Choice Hotels iPhone App

I am in a mixed marriage — I like to plan and he doesn’t. Depending on the trip, sometimes we do it my way. And sometimes we do it wrong.

Wrong means we don’t make hotel reservations in advance, hoping to find a deal, a hidden gem, an exciting and hopefully clean adventure.

More than once on the “wrong” trips, we’ve been caught cruising down the freeway in the dark, looking for the rescue lights of a Motel 6 or Comfort Inn on the side of the road.

If you do this kind of thing, then you know the next chapter. After 25, then 35, then 50 miles of dark freeway, suffering through low-blood sugar fights and the compelling need for a ladies room, you spy a hotel motel kind of scary lodging-type building on the horizon.

You tell yourself that horror movies in out-of-the way hotels are fiction, just silly make-believe. You check in, strip the bedspread off the bed and spend a twitchy night hoping you don’t feel bed bugs.

The worst part is that the next morning you drive two more miles down the road and find a cornucopia of real hotels — with ice machines, coffee makers and soap — from which to choose. If only there was a way to find these places when you’re on the go!

Thank you iPhone, now there is.

Choice Hotels, the lovely people behind reliable no-frills names like Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Econo Lodge and more, have a new, free iPhone app that lets you:

• Search hotels and make reservations
• View and change reservations
• Contact customer support
• Quickly locate hotels closest to your location
• GPS mapping from you to your hotel
• View photos of hotels

Needless to say, I immediately downloaded it to my iPhone. I’ll never have to stay at another Serial Killer Lodge again! Get your own at the Apple site App Store.

Image: iPhone App Store

How many hipsters scrubbed the paint job with steel wool?

Austin’s a jewel in Texas: an easygoing university town with great food, friendly locals, and too many music venues to count. Hotel San Jose is a handy launchpad for your urban explorations, situated on South Congress Street near many of the quirky shops, bars, clubs and restaurants from which you’ll want to stumble home.

Last week we stayed in one of the standard rooms on the street side of the building. For a discounted rate you can rent a room with a shared bathroom or for a quieter stay you’d want to request a room away from the street.

Overall, how was it? Let’s break it down.

What I loved

The fonts, the native plants, the crowd gathered outside Jo’s, the hotel coffee shop, for morning joe. In our room, I found a catalog of books and CDs we could borrow from the front desk–we chose a 1930′s screwball comedy about hotels. Free wireless (for your Mac, of course). You can also borrow a typewriter to bang out a few pages of your next novel.

Bath products are purchased from a local company, and they didn’t skimp by offering “conditioning shampoo”–a contradiction in terms, especially for those of us endowed with springy tendrils. The rate was right: only $160 per night, about $50 lower than what I found for corporate competitors.

Fine, fine. But why not Robert Creeley?

Oh, and there was a poem tacked next to the bathroom mirror: plus 10 points.

What I didn’t love

The poem was Billy Collins: minus 5 points.

No extra charge for the moat

Drainage isn’t a subject I worry about on an average day, but when we couldn’t leave our room because a sudden rain shower resulted in perma-lake outside our door, I wondered if HSJ shouldn’t invest in some type of runoff system.

Our cozy abode

Also, usually open entering a hotel room, I think “Man! This is (2? 4? 17?) times the size of my tiny city apartment.” Not so here–the room felt claustrophobic when we were closeted inside. Milli Vanilli was right: I should blame it on the rain.

HSJ is probably not the first place I’d select if I were traveling with a passel of children or grew hives at the sight of American Apparel gear.

This is, however, the perfect spot if you want to stay up late, fall asleep to “Raising Arizona,” and roll out of bed at 10 a.m. to pick up an iced latte while still wearing your pajamas. You know: like an Austin rock star should.