Hmm.
I just went to book a room at the Shilo and it's going for $119 per night (cheapest non-association rate). I don't mind paying $119/night if I'm getting $119/night's worth of value, but I'm not sure the Shilo's worth that.
I'm not too demanding with my hotel/motel needs: I'm perfectly happy in a Motel 6 or Super 8 (as long as it's clean and the bed's not too lumpy) or even a hostel (in fact, one of the best beds I've slept in was in the Hilltop Hostel in Takoma Park, MD, near DC and literally across the street from the Takoma Park Red Line station--talk about convenient and a deal!).
Conversely, I can and do appreciate elegance and service, and indeed, last time I flew to CLT, I took advantage of a screamin' $149 web special rate (actually upgraded $20 to the deluxe King room) at the Biltmore Inn on the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, which I found serves the world's best omelette for breakfast (normal price for that room is at least $400). But I have to get a great deal in order to justify splurging.
Basically, I've nailed myself down as this: I like to save money where possible, but I'm not a cheap person; what I look for is the best value, bang for the buck, or cost-to-benefit ratio. If a $20 youth hostel is worth, to me, $20, I'm satisfied with the 1:1 ratio. But if I find a Ritz Carlton for $100 and I deem it worth $300, a 3:1 benefit-to-cost ratio is hard for me to pass up. Conversely, if the Hilton Old Town Alexandria goes for $400 per night on a weeknight and I deem it worth $100 per night (which I do), the 1:4 benefit-to-cost ratio leaves me regretting the purchase.
So, here's what I've found in SLC in reasonable distance from the Amtrak station that jumped out at me:
Motel 6 Downtown: $49.99
Super 8 Downtown: $53
Plaza Hotel at Temple Square: manager's special at $79 (normally $179, I guess)
Metropolitan Inn: $75 (new boutique hotel with TempurPedic mattresses?)
Homewood Suites: $174 (literally across from Amtrak--maybe, see below--and usually very nice, but certainly not worth more than the Biltmore!)
First problem: where the heck exactly is the SLC Amtrak station? Amtrak.com says it's at 340 South 600 West. Google Maps has an icon for it across the street from Pioneer Park on 400 West between 300 South and 400 South. And if you search for a business on Google Maps and type in Amtrak, it spits back an address of 320 S. Rio Grande St. All three are in different locations--near each other, but several blocks apart. And to top it all off, none of them looks like an Amtrak station in the satellite imagery! (340 South 600 West is the closest one to the railroad tracks, but unless Amtrak's SLC station is an unmanned platform with a tiny parking lot next to a rail yard, I'm not sure that's it.) So, calculating distances to places to stay is difficult.
Anyway, given all that, Motel 6 is obviously the cheapest, but it ranges from a moderate walk (or short cab ride) from one of the potential Amtrak stops to a fairly substantial walk from the others. And Motel 6 can be hit or miss, sometimes--anyone know about this particular one? (Also, I get conflicting information about Motel 6's address from the Motel 6 website, Google Maps, and Kayak...but...nevermind about that.)
Super 8 is usually a half a step above Motel 6, so I would definitely consider that, too, if anyone knows about that. It's a tad farther away than Motel 6, so I'd probably end up having to take a cab.
Oh, before I go any farther, is the area the Amtrak station is in (wherever it ends up being) safe to walk around at night (after the westbound CZ arrives)?
Third, the Plaza Hotel gets a three-star rating but only half-decent reviews (but remember, my standards are fairly low). For that price, though, I'm thinking that it's a good deal and at least one or two steps above the Motel 6 or Super 8 (with free WiFi, too--a big bonus), so I went ahead and booked it (I can always cancel, though). It's also close enough to two of the three Amtrak station location possibilities to walk if the area is safe--but the picture also has TRAX tracks in front of the hotel, so how close is TRAX to the Amtrak station and how late does it run? That would make the decision pretty dang easy...
Metropolitan is west of the Plaza on North Temple about a half a mile, and I can't remember if TRAX runs down North Temple--but if so, and if it's running, that's a possibility, too (ooh...TempurPedic beds...). $75 sounds like a great rate, and if it's a really neat little place that should be running for $150 per night or something, that piques my value/bang-for-the-buck radar.
Finally, Homewood Suites hotels are very nice and offer a nice continental breakfast. But I'm only staying there from the arrival of the (potentially-late) CZ until about 8am or so when I go over to Avis down the street to pick up my rental car. No sense wasting $174 on such a short stay...and I'm not sure it's worth $100 more than the Plaza or Metropolitan. I'd probably book it if it were $120, making the benefit-to-cost ratio smaller than 1:1 and therefore a negative for me.
Anyone have any ideas on how to help me navigate this (both figuratively and literally :lol: )?
