Five well-worn tips for selecting a hotel

We stay in a lot of hotel rooms, in a lot of places. While we definitely have a few hotel chains we favor, we have found the same name can mean something very different in a different place. So we have developed some criteria for selecting rooms online.

Rewards

Our advice is to pick a rewards plan and stick with it. (The same applies to hotel rooms, airlines, and many other travel things!) We use hotels.com, and enjoy getting one night free for every ten nights we stay. We have had great luck with their customer service, which has made us loyal customers over the years.

There are others that are great, too. Do your homework, decide on one, and then be loyal to your choice to maximize rewards.

White duvets

This probably sounds a little strange, but hear us out. You can only tell so much from photos online, right? There’s a bed, a TV, maybe a chair. For the most part, rooms all look pretty similar. This is where experience comes in. By looking at one particular thing in that photo – the bedding – you can tell a lot about the things you CAN’T see in a photo.

Those patterned, polyester bedspreads you find in many hotels are great for hiding indiscretions. What isn’t great at hiding secrets is a white duvet. In order to keep a white duvet, well, white, you have to maintain a certain level of cleanliness. And we find that cleanliness is rarely reserved for the bed. So while that comforter may mean a certain level of class, it also means a standard that makes us feel better about stumbling bleary-eyed into a strange bed at the end of a long day with our little ones.

Bed Sizes

Depending who is traveling with us, we have definite preferences for bed sizes, and we use that as a deciding factor when selecting a hotel. Minneapolis area hotels are filled with doubles, for example, and we’ll take the extra time to sift through and find bigger beds, because it’s what we like. Whether you want a king, two queens, or some other configuration, it’s a good way to cross potentials off the list.

Free Wi-Fi

We are web-dependent in a big way! It’s nice to be able to watch a movie on Netflix if the cable only seems to be offering Cinemax-style programming. Wi-Fi makes it easier to upload travel photos from the day, check in with friends and family, and just stay connected overall. It can also make the following day smoother when you use it to check into flights, purchase activity tickets (often cheaper online) and review maps.

Breakfast

We find that paying an extra $20 or so for a “free breakfast” at the hotel is well worth it for our family when compared to what we might spend going out. Add the extra convenience of having it right downstairs, and it’s a no-brainer. With that said, this is the first place we are willing to compromise if need be.

Do you have “rules of thumb” you use to select hotel rooms for your family? Please share your tips and tricks in the comments!