People in my family scattered to the four winds when they went to college. Spread from west coast to east coast and lots of places in between, I like to find the cheapest way to visit so that I can visit more often. I also don’t like to stay with them — there’s a reason why we scattered (just kidding). Sometimes I go alone, sometimes I go with my family and I don’t like to invade a one room apartment with my brood. My favorite thing to do is go online and get everything booked in advance (my dad used to go from hotel to hotel looking for rooms in the middle of the night). That’s always easy to do with plane tickets since the airlines are the same everywhere (if it flies out of here and to there then it is both here and there). Not so with Hotel Reservations. Sure the Marriot probably has locations just about anywhere I go, but I don’t know that for sure. When I do book, will I be staying 20 miles away from the person I’m visiting? Is the Marriot there a dive that I won’t feel safe in? Can I get a better rate at a closer hotel that isn’t a chain at all? At Hotel Reservations, they cover all this. You tell them what city you want to stay in and they give you pricing, quality of the hotel and best value available. You can even narrow your search by asking for hotels with specific amenities. The rates they give are better than some others I’ve seen. Better yet, you can book your flights on their site and line up a rental car if you need one.