Quick background: I am going on vacation with my family to Rehoboth Beach next week starting Sunday. Separately, one friend of my suggested that a bunch of us go to a trampoline park in Delmar, MD that’s conveniently about an hour’s drive from RB. We’d go on Saturday, I’d get a hotel room in Delmar that night, and have a nice relaxing 1-hour drive to Rehoboth the next morning.
Here’s the catch: People wouldn’t commit until the last minute, so I just found out today that I should go ahead and book the hotel room. The problem is, my searches of Priceline, Hotwire, and Expedia are yielding little in the way of hotels in that area, and anything it does find is exorbitantly expensive ($125-150 a night!). They keep pushing me toward Princess Anne, MD and Salisbury, MD, both of which are upwards of an hour in the opposite direction.
Can any of you help me find a hotel around Delmar, MD that won’t cost me an arm and a leg? Quality doesn’t matter to me… one step above sleeping in my vehicle is A-OK. However, I’d rather not travel more than 15-20 minutes from Delmar (unless it’s in the direction of Rehoboth) or spend more than $70-80.
Please help. Bonus question: Would it be better for me to skip booking in advance and just drive toward Rehoboth, hoping to find a crappy motel on the way?
Based on the reviews at the above given google links in addition to the reviews at TripAdvisor, I would stay the hell away from that Travelers Inn AND that Country Hearth Inn, and regardless of the (probably minimal) price differential, just go for the Holiday Inn instead. Otherwise, it sounds like car-camping it for that one night might be the cheapest way to go.
With no personal knowledge of the area and a quick and dirty look at a map, it looks like Trap Pond State Park in nearby Delaware might be the best place for that.
PS: If you opt for Trap Pond State Park, but don’t want to sleep in a car or (don’t have/want to do) a tent at one of the 130 $26 a night camp sites, they have two yurts that might be available for $42 a night, EXCEPT those require a two night minimum. Here’s a link to the various prices for staying at the various Delaware State Parks.
PPS: Without doing more specific digging for details, you might also consider car/tent camping near Rehoboth at Cape Henlopen State Park or Delaware Seashore State Park, instead of camping near Delmar.
Hotels don’t always have all their rooms available for Web reservations. My approach would be to call the booked places before giving up, they may have rooms available for phone reservations, or unpublished prices you can get by asking.
That’s what I did, and ended up booking the Budget Inn in Salisbury for $80. A rip-off, yes, but I’m desperate.
I’m keeping my expectations thoroughly low because on the phone, the hotel guy said, “Now before we book the room, we like to tell the guests a little about the property. This isn’t a three- or four-star hotel…” I’m not sure what to expect after hearing that.
FWIW, tripadvisor shows 10 reviews for the property you’ve chosen, with an average of 4 dots out of 5. This is pretty good, in my previous experience with tripadvisor. So you may just want to keep with your original plans.