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By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.
Vectorportal/Flickr
I had a bad experience at a hotel recently, and didn’t keep quiet about it. Neither should you.
A couple of weeks ago, I went “glamping” (glamorous camping) with my daughter. A bunch of families camped out on the beach, but sleeping on the ground wasn’t doing it for me. I booked a hotel near the camp site so could spend time with my friends camping, but sleep on a good mattress. I snagged a good rate using the online special and my AAA discount.
When bedtime came, I went into the hotel to get my pre-confirmed room. It was between the pool entrance and the gym. I could hear the thump thump thump of
A fancy Vegas hotel room. (Not where our reader stayed). Credit: prayitno/Flickr
The Unethical Man wrote in with another money morality dilemma (he seems to run into them often):
Sorry, I got one more question for you. As you may already know, I go to Vegas quite a bit. I try to take advantage of as many free room night offers as I can. Why? Because when traveling out of town, one of the incidental expenses is the room. My question is whether you think it is unethical to accept an offer of free rooms from a property but not gamble there or eat there? You hardly spend any time at the property except for showering and sleeping. At checkout time, the bill reads $0.00 on the TV screen.
Ethical or unethical?
I think you are in the clear as long as part of the agreement for the free hotel room does not include a promise to spend time at the hotel eating or gambling. I’m sure that’s what the hotel wants, but it can’t force you to gamble any more than it can force you to starve.
More money morality posts:
Freebie tacos a deal or a steal?
Is BB a good Samaritan or greedy stranger?
Dilemma: Neighbors gave us cash we don’t want
Longtime reader Glenn shared a dirty secret about hotel room safes. They’re not safe at all! He writes:
Do you ever use the hotel safe in your room? If so, do you know about the default combination code that can make your valuables “less safe” than you thought? If the answer is “No,” then you must check out a video that was posted on YouTube on Sept. 6th by skyrangerpro.
Here is the video Glenn mentioned. It’s been viewed more than a million times!
Hotel freebies for me!
My first thought yesterday when I saw the huge spread of toiletries on my Radisson hotel room vanity was, “I’m totally going to take this stuff!” Somehow, the spectacular display of toiletries made me feel as if the hotel wanted me to take it all. A hotel that parts with an essential bar of soap, shampoo and conditioner has a stingy glow, while a hotel that displays no fewer than 23 items clearly has riches to share.
Which of course reminded me of a guest post from a reader who takes toilet paper from hotels to save money. I draw the line at tp and tissues, but confess my plans to stash away these goodies, which I estimate are worth about $25. It’s the biggest assortment of hotel goodies I’ve ever seen:
- toothbrush and toothpaste
- small comb
- mouthwash
- body wash
- razor and shave cream
- shower cap
- two bars of soap
- shampoo, conditioner, and lotion
- sewing kit
- cotton balls and cotton swabs
- shoe mitt
- shoe polishing kit including black polish, a buffing pad, a small brush, and a shoe horn, all in a cute carrying case!
- finally, a loofah clinched the deal. Who has ever seen a loofah in a hotel?
Do you take hotel swag home?
adactio/Flickr
You get what you pay for, but in New York City you get even less. Four years after leaving the Big Apple for sunny Los Angeles, I re-learned this lesson after booking a budget hotel room on the Upper West Side with appalling results.
The $145 room – well below normal prices for a Manhattan hotel – had a shared bathroom and lacked amenities. But for one night it would be fine, I reasoned. I had used the same booking site in the past and gained great deals on beautiful hotel rooms. I trusted they would never work with sub-par hotels (Mistake No. 1).
We arrived a few minutes before check-in and noticed that, after each party checked in, an attendant walked them to their room. When it was our turn, a young woman led us through a maze of connected buildings so disorienting that I joked about getting lost. So this is why we were walked to our room, I thought. (Mistake No. 2).
The woman stopped in a narrow hallway and turned the key. No modern card swipes at this hotel. She opened the door and motioned for us to step inside.
I was stunned. The blue carpet was so ancient it was beyond cleaning. The pillows were flat as pancakes. The mysterious smell made me breathe shallowly. A single window blurred by years of muck looked onto an alley. The bed – oh how I was ready for a nap until I saw the bed!
“Do you still want the room?”
I looked at my friend, looked at the woman, and paused. I turned down the sheets and squinted to see possible tiny red spots, a sign of bed bugs. The thin yellowed sheets showed through to the mattress. I did not see any spots, but the light was too dim to erase all doubts.
“We heard there were bed bugs,” I said to the woman.
She shook her head. “The things people write online,” she said. “Disgruntled employees.”
“Oh, okay.”
“So the room is okay?”
No, it was not okay, But I was so ashamed that I had gotten myself into this situation, that I had believed I could get such an amazing deal, that I was too cheap to pony up for a better room in the first place, that I looked at the woman and nodded. (Mistake No. 3)
She closed the door behind her.
“Do you want to stay here?” I asked my dismayed friend.
“Do you want to stay here?”
We both agreed we could suffer a night in the dingy hotel room, but that we really, really wanted a nicer hotel room. We gathered our bags and marched back to the lobby.
“We changed our minds,” I said. “The room is not acceptable. I’m sorry.”
The hotel staff was ticked off. The manager refused to give us a canceled receipt because it was the booking site that was charging us, he said. Arguing was no use. We walked out.
I immediately called the booking site and asked them to refund the $145 charge because the room did not match the online description, to put it mildly. The customer service agent offered me a 10% refund. I politely pushed back. She offered me a $50 credit. No thanks. Manager, please. The manager refused to help a loyal customer and, after more than an hour on hold, my cell phone battery died. The next day I called my credit card company to contest the charge.
Whether or not I end up paying for the hotel room, I’ve learned three lessons. I was greedy, thinking I could find a better price for a hotel room than the millions of other tourists who visit New York City. I made assumptions that got me into trouble and did not recognize them until it was too late. And to top it off, I kept quiet when I should have spoken my mind.
As karmic payback, I booked a ridiculously expensive hotel, slept extremely well, and made free Starbucks coffee the next morning in my room.
Irargerich/Flickr
My frugal friends at Savings.com shared these coupons with me this week.
Exclusive! Get 20% off flower arrangements at FTD. Expires: Ongoing
Get 25% off any order at The Limited. Expiration date unknown.
Save $10 per night on hotel reservations at Expedia. Expires July 31, 2010.
Exclusive! Get 10% off any order at Verizon Wireless. Expires May 31, 2010.
Get 50% off with free shipping on $85 or more at New York & Company. Expires May 9, 2010.
lintmachine/Flickr
This is a guest from by Emmalee of Red Head Dating Theory, which has explicit, adult-only content.
In less than a week I will be embarking on a long-awaited San Francisco vacation with my boyfriend. Traveling can get very expensive and the small costs can quickly add up. There are plenty of ways to travel for little or no money at all.
House swapping and sitting are great ways to travel somewhere new, while not spending a dime on a place to stay. HouseCarers.com is a great Web site to find a house sitter or an opportunity to house sit. An added bonus if you need your house to be watched this Web site also offers additional pet sitting. HomeExchange.com is meant for families looking to swap houses as a vacation. A membership is required, but those who pay may be serious and safe for swapping.
If you are willing to work for a place to stay, there are plenty of farms that will exchange some work for lodging. WWOOF is an organization that matches people willing to volunteer on organic farms with people willing to provide food and accommodation in exchange. Other organizations like SERVAS International and GrowFood.org attempt to connect people looking to change the world in exchange for accommodations.
If you do not own a home or are not planning on staying in one place too long, some Web sites offer a place for you to crash, as long as there is an offer exchanged. My favorite Web site, Couchsurfing.com allows people to travel all over the world and stay on another surfer’s couch for the small price of opening your home to them for a visit. This non-profit organization’s purpose is to making it more accessible for people to travel the world and exchange experiences. GlobalFreeloaders.org is another organization dedicated to bringing people together while saving money.
You may ask, is this or house swapping safe? Most of the Web sites have an “educate yourself” policy that leaves it up to traveler to contact the people individually to decide if they are safe. Unfortunately, there is no way to check everyone’s background, especially when most of the Web sites are free, but every Web site does have an FAQ page explaining ways to ensure your safety.
These Web sites are dedicated to the progression of free travel and help for those who vacation on a budget. Although I will not be couch surfing in San Francisco, I booked the trip through Travelocity which saved me $350, a win-win for everyone.
Spring break is coming up and one way to save money is to earn a free night at your hotel. The Choice Hotels spring promo lets you do just that. The cool thing about the promotion is that once you earn your free night you can choose to stay at 1,500 hotels across the globe – gratis! Here’s how it works.
Stay two different times at any of the ten hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, including the Quality Inn, Cambria Suites, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn. You can mix and match which hotels you stay at. Each visit has to be at least two nights.
Stay twice between now and April 30, 2010, and you earn a free night. You can find a great hotel rate on the Choice Hotels website, which searches the entire hotel chain for the best deal. Within any given city, you can search for hotels by radius or by proximity to prominent attractions, like SeaWorld in San Diego or Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Make sure to sign up for the Choice Hotels privileges reward program to get your free hotel night. You’ll need an address in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or eligible countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe to qualify for the promotion.
