Inexpensive Hotels

Posted on June 22, 2007 in Travel by byronb

In my opinion, people don’t usually put enough creativity into finding inexpensive hotels. My parents are a prime example. When we would go on vacation, we would always stay in cheap hotels. Although they were not poor, they saw no point in wasting money on lodging. Our family vacations were expensive enough as it was, and staying in an inexpensive hotel was a great way to save a little bit of money every day. I couldn’t help but agree with that choice, but their strategy was awful. They would do what most people do: simply drive up to an expensive motel when they felt like stopping. These hotels and motels weren’t actually that cheap, although they were cheaper than luxury ones. Nonetheless, my parents ended up taking us to stay in some truly horrible accommodations while not saving very much money.

If you really want to be a smart shopper, you need to use more strategy when you’re picking out inexpensive hotels. There are all kinds of factors that determine whether or not you can find cheap lodging in a particular city. If it is the off-season, for example, you can find all kinds of cheap hotel deals. If you are willing to look enough in advance, and keep up-to-date information when you can, you can even find inexpensive luxury hotels. I am not a rich man, but I have stayed in many four-star hotels by shopping carefully for deals. If you are willing to spend a few minutes online checking every day, you can find discount vacation packages practically anywhere you could possibly want to go. Inexpensive hotels are just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, it can be a bad idea to be overzealous in looking for inexpensive hotels. Sometimes, a deal is simply not worth it. Go to the wrong hotel and you could have your property stolen, get sick from mold in a room, or even be mugged outside. A lot of my friends are thrifty travelers, so I know quite a few people who have found this out the hard way. One of my friends had his whole vacation ruined one time because of the discount hotel that he was staying in. He caught a cold on the way down, which would not have normally been that big of an idea. Because the room was filthy, however, he got sicker and sicker. He did not get better until he got home.