Inexpensive hotels in the San Diego area advice
 

An acquaintance is coming to San Diego for her sons graduation from MCRD (Marine Recruiting Depot) and needs some advice on inexpensive ($50-80/night) hotels for 5 (2 adults and 3 teens). They will be here Nov 21-23.

They have their own car and will probably want to stay near MCRD - and I was thinking Mission Valley, Old Town, Loma Portal. Again they need to stay within a strict budget.

Thanks for any suggestions.

anyone?

Maybe try Priceline?

That is a very tight budget that will be 1 star hotels so I agree that they should try Priceline first to see if anything pops up. Point Loma will be your best bet for finding a cheaper hotel but not sure you will find one that low especially around Thanksgiving

Nanabee, we are a family of 5 and a lot of times, that is going to put them into two rooms.

So are you saying $50-80/per room? Otherwise you may be looking at a suite to sleep 5. Sometimes you can get a double-queen room and only pay $10-20 extra for a rollaway but it depends on the fire codes and the square footage of that particular hotel room.

If it is really $50-80/night, you may need to just have them study the reviews for Days Inn, Super 8 and Motel 6 on Trip Advisor to see which is the safest location in the greater SD area. I honestly don't think Priceline works for their size party as it presumes beds for two people per room.

Here are options we've used to bring the price of a trip down:

1. I would first thing call Orbitz and see what they can find.

2. I would sign up (perhaps on a second "junk" email address) for the newsletter for Travelzoo and for Orbitz and Travelocity. Post in right away for San Diego trips and the computer will start sending you offers for your search sites. DON'T search for other random places or that will send you offers for those places too.

3. If they have not bought their airline tickets yet, it would be worth it to try Alaskan Air's travel service which rolls your hotel and air in together. The packages we have considered have made the hotel really, really reasonable. I have heard Southwest Airlines also has a good Travel Service but have not used them.

4. Are they Costco members? Their vacation service seems to do California pretty well and may have a great deal on a hotel or hotel/car rental.

5. Entertainment Book: I have not used it for hotels as they didn't have what I wanted for our vacation. I have used it for car rentals this summer and they beat any offer I found elsewhere. How it works for the car rentals, is that you go to the Entertainment Book website AND you use a code from the coupon in your book to get the full percentage off.

HTH

Oh sorry, I just realized that if they have their own car, they are driving and airline services would not be helpful....

I would check the Navy Lodge option. You can also get nearby hotel rates from that link.

I can't imagine even a motel 6 working for $80 or less for five people.

I plugged their dates into Travelodge's booking engine and most are sold out and the cheapest available is $119+tax.


There are a few hostels -but even they run about $20 pp per day. Maybe some of them have family rooms in the $75-$100 range. Good luck.

They have their own car and will probably want to stay near MCRD

They will have a car and perhaps you need to tell them to try Priceline or they might want to stay a bit further out from MCRD. If cost is the big issue then the reality is they have much more flexibility as to where they can stay and still save money. If they didn't have a car it might be different. Time for some realism I suspect.

I haven't looked at a Calendar - but Nov 21st should not be a busy time and if you google away - you should be able to find something reasonable

As discussed above - your best bet might be to check directly with the Marine Base/military dependants office - whatever - and ask them if they have some inexpensive military housing - for guests of those brave lads and lasses graduating from Marine Boot. Semper Fi!!!

BTW - if the budget really is tight - just bring some sleeping bags - or maybe you can lend them some blankets for the kids and they can crash on the floor - old school style. :)

"<i>but Nov 21st should not be a busy time and if you google away - you should be able to find something reasonable </i>"

Huh? Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time of the whole year . . . Which is probably why almost ever travelodge in San Diego and Orange counties is booked up.

mms - she is the mother of the recruit. That is the first thing I asked my husband (retired Navy) and he said the wouldn't qualify unless they are in the military, retired, or dependents.
Otherwise, that would be perfect.

tomsd - we have family visiting that week and we are all booked up. This woman isn't someone I know well, we met them at the family lodge where we stayed last summer and she was the manager. So I don't think I'd be comfortable opening my house to someone I don't know very well.

to everyone - thank you so much for the information. I will copy and send to her via email.

I really appreciate all the responses.

nanabee--If the recruit stays there with his parents, it is ok. Not that it matters, but I thought your dh served, but did not retire?

hi mms, i didn't think of that i will have dh double check. i'm sure the navy lodges are probably booked months ago.

my husband served in the navy (jag corp) reserves and retired a few years back. he was active duty in vietnam (4 years) and then a naval reservist for about 30 years i think it was.

nanabee--They do book far in advance, but there are often cancellations. Ahhh, reserves:) Makes sense:)

LOL. Just back from Cabo and haven't looked at a calendar in a couple of weeks.

If that's Thanksgiving - yes - it will be busy, so just keep trying because as noted - there are always cancellations.

And nanabee - didn't mean opening up your house but they could all crash in a single hotel room if necessary.

So your husband was in JAG? I was a civilian DOD attorney with MSCPAC at the Port of Oakland. Former Air Force guy practicing law for the Navy - but hey - it worked out. :)

Pretty brutal that it is TG weekend. My FIL was Navy so I wanted to help. I have honestly tried several options and here's my closest best offer.

There is a KOA right in San Diego Metro area and they have tent sites available. If they have an SUV or Van, perhaps two of them could sleep in that and the others bring lots of blankets. This KOA has a pool and a hot tub, a rec room and office where they could go warm up at least. In general, KOAs have nicer bathrooms and showers than regular state campgrounds, and this one has some kind of a tripadvisor award. $44/night.

111 North 2nd Ave.
Chula Vista, CA 91910

http://koa.com/campgrounds/san-diego/photos/

Don't know what the family can bring with them - or how long they are going to stay - but it's pretty warm here now (a little cooling off at night) - and if you went to Big 5 Sporting Goods - or other bargain places - you could buy some sleeping bags and even a tent for probably under $100.

"<i>. . . or how long they are going to stay . . .</i>"

From the OP "<i>They will be here Nov 21-23.</i>"

Two nights would make buying equipment and camping as (possibly more) expensive than a motel. But if nothing cheap can be found, camping may be one of the few options.

IMO their budget simply isn't realistic - they've probably left things too late to snatch one of the budget places anywhere at all nearby.