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I've never been able to find a room last minute by stopping in a hotel and asking to stay the night. They always say they're full.
I used to work at a hotel. 100% of late-night bookings meant trouble in one way or another.
I've never been able to find a room last minute by stopping in a hotel and asking to stay the night. They always say they're full.
The problem when I'm booking hotels is that:
1) I'm driving a long distance west of the Mississippi, and the stop points are very discrete and far between--so everybody wants to stop at the same point. For example, Austin to San Diego--El Paso is a bit short for the first day, so you go to Las Cruces which is a lot smaller and more likely to have fully booked up.
2) I'm doing a tourist thing which puts me in with a lot of other people.
The average US hotel is 70% full for tonight, the only night that matters. Not sure why people put these signs up other than maybe bringing people in with more neon.
My parents used to do this all if the time. Sometime in the late 90s, many hotels started using drop in guests as people to be hustled. These days, you're better off finding a way to get "status" from a chain so you can cancel without penalty and book a bunch of rooms. Our last road trip, I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the afternoon before stopping in.
It all depends on the approach. Instead of saying "do you have any rooms available?" you could just say "I only have $AMOUNT and quite frankly I'd rather stay here than at my old Uncle's place down the road" (or a variation of which indicates 'price does not matter'. [1]
Disclosure: I am somewhat of a paid professional negotiator so techniques like this may not work if not done properly or in every context.
[1] In another business you'd be surprised at how many people simply say 'can you do any better' (which means 'you have the sale') rather even 'wow that's to high... a competitor will do it for $AMOUNT can you match that?' Edit: Emphasis on a convincing use of 'wow!'.
"No Vacancy" signs were absolutely welcomed sights. They also just made it all the more visceral. Could I have pulled over, opened an app, and reserved a room online in less time and perhaps at a lower price, absolutely. Then, I could have followed the "map's" directions directly to this place and called it a day. Instead, I had to keep my eyes peeled, take in the city, maybe figure out where the main drag was.
We need to stop pushing efficiency and start making space for discovery. My trip down the middle of our country, that deep red cut of Trump support, I got to see it all. I was a Hillary voter, but, can honestly say I understand a bit of the reasons those states went the way they did. Riding an old motorcycle through the heart of our country, and then using an app to make my hotel reservation, or staying at some cookie cutter hotel instead of the local places I chose, that'd just have been a non-sequitur. I might as well not even have made the trip.
I would have missed the camp grounds, the fellow motorcyclists helping me with engine trouble, the welder that fixed my chassis, finding out that Nebraska is basically one big corn field, the super-hero of a motel clerk that let me sleep at the indoor pool when i showed up at 1am soaked and freezing and there were actually zero rooms left in the small town, the motorcycle club (shout-out to the Amber, OK Outsiders!) that put me up for a very drunk night after electrical issues, and the many other folks I met. But I didn't. It was awesome.
I did the Chicago to San Francisco (and back) run fairly regularly in the 1990s, and we didn't depend on vacancy signs. Our solution was basically brand loyalty -- the Motel 6 people published a book with addresses and phone numbers of all their motels in the US. The scheme is, you get on the road, and some time around 7pm, you stop for dinner, and make a reservation (from the payphone) at the Motel 6 that's about 10…
I've never been able to find a room last minute by stopping in a hotel and asking to stay the night. They always say they're full.
I'd be curious to know the difference between your experience and mine. U. S. here, and its rare that a motel turns me away. Now, there are several distinguishing characteristics of my travel. First, mostly by motorcycle, and second is that because I'm on the bike I'm probably in some out-of-the-way place and not downtown SF. My mode of travel is important, I think, because sometimes I think they feel sorry for me (e…
My parents used to do this all if the time. Sometime in the late 90s, many hotels started using drop in guests as people to be hustled. These days, you're better off finding a way to get "status" from a chain so you can cancel without penalty and book a bunch of rooms. Our last road trip, I booked 4 rooms over 300 miles and cancelled in the afternoon before stopping in.
> many hotels started using drop in guests as people to be hustled It all depends on the approach. Instead of saying "do you have any rooms available?" you could just say "I only have $AMOUNT and quite frankly I'd rather stay here than at my old Uncle's place down the road" (or a variation of which indicates 'price does not matter'. [1] Disclosure: I am somewhat of a paid professional negotiator so techniques like th…
I did the Chicago to San Francisco (and back) run fairly regularly in the 1990s, and we didn't depend on vacancy signs. Our solution was basically brand loyalty -- the Motel 6 people published a book with addresses and phone numbers of all their motels in the US. The scheme is, you get on the road, and some time around 7pm, you stop for dinner, and make a reservation (from the payphone) at the Motel 6 that's about 10…
I think I was 13 the first time, and 15 the second time. Although we had a mobile phone, we didn't phone ahead, we simply turned up somewhere. Perhaps once we had to drive further than we wanted (until midnight or so), and a couple of times I think the cost was a little higher than we wanted, but considering this was a family of 5 it worked out nicely.
My parents found some interesting places, too. I've not met anyone else that's been to see the Mitchell Corn Palace. (I've only met a few Americans who've seen as much of their own country as I have, which is a pity.)
The average US hotel is 70% full for tonight, the only night that matters. Not sure why people put these signs up other than maybe bringing people in with more neon.
So are you trying to say that tonight 7 out of 10 hotels are completely full and 3 out of 10 are completely empty, or any of an infinite range of other things?