I'm thinking of doing a RTW trip and stopping in Ayers Rock. Any tips/hotel recommendations?

It's in the middle of the desert and Sails is on the high end...are the other hotels in the area good/bad? I'm mainly interested in having a quick look at the Rock and moving on, but I'd rather not mar the experience with a bad hotel.

Also, some guide books recommend renting a car and others don't. Anything opinions from someone who's done it?

please, please please get a car. It was awful not having one. You are dependent on the & !!$ shuttle bus to and from airport and around the resort and to the rock and supporting rocks whose names escape me now (olgas). You can then decide how much time to spend at each place instead of being forced to stay on someone else's schedule.

I would say stay far away from the backpacker's hostel thing (outback pioneer), we did the cheap route and spent most of night wondering what the noises we were hearing on our roof were.

The emu walk apartments are supposed to be nice, but if you have the bucks to burn, go with the sails. Its geared towards the group tourist - so lots of shopping and expensive bric a brac.

As someone else said, no matter where you stay at uluru, you won't feel you got your money's worth.

Just my 0.25 cents worth.
lala

All the hotels are managed by the same company. I have stayed at Sails twice, not a bad hotel. Agree on getting a car, have done that once, busses the other time - the car gives you a slight edge.

I recommend doing the "Sounds of Silence" - they take you out in the middle of the desert for sunset, drinks, dinner, stargazing, etc. Pretty neat.

We stayed at the Desert Garden. Nice, clean bare bones room. Just what we required for our stay in the Red Center.

This area is certainly not the place to spend any time in your room.

PS: BRING MOSQUITO NETTING FOR YOUR FACE. Depending upon the time of year, the flies can be very thick, the netting brought relief from them getting in your eyes/nose/ears.

I still remember my first trip there. I had an airpass and flew in without reservations. Everything was booked. The tourist office sent me over to the caravan park, and even their rentals were sold out. I ended up sleeping in a picnic area, along with a woman I met from London who also just showed up without reservations. The dingo circling the picnic area kept me up most of the night. My second trip I had reservations

Photos from 10 Australia trips:
http://www.geocities.com/tom911

Definitely get a car - there are fun places to explore around there, like Kings Canyon and the Olgas (both IMHO more atmospheric places than Uluru itself, which is fascinating but a little overrun with tourists) which you want to explore at your own pace. The roads are fine - long, straight and empty - just beware driving at dusk or at night, as kangaroos are not very traffic-savvy.

lalala is absolutely right that no accommodation at Uluru is good value - I would either go for the top end (Sails) or the bottom end (the camping ground) but nothing in between.

Above all, have fun - it's an amazing part of the world!