Cheaper than the HoJo?

[SeattleGirl]

With all the hotel choices, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm hoping someone can give us advice. We are two people who can deal with walking up to .5 miles to get to the park from our hotel (really, we walk more than that to catch the bus every day, but who wants to on vacation???). We plan to go the first week of March 2009 for 3-4 nights. Here is my other criteria:
-rock bottom pricing (under $100/night, much less if possible)
-no visible cockroaches
-low risk of bed bugs

All else is negotiable. I don't care about the pool, it would be cool but not necessary if there was breakfast, and the staff doesn't even have to be nice to us (though that's a welcome touch).

I know everyone loves the HoJo, but it seems kind of pricey and I don't want to get an entertainment book when I won't use the rest of the book. Normally I would bid on priceline, but I'm worried about their definition of "disneyland vicinity" because it seems rather broad.

Ideas? When to book?

 

[JadeDarkstar]

try desert inn no book needed and when i booked ahead of time and believe me if you called now and got a room you could get a normal room for 59 i was going to stay there i have a hot tub room suite for 100night but hojos just worked out for us

id call and book (you can cancle if you find better but only early bookers get these good deals)

 

[EnnEss]

Hello,

Im in a similar position and was looking at various places all week as I got free airfare to LA from vancouver and wanted a last minute vacation at Disneyland. I was looking at Hojos, fairfield and Anabella. They are all similar. I prefer fairfield by a longshot to Hojos btw, never understood the hojo love affair, but anyways. For four nights, fairfield was around 650, anabella was 550ish. I was also overwhelmed with other choices as there are so many I just dont know about.

I ended up picking the "Anaheim Plaza Inn". It was 330 for four nights, so quite a bit less. This is not in the same category though, Im sure of that. Its a step below. Its south of hojos on the same stree, probably slightly closer to the entrance or about the same. Google earth it at 1700 Clementine St, Anaheim if you want. Anyways, reviews are up and down but the general consensus seems to be its, cheap, clean, read no mention of bed bugs anywhere, and its old. With old comes some complaints. Does have a big olympic size pool. There were reports of malfunctioning AC units there though too. Most reviewers said its what it sounds like, so I took it. I also got a further 30 dollars off for booking online and the gas station I use has a tie in that stripped another 110 off the price, meaning four nights 208. Its a canadian gas station though, so judging by your name, no luck there. They do offer an AAA discount.

Even at full price, first week of august, four nights, 338, thats pretty good. Significantly less than Hojos and while its apples to oranges, I'll have extra money to go eat at the blue bayou with and get some souveners, otherwise wouldnt have that. Usually I like to stay onsite because Im spoilt by WDW hotels and figured if Im going offsite im going cheap, because it wont be onsite no matter what.

Its an option anyways, I looked quite a bit. This was basically the cheapest that was still really really close (its just south of tony roma's basically). Im not expecting much. Ive stayed in worse motels for sure while travelling, but never on a vacation like this. Im sure it'll be ok though, I spend very little time at the motel anyways.

 

[EnnEss]

try desert inn no book needed and when i booked ahead of time and believe me if you called now and got a room you could get a normal room for 59 i was going to stay there i have a hot tub room suite for 100night but hojos just worked out for us

id call and book (you can cancle if you find better but only early bookers get these good deals)

I tried this one and the rates were more than fairfield or Hojos. The regular room was 120 plus tax and the one you got for 100 was 229 plus tax/night. Maybe I was lookign at the wrong one, I know there are so many similar names. It was "desert inn and suites" on expedia.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

You don't have to buy the Entertainment book for Anaheim. You can buy one for your area, Seattle. I'm sure you can find some discounts for restaurants, services and entertainment in there for where you live. I think you can get a good idea of what discounts are offered in your area by going on the Entertainment Book website.

http://www.entertainment.com/discount/?linkName=GOOGLE

The savings offered at HOJOs more than covers the cost of the book.

 

[daannzzz]

Over the years I have stayed at many places in Anaheim through different remodels, renames and all...

Frontier Motel
Hojo
Camelot Inn
Tropicana
Best Western Park Place Inn
Del Sol
Anaheim Plaza
Candy Cane
Alpine Motel (Inn)
Anabella
GCH
PP
DLH
and others further out.

The only place I ever saw a cockroach was on the balcony at the HoJo. This has not stopped me from staying there as I know I was bound to run into one eventually.

The Desert inn has been fine on my two trips and you can often get a regular room for $69 - $79 there.
Anaheim Plaza is a bit dated (feel like an apartment complex from the 50's) but it was clean and quiet.
The Alpine was fine but that was a couple decades ago!

 

[EnnEss]

You don't have to buy the Entertainment book for Anaheim. You can buy one for your area, Seattle. I'm sure you can find some discounts for restaurants, services and entertainment in there for where you live. I think you can get a good idea of what discounts are offered in your area by going on the Entertainment Book website.

http://www.entertainment.com/discount/?linkName=GOOGLE

The savings offered at HOJOs more than covers the cost of the book.

There is also the discount through another disney site, i cant recall if its allears or which one. I tried that one and it was still not enough of a deal to persuade me from the fairfield if I were going to spend that amount (not that its a lot, I just mean in that range).

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I tried this one and the rates were more than fairfield or Hojos. The regular room was 120 plus tax and the one you got for 100 was 229 plus tax/night. Maybe I was lookign at the wrong one, I know there are so many similar names. It was "desert inn and suites" on expedia.

Deluxe rooms in Feb are going for $69/night right now. I know you said you were going in March but I didn't have your dates so I looked at mine

 

[SeattleGirl]

Thank you for all the helpful replies! I think the HoJo is a fine idea, but I don't want to wait for the 2009 entertainment book to come out or go buy a dated one now in hopes that it too would work. We had one for 2007 and just never really used it (we got all excited about it but then always forgot the coupons. I will keep this in mind, though.

As for the cockroaches, I don't really mind (so long as they are not in my house or crawling on me), but DBF would flip out and run screaming and demand that we get a new hotel. I think it's because they are a rarity up here and places that have cockroach problems tend to be quite bad (minus the little guy we saw hanging out at the mall food court, which looked otherwise clean). Seattle has pretty benign bugs.

ETA: You should have seen his reaction when we found out what palmetto bugs were! (went to WDW earlier this year)

 

[JadeDarkstar]

when were you going?
i called in dec jan ast year for oct and got price 100 for the hot tub suiet, no hot tub would of been 80, and 59 were reguler rooms
desert inn and suites

 

[EnnEss]

Ah, i was at the right one. My dates are august, I just checked again, regular rooms 109, jacuzzi tub room 149, and there is another one at 199. Its just the offseason discount I suppose, 30 percent seems about right as a mark up/down for the seasons.

Congratulations on the great rate though . I'll have to be happy with Anaheim plaza for august a 58/night after tax or whatever I paid, even if its nowhere near as nice, its just so cheap and its an unexpected trip after just being at WDW @ AKL a couple months ago, I didnt think I'd be back at any disney for a couple years. The previous description by a pp saying "anaheim plaza" is like an old apartment is what I expected. Old, close, clean, really cheap. Heh, I wonder how much their rooms are in the offseason.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

buy the ent book later call hojos now and pick your dates (pick like full two weeks or something if there ent rate dates arent up yet. ) you dont have to show the ent card till you get there

 

[disneyfaninaz]

DIS members can get a 15% discount on regular room rates. You need to contact in-house reservations.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

ya my room was 149 when i changed my date by one night..thats one reason i switched to hojos 75 for a prem disney view room well its better then 149 for first night at desert inn I think desert inn is good if you call early if not hojos is better

 

[EnnEss]

DIS members can get a 15% discount on regular room rates. You need to contact in-house reservations.

I dont like hojo for this reason too. This is nearly a persistent discount available on their site to anyone. Sure, they offer it here, but its really deceptive, you nearly always get that discount if you just go to their site and dont have any discount code or anything. They're like Dell that way and I dont like it. They have a price that is basically artifically high than offer "discounts" but the discounts are constant, nearly. Its crafty marketing and its not really right. I know here this was type of practise made news because some stores were investigated for it.

 

[bumbershoot]

SeattleGirl, if you *can* get the $59 (might go up in '09, it did from '07) rate at HoJo, remember, the Entertainment Book, depending on when you buy it, can be about 10 or 15 dollars.

I'm in Tacoma and get the South Puget Sound edition, and there is $20 worth of Safeway coupons in there. I paid 15 for the book, and after the last $5 coupon is used between August and end of October, I will have gotten $20 off of groceries from it. So it's more than paid off even before the 6 nights at HoJo's I've gotten at a discount come into play.

I haven't seen the one for your area, but if it's like the Tacoma one, it probably has Safeway as well, along with small coffee shop coupons, restaurant coupons, and such.


Anyway, if you can't get that rate, remember that March is the start of Spring Break for some schools across the country, meaning that prices are already going to be on the rise!

I've heard that Alpine Inn on Katella can have reasonable rates, and while few talk about it here I've seen good reviews on mouseplanet.

I've read that the Motel 6 near DLR is pretty decent, and reasonable.

 

[SeattleGirl]

SeattleGirl, if you *can* get the $59 (might go up in '09, it did from '07) rate at HoJo, remember, the Entertainment Book, depending on when you buy it, can be about 10 or 15 dollars.

I'm in Tacoma and get the South Puget Sound edition, and there is $20 worth of Safeway coupons in there. I paid 15 for the book, and after the last $5 coupon is used between August and end of October, I will have gotten $20 off of groceries from it. So it's more than paid off even before the 6 nights at HoJo's I've gotten at a discount come into play.

I'm still confused if we have to wait for the 2009 edition to buy the book? I know we can book and say "ent rate" now, but will we need to present the 2009 edition? And why prefer HoJos over Desert Inn if they are the same price after discount?

I agree that "false" discounts are really a pain. I feel like I spend more time looking for discount coupons than its worth sometimes (heck, if I got paid my normal rate for the hours I spend vacation-planning, I would be loaded!).

bumbershoot: on a related note, if you are interested in local coupons, check out the "chinook book." We got ours at Whole Foods. It has a bunch of QFC coupons (closer to us than Safeway), whole foods, and national grocery chain coupons plus local travel/lodging discounts (better than ent usually does). Also, it saved us $60 on an Amtrack Cascades ticket.

 

[DangerMouse]

I dont like hojo for this reason too. This is nearly a persistent discount available on their site to anyone. Sure, they offer it here, but its really deceptive, you nearly always get that discount if you just go to their site and dont have any discount code or anything. They're like Dell that way and I dont like it. They have a price that is basically artifically high than offer "discounts" but the discounts are constant, nearly. Its crafty marketing and its not really right. I know here this was type of practise made news because some stores were investigated for it.

_

What? That makes no sense. It's just like any retailer that has sale prices or online store that has codes available, you just have to hunt for them.

It's true that several different fan sites offer the 15% discount, AAA gets you 10%, AP holders get 20% and Ent. rate is 50% off rack rates. Anyone is entitled to these discounts if you have the right information. Without these codes, you will most likely pay rack rate. How is that deceptive?

 

[bumbershoot]

Since you're going after November, yes you will need the '09 book.

I think someone must have posted while I was typing earlier; you can get Desert Inn for 59 bucks? Yowza!


Thanks for the info on the Chinook book!

 

[RainyDayPixie]

SeattleGirl- You can buy the book in Feb, just before you go and it will be cheaper than the $25 rate it is when it first comes out. I have the Seattle book and we use it all the time. Lots of restaurants in them. And, yes, the safeway coupons are there.

The chinook book is great, too.

I have ressies for Oct for Hojos and am excited to be paying $75 for a view of Disneyland and new beds!