RV friendly motel chains???

[Ken-55]

We're planning a trip next month, Connecticut to South Carolina and back, I-81 most of the way. On the way down there will only be a few of us and any "rest" stops will be of the WalMart/truck stop/rest area variety. On the way home, we will have more occupants and I'm considering stopping at least one night at a motel where some of us would get a room and some would sleep in the RV (probably use the room to shower?)

Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations of RV friendly chains would be appreciated!

[skipwil]

I use Choice Hotels for my stays while traveling on business. Now stay 2 nights -$50.00 meal credit card. Sometimes it's 2 nights= 1 FREE NIGHT. Plus always a free breakfast. hard to beat.
Safe travels...

[Ottawa]

The KOA's on I81 have Kabins with varying facilities. We stay at them went travelling without the MH

[Lorna]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken-55 ... On the way home, we will have more occupants and I'm considering stopping at least one night at a motel where some of us would get a room and some would sleep in the RV (probably use the room to shower?) Any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations of RV friendly chains would be appreciated!

You are looking for a motel/hotel that has a large "big rig" (as in semi truck) parking lot... not necessarily a chain. They may charge you extra for the extra folks using the bathroom... or they may not. You need to tell them that you need a room for X number of people (usually 2 or 4) and that you would like to stay in the hotel/motel's parking lot and shower in the paying guests room. Tell them how many will be using bathroom. Please provide your own towels. Some places will charge you for parking in the lot, others won't. Get in early as the parking lots will fill up and you may have trouble finding a place to park your RV. Most hotel start filling up between 5 and 7 pm. Please be ready to check out at the time specified. I worked front desk at a couple of hotels. I hated guests who thought our 11AM check out time was a suggestion. During the week is generally the "slow" time and you will get a better rate. If you make a reservation directly with the hotel, ask if they can make the rate lower (you can generally get senior or AAA rate even if you aren't) unless it is a weekend. Red Roof front desk workers are generally told to lower the price down until customers agree to make the reservation. I have lowered room prices $20 per night during the middle of the week. But summer weekends we tended to be booked 100% (generally front desk workers are not lying when they say "you need to go ahead an make a reservation now because we are booking up fast". Ten minutes later and you may not get a room. And you WILL be charged if you do not cancel your credit card reservation by the cancellation time. Many hotel will hold that room for you until midnight or later. Usually too late to rent out.

[Lorna]

Holiday Inn Express also does a free Breakfast as does Hampton Inns. Generally non-paying folks/guest company are not welcome to the free breakfast bar. Ask first. We generally know who our guests are and who the freeloaders are. You won't get the cops called on you but you may make the "DO NOT RENT" list.

[Ken-55]

Lorna,

Just the kind of info I was looking for. It doesn't make sense for us to pay for 2 rooms and leave the RV empty BUT after almost a week of traveling & boon-docking it would be nice to take a real, long hot shower!

You make a good point . . . I'll just be honest about our needs when talking to the desk clerk.

Stopping early sounds good. We would probably leave early in the AM to get back on the road and getting a free breakfast is not a priority.

The reason that I asked about motel chains was that I really don't know where we'll be stopping. We may be better off at an independent motel. Now that you've got me thinking in that vein, I do remember seeing "Truckers welcome" banners on some billboards along the highway . . . those may be the places to check first?? I'm going to do a little more pre-trip planning with my GPS/mapping software and see if I can narrow down the area we'll be stopping in. I just took a quick peek at Interstate Exits Guide: Hotels Gas Food by Exit , there's some good info there. I may be able to line up a couple of options before we leave.

Now if I can just find a place with a pool . . . I could catch a few uninterrupted ZZZ's before we get back on the road!

Thanks!

-Ken