Further Afield

Blind Luck

Story By Dale Irvin
The hotel Hyatt Place has spacious rooms with cool furnishings including a huge flat panel TV equipped with a high-tech “media panel”.
I call it Travel Roulette. And for me it’s part of the travel adventure. The thrill of spinning the wheel of fortune and scoring a deal.  Like staying at a youth hostel the last time I visited my daughter in Washington, D. C. My youth is far behind me, and it could have been a miserable experience in a bunkroom with loud college students and the bathroom way down the hall. But it wasn’t. Instead a thoughtful desk volunteer saw to it that I got a lower bunk, close to the bathroom. Each morning I had coffee surrounded by people from all over the world, and surprisingly, easily a fourth of them were my age or better. Not for everyone, but it worked for me.

For this year’s visit I spun the wheel again, and decided to use Hotwire to book my hotel room. Hotwire.com is one of the “opaque” travel booking websites. That means they offer deeply discounted rates on hotel rooms, but you don’t know what hotel you’re staying in until after you pay for your booking. But there are ways to hedge your bet here.

In this case I was flying into the Baltimore airport because it was cheaper and because in addition to visiting my daughter in D.C., I’d also be visiting friends who recently moved to Baltimore.

So I plugged my dates into Hotwire, and found hotel rates near the airport that started at an astounding $49.  I called my buddies and asked about the area around the airport, and they confirmed that the area wasn’t sketchy and that they themselves had stayed in that area when they were scouting for an apartment.  So I took the leap, upgrading to the $59 choice because it offered a shuttle. And hit the jackpot. 

My hotel turned out to be at the brand new Hyatt Place in a cluster of new buildings a few minutes from the BWI terminal.  The hotel had spacious rooms with cool furnishings including a huge flat panel TV equipped with a high-tech “media panel” from which I think I could have launched the space shuttle had I wished to do so. The public spaces offered cool contemporary design, including a particularly attractive setting for what would have been a standard continental breakfast, were it not for the nifty presentation on square plates accompanied by mugs of Starbuck’s coffee.

 And the normal rate for my $59 Hotwire deal? $170. I was pumped. 

You can also book airfare on Hotwire, but I’ve found lately that the small discount you get isn’t worth not knowing what your flight times will be. Rental cars can be a deal on Hotwire, but be aware that if your plans change, you can’t get out of your rental as you could otherwise.

More musings on my blog HERE.