How do you find good clean hotel rooms at a fair price?

[MrMagicFingers]

Our experience this summer exposed very serious and potentially costly notes on ALL reservation sites: examples, not always clear on hotel site.
If you reserve and don't show......you will be billed for your complete reservation anyway.
If you arrive earlier than expected, you MIGHT be able to checkin.....if you pay an extra fee (for early room cleaning???)
If you leave earlier than booked, you pay any remaining reservation time - INCLUDING even if you left the next day, because of hotel conditions !

Funny you should mention that...

We ran into all three of those condition this summer while on the road. These were new conditions that were introduced this year and at places that we have stayed at many many times over the years in/on PEI.

There were no exceptions at one of our regular spots. Even if you called to cancel but you were past their safe time, they were still going to charge us the full 3 days we would have stayed even though that room would have been booked with-in the hour of us canceling (PEI was booked solid this year - pretty well 0 vacancy).

We canceled out trip to PEI this year because of these rules until things calm down over there. I am sure it's due to the Covid the the uncertainty of travel and travel restrictions. We just stayed in NS this year.

Tim

 

[JohnRuckus]

Unfortunately, data breaches will continue to occur. That isn't necessarily a Marriott problem. As a customer that deals with any business that has an online footprint(including electronic based payments), you'll be at risk of having your personal info compromised. The same is true even with small businesses such as gas stations. I received an email from Marriott regarding the breach and I rarely use them. I did use starwood properties a lot prior to Marriott buying them.
You're entitled to spend your $ how you want and with whatever company you choose, but if you're basing it solely on their ability to not have your personal info compromised, you'd be searching hard. Heck, even one of the US credit bureaus, Equifax was hacked and it resulted in people's info being compromised.
I do agree though, if they didn't contact you, or you didn't see it in the news that's really messed up if it impacted you.

 

[pegasus1300]

Like Clement Salvadori I prefer older L shaped single story Mom and Pop type motels. They are usually old like watermelon pink bathrooms but clean and no frills cheap and full of very interesting people who like to visit. I don't know about finding these online, I usually find them in small towns on state routes and I start looking in the afternoon. One that comes to mind is little motel in Montecello,Ut. Very clean,but old(mint green bathroom tile). Cynthia and I have stayed there twice. No breakfast,no exercize room,no pool just a place to sleep at the end of the day. Restaurant across the street.

 

[teninospyder]

We don't make reservations because we don't know where we'll be come nightfall. So far, we have always found somewhere to crash for the night. We camp a lot, so dirt doesn't bother us.

Our Vet always told me he was up at 4:00 AM and always walked the kennel grounds with his shotgun, but had never been able to kill a Covid.......'cause he never saw one:roflblack::roflblack: His Staff loved it when him and I went round and round in the lobby !

 

[BigLenny]

Like others on this thread, we use brand group memberships for discounts. Hilton Honors, Marriott, etc. But, the brand that we seem to use the most is Choice Hotels. However, we mainly stay at Choice's Comfort Suites brand of hotels. We will occasionally stay at a Comfort Inn and Suites. However, we have found that the Choice chains like Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Rodeway, EconoLodge Are kind of edgy. Choice does offer a higher end collection called Ascend that we'll stay in, if the price isn't too high.

HERE'S A POINTER: Everybody knows to ask for AAA, AARP, Military, and member discounts. But, do you know what discount structure brings the most savings with Choice Hotels? The answer is, Farm Bureau. I had a fellow sales rep for the company I sell for give me this nugget years ago. If you have Farm Bureau Insurance, or just a simple Farm Bureau membership ($35.00 per yr.), you will save 10%-20% more than you will with the aforementioned discounts. But, the way to be sure and get this discount is you have to call the Choice Hotels reservations phone line to reserve your room/s. And, sometimes it's such a deep discount that they will tell it's not available for a certain hotel for a certain night, if the hotel is almost booked, or if it's a busy time of the year. I have been using Choice for 20 years, and I've only ran into that situation a few times.

Now, to completely answer your original question: I just explained to you the savings part. But, you also asked how we go about finding "good, clean" hotels? The answer for me is: I use the customer satisfaction ratings on the bookings websites. I DO NOT book a hotel that is rated less than an "Excellent" or a "Wonderful". I just don't do it. I don't do hotels that are rated "Good" or lower. This policy will avoid 99.9% of the unclean and riff raff.

Hope my babbling helped.

Big Lenny

 

[Joel The Biker]

The best way to get a nice room is to tip the person at the check in desk.