What's your standard for a hotel?

I'm going to an event with a friend next weekend. Long story, but I booked us rooms at two different hotels--they're next to each other. One is double the price of the other. I figured I'd cancel that more expensive one, but I was just reading the reviews for the cheaper one.

Here are two recent ones:

Not for the faint of heart

 Mar 23, 2018

Dirty all over. Hard bed. Only a few channels on tv and 1/3 of them were silent, 1/3 in Spanish. No water pressure. Lights burnt out. Feet get black if they touch the carpet. Toilet falling off the wall. Wyndham should be ashamed to call this a motel.

Would not recommend

 Mar 15, 2018

The rug in the room was so dirty it turned your barefeet black. Had to wear socks or flips to walk around the room. There was not enough parking due to the large construction trailer sitting in the middle of the lot. Room was dusty and not cleaned very well. Would not stay here again.

So, I think we'll stay at the nicer place. We've been there before. The staff was nice and the place was clean. Bummed that the rate has gone up, but I think there's a line somewhere, even for me. 

I look for the gold pineapple of hospitality out front.

tough call. if i'm going somewhere, i look for the best one i can afford w/in my budget. when we moved from virginia to texas, due to finances & what time we were looking for hotels we stayed in some suuuuper sketchy hotels lol. people shaking the door at 2am kind of places, with enough gap between the bottom of the door and the floor to see the person standing there.

I traveled a lot for my last job. I'm now at the point where I just pick a nearby Marriott subsidiary with a decent rate and call it good.

Hilton or Marriott. done.

Yeah, I'm always looking for a deal, but I'd rather not get eaten by cockroaches, either. These two are within walking distance of the event, so it's basically one or the other. 

I wound up calling both to confirm. Surprise, surprise, the person at the more expensive place sounded way more pleasant. 

My basic requirements are that it have nicer amenities than I enjoy when camping.  So structurally sound, climate controlled, clean, insect free, and more comfortable than a cot.  Sounds like there is only two possible 'passing' grades there...Although if the descriptions are at all accurate, I'd have low expectations about it passing the others either.

MazdaFace said:

tough call. if i'm going somewhere, i look for the best one i can afford w/in my budget. when we moved from virginia to texas, due to finances & what time we were looking for hotels we stayed in some suuuuper sketchy hotels lol. people shaking the door at 2am kind of places, with enough gap between the bottom of the door and the floor to see the person standing there.

It was only 1:30 and I’ve got a perfectly good explanation for why my junk was hanging out…why didn’t you open the door?

David S. Wallens said:

Yeah, I'm always looking for a deal

When it comes to accommodation: deals aren't.

I'm Scottish by heritage, and I'm sure my ancestors invented wire by fighting over a penny, but the older I get, the more "how much would you be willing to pay to not have to experience that again?" Makes more expensive stays often the better one.

RX Reven' said:

It was only 1:30 and I’ve got a perfectly good explanation for why my junk was hanging out…why didn’t you open the door?

That was you when we went to see the Atlanta zoo wasn't it? Were you also one of the 4 guys asking for money in front of the liquor store between the hotel & the Red Lobster? 

Hotel reviews are like vacation/resort reviews, pretty much useless. There are a lot of angry, entitled people out there.

Skinny, I hear ya. Scottish on my mom's side, Welsh on my dad's. I can pinch a penny with the best of them.

Years ago I bought my first Miata in the winter and couldn’t wait for spring so in early March I drove to SC for a week of golf and relaxation. I was late getting a hotel so I grabbed one in a  sketchy area rather than drive further to a nicer area and better hotel. It was dirty and I was  sure the sheets and towels were balcony cleaned. What little sleep I got was interrupted with a knock on the door at 2am. Looking through the peep hole appeared tp be some kind of woman. I’m trying to put this as nice as possible way but she was nasty. Against my better judgement, I opened the door. Said woman asked for a cigarette or if there was someway she could get some money for cigarettes. I declined admitting I don’t smoke and no thank you. I prayed my Miata  was still there in the morning. 

Ive have gladly payed extra to get a better hotel since. 

Swmbo is a a housekeep manager for a Disney luxury. When celebs and E36 M3 come into town. They stay at her joint. (As an aside, no matter how much I begged, she would not call kurt Russell mr. Plisken for me) I let her pick the rooms. Last one we had was pretty clean by divey cocoa standards, bed was rock hard, room smelled like bleach, but I didn't get bugs. I'd stay again aside from the bed. 

In reply to rustybugkiller :

At least she didn't offer services for a cigarette.

My old employer booked a hotel room for me once. This was at the beginning of my career and was the first time I’d been sent out of town. It was the cheapest place they could find. The desk clerk admitted that it was the first time anyone had actually reserved a room and that most people either rented by the month or by the hour. I decided to pass. 

I've made plans to stay at a budget motel a couple times and not had the guts to see it through.  One time was years ago with a lady friend in New Orleans.  Guy showing the room had a few teeth... left.  Pornos playing on the TV.  Place smells bad.  Looks about like it smells.  Sorry, I was trying to be a LITTLE classier than that.

Another time was more recent.  Around Lumberton, NC as I recall.  I was traveling with my older son and it was getting pretty late.  The in-house bar was jammin'!  LOUD music.  Went to look at a room on the second floor and the couple next door is YELLING at each other.  Their kid is hanging out in the hallway.  I got the feeling that they weren't just staying the night.  They lived there.  On the way out, a few "working girls" were strutting their stuff.  I told my son we'd look for another place a few miles up the road.

Both of these motels were name-brand budget-to-mid-price franchises.

When I took the family to Tennessee for the total eclipse last summer, we stayed at the Hilton.  So yeah, I'm getting less tolerant of sleazy motels in my old age. 

Comfort suites or higher(cambria) and Best Western Gateway Grand, of course. 

My rule for cheap travel - if I need anything bigger than a .22 for the cockroaches, the place was too cheap.

More seriously, with the amount of travel I do, my standard have gone up a bit from where they were before and I tend to be willing to pay somewhat more for a half decent place.

I usually try to stay in one of the cheaper Marriott brands, but that's partially because I tend to use Marriott for work travel as well.

I travel for work. I stay in a Hilton brand hotel. 

Clean, consistent, and good staff. If I'm traveling with my family (work or play) air bnb or Homeaway. I can get a 3 bedroom house for the same as a decent hotel room. 

FWIW I just booked a $50 room for next Friday in Niagara Falls. I'll let you know how it works out

Once I left Chicago after work and drove to Jackson, Michigan and got to the hotel towards 10pm?  I grabbed a Motel 6 thinking how bad could it be?  I will be here 7-8 hours?  Save the company some money?

I found out how bad it could be.  Lesson learned. 

Stampie said:

In reply to rustybugkiller :

At least she didn't offer services for a cigarette.

I believe that was implied 

Staying at a hotel was a fancy thing that only ever happened if I was traveling with my grandparents when I was a kid. My wife's background is similar. We can both point to the last time we'll ever have stayed at a Motel 6 when going to a friend's wedding (so much "air freshener" is was revolting to breathe, and were too scared to check under the mattress in that morning double-check for our possessions before leaving), and now every time we do something that we find amusingly fancy by our historical standards, we say "we're Best Western people now."

We went to a two day autocross last year. It was in Darlington during one of the Speedway races so hotels were few, far between and expensive. We "lucked" across a Econolodge, close by, for $65 a night and booked it for 2 nights. 

About 2am, while listening to the trucks on the interstate, trying to get the kinks out of my back, and smelling the landfill across the road, I was surfing the web looking for another place to stay. We spent night two at a Hampton Inn for $180 a night and it was well worth the money. 

I like cheap, but when it comes to hotels, you do seem to get what you pay for. 

In reply to Toyman01 :

Similar story: My brother and I were racing at Little Talladega right after I bought Rick Tinsley’s old EP car. Cheap room, but it was clean. Then Cletus and his whole fam damnly showed up. They’re full on hootenanny-hoe-downin all over the place. There are kids in diapers wandering around in the parking lot, and everyone is finger-berkeleying the car.

We went to the Hampton next door, which was almost empty. Double the price, but worth every penny. 

“Let’s stay at the nice hotel” is now the code for “Let’s get the berkeley outta here, away from the riff-raff.”

And yes, I recognize the irony of my complaining about how people act at hotels