In the travel hacking hobby, we are often very fixated on the concept of first class trips, and 5-star hotels, with many people brandishing their elite status as a badge of honor
(SEE ALSO: Hotel status match – how to match at each chain)
(SEE ALSO: Hyatt Diamond Challenge returns… (or not?))
And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that! If that works for you and your travel patterns, I don’t begrudge your status. For me, I don’t travel for work, and as such, I don’t have a ton of paid travel. I try to have most of my travel (both hotel stays and airfare) booked as award travel, which doesn’t really do me much for elite status. I do have a few mid-level (mostly hotel) statuses via some of the credit cards I hold, but that’s about it
Booking a hotel stay
So all of that is to say that when I have a need for a hotel stay, I don’t necessarily gravitate to any particular brand or the other. I will generally check the ongoing hotel promotions to see if there are any that make sense for me
(SEE ALSO: Club Carlson Q1 2015 promo – Extend your Stay: Up to 40,000 points per person)
(SEE ALSO: IHG Set your Sights promotion – 50,000 points for completing tasks)
But generally I’m pretty price conscious in travel just as in the rest of my life (as you probably saw if you looked at the budget for my family of 8). I usually look for award redemptions that make sense, but other than that, price is a main deciding factor. The perks that I am mostly looking for are free Internet and free breakfast, which are both pretty standard at most US hotels, though paradoxically, many of the so-called “nice” hotels charge for both! When I’m traveling with my family, I also look for hotels that offer free dinner, since with breakfast, that can mean as many as 16 free meals!
(SEE ALSO: 3 reasons “budget” hotels DESTROY nice ones)
(SEE ALSO: Which hotels give dinner for free?)
Is the Rodeway Inn ever a good option?
So I have an upcoming work conference in Salt Lake City this week. Because I’m trying to visit all 3,143 counties in the United States, while I’m there, I am going a few days early to drive around randomly 😀
Using Salt Lake City as a base, I will be circling Utah, heading down to 4 corners (crossing it off my travel bucket list!) and getting 30 new counties.
So… all that is a long way to say that I need somewhere to stay Tuesday night. I will be down in the Lake Powell area of southern Utah / northern Arizona, and there are a fair number of budget (and REALLY budget) hotels. My first choice was actually to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Page, Arizona which is actually conveniently on the recently released IHG Point Breaks list!
(SEE ALSO: IHG Point Breaks list for March, April and May 2015)
(SEE ALSO: Map of all IHG PointBreaks March 2015, April 2015 and May 2015)
but for some reason, that hotel is sold out for the date I need (and not any of the other dates nearby). Most of the other hotels in the area are Choice hotels, where I don’t have points, and I don’t want to spend 20K Best Western Points or use 25K of my valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards to book a Marriott.
So that leads me to the Rodeway Inn
The good? $36.99 / night (marked in green)
The bad? only 48% of guests recommend the hotel. 😀
I did read the reviews and while there are a few that concerned me, even most of the 1 star and/or wouldn’t recommend reviews weren’t all that bad, so I booked it (paid it with Barclay Arrival points). I’ve stayed at a Rodeway Inn before (also on a county bagging trip), and it wasn’t that bad.
I’m not expecting the Hyatt Vendome, but as long as it beats the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed at, I’ll count it as a plus!
Ever stayed at a Rodeway Inn or similar deep budget hotel? What’s the worst hotel you’ve ever stayed at?
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HAHA! I stayed at one… in 2005. It was my senior year in High School, we were at Hershey, PA for the PIAA wrestling state championships.. It wasn’t bad, I guess. But I also had some ‘help’ with sleeping. I also don’t mind sleeping in hostels, so I’m probably not a good judge, but I enjoy seeing a post re: Rodeway Inn.
Best of luck.
Yeah we will have to see. I looked at a few other options but this is really the best one. Talk to me on Wednesday morning… 🙂
To answer your question: No. Never. Ok, maybe in an act of desperation. I’m not a hotel snob by any means and I’m perfectly happy at Holiday Inn, LaQuinta, etc.
I once made a similar booking at a Days Inn. It was inexpensive, it was just for two nights, and had similar feedback to what you’re showing. Turned out to be a dump.
Our first room was terrible. First time I’ve ever asked for another room. We were put in a “suite” which had the same problems. Mold in the bathtub, stains on the carpet, sections of wall paper peeled off, bed was a rock, sheets that I swear were made out of plastic, and a nice 1/2″ gap at the bottom of the door. You could hear everything in the hall, including the heavy doors slamming all night long. We tried to turn on the bathroom fan to drown out the noise, but it had a clanging noise to it. I actually checked out in the morning and went to La Quinta down the street for the next night. Much better. And I vowed to NEVER stay at a Days Inn again.
Short answer: no, no, and no especially one with that sort of rating on the company’s own web site! Maybe if the recommendation was up in the high 80s/90s then it might be worthy of last resort consideration. Think about your safety, a lot of these places have high rates of criminal activity (consider all the hotels in this price range around Florence’s Dream Street). Doors that open directly to the outside are one less security barrier between you and the bad elements. It is also hard to maintain an adequate housekeeping staff and good room maintenance at that sort of average rate. I think I would drive to the next town/exit or seek alternative accommodations like a B&B. I am not a hotel snob but I do like safe, clean, and highly recommended – that’s my minimum standard.
LOL we shall see! I’ll give a report probably next week!
I stayed at one for several days in Moab on spring break when hotels were packed and really expensive. This was before I got into miles and points, when I was less competent in looking for hotels, AND before I became spoiled by staying in expensive hotels. It wasn’t great, but it was adequate. I was with my husband and two children, the hotel was full with other families, and in those circumstances, I felt perfectly safe.
I would LOVE to read more reviews like this. I do not have Hyatt Diamond status, and boarding area IMO is so very heavily tilted in that regard.
Yeah I agree – one of the main reasons I started travel blogging is that most of the blogs out there seemed to have a heavy focus on 5-star hotels and first class travel and generally speaking, that is NOT how my family travels!
If all goes well, I will be staying at the Rodeway Inn tonight and then we shall see if all indeed goes well 😀
Appreciate your following along!
Nothing wrong with it at all but the lower end hotels vary greatly. I usually look at reviews and photos on Tripadvisor and then do a street view on Google maps to make the final choice. I have better luck with Red Roof than Rodeway btw.
Yeah – I did read the reviews, which were mixed (as to be expected). If I was with the family I probably would have moved on, but on my own I figured I’d give it a whirl…
I’ve never stayed in a truly dire hotel. The worst hotel I have ever stayed in, I actually stayed in twice separated by about 10 years. It’s the motel 6 in Wendover, UT. I stayed there once when driving with a boyfriend to California when he moved there from Iowa. It was totally fine and we didn’t have money to stay anywhere nice (I’m not sure there is anywhere “nice” exactly in that town, maybe a hotel directly attached to a casino). Then I stayed there again with my parents and children last year when we were returning from a road trip from Chicago – San Francisco. It was still fine, but seemed exactly the same as it had been 10 years ago. Like, without any maintenance in all those years. So, it was pretty run down and the doors were odd (you had to turn the bar type handle in the “up” direction or it wouldn’t open the door). You could hear everything outside the door that went directly to the outside, not a hallway or anything.
The previous commenter who said that those low end hotels vary GREATLY is absolutely right. We once stopped at a different motel 6 in Iowa (which was unfortunately full for the night) and it was gleaming. Pretty new. Everything was spotless. Didn’t see the rooms, but from the common areas and grounds, it looked like top notch budget road trip accommodation.
Look for the full trip report next week probably, but my stay wasn’t bad at all – definitely would stay again and worth the $40