HotelChatter

Hotel Surverys / Consumer Reports / Hotel News / Hotel Deals / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

Have You Gotten a Hotel Room for $107 Or Less This Year?

This room at The Signature at MGM Grand cost us $95 (without the $25 resort fee) on Expedia.

Well, this is interesting. Consumer Reports have released their latest survey findings and this year the average hotel stay is about to cost $107 a night, up five percent from last year.

Despite the increase, $107 seems like a good deal! We've paid about $100 a night for two of our hotel stays this year--The Saguaro Scottsdale and the The Signature at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But last weekend at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego we splurged on a room for $265 a night.

Admittedly, we have a thing for new hotels and boutique hotels and hotels in expensive cities like New York, London and Miami but even still, we don't often see a hotel for $107 a night. Perhaps we need to start going more budget. Consumer Reports says that Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham was the highest-rated of the budget hotels while Econo Lodge and Americas Best Value Inn.

On the luxury end, Ritz-Carlton Hotels earned top survey results while Westin, Hyatt and Embassy Suites Hotels also garnered excellent or good ratings.

But perhaps the most bit of useful info from the report are Consumer Reports tips to getting a good hotel deal.

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OpenThread / Hotel Fitness / Hotel Gyms / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

Do You Book Your Hotel Stay Based on The Hotel's Gym?

Recently, an acquaintance was badgering pumping us about hotel recommendations for Hong Kong. After mentioning a few that we recently checked out, said friend asked us, "But which one has the best gym?"

Uhh....

See, we're not really the fitness-oriented type when it comes to our hotel stays. Indeed our first reaction to the announcement of IHG's new fitness-oriented hotel brand, Even Hotels, was wondering if we would be judged for carrying fast-food take-out back to our room. We'd rather book our room based on the following criteria--newness, cheapness and in some special cases, design.

But considering that this was the second time that we heard of a friend booking a hotel room based on the gym offerings, we started to think that there must be a ton more of you gym freaks out there, studying photos of the hotel fitness centers perhaps more closely than the rooms.

So you tell us, do you book your hotel stay based on the hotel gym offerings? Let us know in comments below!

P.S. To answer our friend's initial question about Hong Kong, we would have to give a shout-out to the Ritz-Carlton (pictured above) where you can Facebook and Google from the treadmills.

Hotel Technology / Siri / iPhone Hotel Apps / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

The One Where Siri Finds Us a Hotel Room

When Apple first unveiled its iPhone 4S, our first thought was could the new voice-activated app/virtual personal assistant, Siri, find us a hotel room? And would her findings be better than our own? Now that we have an actual iPhone 4S in our hands, we decided to investigate.

We held down the home screen button and waited for Siri to pop up. Once she did, we simply said, "I need a hotel room." A few seconds later, Siri spit out a bunch of hotels near our current location.

This being Santa Monica, Calif. there were a bunch of hotels nearby. 21 to be exact.

The thing is, not all of these listings were desirable. American Motel? No thanks. A few were also not hotels like the listing for Centro LLC and another for HotelConnect USA LLC.

And with the few hotels that we would actually stay at, like The Huntley, all Siri pulled up was a map of where these hotels were related to our current location. When you clicked on the listing, Siri then showed you the hotel's phone number and exact address. No website, no average rate, no hotel reviews, nada. Damn, Siri, we expected more from you!

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Trump Hotels / Preferred Hotels / iPrefer / Killer Views / Hotel Bathtubs / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

How We Got This Killer View from The Bathtub at Trump Soho

Where: 246 Spring Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10013

As you know from our post yesterday on these nightstand lamps, we spent a night at the Trump Soho. But what we didn't tell you is how we came to spend a night in a suite with this killer view from the bathtub. Allow us to do so now.

We did our usual compare and contrast of the hotel's website and other booking sites and found that a king deluxe room was going for the rate of $419 everywhere. Not content with just booking a room without any perks, we thought maybe we could do a Josh Flagg except that Trump Hotels are not part of American Express' Fine Hotels and Resorts. However, they are a part of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, of which we happen to be a member.

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Hotel Booking Tips / Upgrades / Fine Hotels and Resorts / Amex / Josh Flagg / → All Tags

How Josh Flagg Works It for a Room Upgrade

Our own Eloise, Josh Flagg returns to divulge one of his closely-guarded hotel booking tips. While Amex is his main booking MO, this is a good tip to try on a lark but especially when you book packages that say, "Upgrade if available." Enjoy!

Do you ever feel as I do, that when you check into a hotel, you get the run around? Let me explain what I mean.

If you are an American Express platinum or Black card holder, or even if you are a Centurion card holder, there are certain advantages you get when booking through Amex's Fine Hotels and Resorts. For one, you get complimentary breakfast. Two, you get an added amenity with the hotel such as a massage or a facial or maybe a dining credit. But most important is number three and this is what matters most to me.

Say you are traveling and you book a one-bedroom suite. Assuming the occupancy in the hotel is not at 100 percent, then the hotel will upgrade you to a larger suite, just for booking through Amex. Sometimes, they will even upgrade you to a two-bedroom suite!

The same goes for a standard room. If you book a nice room, they will upgrade you to a junior suite, or if you book a not so nice room, they will upgrade you to a nice one.

Usually you will pay a little bit of a higher rate when you book through American Express Platinum or Centurion, however the added benefits make it well worth it.

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Hotel Delays / Candlewood Suites / Hotel Hell / Hotel Websites / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

And This is Why We Hate Hotel Delays

Where: 4631 Cohen Avenue [map], El Paso, TX, United States, 79924

Some hotel folks say we are too hard on them about their hotel delays but there's a good reason for it---guests who make reservations, heck, center their whole travel plans around staying at a hotel, often get left stranded when a hotel decides not to open on time.

Now with the higher end properties, like Gansevoort South, guests with reservations are often made full aware of the delay and the hotel will also have them set up at a sister property.

But at budget properties like Candlewood Suites, it seems the reservation just gets completely forgotten about. Consumerist.com reports:

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Hotel Booking Tips / Hotel Myths / Hotel Cancellations / Travel Agents / → All Tags

Are Mondays 'Cancellation Days' at Hotels?

Are your chances of getting a room at a booked-up hotel better if you call in on a Monday? HotelChatter investigates....

Recently some family members were shacking up at a hotel in Santa Monica, Calif. when, mid-stay, they asked the front desk about adding a few more days to their reservation. Thinking it wouldn't be an issue, they were bummed to hear that the hotel was sold-out for the next several days.

But there was a glimmer of hope as the front desk told them to check back on Monday (they requested the additional days on a Saturday and were set to check out on Wednesday.) The reason being, according to the front desk was that Monday was when all the cancellations were called in, particularly from travel agents.

We've never heard of this sort of "cancellation day" before. At first, we were skeptical. Why did travel agents wait until Monday to do this? Wouldn't they just be calling the cancellations as they came in? Then a part of us got excited--did we just stumble upon a new trick for getting a room at a supposedly sold-out hotel?

Not quite.

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Hotel Booking Tips / Room 77 / Hotel News / Hotel Booking Sites / → All Tags

New Website Room 77 Helps Match You Up with Your Hotel Room Crush

If you ever stayed in a great hotel but got stuck in a room with a lousy view or near a noisy elevator, there's now a way to avoid those dud digs. Unlike sites like TripAdvisor that focus on the hotel in general, new website Room 77, which launches today, offers a hotel room database and search engine for three-star-and-up properties.

Founder Brad Gerstner was staying at a Caribbean hotel and got room envy when he saw another amazing spot in the resort. He put its number—77—in his BlackBerry. He started to add his favorite rooms to the list, and his friends would ask for it when they'd go on trips. Room 77 was born.

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Hotel Openings / Mondrian Hotels / Interviews / Soho Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

What's The Best Room to Book at the Mondrian Soho?

Where: 9 Crosby Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10013

Like we get with so many new hotels, we're extremely antsy about the new Mondrian Soho Hotel. We know we can sleep there as soon as February 22nd (for just $229 a night) and we know that the hotel's restaurant, Imperial No. 9 from chef Sam Talbott will open on March 1. But we wanted to know more.

So we chatted up the hotel's general manager, Gary Thomas, and asked him point-blank, "What are the best rooms to book?"

His answer? Rooms 2004 or 2003 which are deluxe queen corner rooms facing uptown. There's floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides of the room and Thomas said the views are simply "phenomenal."

He also told us that the showers will have a big cut-out window and then joked, "you can't be modest showering here." But he assured us that no one can see into the shower simply because there are no other buildings nearby that are taller than the 26-story Mondrian. And it's technically not a peekaboo bathroom because it's properly separated from the rest of the guestroom.

The risk of flying Peeping Toms aside, we found these rooms going for $309 on opening night using the introductory rate code, SPINTR.

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Hotel Booking Tips / Adventures in Blind Booking / Hotwire / Thompson Hotels / Hollywood Hotels / → All Tags

Adventures in Blind Hotel Booking: The Hollywood Roosevelt for $122

Now that Quikbook and Travelocity are getting into the blind booking business, joining Hotwire and Priceline, we've got many more tools to use when searching for bargain hotel rates. So we've decided to keep regular tabs on our wins (and in some cases, losses). We used to call this Hotel Roulette but it's a new decade and this type of research needs a new name--Adventures in Blind Hotel Booking. Here's our first match.

There is this man named Sir Paul McCartney, you might have heard of him before? Anyways, even though he is 67 years old, he is still touring the world playing his greatest hits from the Beatles, Wings, Fireman and his own successful solo work. So when we heard that he was coming to the Hollywood Bowl, we jumped at the chance to see him live.

And we decided to make a night out of it. We don't live far from Hollywood but we wanted to enjoy the concert, if you know what we mean. Yet since we splurged on the tickets, we needed to keep our hotel room costs down. So we turned to our trusty friend, Hotwire.

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Hotel Hell / Expedia / Hotel Booking Tips / Hotel Booking Sites / → All Tags

Expedia Disputes Fax Process in TechCrunch's 'Bloody Valentine'

It looks like ranting and raving does pay off. Remember the TechCrunch who had a nightmarish Valentine's Day thanks to a bungled Expedia reservation? Expedia has done the Tiger Woods thing and owned up to the snafu, accepting full responsibility, offering the writer MG Siegel a full refund, reimbursement expenses and a $200 Expedia coupon. Siegel has decided not to accept any money beyond the initial refund saying:

This was never about the money, it was about Expedia doing what is right for its customers, no matter if they’re a random person with their family, or someone with access to one of the largest blogs in the world.

However, there does seem to be a new development uncovered by TNooz.

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Memphis Hotels / Elvis Hotels / Hotel Booking Tips / → All Tags

Three Memphis Hotels to Fit Every Budget

There's a lot that lures travelers to Memphis: the city's rich music scene—it was the birthplace of rock 'n' roll and soul music, after all—the finger-lickin' good barbecue and the jumping nightlife on Beale Street are just a few. If you want to go South for the winter, here are Memphis hotel options for every budget.

See our three hotel picks after the jump.

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