Hi,

Is there a thread with tricks for finding low rate Mattress Run stays?

In Atlanta area I knew of a Residence Inn that frequently had $50 weekend rates.

However trying to find one for Northern California Sacramento area seems impossible. Lowest I'm finding with lots of clicking is $79.

I can only tell you what I do in the Baltimore Washington area. Dulles Airport hotels are VERY well priced on the weekends. $50-$70 night for some great properties and great locations. Even a RC at Tysons for $149 if I want to treat my DW to something a little nicer.

I would look for areas that service business travelers primarily. They drop on weekends. Resorts in low season. Etc. Good luck.

Ah I finally came up with a trick that worked with only moderate tediousness.

Bring up a 1-night weekend reservation listing. Click on each of the 40 hotel names shown and look at the "rates from $X" figure. Go down the list until you find the cheapest one.

Then go back and drill into the calendar and find when those cheap days are open.

In my case it's $59 Friday or Saturday night at Fairfield Rancho Cordova. There's a ton of Marriotts near the Sacramento airport, but they don't get cheap enough on the weekend.

Thanks!

Do a search for Platinum for $800, it might help you out.

On the west coast it is a lot harder to find the cheaper Marriotts. The cheapest I've ever found is $56 for the FI Ontario Airport and like $65 for the SHS in Henderson by my house.

Try the NY metro area. Lowest rate is the Stamford Marriott, at a "special" for Marriott Gold and PLTs at $89 per weekend nite thru March 31. There are no RI, CY, TPS, SS, Marriott or Ren hotels that ever go below $100 ex for the one in Stamford, CT, At least you can take a train for $14 on the weekend (each way) and do a 10 min walk to the hotel (Metronorth New Haven Line from Grand Central, a 45 min express train). I would die for a close by Marriott if any of thier brands had a $50, $60 or $79 rate for a weekend stay, They just dont exist in this area. Be thankful for what you can get in No Cal and Metro DC, because we here in the Northeast get to live in BLUE states, where our Gov's cant figure out how to raise our taxes fast enough, and that then rolls down to the hotel rates, since they pay taxes too. Oh, and during Hurricane/TS Sandy, we were in a Mandatory evacuation zone, so we went to the cheapest Marriott I could find, a residence inn in the burbs that charged $260 for a STUDIO PER NITE, and the breakfast, while included, was not great. Thankfully, we were only there for 2 nites and didnt have any home damage.

So, you No Cal lucky people, take the rate you can get and be thankful, because a mattress run for me, after tax is over $120 per night at the LEAST expensive Marriott that can be found in my little corner of the USA.

Is there a need to make this about politics? OK, NorCal is certainly blue. Yet I'm able to find a $59 night stay with a bit of searching. Taxes about 8-something I forget. Maybe your problem isn't which team jersey predominates.

So El Presidente, I know CA is a BLUE state. I lived in LA for 5 years and couldn't wait to leave. My career leaves me no choice to to live and work in big Metro areas, and all of those up and down the east and west coast and a few in between (like IL, where I lived for 8 years) all like to see how much they can soak the electorate for. When I retire I am moving to Texas or Nevada to lower my tax burden, and to find cheaper hotels. The issue I was pointing out to the OP was that if he can find a rate of $79, he is lucky, as I would cut off a body appendage to find a quality hotel for that price point. If you dont think about taxes, good for you. All my point was trying to make is that hotel prices are relative, and if the OP wants to do a mattress run and not incur other travel costs, then take what there is - $79 being a decent price, get the points/miles and nights. I needed one night last year to re-qualify for Plat, so I did a one night run, and paid the price, even for a hotel that on a Saturday had 20% occupancy, and they still asked for $149, and that was the AAA (and yes, I am a card carrying AAA member), all because I get the privilege of living in one of the most expensive areas of the USA, paying more in tax between income, sales, gas, property, excise tax and for the rare privledge or driving lots and lots of TOLLS! If anyone thinks that hotels dont charge to recoup all of the local costs (including in the NYC area where we get the right to pay some of the highest utility rates after those in HI, all due to taxes the utilities need to recoup), and that is why the hotel rates are so high here (and not as high in No Cal, ATL, DC, etc), then they are kidding themselves about the costs of a room and why they are priced where they are. So, please, its not about the politics, its about the economics.

With all due respect, your post makes you sound like a card carrying member of another sort of organisation. There is no need to be so political (and paint with such a broad brush, at that) when OP asked a very simple, unoffensive question.

Now he knows to avoid NYC if he wants $50 rooms. But I doubt he didn't know that to begin with.

Poster may not enjoy certain aspects of NYC. As a visitor though the museums and other plusses make the elevated hotel rates worth it.

The thing I'm finding here, is the Fairfield in the most distant burb far from airports and business centers is the best bet.

Can someone explain the benefit of mattress running to me? Especially w/ the megabonus going on? The reason I ask is we have Marriotts in my area (Cleveland) for $50 a night.... The only benefit I can see there is w/ the spring megabonus is I could do two nights $100, and get a free Cat4 voucher which could be valued @ up to $250 in some locations....

But even then I have to drive from my home, to the hotel to check in, then next day back to check out, then repeat for another hotel... Am I missing a lot?

You'd get 2 EQNs as well, if that means anything to you. What you're suggesting is not a bad idea depending on the Cat 4 you want to redeem at (like say... Courtyard HK) but make sure to do the stays and book before pretty much all the useful Cat 4s move up to Cat 5 in May. If you wanted 3 free nights, doing it through MegaBonus mattress runs would be like getting 6 EQNS for staying 3 real nights.

EQN -Earned Qualifying Nights?

Not much interest in those, how does the new category thing work? IE: I want to use my two current nights @ the Marriott in Oakland right now its a cat4 $115 a night, searching in april reveals $250 night rates, as I assume it takes in account the moving up of categorys maybe? Regardless, if I book now, when do I have to use the room by?

For me, it's to trip into the next elite level.

My sister however has used Megabonus tactic you posit. She does a couple of weekend nights at a $50/night Residence Inn, gets a Cat4 cert. She's going to use one cert in a few weeks to stay in a Denver location that would cost more than $100. She's a stay-at-home spouse and for her chasing the savings of that seems worth it.

I have in past used MegaBonus certs to stay places like Courtyard Maui and it's well worth it. However with all my fave Cat4 moving up to Cat5 I have not much interest in accumulating certs. Even the Fairfield in REDDING California will now be Cat5 which just blows my mind.

If your primary objective is EQNs for elite status, as another poster said, look up the thread about Rewarding Nights whereby you can essentially buy EQNs for ~$10 each.

If you're doing it for the Megabonus Cat 1-4 certs or any other reason, try doing a broad search based upon a hotel feature (e.g., airport shuttle) for specific nights across as wide of a region that will work for you. Then, whittle down to under 300 results, then sort by price. Selecting AAA rate might help. When results exceed 300, you can't sort by price because Marriott.com returns a "too many results" error, but under that quantity you can.