Hotel Lessons (my bad) and Tips for Summer

If you've been planning travel lately you see hotel rates are crazy and services are less. Having worked in luxe hospitality and writing about it now, here's how to get better rates and what to expect

I love sharing what’s going through my head as I’m writing and researching, and today it just so happens that I’m trying to finalize some things for our trip to Maine in August. OMG. I have more to share than the details of this little rant, but I have to start there because my privilege of working in travel has been hardcore checked.

I have worked in travel since I graduated high school 23 years ago. That means that I’ve always had travel benefits of some sort, whether it’s work trips, endless points to use, or severe discounts for our own trips. Well, today I was fully reminded of why I try to write as much as possible about budgets and road trips, and how getting to travel really is a luxury that many families don’t enjoy as a regular thing.

My Mistake: Peak Season Travel to a Bucket List Destination

This may seem like a random topic to share in a newsletter, but I think it’s important and something that will help others, so here we go. HOTEL RATES. OMG.

Since the pandemic we’ve seen hotel and resort rates absolutely skyrocket. Midline economy hotels, like Holiday Inn and BW Plus have gotten insane with their rates in warm destinations, and not just for winter travel.

We live in St Augustine and I have a website specifically about our town (StAugustineExplored.com) where I share about local hotels and how to visit, including how to have a local stay-cation. Well, I was just researching a one night stay, not even during a peak time, and our local Holiday Inn was $375 per night plus tax. WHAT?! But I don’t need to book those, so it didn’t really impact me to see it.

Here’s where I realized how fortunate we’ve been: I’m looking for a place in Coastal Maine in August (I know it’s high season) and it’s wild too. Here’s the full scoop, and then I have ideas for saving money on hotels too.

How I got Locked into the Peak Season

I booked our trip because the primary goal with heading to Maine is to spend time with our best friends and see moose. So, I was able to find a really cool vacation rental in the mountains where it’s the off-season and where we’re sure to see moose. Then I booked our flights because they’re such a great deal (less than $900 for us to get to Portland, Maine into PWM). Great lodging cost in the mountains, amazing airfare… I found a budget peak summer trip!

OMG though. Hotels, small resorts, AirBNBs, VRBOs anywhere in Coastal Maine or near Acadia National Park are crazy expensive. I’m talking no less than $350 per night before taxes and fees for nothing special. A huge portion of our travel that happens in peak season is arranged by our partnering destination for the purpose of use being able to experience and write about it. This visit is for FUN and wow, fun is costly when you plan it at the same time as everyone else. The privilege we know of just saying “Yes, we’ll do the work!” and then having somebody else set it all up is just such a fortunate situation, and this trip is NOT that sort of thing.

PS: rental cars are also insane. We were just in Maine in February and our car rental for a week was $541. For the week in August we’re going, I can’t find a rental for less than $1100. I don’t understand how the price gouge is okay. I’ll share updates on car rental tips as I navigate this too.

How WE Combat Crazy Hotel Rates: TIPS!

So yes, I have had to re-evaluate my planning and really think about how we could do a fun trip during peak season without the support of the local tourism board. I hacked it and I’m excited to share (maybe I’ll make a blog post too).

1. Evaluate if you REALLY want to trave at the peak time, and if that’s the only option, then there you have it. If you can change your dates, even by 3 or 4 days, it can make a huge difference.

2. Instead of booking a hotel that’s walking distance to whatever the main attractions are or the cute historic area, look at 15-30 minutes away. Broadening your scope just a little goes a long way. In Coastal Maine this means going inland 20 minutes or just being NOT directly in Rockland or Camden. In other places, such as Yellowstone National Park, it may mean staying in Gardiner or West Yellowstone instead of in the Park.

3. Seek out smaller resorts. When I say resorts, I mean cute small businesses that operate a collection of cabins or have renovated an old motel to be really cool. You don’t find these in hotel searches, but you need to google things like “cabins near ______” or “boutique resort”. The term “resort” doesn’t always mean fancy and luxurious.

4. Poke around on the different lodging websites you’re looking at to see if they have a deal for staying longer. Really common deal to find for summer: 3rd Night Free for Mid-week stays.

I know that you might not want to scour the internet to find a deal and that it may seem frustrating, but if it makes a trip doable, it’s worth it!

Outcome and What we found for Peak Maine Summer Travel

Here’s what I was able to do by moving around the parts of our trip to Maine that are flexible:

• FLIGHTS - we’re flexible because I saved $280 by committing to the original reservation

• Staying in the Highlands - booked via AirBNB in off-season destination, awesome find that fits us AND our friends

• Staying in a small cabin resort just outside of Camden, ME by Camden Hills State Park - this place wasn’t listed in Google Hotels, Expedia or Kayak; found it by searching for “cabins near Camden” and then found the link to it within another blogger’s article about MidCoast Maine.

• Booked two cabins, TWO!, at a campground between Camden and Rockland - I found this one by searching for campgrounds and then looking for one that had yurts, platform tents or cabins.

• BONUS: I actually also was able to get a hotel reservation for two nights using minimal points by booking non-weekend nights. I’ll be cancelling this though since I was able to get that second cabin.

I really hope sharing this process and the outcome is helpful for others. I think that traveling when it’s most expensive can be cost-prohibitive for a lot of families, but there are ways to do it. You just have to open your options and be flexible!

What’s New and Happening Here

Spring always starts early here in St Augustine, so we’re already having beach days and hitting the springs. We just got back from a really cool little getaway to a place called Cedar Key. StA is the oldest city in Florida and Cedar Key is the second oldest. It’s like Popeye’s village meets Old Florida. Really cool and pretty.

Besides getting to spend time with friends and exploring a new-to-us town, the real bonus of our trip to Cedar Key was some epic birding. I love birds (“There are no birds here” -SK) and Cedar Key was amazing for it, including great horned owls with babies, North American white pelicans, ibises and roseate spoonbills. I’ll be writing about all the birding spots soon, as I’m working on our bird website to launch this summer.

Now Playing: ROB EXPLORED

Last week I started sharing the new podcast, Rob Explored. This is a cool new format I’ve been working on, and so far people have said they like it, so I’m going to keep it going. Rob Explored is very different from 2TravelDads Podcast, in that this one is AUDIO BLOG POSTS. That’s right, you can listen to travel blog content for planning and stories vs having to sit down and read it all.

I know that I’m long winded when I write, so audio blog posts are great for people who don’t have patience for ME. I hope you’ll subscribe, as next week these are moving behind the paywall and it’s an easy way to both get helpful travel content AND support my small business.

That’s about it for now. I just wanted to share my finds regarding summer travel for now. If you have any questions about travel planning, visiting St Augustine, Savannah, Maine or the Florida Keys, just drop me a line. I love chatting and helping people plan adventures!