we usually stay at a decent chain hotel(just so you know not all fancy hotels are cleaner than a chain i saw investigative report and they tested different hotels for bacteria and such) we have stayed at marriott(the one in downtown st louis is horrible i have to say) mainstay inns newer la quintas hotels with a pool for sure.. we bring our own sheets.

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Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.

I see a lot of you say Super 8 is yucky, and I was just wondering why. I am just curious, I have never stayed in one, but the next town over that is a very nice community with a large amount of the community being well off, and they have a Super 8 on the main strip. I actually had my Wedding shower there. So I was wondering if a lot of Super 8s are in bad nieghborhoods.

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"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."
-- Groucho Marx

We don't stay in any hotel if it's in a bad neighborhood, no matter what the name on the door says. I've never had a bad or yucky experience with Super 8. Ones I have been in appear to be clean, and they usually have a pool. That's as cheap as I'm willing to go. We don't stay at motels like Motel 6 because I don't like the door opening to the street like others have posted.

I prefer to do a Marriott brand for points and redemption, with the most economical of those being Fairfield Inn. I also prefer rooms that do not open to the outside, and my fiancee will be staying in a Residence Inn from April to mid-May for a military assignment, and he will get the points for all those nights, so we should be set for a while....

On another note, I was in Boston in 2006, and thought I would stay in a Comfort Inn...stayed there 1 night feeling it was not the cleanest, and then night 2, I looked along the floor where the bed met the carpet and there was this terrible stain which I imagined to be dried vomit...whether it was or wasn't I'll never know, but I left that hotel the following morning foregoing my remaining 2 nights reservation (purchased on travelocity so non-refundable).

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Heather

We try to do a nicer hotel. We don't go away that often, so it's worth it for us. Our DD LOVES, LOVES, LOVES having a pool at the hotel, so it helps make our vacation more enjoyable.

We like to stay in hotels that have a nice pool (we always use it!) and enough room for all the kids. If we can find one that has a little kitchenette type area, that is always nice, so we can store drinks, extra snacks etc. Usually we stay in Hampton, Holiday Inn Express or Marriot, that's what DH has points for. As long as it's clean and well maintained, fine with me!

It depends. Sometimes we're only at the hotel to sleep because we have so many other activities planned. In cases like that we look for something clean but no-frills. If part of the getaway also includes spending time in the room, we look for something with at least a pool for the kids. We've found some great hotel bargains on priceline.com.

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We almost never stay at any really fancy hotels, but I prefer a good value like Embassy Suites with their full made to order breakfasts or Residence Inns.

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~Vicki~
Mama to Hailey, 4 and Ella, 2

We go away a lot for short trips, where we are doing things and really only use the hotel to sleep. For me it doesn;t make sense to spend that much. I have stayed in 1 Super 8 and it was dirty, but I have stayed in a few Motel 6's that were fine. Every Days Inn I've stayed in has been dirty, so that's out for me personally. Sleep Inn, Choice hotel chain, are all fine with me. We try to stay in the same hotels we know are pretty clean.

When I was a kid we always stayed in nice hotels, which I loved, but we only went away , at MOST , once a year. It was usually once every couple of years.