How to choose hotels on roadtrip?

[SharkBite]

Hey folks, how do you choose a hotel for an overnight rest on a long roadtrip?

A month or two after our MYLR finally gets here (current EDD is last half of Feb), we want to drive it from upstate NY to Disney World (~1,250 miles). After passing thru NJ it will be I95 down to Fl.

How do you find/choose/book hotels for overnight rest on the trip? I'm not as concerned about having a destination charger as I am about finding a clean, safe, not too expensive place to stay.

What apps do you use to find the hotels, and how do you find out the price and room availability without going to the front desk to ask? Probably been 20 years since I did a road trip with overnight stays, so I just dont know the best way to do it.

And for hotels that have the destination chargers, do they charge to use them or it is included in the room price? Do you have to (or can you) reserve the destination charger it is luck of draw if one is unoccupied?

Any other tips for a road trip newbie?

Thanks

 

[jwharnish]

Planning out my 3rd cross country trip in my M3P for June. I use navigation to plot the trip i'm taking, figuring out how many hours I want to drive per day, and then look on Plug Share to find a hotel with charger in the area I'm going to spend the night.
If no hotel with charging available, or if cost is higher than wanted, I stay near a Supercharger, so I can charge to what I need for the next day, so I can leave in the am without charging. Or you could charge in am when continuing on the trip.
Hotel's with chargers usually do not charge extra to charge, and I have not had a problem yet with charger availability.
On a trip along I95 I'm sure there are many hotels/with chargers to choose from for night stay. I think Disney has chargers also.

Charge enough on your trip to make it the next desired charger, and arrive for charging with a low % left in the battery for faster charge rate. I usually try to arrive for charging with 10% left, and leave charger once I see 17% battery estimate for next charging destination. Trust your navigation system, which has always seemed to be very close to actual numbers with my experience.

 

[LoudMusic]

I map the route using ABetterRoutePlanner then identify which areas would be overnight stops then use PlugShare to see if there is a hotel with chargers in the area. I've done quite a lot of road tripping in the past year and a half. I'm not sure I've relied on hotel charging. I try to find a place that if I can't charge at the hotel there will be a supercharger in range in the morning.

I've also stayed plenty of places that don't have charging and just use the superchargers en route.

 

[Supcom]

hotels.com works well. You can specify EV Chargers in the facilities filter if you want to find places with chargers.

 

[danaleighton]

hotels.com works well. You can specify EV Chargers in the facilities filter if you want to find places with chargers.

Airbnb.com also has a filter for ev charging.

 

[EVRider-FL]

I figure out where I want to stop for the night and then use TripAdvisor to pick a hotel.

 

[TomServo]

Just understand that these chargers "are first come first served" and specific Tesla HPWC equipment isn't EXCLUSIVELY for Tesla owners as I discovered on a recent road trip where a new MME was charging on a Tesla WC using an adapter folks can buy. Luckily I had enough charge to spend the night and make it the 40 miles to the next SuperCharger the next morning. So just know where the SCers are (before or after your stop) and leave enough range to get to them if the Destination Chargers are not available.

 

[jbcarioca]

These days most major hotel websites also have EV filters, if you have a specific chain loyalty scheme.
I almost always use hotel.com filter to find out which properties have chargers, then I only book through them if I cannot do better.
If you prefer B&B almost all Select Registry B&B have destination chargers.
I have done North America road trips in Tesla since 2013, and in Europe since 2016. Thus far I have found charging at nearly every hotel I have used. Sometimes, in early years, they were very slow and or hard to find. Now everywhere along your route there will be several options and multiple price points.
Remember too, that many shipping centers and restaurants have charging too.
Using A Better Route Planner ro any of the others can help make decisions.
Finally, I habitually tend to look at the ChargePint app in areas I'm interested in traveling just to get a notion fo how wide the options are in a given area.
After a few trips you'll find that you habitually begin to examine choices.
My last few trips I've ended out not using Superchargers at all.

 

[Supcom]

You may also want to call the hotel to ask how many chargers they offer and if they are working! And, if you plan to arrive late on a busy night, you may find all the chargers ICE'd up. Always have a backup plan!

 

[MrWattson]

I also have found the ChargePoints to be out of service about 25% of the time so, if depending on the hotel charger for juice, indeed call to confirm.

 

[RTPEV]

I know the OP specified that finding a hotel with a charging station was not a necessity. In that case, and if you are going to Supercharge close by the hotel, the recommendation is to Supercharge the night before while your battery is still warm. Otherwise the charging will be slower in the morning.

As for not wanting to prioritize hotels with charging stations, however, I have to say that charging the car while you sleep and starting off with 100% is a huge benefit. Plus, we all ought to give preference to hotels that have reliable charging stations as a way to incentivize more of them to install, maintain, and make sure they are available for guests. Sometimes you don't have a choice, but even then I always make it a point to call and ask if they have charging, or even if you know they don't, ask about it when you check in. The more they hear this, the more likely they will get the message and consider adding them.

All the problems with charging stations being ICEd and broken are true. So I usually check the checkin history on Plugshare and call ahead of time and ask if they are working (I usually take what they say with a grain of salt) and ask if they can block the charging station for me. The good hotels that actually care and that have charging stations in premiere spots will do this for you. There is a hotel in Frederick, MD that we love that actually located their charging stations in the back where the chances of them getting ICEd is almost nil.

 

[George I]

As much as possible charge overnight!!!
a) plugshare.com
b)If you are staying at a B&B call ahead and ask about a "3 prong standard outlet with nothing else on the circuit for me to use to charge over night".
I have never been turned down but most of those cases were in Canada.
Obviously an EVSE or 240v is better but do not underestimate 120v.
c)use/search any bed and breakfast or hotel booking website that has a search filter for ev charging, consider calling the hotel week or 2 before to: 1)make sure charger is working 2)see if possible to reserve charger for the night
d) abetterrouteplanner.com is great for estimating "fuel" use but their selection of charging options is not as complete as plugshare.com
e) tesla website and look for destination chargers (which you should also find on plugshare and a betterrouteplanner)

 

[1speed]

A destination charger is very convenient especially if you are eating breakfast at the hotel. Then you can just hit the road at 100%. They are probably not guaranteed these days though. After that being reasonably close to a supercharger is great. My main tip for road trips is that its much cheaper to stay in small towns than bigger cities. I usually go for a place with free breakfast, and Hampton Inn is probably my favorite because they have coffee in the lobby at all hours. The free breakfast goes a long way towards saving money if you're traveling with family. I typically book using either the Hilton or Marriott apps. If you are staying in small towns, you can probably get away with booking day of if you aren't the type to over plan your stops.

 

[bhzmark]

Has anyone collected a list of the supercharger and destination charger amenities along I-95 from NY to Florida? It would be nice to have a simple list from North to South that just lists the superchargers, their kW, the nearby restaurants and hotels, and the good hotels that have destination chargers.

Ideally I need to find a place to drive for half a day and have a nice dinner while supercharging, then drive into the night a little longer and stay at a nice hotel with a destination charger, and then drive a ways to a supercharger with a nice place to have lunch.

 

[RTPEV]

Has anyone collected a list of the supercharger and destination charger amenities along I-95 from NY to Florida? It would be nice to have a simple list from North to South that just lists the superchargers, their kW, the nearby restaurants and hotels, and the good hotels that have destination chargers.

Ideally I need to find a place to drive for half a day and have a nice dinner while supercharging, then drive into the night a little longer and stay at a nice hotel with a destination charger, and then drive a ways to a supercharger with a nice place to have lunch.

Probably such a list would become obsolete fairly quickly, so what I would recommend is that you use Plugshare's Trip Planner feature along your desired route to identify charging stops that meet your desired amenity type, power level, and PlugScore settings.

Here is an example of potential charging stops along I-95 in SC and GA:

 

[bhzmark]

A wiki thread would work where the only change would be to add new superchargers. Like the new one somewhere in NC (or SC?) where I was disapointed to learn only has dunkin donuts as walkable food — greatly diminishing its utility. Might show up as food on plugshare or ABRP, but not really edible for some. a list with just the names of real places and perhaps commentary would be more useful.

 

[jwharnish]

Has anyone collected a list of the supercharger and destination charger amenities along I-95 from NY to Florida? It would be nice to have a simple list from North to South that just lists the superchargers, their kW, the nearby restaurants and hotels, and the good hotels that have destination chargers.

Ideally I need to find a place to drive for half a day and have a nice dinner while supercharging, then drive into the night a little longer and stay at a nice hotel with a destination charger, and then drive a ways to a supercharger with a nice place to have lunch.

You just need to go on Plugshare to find what you are looking for. So many places along that route to choose from.
I just took a small photo of part of that route and you can see what I am referring to.

 

[Earl]

As others have said: plugshare.com is the best source in the USA for hotels with chargers. I can't speak so much for other places.

 

[bhzmark]

As I originally said, I want to see it all at a glance on one page without clicking on a million superchargers to see whether there is just a Sheetz there to eat, or if there is a reasonable Texas Steakhouse or something else more upscale. And similarly for hotels with tesla or J1772 chargers. I've used plugshare since 2015 and it doesn't do what I need without a million clicks. Now that I am likely to do this drive more regularly I want to collect the useful information in a table to see at a glance.

 

[kindofblue]

Hi all,
Thanks for this thread. Most helpful tips and suggestions. I've book marked it for when we start road tripping again (shortly I hope).