Vacation Savings Part 1 - Lodging

We are on a short vacation in Tennessee this week. The last time we came down here in 2009 we made our hotel reservations online before we left home, but quickly realized that if we had waited until we got here to get our room, we could have saved 40-50% on the cost of our hotel. This time we stopped at a rest stop just over the Tennessee border and picked up hotel coupon books. This allowed us to get a room at a Best Western in Seveirville for $45 per night for our first two nights. After driving through Pigeon Forge we noticed several hotels advertising rooms for $30-$35. Since the things we want to do tomorrow are in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, we are going to move down to one of those hotels for tomorrow night's stay. Since this is an area we like to visit when we get the opportunity to take a vacation, I have started a little notebook in which I am making lists of the hotels that we see that match what we look for in a place to stay with either low advertised rates or have coupons available. This will help us in choosing where to stay for our next trip here. Another factor in our hotel savings is timing. We are here in June before the area hotels increase rates for the busy July/August travel season. We are also here early in the week. Rooma are less expensive Sunday-Thursday nights than on the weekend.