Everybody has to get away to the big city for a weekend every once in a while. If you can plan far ahead; or if you don't mind a little drive, you can usually find rooms in 4 star hotels at 2 star prices.
There are a number of web sites on the internet that say they can get you the best prices on hotels. Sites like Priceline.com, Orbitz, Travelocity and Hotels.com usually only get a block of rooms from hotels on a nightly basis that they can choose from. More often than not, if you know the dates you're going to travel, you can usually go directly to the hotel's - or the chain's - web site and book at lower prices than what you'd get on some of the travel web sites.
I fall into this problem from time to time as I usually don't know where I'm going any more than a week or two in advance. I sometimes have trouble finding affordable rooms at the hotels I like to stay in because I don't book very far out in advance. But if I know that in a couple of months I have to be in, say, Kansas City for a dealer meeting or event, I'll go ahead and book that far in advance and be able to get a pretty good price.
Here's another tip that you can do when you are going to be staying over on weekends - and you usually don't have to plan that far in advance. Look for hotels near major airports.
Case in point - Earlier this year, I had to go to Los Angeles for a long weekend on, basically, three days notice. Given that the Golden Globes were going to be given out that weekend, I knew that I would have trouble finding an affordable hotel that wasn't a Super 8 or Motel 6 stuck out in El Segundo. I looked up the Marriott hotel web site and found the Renaissance Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport had rooms for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at $94 a night! Their rooms through the week START at $214! The place was great, the rooms were large and spacious, it had a great view of the city, the coast line up to Malibu, the planes coming and going. $94 a night.
I know the Renaissance at Lambert airport in St. Louis has had rooms for as little as $69 a night on weekends! And their rooms start at $159 through the week.
The Spring Hill Suites at O'Hare in Chicago have rooms as little as $79 a night and there's an Outback Steakhouse attached to the place.
Another area to look for deals on the weekend are hotels that are situated near large corporations or corporate parks. The Hilton in Overland Park, KS usually starts out at $139 a night through the week, but Friday night comes and you can get rooms there for as little as $69 a night.
The Hampton Inn and Suites in Lincolnshire, IL starts out at $129 a night through the week and I've booked a room there for $62 a weekend night - on the morning of the night we were going to stay there!
And we just stayed for a weekend at the Courtyard near Westport in St. Louis last summer for $62 a night, too! Normal rates through the week begin at $139.
You usually can't find these kind of weekend prices in the downtown areas of the large cities, but it doesn't hurt to give it a shot. But if you don't mind a little driving, you can usually find some pretty good prices in the outlying areas. And for what you save in room prices, splurge and have a nice dinner somewhere.
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