Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsunami
Preparing for a trip to me includes one step: booking the flight ticket. Really, that is all preparation I do. I don't even book hotels in advance, I arrive and just start wandering around looking for a hotel.
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I travel several times a month (usually for business) in the US, and I always book rental cars and hotels as far in advance as possible. The reasons are:
- Availability - I have seen several times where all hotels within a large radius (sometimes as great at 100 miles / 160 km) of my destination are filled several days in advance of a large event. Rental cars can also become hard to find, even in a city with many cars such as Las Vegas, Nevada.
- Price - Just as with airline flights, the prices get very high when only a few rooms are still available in an area. I have seen prices go to 2 to 3 times the normal room rates.
- Desirability - Only the worst hotels and rooms are available when rooms are mostly sold out. In one instance we had to drop off a colleague at a fleabag hotel adjacent to a very low-end strip club because it was the only place we could find within 50 miles of the San Antonio Texas airport during spring break.
These problems are at many different locations, including small towns during a big wedding or local sports event, spring break in many areas (not just near coasts), and conventions or other big events (auto races, SXSW in Austin TX, graduations, sports events, political meetings, etc.).
The timing of these events is often not obvious to a visitor. I have seen problems due to a religious convention in Oklahoma City (filling all hotels within a 100 mile radius), local sports event in Washington state (filling all hotels within over 50 miles on an interstate highway), and large wedding in Las Cruces New Mexico. Spring break and graduation ceremonies are at different times in different areas.
Bill