Hotels on a road trip

I couldn't resist Southwest's airfare sale this fall ($120 roundtrip, yee-haw). I'm planning to spend 10 days driving all over the Rocky Mountains in October.

As far as hotels are concerned, what is the best strategy when you don't have set plans? All I know for sure is where I'll be the first and last nights of the trip. In between, who knows.

I think once I'm there, I can plan for the next 2 to 3 nights. Ideally, I'd like to spend $40 to 60 per night at places that aren't named Motel 6.

Any suggestions?

Make cancellable reservations everywhere you might be on a given date. Cancel via cell phone before the cutoff time.

you can always do Priceline if you know for sure where you are going to be on a certain day. I have done Priceline for the same day without any problems. You can book a cancellable hotel then try Priceline for something cheaper or better at the same rate on the cancellation day. If you don't get it just stay at the one you picked.

runningair said: My only concern is the lack of AT&T Wireless reception in many parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

Find a cheapo phone card and use payphones.

runningair said: DSJ said: Find a cheapo phone card and use payphones.

If I can find a pay phone. The roads I plan to drive are not necessarily interstates or major highways.

No cell service...no payphones...you won't need to contact a hotel if you break down and critters get you.

My Queen suggests looking into OnStar equipped cars for boonie calls.

register and sign up for a choice privliges rewards card. Either look online and pick your next location, or call the 800 number. You can get 3% cb from fw, or call the 800 number and ask for the sams club rate. Typically about 10-20 less than the price on the choice privliges website. try and stay at comfort, comfort suite, or quality. The others can be suspect.

Also when you get there, grab a coupon book from in front of most gas stations, or rest stop, where you can find last minute coupon deals.

have fun

read the book the shining before you go...... scary

i have never used a kinkos wifi hotspot. I just look for any hotel. Any hotel with a brand name, and 90 percent of them do not have any security to thier wifi. Just pull ih the parking lot.

wyoming may be desolate, but utah and colorado really have lots of towns.

playairguitar said: Last time when I went on a road trip, I found motel coupons at gas stations about an hour away from the town/city they were advertising for. I got some great rates this way (i.e. $50/night i/o $85/night).

Avoid the Bates Hotel.

googunk said: jlawrence01 said: ...We downloaded a listing of the Kinko's locations so we knew where we could get access to a computer anywhere we went. It worked well...

Having internet availability mapped out is a good idea, but to save money you are best off finding a hotel, library, or coffee shop with free wifi. All Kinko's location have 3 options for wifi - none are free.

Kinko's rates if you willing to pay the premium:

1. TMobile wifi connection via your own laptop - $10 for 24 hours pass (for the store you're in only)
2. hardline internet connection via your own laptop - $0.10 per minute (if you can get their software to work!)
3. hardline internet via a rental PC. $0.20 per minute

Fair warning - Prepared to get P.O.ed over how slow it is, or at least reminiscent of your 28.8K modem days. Opening Gmail main page once took over 10 minutes for me. Checking Emails at $2.00 a pop is not what I consider frugal.

It generally takes me about eight minutes to reserve a hotel or about $2. I don't check mail on vacation - after all, isn't getting AWAY FROM e-mails one of the main purposes of vacation?