|
As a kid, our family often hopped in the car for vacation, drove across Ohio, went through and around the mountains to Pittsburgh. Our cousins, and my mom's sister, lived there- and we were always excited to drive through the numerous long tunnels cut into the mountainsides. We certainly didn't need any discount hotels, Pittsburgh, thank you very much- our lodging was the ultimate cheap stay- with our relatives.
|
Later in life, working for the mob, I did a lot of travel through the midwest... and that particular family doesn't always provide a company car or anything like that, so I found myself in discount hotels, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, wherever. For some reason, the rule is you have to drive around in a long luxury car like a Monte Carlo or something, and driving like that makes you want to stay in a hotel. You just want to get off the road. But you want a bargain. You want luxury for cheap.
Traveling cheap and getting hotel discounts is really an art form, a master craft.
If you travel enough, you know where to find the deals- you develop an instinct for it. And you get to know where the discount hotels are, and how to get regular hotels to give you discounts. And I don't mean by impelling them with some kind of metal object. For example, this one time I was thinking about discount hotels, Pittsburgh was looming on the horizon, and the long car was nearly out of gas.
Pittsburgh has a great airport, too, one of the best in the country according to Conde Naste traveler, and I'm sure they have some great hotels around there.
But I didn't get to enjoy that- nope, you got to make sacrifices for your employer sometimes- so you drive luxury and look for cheap hotel deals. But you still want a nice place to stay. If you can get a big bath with bubbles and all that, that vacation from discomfort makes it all ok. So I decided to hit up one of the four star hotels- see if I couldn't turn them into a Pittsburgh discount hotel without them meaning to.
As far as discount hotels, Pittsburgh is pretty good- but I wanted more. I wanted a really nice place with all the trappings, but I needed a Motel 6 rate. Impossible, you say? Well, to work for my family, you gotta know more than how to point a piece at someone. You gotta have smarts. So I can't reveal my secrets to you, I couldn't if I wanted, because they wiped my memory, but I know it's possible. That's the only way the economics works out. I have records- and the only way I stayed in Pittsburgh, discount hotels had to have been involved. I just know it.
|
|
