Planning for a Trip – Series – Part 3 – Where to Stay

Now that we have chosen our destination of Oklahoma City, next is where do we stay??? 

Now, the where do we stay used to be just a little easier. I spent the majority of the last 17 years in the travel business. During that time I had access to great hotel discounts. Most of the hotels were chosen because of the employee and/or travel agent discount. They were not always in the best locations or not even necessarily the best hotels. Don’t get me wrong there were definitely some wonderful hotels that also were in great locations and I loved working in the travel business. Now, I am in a different field and do not have those same discount choices. So, now we look for the hotel that mostly meets all of our needs. There are a few factors that we consider when choosing a location for hotel. Most important usually is price but now the second biggest factor has been quality/value (mostly determined as best as possible by personal and/or online reviews) and third of course is location. I would say that they are all actually pretty even in importance. In saying all of this, I have help in choosing these locations. I will admit that even after I book though it is hard to truly believe that its the right one until we get there. One of my first places to visit when planning a trip and also to choose a hotel is www.tripadvisor.com

This site is always one of the first that I go to. It has plenty of information about most major cities. This is very helpful since everything is new to us and these reviewers have been there. There are even experts that will give guidance if you ask the right questions in the forum. However, I will warn you to try to be open with exactly with what you are looking for when asking a question in the forum. For example if you are asking for a reasonably priced hotel in a good location that definitely leaves it open. The forum monitors will definitely let you know that they cannot read your mind on what those two things mean. However, just like with any review, I try to keep perspective about how old the review was and exactly what is being said. However at the same time this keeps it honest as it is the reviewers true opinion and experience. It it is up to us to choose if the review makes the difference in our decision making. The thing I love about this site is that it gives a complete place to find answers, attractions, restaurants, and hotels to fill our needs.

For this trip we have actually decided on The Hyatt Place Oklahoma City Airport.  I am a Gold Passport member with Hyatt so I booked it online at the AAA rate for the best rate.  We are familiar with this brand, the location is not too far away from downtown and it is reasonably priced for the time of our stay. 

Next we need to figure out what we are going to do when there…