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All these hotel cards are win win for both management and the frequent traveller.
I personally like the IHG and its $50 annual fee and free nights. With other cards, the points seem to rack up at a snails pace. With IHG, the points just keep coming...especially with their quarterly extra bonus plans.
IHG provides for both the budget end (Holiday Inn Express and the fancier Crown stuff). Although not super low budget, the Holiday Inn Expresses are cheap enough when I want a budget stay...with decent free breakfast in most places so that's another $20 saved per day for 2 people.
@jsucool76 wrote:
@redpat
why go for precheck instead of global entry?
Oops. I'll wait 5 years.
@yfan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@yfan wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Perhaps it wouldn't have been so skewed if all the hotels you posted weren't commonly associated as sketchy/crime dens.
Ah, I see. Because no crime ever takes place at fancy hotels, like Vegas drug and sex parties at expensive hotels, the craigslist killer at Marriott or.. people ending up dead at Palm Desert Hotel. Just because you say something is "commonly associated" does not make it so, and associating budget brands with crime is ludicrous. In fact, neighborhoods rather than hotels are a lot more associated with crime. It's a cheap way to be dismissive of those who you think are of lesser means than you. When locales are similar, you'd be hard pressed to find a distinction, unless we're talking about tons of white collar and drug crimes taking place in the high end places.
Let's go with...low end, low quality, lack of amenities, usually poor location.
That's a matter of judgment - As I said before, I research my accommodations well, and I have never found any of the budget hotels that I have picked subsequent to that research "low quality" for my needs. Amenities I could care less about. Give me free parking over an indoor restaurant anyday. As for location, these budget hotels are more than often available in the same locales as the higher end ones, in addition to also being everywhere else.
It's not that the Super 8s and the Econo Lodges are all bad and that the Marriotts are all good. But generally speaking, more sketchy things happen at the former than the latter PROPORTIONALLY speaking.
If I was going to spend money on going to Niagara Falls, then I'll spend money on good and safe accommodations. If I cannot stay at a nicer place, then I'd rather stay at home and save the $$. Given a choice between (A) going to Niagara Falls and staying at a Super 8 that will cost me $57 for the whole trip because I get free airfare vs. (B) staying home and watching THIS instead, I'm choosing (B) all day long.
@onstar wrote:
It's not that the Super 8s and the Econo Lodges are all bad and that the Marriotts are all good. But generally speaking, more sketchy things happen at the former than the latter PROPORTIONALLY speaking.
If I was going to spend money on going to Niagara Falls, then I'll spend money on good and safe accommodations. If I cannot stay at a nicer place, then I'd rather stay at home and save the $$. Given a choice between (A) going to Niagara Falls and staying at a Super 8 that will cost me $57 for the whole trip because I get free airfare vs. (B) staying home and watching THIS instead, I'm choosing (B) all day long.
Again, whether "more sketchy things happen" depends far more on the locale than the brand of hotel. The only reason more sketchy things may happen (and to be honest, no one here actually given statistics or data proving THAT is even the case - this is just conjecture without that) at the former than the latter is because there are more Motel 8's located in sketchy areas and fewer Marriotts. Not to mention I doubt very much more sketchy things happen ANYWHERE than in high end Vegas hotels with drugs and sex parties.
So paying more for a brand hotel in the exact same locale where a budget property is available is very, very unlikely to make your stay any safer (as was the case for my comparison of the Niagara Motel 8 and CY properties, both located in Buffalo). You are better off doing a zip code crime database lookup in this case than relying on a hotel brand name.
@yfan wrote:
@onstar wrote:
It's not that the Super 8s and the Econo Lodges are all bad and that the Marriotts are all good. But generally speaking, more sketchy things happen at the former than the latter PROPORTIONALLY speaking.
If I was going to spend money on going to Niagara Falls, then I'll spend money on good and safe accommodations. If I cannot stay at a nicer place, then I'd rather stay at home and save the $$. Given a choice between (A) going to Niagara Falls and staying at a Super 8 that will cost me $57 for the whole trip because I get free airfare vs. (B) staying home and watching THIS instead, I'm choosing (B) all day long.
Again, whether "more sketchy things happen" depends far more on the locale than the brand of hotel. The only reason more sketchy things may happen (and to be honest, no one here actually given statistics or data proving THAT is even the case - this is just conjecture without that) at the former than the latter is because there are more Motel 8's located in sketchy areas and fewer Marriotts. Not to mention I doubt very much more sketchy things happen ANYWHERE than in high end Vegas hotels with drugs and sex parties.
So paying more for a brand hotel in the exact same locale where a budget property is available is very, very unlikely to make your stay any safer (as was the case for my comparison of the Niagara Motel 8 and CY properties, both located in Buffalo). You are better off doing a zip code crime database lookup in this case than relying on a hotel brand name.
There are sex parties in high end Vagas hotels, where? I stay at the Palazzo, LOL!
@redpat wrote:There are sex parties in high end Vagas hotels, where? I stay at the Palazzo, LOL!
Well, I linked in an earlier post that someone even got charged with it. And the drugs stuff in Vegas... let's just say I have seen it first hand before walking out.
@redpat wrote:
@yfan wrote:
@onstar wrote:
It's not that the Super 8s and the Econo Lodges are all bad and that the Marriotts are all good. But generally speaking, more sketchy things happen at the former than the latter PROPORTIONALLY speaking.
If I was going to spend money on going to Niagara Falls, then I'll spend money on good and safe accommodations. If I cannot stay at a nicer place, then I'd rather stay at home and save the $$. Given a choice between (A) going to Niagara Falls and staying at a Super 8 that will cost me $57 for the whole trip because I get free airfare vs. (B) staying home and watching THIS instead, I'm choosing (B) all day long.
Again, whether "more sketchy things happen" depends far more on the locale than the brand of hotel. The only reason more sketchy things may happen (and to be honest, no one here actually given statistics or data proving THAT is even the case - this is just conjecture without that) at the former than the latter is because there are more Motel 8's located in sketchy areas and fewer Marriotts. Not to mention I doubt very much more sketchy things happen ANYWHERE than in high end Vegas hotels with drugs and sex parties.
So paying more for a brand hotel in the exact same locale where a budget property is available is very, very unlikely to make your stay any safer (as was the case for my comparison of the Niagara Motel 8 and CY properties, both located in Buffalo). You are better off doing a zip code crime database lookup in this case than relying on a hotel brand name.
There are sex parties in high end Vagas hotels, where? I stay at the Palazzo, LOL!
Penthouses.