Accor Hotels is offering a limited time promo under which nearly 2000 hotels in Europe are offering discounts of upto 50% off.

Accor 'Crazy Prices' promo

The Accor offer called ‘Crazy Prices’ is available on the Accorhotels.com website from March 13-22, 2010. Discounts of up to 50% are available for stays in between March 22 to May 2.

The offer applies to the following Accor hotel brands – Pullman, Gallery, Mercure, Novotel, Suitehotel, Adagio, ibis, all seasons, Etap Hotel, hotelF1 and Lucien Barrière hotels.

Pullman and Gallery are upscale brands with each hotel having its own unique personality and identity.

Novotel and Suitehotel are midscale hotels which offer the same standard facilities all over Europe. 

Adagio is a midscale extended stay hotel chain, while ibis offers economy and the same standard experience at all properties. All Seasons hotels offer economy and differing boutique styles.

Etap and hotelF1 are both budget options with the same standard experience.

Lucien Barrière offers a small group of luxury hotels and casinos.

Start your search for a hotel offering the Crazy Prices promo in your destination here. Popular destinations where many hotels are participating in the promo include London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, and Madrid. Here’s the full list of participating hotels.

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The Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) just released its annual hotel survey which lists the average hotel room rates of major cities in the world. Moscow tops the list as the world’s costliest city for hotels for 2009, while hotels in New York were listed as North America’s costliest.

North American Cities - Avg Hotel room rates for 2009

New York topped the list inspite of a drop in average room rates from last year of 23%, or nearly $95. New York was also the third costliest in the world, after Moscow and Abu Dhabi. Houston was the only US city on the list where room rates actually increased (by 7%) in 2009.

So now you know that the average room rate in New York City is $318.98. Which makes you wonder just who all these people are that pay above $300.

With rock-bottom rates and plenty of deals (such as the third night free offer from nycgo.com) to choose from, its easy to get a fairly decent hotel in New York for at most $250 per night.

Want to see for yourself? Head over to UpTake’s New York hotels page, and set the Price sliders to show hotels between $250 and $200. Front page results include The Benjamin, Westin New York Times Square, New York Marriott Marquis, Sofitel and even the Waldorf-Astoria, with a couple of Hiltons and a Kimpton thrown in for good measure.

Also makes you wonder whether travelers who pay above $300+ for a hotel in New York would still do so if they knew they could stay at any one of these nice hotels for $250 or less. Ignorance is bliss – for New York’s costly hotels.

Visit www.hrgworldwide.com for more details about the hotel survey.

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Comfort Inn Buena Vista, Florida

Just for Florida and Georgia residents, the Rosen family of hotels is offering their low-cost, high-quality hotels as a respite for your shopping excursion to Orlando.

They’re offering $39.99 per night rates now through the end of January 2010 (some blackout dates apply) with a VIP coupon book from Orlando Premium Outlets as well as an Orlan-Dough Mega-Value coupon book with more than $3000 money-saving offers.

Hotels on International Drive and in Lake Buena Vista (near Walt Disney World) in their “Shop and Stay Package” include:

Quality Inn International
Rodeway Inn International
Quality Inn Plaza
Comfort Inn Buena Vista

Stay in one of these hotels, and leave your car parked. The I-Ride Trolley will take you up and down International Drive in an air-conditioned trolley to all of the restaurants and shopping destinations and back to your hotel for $4/day. Guest rooms at each hotel feature a kitchenette area with a refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker, cable TV with Showtime®, and complimentary high-speed Internet access.

Photo courtesy Rosen Hotels

South Carolina State Capitol

If you plan to be in or around Columbia, South Carolina in the near future, check out the Hyatt Place there before you book anywhere else! At about $140/night, you get a lot for your money; you won’t be wined and dined, necessarily, but you do have access to all of the perks of a more luxurious hotel, including free Wi-Fi.

The first thing you’ll notice when you walk into the lobby is that you get to check yourself in, which, trust me, is really easy and fun to do. Just step right up to the kiosks, type in your name and/or confirmation number, and out come your keys! Helpful staff members are milling around nearby in case you hit any snafoos, but it really is a very simple and convenient way to check-in to your room.

There’s no restaurant onsite, but don’t despair – you can order meals at any time of the day from handy touch-screen kiosks, too (in addition to a free continental breakfast.)  And, there are definitely some perks which you won’t find at other hotels – like 42 inch flat screen tv’s in all of the rooms! There’s a great coffee and wine bar too, where you can relax and wait for friends to join you. Feeling the need to burn off last night’s dessert? You can definitely work out in style at the free fitness center – most of the equipment has LCD touchscreen consoles!

This seems to be a new breed of hotel – you’re not pampered on purpose, but the luxury is there if you want to take advantage of it. You pay extra for what you want, and you don’t pay for the services you don’t use. This makes a lot of sense to me.

And don’t forget that you’ll be very close by to fun attractions like the Columbia Museum of Art and the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens. This hotel would be perfect for couples, families and business travelers as well.

Photo Credits: JimBowen0306