As part of my “Battle of the Budget Hotels” tour of America, I booked a stay at the Super 8 Monterey hotel during a getaway along California’s Highway 1. It was better than some of my other budget hotel experiences – but at an upscale price of $221/night in expensive Northern California during a peak […]
Super 8 is Wyndham Worldwide’s largest hotel brand with more than 2,700 hotels, making it also the biggest budget hotel brand worldwide. When Super 8 launched in 1974, the price for a room was $8.88 – giving it the iconic name. A lot has changed since – so read my review to get the background
For my second stay in a Summer Getaway to Lake Tahoe, I had picked the Rodeway Inn South Lake Tahoe, a Choice Hotel, as part of my research into the Battle of the Budget Chains. After the bad experience at the nearby Howard Johnson South Lake Tahoe by Wyndham, I braced myself for another bad night
Rodeway Inn is a budget brand of Choice Hotels with over 500 properties in the US and Canada. They are mostly smaller motels outside the big cities and focus on the basics for a stay on a budget! Find out who they are and what experience you can expect at a Rodeway Inn! Who are
As part of my tour to research US budget hotel chains, I picked the Howard Johnson South Lake Tahoe for a summer getaway from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. It’s in a good location, just steps from Lake Tahoe’s beach, but that’s were the good news ends. The rest of the Howard Johnson reminds me
On a recent trip through California, I needed a hotel in Woodland, near the capital Sacramento. As part of my “Battle of the Budget Hotels” research, I picked the Quality Inn & Suites. At a much lower price than the local Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn, I had low expectations. Yet, it turned out
Howard Johnson’s, lovingly called HoJo’s, is one of the many Wyndham Worldwide hotel brands. It has a rather turbulent history, leaving it with almost 400 hotels in North & Latin America, Europe and Asia, ranging from old roadside motels in the US to upscale, full-service hotels in Asia. That turbulent history makes HoJo’s one of
The Novotel Araneta in Manila is a brand-new, upscale Accor Group hotel a little away from the main business and tourist areas. Thanks to another Accor Promotion, I was only two stays away from reaching Accor LeClub Platinum status and its many perks, so we planned a weekend staycation – and were pleasantly surprised what
On my recent trip “Bali on a Budget” I was looking for an affordable hotel under $50/night in Ubud that is a reflection of the town: a small, independent guest house near the center of town, with typical Bali decor, friendly service and modern amenities. Based on online and a site inspection, I picked the
As part of my “Bali on a budget” trip, I visited Lovina Beach on the North Shore of Bali to get away from the crowds of Southern Bali and explore the quieter side of Bali. I was looking for a hotel close to the beach for under $50/night and found Hotel Melamun from online reviews – and it is
For my stay in Faro on Portugal’s Algarve coast as part of my Iberian Explorer Trip, I selected the Best Western Dom Bernardo hotel. I want to explore Best Western, their rewards program and promotions this year (together with Choice and Wyndham) and this was one of the few options on the Iberian peninsula. Like
Best Western is one of the largest hotel companies in the world with over 4,100 properties and one of the oldest, having started in 1946. It is a privately held company that allows the individual properties to stay independent, charges some of the lowest brand membership fees in the industry and some of the least