What influences your choice in hotels?

Swimming pool and hot tub.

Making sure there isn't a Victorian mansion nearby where the manager lives with his invalid mother.

Easy bellhops.

Location, location, location.

What I look for on hotels.com or Expedia...

1) Location. Convenient to my destination? Neighborhood okay?

2) Enough pillows on the bed? I like lots of pillows.

3) IS THERE A COFFEE MAKER IN THE ROOM??? This is non-negotiable, I will not stay in a hotel that doesn't include a coffee maker.

I’m not fussy and generally travel on a budget so not looking to splurge. But I’ve stayed in enough hotels to develop some brand preferences.

The regular Holiday Inns generally suck but Holiday Inn Express is just about my favorite of the mid-range chains. They seem to have consistent standards - clean, well maintained, attractive enough decor, usually an indoor pool/hot tub combo (a big draw for me), a generous free hot breakfast.

I also like Hyatt Place. One of the most stylish of the chains. Very pleasant rooms. Good breakfast. But rarely a pool or hot tub. The other Hyatts are very inconsistent. Hate the ones with the atrium design.

Best Western properties seem to have gotten nicer and nicer in recent years.

Hilton Garden Inns are usually excellent. They also tend to have indoor pools and hot tubs. Other Hiltons? Some good, some so-so.

Marriott Courtyard can be nice but one design feature drives me nuts. They often place their TVs to the left of the bed instead of straight ahead, so if you want to watch TV in bed, you’ll get a serious neck ache.

I try to avoid Ramada, Radisson, and Sheraton hotels.

At the lower end, I’ve had better experiences with Comfort Inn than Quality Inn.

I’m too old for the Motel 6 experience these days. And generally speaking, I prefer not to have my hotel room door open directly to the outdoors.

Free breakfast is nice, but only if it’s decent. Can’t stand the free breakfasts with lots of pre-packaged junk food.

I don’t need an in-room coffeemaker because that coffee rarely tastes good to me.

I like it when the guest room has a safe.

If possible, I like to be in walking distance of some eating and shopping, even if I’ve driven to the hotel.

Electric outlets very close to the bed are important though I don’t check on such things in advance.

I’m often surprised by how scratchy and low quality towels are even at nicer hotels, so I always appreciate a soft bath towel.

R5, you might want to think twice about using the coffee maker in your room

a good staff

Location, price, hotels.com and TripAdvisor review scores.

One thing I tend to look for is a new hotel. Not "we just opened in the last week and still working out the kinks" new, but less than two years old.

Sometimes, you can get a room in a midlevel to luxury hotel that would normally be $300 or higher or more for closer to $175-200 when they first open, as they are trying to build clientele. Considering that even a Holiday Inn Express can run $125-$150 these days, I don't mind a bit of a splurge for comfort.

I do look at TripAdvisor reviews. Of course you have to take everything with a grain of salt, but it's good to get a sense of whether there is a pattern of good or bad service, or good or bad things about the room or property in general.

I try to get a sense of the vibe of the hotel. I don't want to be in Party Palace Of The Year, and some new "trendy" hotels aim for that audience. I'm reluctant to stay at an Ace Hotel, for example, for that reason. (They look nice and I don't mean to disparage them, it's just not for *me*.)

Aside from that, I look out for two other things -

I try not to get a hotel too close to any busy road, or one with a floor high enough that road noise won't matter.

And because I'm getting to be an old bitch (with some bad arthritis) I try to get a room with a walk in shower and, when possible, a handheld shower wand.

Location. Cleanliness. Cost.

Extreme quiet, and just upscale enough so there aren't groups of teenagers screaming up and down the hall. I can't stand paper thin walls and I really can't stand the cheap HVAC systems that roar like a Yugo every 2 minutes. It's nice when there's a restaurant, but when there isn't - it's grubhub.

points

I travel often and have found Hilton hotels (and their other properties such as Doubletree) to meet my needs. Especially since I'm an honors member and collect points. I found that they are in most major cities, can find a quiet room (I now get free upgrades), clean, and the beds and pillows are great. I also get free breakfast and use of the executive lounge - and in some places I can eat breakfast, light lunch and dinner in the lounge for no extra cost. Reviews for Hilton hotels are most often very good. The prices are competitive and when you're an honors member you get the lowest price and free upgrades.

I don't care how magnificent the place is, if blood starts pouring out of the elevator I sleep in the car.

Cost of parking, if we have a car. And if they charge you a “resort” fee, like our Las Vegas hotel did last year.

Bears, wrestling possibilities and incestuous hookups.

Location, breakfast included

Where I’m Queen.

Air con /heat pump, especially in a hot / humid climate

Pool either on site or nearby, I like to be able to do some lap swimming every day if possible

Location - prefer something walkable to whatever I'm doing

Low hourly rates.

A good staph.

Vacancy

Dial phones.

My basics are air conditioning and laundry service and an in room fridge or minibar.

My luxury is health spa with a sauna and steam room.

Maximum concentration of Grindr profiles

And good toiletries

Free hobos never influence me. If the hobo pays, then you know it's a good place.

Central location (or adjacent in a more residential neighborhood), and not so "business central" that it is difficult to find a small grocery shop or restaurants not open outside workday hours. An historic building with an interesting design aesthetic well executed. Well designed and appointed rooms, large enough to spread out a bit (with proper chairs and a sofa maybe, not just a bed and a shitty Ikea desk chair.) Views (sometimes a good room in a somewhat lesser hotel is the better option than a lightshaft view in a tiny room in a fashionable hotel. Neither huge nor too small a hotel. Good front desk service (though restaurants and bars and pools and a dozen staff at the front door and a hot stones massage and pillow concierge and bath butler and all of that are not necessary). R10 offers good advice on watching for (relatively) recently opened properties that haven't yet exploded on Tripadvisor reviews.

For a city I don't know TabletHotels, a hotels list lately affiliated with Michelin Guide, is a good start for researching hotels that are interesting, and they typically have a good select range of offerings both in properties and cost.

R12 The HVAC systems have kept me up in some hotels. We had one where something was inside of it that plunked like a pinball machine all night long.

I've learned to ask them not to put us on the top floor, or anywhere near where the main HVAC system is, either, or else that's noisy, too - like a van idling outside your window all night long.

Location and Cost are the primary considerations, once I have some options within the brackets for both that I am happy with, I then go by reviews.

earrings

Caftans

Hotel loyalty programs suck in my experience. Spent years traveling for work 5 days a week - and maybe got a free night or two. Nothing like airline programs. If they improved, I would use. But now just use best price and location. Though the tip on age of hotel is a good one - a one year old Hampton Inn can be nicer than higher end brands and much cheaper.

Good point, R33. My hint above re: new hotels was about getting more luxury level rooms for a reduced "try us" rate but you make a good point, too, that the more midlevel or budget brands can be really nice to stay in if it's a newer room - while everything is still relatively clean, not moldy, etc. You get much more of a bang for your buck, so to speak.

One trend I've noticed is that a lot of the big brands have rolled out smaller mini brands and those can be somewhat nice to stay in, too - like Home2 Hilton, Element (a Marriott subchain, often with nice new rooms and with little extended stay kitchen style setups) and so on. Many of those have been built in the last few years and are really nice, new and clean.

I just stayed at a brand new Spring Hill Suites and loved it. I was shocked how nice it was.

Yeah stayed in a new SpringHill in Texas - super nice and modern. Like a Miami Beach hotel. Though quality - of beds, walls, furniture - wasn’t as good as newer Hampton Inn across street.

If you need a room key to make the elevator buttons work, I'm out. I need to be able to get in position (face down, ass up) and stay there with the door on the latch.

[quote]The regular Holiday Inns generally suck but Holiday Inn Express is just about my favorite of the mid-range chains.

I second this, re Holiday Inn Express. Clean quiet rooms with decent amenities for good value. I also echo his/her opinion re Hilton Garden Inns, also excellent for the value.

Sturdy and strapping young bellhops.

Cheap, on Miami Beach and lots of men in the lobby.

EV charge stations.

Upper-level suites with private elevators on the north side of the building, under 100 rooms, a decent restaurant with a knowledgeable chef, professional and well-trained staff. Fresh flowers are welcome. I like four rooms but will take three, but that's additional to a modest kitchen since I do a lot of parties and need a place for the caterers to work, even when I use the hotel service. And ac that goes down to 60 F.

I also like plain detached cabin-style accommodations, and don't mind them being rather rustic. It all depends on why I'm traveling.

Cost, cleanliness, and proximity to diners/local joints. I generally skip the "free breakfast" offered by hotels, and much prefer to stroll down to the nearest greasy spoon for breakfast and lunch.

Comfortable beds and pillows, blackout curtains, A/C.

1. Location 2. Price 3. Gym or passes to real gym, NOT a shitty workout room they dust every 3 months 4. Breakfast free or reasonably priced, a 25 buck buffett with rubbery eggs is not a reasonable price.

A mattress, a bathroom, and a locking door are all I need.

If this is a hotel person asking to see what we care about....

NO more shitty workout rooms posing as gyms.

[quote] If you need a room key to make the elevator buttons work, I'm out. I need to be able to get in position (face down, ass up) and stay there with the door on the latch.

I would laugh and/or judge but I picked a hotel once while on business specifically so that my midday booty calls could conveniently come to my room....