Canadian Personal Finance Blog

So this past weekend, one of my daughters had an out of town basketball tournament, which I attended and helped out a little with. We were not planning on getting hotel rooms, since the location was only a 90 minute drive (each way) away, but the schedule caused us to change our minds and stay Friday night (we ended up staying Saturday night, due to weather and the fact that her team made the medal round in the tournament).

Since I am the team manager, usually, I reserve blocks of rooms for the families to stay in, and this time, I chose the Econo-Lodge as the venue. I got a fair amount of “static” from a few parents about wanting to stay at a “nicer” hotel with a pool. I suggested they make their own arrangements, which they did, no problems there.

So, if I compare the two hotels prices I end up with:

• I paid $72.00 per night (all taxes in etc.,) and a “continental” (coffee and donuts, but that was fine) breakfast thrown in. Yes the hotel is not a “4 star” hotel, but it was comfortable, quiet and clean (and some of the puddles in the parking lot could have been mistaken for a pool).
• The folks who stayed at the Ramada paid $112.00 per night plus taxes, I believe. The hotel was very nice indeed, I would say close to a 4 out of 5 star hotel.

So I saved about $100.00, which to me I liked. We spent most of our time in the Gymnasiums, and hanging out at various malls, and not a lot of time in the hotel room itself.

My view is if I save $100.00 each time, it will add up (this is the second traveling tournament and we have 2 more to go). All of these “little” expenses add up, especially when you are traveling!

Call me cheap, but I am happy. –C8j