"The Weiss Family" wrote in message
...
Yet another reason I love rec.aviation.
These kinds of golden nuggets are priceless.

While there's a lot of truth in what Jay writes, remember that he is not an
unbiased source of information.

Having traveled the entire US on a variety of occasions, including one two
month trip in which most of that time was spent in paid lodging of one sort
or the other, I can say definitively that pretty much all of the absolutes
in Jay's post are wrong at least some of the time.

Regardless of the financials (where Jay assumes that chain hotels always
cost more than non-chain hotels, which is just not true all of the time),
one also needs to consider the value of one's time. Would you rather spend
your time vacationing? Or trying to chase down lodging for your next
night's stay?

Chain hotels, with nationwide toll-free numbers, make it VERY easy to not
only find a place to stay, but also to figure out what city to stay in
(when, for example, one city is completely booked due to some event you
didn't know about). It's "one-stop-shopping", and in addition chain hotels
provide a very consistent lodging experience. Yes, there's variation, and
yes there are non-chain hotels that crush the chains with respect to comfort
and service. But it's very hard to know in advance which non-chain hotels
are actually going to do that.

I certainly think it's worth seeking out non-chain hotels, and they often
provide pleasant surprises at good prices. But they are not the "end all,
be all" when it comes to finding a place to overnight.

Jay's advice will serve you best when you are going to exactly one place,
are doing all the planning ahead of the trip, and expect to stay for several
days or more. It will waste the most time, and even possibly money, when
you are traveling for several days or more, staying in a new place each
night, especially when you cannot plan before the trip (due, for example, to
having a schedule that depends on how each day of the trip goes).

As always, beware the person who says "always". The real world is
almost never so cut and dried.

Pete