Spring Training Trip: Coda

While we camped in Fort Myers, we had arranged for hotels on the way down and back. As I have for the past 10 years, I booked on hotwire.com, in which I commit to a hotel in a particular area at a particular quality level for a deeply discounted price. The downside is that I do not know what the hotel is until after I pay, and cancellations are not refunded. From an economics perspective, this makes perfect sense: hotels can sell otherwise unused inventory for something close to marginal cost while the commodity-seeking traveler sacrifices some certainty about lodging for a huge discount. In 10 years, I have stayed in very nice hotels in New York, Boston and San Francisco and some other reasonably clean, though bare-bones hotels in other parts of the country. The only disappointment I have ever had was a hotel in Boston that was technically in the zone advertised but much less convenient to public transportation than I expected. But this was not hotwire's fault -- it was mine.

Even our hotel for the trip down was a clean, bare-bones Days Inn in Lake City, FL that was easily worth the $40 we paid for it. Certainly nothing luxurious, but convenient, clean and safe.

The hotel we had in Valdosta, GA for the return trip was an extremely different story. For the first time, it was not a brand-name hotel. After learning the hotel name, I looked for some online reviews and very few were positive, so I was leery. We pulled in at 10:40 pm, tired boy in tow and very tired Dad in the lead. We had to turn down a spooky alleyway, with a strip club on the corner and a semi-truck depot on the other corner. Around the bend, we found the place. My concern was well-placed.

1. In 20 years of hotel stays, all around the world, I have never been asked to pay a $2 key deposit.
2. I have also never been asked to leave a $5 deposit for the TV remote.
3. I've never been able to hear every noise in the parking lot.
4. I've always had a clock radio (they haven't always worked, but that's beside the point)
5. I've never had to call hotwire to complain, and have them call the hotel while I was on the line to seek intervention on my behalf.
6. I've had pools closed for the season, closed for cleaning, or had inconvenient hours. I have never had pools closed for "mandatory upgrades" with yellow police tape across the front door.
   

This hotel was hardly suited to be a homeless shelter, but it was just for one night and we'd be out of there as fast as we could. Then, a lady started talking on her cellphone right outside our door, and she wasn't happy. In fact, she was using words Peter has never heard every other word or so. That was the last straw and we left as fast as we could, picking up our $7 deposit through a security window at the front desk. We found a Holiday Inn down the street that gave us a discount because it was so late (nearly midnight by now). After unwinding a while, we finally settled in for a comfortable, quiet night of sleep.

In Peter's words: "The room had an echo. It didn't even have a radio! We got out of there so fast we still had our pajamas on! And a little dog tried to get into our room before the woman picked him up and put him on the trailer!"

So here's a tip: If you are ever looking at hotwire for a hotel in Valdosta, GA, don't take any 2-star facility for less than $40. You might end up with the Briarwood Homeless Shelter Nightmare. It's very good to be home.

Update: Hotwire responded to my complaint and reviewed the star rating for this hotel. They determined that it was not up to their standards and downgraded it to a 1-star (still generous in my opinion, but at least I know never to bid on a 1-star hotel...) They credited the total fee to my account for use on a future hotwire purchase.