A room, quiet bed, shower and place to store your stuff; maybe TV and internet. Then to make maters worse all hotel rooms look pretty much the same. You can go pretty cheap and it still will cost $80. If you want something better, in a central location that is also nice and a room that is well kept, clean and a decent atmosphere. Then you are looking at well over at $100, closer to $150. Even at $150 the room is still very standard, yes it is Double Tree or so but come on! Where is the personality, the charm or individuality? No where! If you want that, or real perks like hot tub, deep tub, kitchenette... then get ready to pay more.
Or you can try to hunt and scour deal sights. Get ready to compromise on something, and if you go to Priceline... it is seeing what you are going to get ahead of time. Already starting off wrong, I have to pay in advance blindly? Oh GOD.
Not since I found VRBO.com that is Vacation Rental By Owner. It is a great site that has locations anywhere in the world you want to go to. The people on this site are real live people and they are renting out their vacation homes or guest homes. I am not throwing money to a corporation but helping actual individuals. Even better is the Return On Investment. You heard me, the ROI. For $175 a night, the price of a semi decent but standard looking room in a chain hotel... I got our own private place. We had the guest house of an acre estate in Santa Barbara. A private deck, a nice kitchen, living room area, tons of light, stain glass window and a killer bedroom. With a private hot tub and the grounds to walk around, we were able to pick out own breakfast from the orange and apple trees. Plus the location was central! It was individual, quite and relaxed.
Why would we choose a hotel? I wouldn't anymore, and neither should you. Get more for your money.
