We normally don't reserve and always get one if were not tenting but Koa's are everywhere and it might be a cheap option if your getting tired and don't want to spend the money on a hotel room.

We like to camp so normally we use tents but if its too late or raining we just get a cabin.

 

Personally, I tend to take a break some time around 3 in the afternoon. I use my tablet to find hotels in the town I expect to call it day in. I rely heavily on the information I can get on the Internet to get price and customer reviews. I then call 2 or 3 of them, negotiate a rate I am happy with and then make a reservation. Easy peazy.

Hotel or travel website rewards programs are annoying. I almost always get a better deal for myself. Brand loyalty is not worth it. Too much inconsistency in rates and quality. Though, I do recommend Best Western: pretty rare for me to have a bad experience at a BW and I have been more than a little impressed at times. I will stay anywhere though, as long as it is clean, and in a good location. To me, it is just a place to sleep, shower, and take a dump in peace. Whoever can offer me those things at the lowest prices gets my business.

I have only one regret. I miss out on some really cool places to stay sometimes. Oh well. Those little gems are hard to find without inside information or taking the time to roll around a strange town exploring for them.

 

[QUOTE=EricD10563;13014724]I usually just plan for mileage on a giving day and make sure there are at least some hotels there and pick one. I will make a reservation if I'm heading to a tourist town but that's about it. I tried the reservation way before but to many times the hotel was a sh!@#hole (I've stayed in a lot of them maybe I should plan better), pictures looked nice though and a few times I ran into bad weather that made it miserable getting there just so I wouldn't loose money (hard t cancel the day of).

QUOTE]



Done this too many times. Like you said hard to cancel day of. I've had to get a hotel at a different place and eat the cost of the other hotel.

 

Are these usually cheaper than a Motel 6 (cheap) hotel? About how much do they run if you don't mind? I wouldn't mind packing a couple blankets if it could save some money.

 

Looked up some in my area. I wouldn't stay in some, terrible high crime parts of town. One possible downside to this. Of course if you don't make a reservation I can see this being a inexpensive alternative. You could find it, then go check it out first.

 

It varies from state to state and area to area. With the 10% discount around $40 in some areas and up to $90 in other areas. We even use them when we car travel so we can keep the dogs with us. The one we used at Lake Tahoe was the only one we ever used that charged for internet. But we have used them at Gettysburg Penn, Road to the sun (St Mary) Montana, Utah, NC, Tahoe to name a few. For us there relaxing after a day of riding, sit out on the porch on the swing bench and check emails. Charge everything back up over night (phones, tablet, Gopro, etc). Most of them have a water spicket out side, we have used that a few times to do a quick bug wash of the bike if its getting real bad. Some have TV's with cable which is nice to watch the news if you want to get up to date.
Like I said, just something to keep on the back burner if your getting tired and see a KOA is coming up. Most $40-50 hotels are nothing we would feel safe to stay in most of the time.

 

Lots of good ideas and cautions too. Keep 'em coming.


Jim G