Have you ever gone on vacation without hotel reservations?
 

I am planning a little getaway to a Florida Island (Sanibel). It's off season - late summer - and I was thinking of just driving there and finding a hotel I like and taking my chances.

Have other people gone away without reservations and what have been your experiences? Better rates as walk-ins or not?
Thanks.

In the US I have gone many times without reservations as long as its not a peak season for the destination. The walk-in rates are not that different in my experience. The big negative is that you get what you get if you don't want to spend your entire vacation hotel hunting. I am not familiar with Sanibel so I cannot advice on the chances there.

Much to my husbands dislike, I prefer to travel without reservations and usually do. We like driving holidays and I never know in advance where I will want to be spending more (or less) time until I get there. So our holidays often consist of arriving somewhere, deciding I like it, and spending a bit of time scoping out where I want to stay. This is the part my husband dislikes: driving around looking at hotels to satisfy my "curiosity", lol! Availability usually isnt the issue, the time you may spend looking around is.

I have noticed however in the past few years more and more hotels are offering such great deals on their websites for off season travel that it is getting harder to find the "great walk in rates" that I used to get. But those same website rates are usually offered to walk ins. So no penalty to just walking in, IMHO, off season anyway. I have stayed in a fabulous penthouse suite of the Registry Resort in Flordia for example, for $100 per night, as a walk in, in the dead time of September. Last November in Banff found a great place for $125 when their lowest advertised rate was $175 on their website and when I called the rate was $150, but when I walked in it was given to me for another $25 off and they threw in breakfast. A few years ago I stayed at the Hyatt in Bonita Springs off season, I cant remember the rate now but we had booked a good deal on their website with spa credits etc, when we went back to stay there again a few days later after checking out of another hotel we didnt like as much, we got the same (but no longer available) rate and they bumped us up to a nice two room suite when I asked about a couch in a room instead of just chairs. I spend a lot of time in Florida in the off season and have never had a problem there. I am planning on doing the same thing again this September/October. So my experience with off season travel has been great for the most part. I say if you are adventurous, go for it.

What I have found is more so than a better walk in rate is that hotels are more willing to give you upgrades. You are there, you are paying a decent rate, so why not just give you a nicer/larger room on a club floor or something. I tend to spend a fair bit at a property, so while talking to the front desk staff while deciding if I am checking in or not I am asking about the spa, the room service menu, restaurants on site etc. Perhaps this helps them decide that I am a "good client" to have check in. A few years ago I spent 3 weeks plus touring around eastern Canada, never once had a reservation, and only one night did we find ourselves in a pickle, but thats a whole other story! This upcoming trip of mine to the Grand Canyon, LV, and Sedona in a few weeks will be the first holiday I am taking where the majority of my hotels will all be prebooked, just the nature of this trip and although my husband is thrilled, I am feeling anxious about it! LOL. We are definitely opposites in this regard. But I am able to cancel any I dont like of course! Just in case. But thats the type of holidays I prefer, just wandering around and deciding as I go. Schedules and I aren't a good mix :)

My worst holiday was a trip to Cancun where we were on a week prepaid hotel & air type of deal. The hotel was not great and I was ticked. Same money for another hotel in the same chain a few blocks down was a fabulous property, upon returning my agent tells me he thought that he had booked us into the nicest one, not the older property. Same money, but night and day difference. I was so ticked that I couldnt just change hotels upon seeing the one we had. Thats why I guess I hate being locked into something. I figure if I am spending 200,300, or 400 hundred a night for a room I want it to be what I like. Hope this helps you decide! Have fun.

We've done that a few times, and have always been annoyed at ourselves for wasting time on vacation finding a hotel. Sometimes it has taken hours, and sometimes we've had to pay much more than we wanted. It's just not for us.

Only when I had time to kill. You might also have to stay somewhere that otherwise would not attract you.
Some people enjoy taking chances and end up finding something very nice.

Thanks for your replies and advice. The 'new' rule now is if you book a room reservation and have to cancel, your credit card is charged a $25-40 cancellation fee. My plans change often and don't want to eat that charge.
I think I'll take my chances and be daring and not book a hotel. How many people have booked a hotel based on the internet reviews and been disappointed?
I'd much rather see first hand.
I don't get a whole lot of vacation time and when I do, I want it to be as close to my dream as possible.

Funny, the only place I've really done that was England, where it worked great with the B&B system. In the U.S., I've often been frustrated with trying to find a place at a reasonable price when I just stop and get a room. I guess it just depends on how flexible and/or picky you are, and how important the room price is.
If I were taking a spur of the moment trip, I'd try to get online somewhere down the road and find a sweet Priceline deal.

I agree with Sherry and my husband gets equally annoyed. When my grandmother was in her 70s and 80s, she and I did alot of traveling this way. We shared the driving and just took off to see what was interesting. We never found a truly great place to stay but neither did we ever stay at a truly awful place. We did find lots of great places to eat, had some wonderful times and met lots of interesting people. I miss her and our adventures.

My husband and I never used to book a hotel in advance until our first trip to San Francisco. We went from hotel to hotel but there was absolutely nothing available. We finally got a tiny "cubbyhole" that was part of a two-bedroom suite at I believe the Westin St. Francis but we only had it for one night as it was booked for the rest of the week. We stayed the one night but then had to find a place to stay for the remainder of the trip. Ended up in a fleabag motel. Needless to say, after driving around endlessly looking at rundown properties, wasting our previous vacation time, we were at each other's throats. We've never done spur-of-the-moment since. In fact it took as a number of years before we would even go back to San Francisco.

Only as a kid 45 years ago.
M

I think what the difference is is whether or not you are traveling to a big conference destination. The Moscone Center in San Francisco has some huge conferences, and all the hotels around can be booked solid.

My suggestion if you are going to try this hotel shopping in a big city. Figure out where the convention center is, look up their website, see if there will be a conference when you are there, find out which hotels they are recommending,... and then head to the OTHER side of town!

For San Francisco, head south along the BART line and look for hotels there. You can then easily hop on BART to get back into the City.

Places for vacationers only may have more openings. Yosemite's camping grounds, for example, are amazingly clear mid-week in October, and it is still quite lovely there. Reason: the waterfalls are all dried up for the most part and the bears are hungrier with fewer tourists to rob. Use the steel lockers provided for ALL food. Bears can rip open cars, no problem.

Take along a tent and sleeping bags just in case. We've slept in the back of the SUV in a pinch.

Ann Zeise

garifel,

not having to make reservations ahead for most of the time and still being able to find me some nice properties is a freedom I treasure most when travelling to the U.S.

I find it much more uncomplicated to proceed like that in America, where it is almost always possible to find something at least nice and clean, if the more comfy options should indeed be sold out, than in Europe where standards vary much more and (at least for my feeling) more people tend to book ahead causing more of the nicer properties to be sold out.

Almost always go with NO reservations.

Never travel without a reservation - I very much enjoy agonizing over my decision and prefer to do this from the comfort of my home :)

We usually book first and last nights when traveling by air, but wing it otherwisw. Have done this on several trips to Europe as well as in the US. Only almost slept in the car once in Bath, England!

garifel - a couple of years ago we hopped in the car and drove down the west coast of Florida with no reservations. We just stopped when we felt like it and this was during July 4th week. Sanibel was the only place we had to go to a 2nd hotel to find a room and it was no big deal. I'm sure you'll do fine.

I agree with seetheworld..I have to make reservations in advance for Everything! Hotels, cars, plays, museums, whatever! Otherwise, I panic at the thought that I won't be able to do something when I get there...
( the Yankee says it is about Control)

I always make reservations cuz you can indeed find some great deals at some really nice hotels online. If I go on a road trip and not exactly sure where I want to stay, I'll make a few reservations online and decide that day where i wanna stop. Just bring the phone # to the other hotels and cancel. Ive booked with hotels directly and places such as hotels.com and yahoo travelocity and have never paid any cancellation fees. But yeh it is good to make them or at least bring a list of hotels in the area you will be driving so you wont have to waste time driving around or miss any good hotels.

Yes, I have done this in Florida.

Last fall my husband and I just decided to take off for two weeks and road trip.

We went to South Beach to see my sis and her husband (stayed at the Doubletree Surfcomber because her condo is small and we like our privacy).

We drove up A1A and stopped where we felt like stopping and kept going when we felt like driving. We stayed in South Beach, Hollywood, Ft. Lauderdale, Cocoa Beach, New Smyrna, Daytona, St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra, and Jekyll Island. We didn't have reservations anywhere.

The most we paid was $78 for The Riverview House in New Smyrna and it was a B&B and included breakfast, bathrobes, bikes, etc and was very worth the price.

We had a blast and I'd do it all over again. The only down side was one mom & pop place we pulled in took one look at my husband's SUV and tried to charge us over $100. We left.

We had fishing gear, beach chairs, a huge cooler full of food and drinks, boom box, floats and all kinds of stuff so we could stop and picnic along the way.

Did I say I'd do it all over again and not change a thing? We had so much fun and I cherish that vacation with him.

I don't travel without reservations any more. I was burned once in Las Vegas - no rooms and we had to spend the night in the car; and once in Carmel - there was a major gulf tournament we were unaware of.

We do it both ways, depending on the type of vacation and where we're going. The last time we went without one, we had to drive another two hours to find a room as there was a state high school basketball tournament that took every room for miles. My advice: if you're not going to make reservations, you should join AAA and have their books in the car with you so you can check out what hotels are in the area. If one hotel is full, you will at least know what others are in the area or in the next town. With a cell phone, you can always make a last minute reservation.

No, never. Half the fun of traveling is the anticipation, the planning!

Many, many years ago I traveled throughout Europe for a month without reservations. Only in Amsterdam did I have a problem finding a room; even then a hotel clerk took pity on me and called a neighbor who "put up visitors". Though she spoke no English and I no Dutch, she was very kind. She showed me a photo album of other people she had put up. She even served a huge breakfast! We traded Christmas cards for years. To this day, the Amsterdam portion of my trip remains a favorite memory.

We travel to Vegas every year and travel for about 10-12 days from there. We only ever get a room in Vegas off the strip then wing it when we head out on the road. We've been from Vegas to LA, SF, Reno and just gotten a room along the way. The only time we ever had trouble was about 10 years ago when we traveled with our two teenagers from Mt. Rushmore to Deadwood and they had a huge motorcylce rally in Sturgis and we had to drive all night into the early morning to find a room in Montana. Other than that we never know where we are exactly going to be but I do have bring some places with me with phone numbers depending upon the general area we end up. Have fun.

We did it in 1984 and will never do it again. We flew to the Midwest and were driving all over the Midwest and found everythign was full in every town/city we tried and it was scary. This was in about 5 states and it seems everyone had some kind of festival going on. We now make reservations and just make sure we get there that night.

We have traveled for two months throughout Fiji and New Zealand, a month in Finland, and a month in France, without ever having booked ahead. We find that we can then choose our hotel, when we see it, rather than hope that it will be as good as the ad says. Also, we get better rates by bargaining on the spot. We have only had a problem a couple of times in France when most places were booked, and we ended up at a holiday Inn rather than a nice resort, but all of the other risks were well worth it. We are going to Maui and Kauai for 6 weeks in Novemebr , and will try the same approach there. For us, it's all part of the adventure. Cheers, Al

Love this thread.

I am a planner, coupled with a non-planner, spur of the moment guy. We used to make a lot of reservations. On driving trips, we make next to none now.

We went to Biloxi and back from Chicago, just recently. We got marvelous places to stay without any reservations and stopped whenever we felt like it. If we wanted to stay more time in one place than previously planned (which we often do) then we are not rushed or "put out."

In all USA trips and some in Italy, I have never had the experience of not finding a decent place. I think it was dicey only one time in Memphis. I like to plan too, so sometimes I sneak a reservation in for a special place on a middle day or one or two towards the end- but I'll never reserve every night again on a driving trip.

You must plan to know the "season" and conventions levels of the stops you are making, as much as possible- though.

Judy24

I think you're missing the point so let me state it another way.

If I guarantee a reservation my credit card is going to be charged whether or not I show up. And in hotel parlance, doing that translates into "GLA" (Guaranteed Late Arrival) in hotel parlance; far, far, different from an "arrival by 6 PM reservation".

Now I've fulfilled my part of the bargain and because I've guaranteed the reservation that means I can show up when I want (and if I don't, I'm charged anyway whether or not the room I reserved is used by someone else).

Hotels play "yield management" and trying to sell every room to the extent that rooms sold = arriving guests w/reservations. (And when the latter outnumbers the former there's hell to pay.)

Airlines play the same game. Suppose I purchase a ticket, show up when I'm supposed to (whatever the time specified PRIOR to the flight for check-in, baggage checking, security, etc. etc.) and there's no seat for me.

If that's the case the airline is obligated to pay a penalty - denied boarding compensation (a punative action) and report it to the FAA.

All I'm saying is that in the case of a hotel, when I fulfill my part of the bargain <i>and they choose to &quot;gamble&quot; and guarantee more reservations than rooms if everyone holding a guaranteed reservations shows up</i>, then, quite rightly, they should pay a penalty (just like the airlines) if they can't provide what they've contracted to provide to me as the &quot;GLA&quot; guest. Sending the guest who's fulfilled their part of the bargain to some other place (with the guest having no choice in the matter) doesn't strike me as cricket.

There should be compensation for the inconvenience - same rule as the airlines.

BTW, guarantee a reservation for late arrival at a hotel (that's convenient with regards to your next morning's appointments) and show up and be denied a room and shuttled off someplace (might even be a dump), that's far away from where you planned to stay and see how you like it.

I've found that reservations are a must for our family. We can't even agree on where to eat lunch so I don't want to have a debate trying to pick a city or hotel as we travel. I do lots of on-line research and make reservations ahead of time. This lays out the time table for our trip. Sometimes we've wished we'd been more flexible in our schedule, but minimizing the opportunity for conflict or not wasting time making decisions has been worth it.