I am originally from Maine and have a lot of family there. We travel to Maine often in the summer though less often in the winter. We had a family event to attend the weekend before Thanksgiving and rather than spending all day driving in the car, we decided to stay a couple nights in the Portland area.
Considerations
Given our quest to reach 50 nights with Marriott hotels to re-qualify for Platinum status, we were looking exclusively at hotels in that chain for this stay. Portland was the natural location to look for hotels as it is relatively close to the event we were attending and has several reasonably priced options.
Since we were driving, we wouldn’t need any plane tickets or a rental car and we had more freedom with the location. Our time was filled with family events so we would not have any time for sightseeing, though there is a lot of interesting stuff to see and do in Portland if we had more time!
Hotel
For the hotel, we were mainly interested in a place to sleep. Prime city-center location was not a factor, though things like a free breakfast and an indoor pool would be welcome amenities if it wasn’t going to cost a lot more.
Searching
On the Marriott website, I searched by selecting the AAA rate and looked for hotels in the Portland area. As expected, there were many options to choose from, from under $100 to close to $300 per night.
Since I’m familiar with the area, one hotel stood out to me. The Portland Marriott Sable Oaks was offering a relatively low AAA rate and, as a proper Marriott hotel, has a concierge lounge which we would have complementary access to because of our status. The lounges usually offer complementary breakfast which would save us from venturing out into the cold to grab food in the morning. Not only was the AAA rate low, but it was also a cancelable rate, which means you can cancel it within a few days of your stay with no penalty if your plans change.
In general, non-refundable, sometimes called prepaid rates, are cheaper than refundable rates. With non-refundable rates you pay upfront, or commit to paying for the stay, even if you don’t actually stay. Sometimes those rates are so much lower that if you’re reasonably sure your plans won’t change then it’s worthwhile. Other times you want the flexibility. In this case, the rate was cheaper AND refundable, so it was an obvious choice.
I usually prefer refundable rates, even if it’s a little more expensive so that we have flexibility. In the beginning of planning for a trip where there are still months before we will be traveling I almost universally choose refundable rates and check back periodically for cheaper rates, book those and then cancel the original reservation. As we get closer to travel time I’m more inclined to choose a non-refundable rate if it’s cheaper. At least one time I ended up canceling a refundable rate and replacing it with a non-refundable rate for a larger room for less than the refundable rate. I can definitely pay to watch the rates change over time. A lot can happen with trip planning and the flexibility of a refundable rate can really pay off even if it ends up costing just a little more.
Booking
We ended up booking a two night stay. We chose the lowest AAA refundable room rate for approximately $100/night.
This hotel mainly caters to business travel which means weekend rates are often much lower than Sunday through Thursday nights. Also, being the weekend before Thanksgiving occupancy rates at hotels are generally lower anyways. Who in their right mind would travel the weekend before Thanksgiving?
Oh wait…. that would be us.
Tomatico Travels 
You must be logged in to post a comment.