What do I look for when I book hotel rooms?  The main priority is value for my money.  I want the best hotel room for the least amount of money, but, the property must meet my safety, location and overall rating conditions.  In some cases I will spend more than normal due to special circumstances, ie., wife traveling with me, special occasion, special trip of a life time (we've already had four of those trips) or the price/reward ratio is such that I can upgrade to a much better room for very little $$$$.

When you travel international today you must be ready for a real money/value shock when booking rooms outside of the USA.  I look for hotels that offer their rooms in fixed USD prices and ones that include breakfast and taxes, if possible.  The $$$ is pretty weak and getting weaker as we write this and every room that I booked above included breakfast, club access to drinks/snacks and some included tax.

Hotels that I was paying $200-$300 USD for in Europe a couple years ago are now $500-$700.  The weak dollar is hurting anyone that travels from the USA abroad and pays in USD.  How do you save money on hotels?  I recommend that you shop around and try to get taxes/breakfast included and some times I will prepay the hotels special internet rates that are non-cancellable.  These rates are usually cheaper, but, if you cancel for any reason, you loose what you paid. OUCH! 

Now if you are traveling to the USA from another country, you will find that our hotel prices are at a steep discount to your because of our currency and the likely hood that you have a strong currency, ie. pound, euro or yen.  There are ways to save money and time when booking online and I have picked out some of the hotel sites that I use and find to offer good value for my money and their booking process is convenient and easy.  Once again, if you have any suggestions, email them to me and I will take a look.