If you're planning a vacation. You want a hotel that is:
- In walking distance to shops and restaurants
- Provides complementary airport shuttle
- Free breakfast
A hotel should be for sleeping, and storing your luggage. If you are spending a lot of time at a hotel, you are not having a good vacation. You also want to build up your hotel points, so try to stick with one chain, or set up your hotel points account to add miles to your airline account. Don't book hotels on Expedia etc. You won't get your hotel points. Booking plane tickets on these sites is good, you still get your miles. If you eat at the hotel, or buy from the gift shop, charge everything to the room, so you get points from those purchases. You can also buy Amex gift cards, earn points for those, and use those to pay when you check out, Always use a credit card for the security swipe just incase they put a hold, so your debit won't have that money unavailable. You want the hold on a credit card, not your debit card. When you check out, settle the bill on your Amex gc, or debit, unless you earn points on a credit card, which is double dipping, so you get your hotel points, in top of your crediit card points, or cashback.
Always buy anything online through a points site like mypoints, upromise, ebates, etc, or else you are throwing money away.