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Tags: Hotel Rates / Michael Jackson / Santa Barbara Hotels / Holiday Inn Hotels / → All Tags

Cheap Hotels Are Hard to Find for Michael Jackson's Neverland Memorial

Here at HotelChatter we have a very informal indicator of how popular an event is going to be: the price of the nearest Holiday Inn.

If the room rate for the Holiday Inns in the city where said event is taking place remain low, we're sorry to tell you, event promoters, but this gig is probably a bust. If the Holiday Inn's rates in the city where said event is taking place have skyrocketed to unreasonable prices that no one would ever fork over for a budget hotel, then you're in luck: your event is going to be a success! Too bad Michael Jackson isn't here to see just how massive his funeral is going to be.

The memorial is taking place at Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California, and the Santa Barbara area is prepping for a flood of one-glove wearing, Thriller album-holding, fedora-sporting fans. And all these "Billie Jean" lovers are going to need a place to stay.

We headed over to Expedia and checked the Holiday Inn Express Santa Barbara hotel for rates from Thursday through Sunday, and the 2.5-star property has rooms open for $222 a night. The Holiday Inn Santa Barbara-Goleta, a 3-star property near the UCSB campus, is down to $182 a night.

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Tags: Kentucky Derby Hotels / Hotel Rates / → All Tags

The Only Derby Hotel We Will Be Staying In is The Couch Hotel

Whether you're headed to the Kentucky Derby tomorrow to actually watch the races or just to don a silly hat and stalk Paris Hilton, you'll be happy to know that there are hotel rooms open. But they will cost you a pretty penny.

For instance the Embassy Suites is charging $450 a night. Granted, it's a suite and you can fit four friends in there easily but still, are people really going to shell out that much for the Derby? Similarly, the Hilton Garden Inn is now charging $579 a night. And The Brown Hotel is asking for $1,333 a night. Um. Ok. If you say so.

Your best bet for affordable Derby hotels continues to be budget brands outside the city center. Louisville doesn't have that much of a boutique hotel scene to begin with and the existing rooms have been sold-out for a long time.

If you're not celebrating the Derby in New York, then we say just wear a crazy hat from the flea market, make your own mint julep and plop yourself down on the couch to watch the races instead.

[Photo: Flickerized]

Tags: Kentucky Derby Hotels / Hotel Rates / → All Tags

Only Rich Folk Will Be Attending the Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby will be held this year on Saturday, May 2 and it's sure to be less glitzy than other years thanks to the economy and well, the loss of Anna Nicole Smith. Her absence is still felt two years later. Oh well, there's always Heidi Montag or Lindsay Lohan to step in.

But despite these tragedies, hotel room rates are not coming down. Even though, hotels are moaning about the loss of business and empty rooms for Derby weekend, you will be hard-pressed to find any mildly respectable hotel brand that is not going for less than $200. In fact, most room rates are averaging about $350.

We checked rates on our own Hotel Rates Search Engine and found the Hyatt Place Louisville for $449 a night. The Hilton Garden Inn was $579 a night and the Hyatt Regency Louisville was $1,130 a night. The uber-cool 21C Museum Hotel was sold-out.

These rates turn us off entirely and we can only imagine that rich folk are spending that much money for a Derby hotel room. Perhaps as the weekend gets closer and hotels realize they aren't selling out will the rates come down. But we won't bet (har, har) on it.

[Photo: Flickerized]

Tags: Mardi Gras Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Rates / → All Tags

Last-Minute Revelry: You Can Still Make it to NoLa For Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is about spontaneity, so we bet a few of you out there haven’t even bothered to check whether there are still hotel rooms available for you to sleep it off after all the festivities down in NoLa. It's lucky you have us to do that for you, and we’ve been looking for rooms on a budget since chances are you won’t be spending any time there anyway. Here’s what we found.

We did a quick search on our hotel rates search engine, and came up with a few options that aren’t exactly budget, but are still pretty good.

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Tags: Hotel Rates / Seattle Hotels / → All Tags

Hopefully Not Sleepless in Seattle

We're heading to Seattle next month for our very first trip to the grunge mecca. What? It's not 1993 anymore? Darn. Either way, we're pretty stoked to visit Seattle but we have no idea where we want to stay.

Since our budget is tight we are trying to keep the stay under $150 a night. We'd really like to do it for $100. Our best hope for that is to leave our hotel fate up to the Priceline or Hotwire blind booking gods. But we're not that desperate yet.

A cursory search on our hotel rates search engine gave us the Westin Seattle for $135 a night. This is $14 less than the Sheraton which makes us wonder about the quality of the hotel. Aren't Westins superior to Sheratons?

We've also had some good luck recently with the Marriott Renaissance brand and their Seattle location is available for $143 a night. The boutique Sorrento Hotel is going for a good rate of $135 a night. The W Seattle is $154 and the Fairmont is $209 which is very good for a luxury hotel.

Still, it's times like these when we wish Thompson Hotels or Ace Hotels were opening a hotel here for around $100 a night. Anyone with Seattle suggestion, let us know.

Searching for hotels around the world? Start here on HotelChatter.

[Photo: Denise ~*~]

Tags: Hotel News / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Rates / Industry News / → All Tags

Average Hotel Room in New York Costs $350

Yikes. No wonder New York is the self-professed city that never sleeps: At an average of $350 a night in a hotel room, who can afford any shut-eye?

That figure spiked $50 in May from a year ago, according to figures released this week by the official marketing and tourism organization for the Big Apple. And even though 90 percent of all those spendy rooms were filled (that's some 2.05 million rooms), we're still betting the $99 rooms at the Jane Hotel couldn't come any quicker for travelers en route to New York.

Speaking of which: for a visual dose of depressing hotel rates, search for Manhattan on Hotel Map Search, a handy guide to hotel locations and average rates.

Tags: Tips / Downtown Hotel / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel Rates / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags

Where Else Can You Stay for $725 a night?

The Bowery Hotel's Terrace Suite

Now that we know how pricey Bobby DeNiro's hotel will be ($725 a night!), it's time to wonder, "Where can we put that much money to good use?" First, a couple NYC options.

Good old Six Columbus has a King Suite available for $625, which is the property's priciest room. It comes with all the standard amenities plus two flat screen TVs and, of course, tons of square footage. Suites at The Bowery Hotel go for $750, where you get hardwood floors, 400 thread count sheets, marble bathrooms and other niceties like outdoor terraces with jacuzzis. The priciest suite at the Duane Street Hotel, in TriBeCa like DeNiro's place, is a "cheap" $536.

But why stop at just Manhattan? If you're gonna be throwing around this much coin, you might as well go somewhere far, far away. You can stay at the Explora Atacama for four nights for $3,140, which works out to $785 a night. Or you could explore Uruguay and Argentina from the Four Seasons Resort Carmelo, where giant riverview bungalows start at under $400 a night. That should leave some cash to refuel your private jet, rock star!

Tags: Hotel Rates / Hotel News / Business Travel Hotels / → All Tags

Business Travelers Start to 'Just Say No'

Reps for Six Columbus, the eternally unopened Manhattan hotel, have told us that the hotel would like to go after a high-end business traveler. But if this is the kind of group the hotel is targeting, they may want to consider lowering the rates.

According to a July 3 article in the Wall Street Journal, "This year more than 76 percent of employers say they are booking fewer luxury hotels in favor of midclass properties."

Titled Business Travel, Downgraded, the article provides anecdotes of business travelers sleeping on friend's sofas, doubling up in rooms, and downgrading to much cheaper hotels. Meaning intstead of a Four Seasons or a Thompson Hotel, biz travelers will be hitting up Doubletree or Embassy Suites.

It's not hard to see why. Hotel rates are up 19.2 percent in the U.S. since the end of 2004, 7.2 percent of that just last year. And rates are expected to rise another 6 percent this year.

It's even worse internationally: London prices are up 30.3 percent in dollar terms and forget any thoughts of Asia being cheap. "Mumbai, India has seen a rise of 48.8 percent over the same period and Singapore's has climbed 32.9 percent." Ouch.

If you're part of a young start-up on a shoestring, you might want to check into GlobalFreeloaders.com or Couchsurfing.

Tags: Hotel Rates / Hotel Booking Tips / Downtown New York Hotels / → All Tags

Semi-Real-Time Hotel Rate Check: Soho Grand

Where: 310 W. Broadway [map], New York, ny, United States, 10013

People tend to ask us a lot of hotel rate related questions--go figure.

Seeing that we love to help, or at least feign helpfulness, we figured we would take you through our case study of booking a hotel in downtown New York.

No single source will always net you the lowest hotel rate, as always, caveat emptor.

In our case we knew where we were staying: Soho Grand. Futhermore, our date was not flexible, October 24th was a must.

With this in mind we used three online methods and one analog method to book our room. Results post click.

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