It's one of the most recently build tourist hotels in Pattaya: the Pattaya Bay Resort. It's a basic tourist hotel in the second row of buildings behind second street, a 10 minute walk to Beach Road and Walking Street, the two main attractions of Pattaya daytime and nighttime activities. It's right next to Mercure Hotel Pattaya. The rooms are basic and clean. Internet access is available and they have a small pool on the roof top. If you bring Thai guests into the hotel they will insist on holding their ID on the reception. I am concerned about the lack of respect towards guests and their friends, but understandable concerning their location right next to the biggest night entertainment district in Asia. The room I booked was located on their top floor.

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During my first stay in Cebu (a few years back) I was just looking for a basic hotel with a central location for two nights as I was traveling on to Davao by boat later on. I picked the Hotel Eddie, a smaller budget hotel in the center of town. It's clean and basic with a good location. At the time of my stay a night was just about 1300 Piso with a discount from Asia Travel website.

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Located on Soi Nana Omni Tower Bangkok is one of the oldest serviced apartment buildings in Bangkok. A serviced apartment is basically a hotel that rents out furnished apartments for short and long term stays. I booked a 2 BR for me and my friends. The apartment was located on the 26th floor. It was nice and offered a lot of space. The furniture showed a bit of tear and wear compared to other competitors in that area like the newly renovated Centrepoint on Soi 10. The security is very tight and a bit annoying. They ask for IDs of Thai visitors, but foreign looking friends like Westerners and Japanese pass without the need to show an ID. Go figure! Maybe it's because the hotel is located close to Nana Plaza, one of the red-light districts of Bangkok. As long as they offer promos and reasonable pricing the Omni Tower is a good offer for people who want to stay close to Nana Plaza. The elevator ride on the outside of the building offers a great view of the city, but can be scary for people who are afraid of heights.
Omni is next to Nana Plaza: Nana Plaza Bangkok

Top Image: Aerial view from my bedroom overlooking Sukhumvit area with its high rise office and condo buildings. Bottom table of images: snapshots of my 2 BR apartment on the 26th floor.

Buenos Aires is the South American hub for art, design and architecture. It's old style buildings are magnificent and a lot of new houses are build with great design and architecture. Wouldn't it be great to stay in such a fine building instead of a crammy hotel room? When staying for a longer period of time in Buenos Aires a stay in a rental apartment is a fine alternative to hotels. There are a lot of residential rentals available over the internet. During my first short stay in Baires I had a look at a couple of apartments in Palermo and decided to try out Apartments BA for a week's rental of a refurbished loft next to Salerno Plaza in Palermo. It was not cheap, but for the price of a small hotel room I got a huge 2 BR loft with great interior architecture and a lot of privacy. Most of their places feature exceptional interior design, but sometimes the looks are at the expense of functionality.

A view at a custom made media center with LCD TV in side a San Telmo apartment in Buenos Aires.

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A smaller Bangkok hotel in central location on the crossing of Sukhumvit Road and Soi 19. The Grottino located very close to public transportation like MRT, BTS Skytrain and the Ekkamai bus terminal, taxi transport to the Suvarbnahumi airport lasts around 30 minutes via Asok and Rama 9 highway. The rooms are comfortable and provide a nice amount of space, but some of the hotel rooms are for smokers, be aware of this and ask for a non-smoking room if this is of concern to you. The owners are friendly Swiss people who are more than happy to assist in many matters. The restaurant offers Thai and Swiss dishes. My tip: Try their bread! They operate a bakery with some of the best bread in Bangkok.

Girlfriend and Mom came for a visit to Asia. They wanted to see the famous beaches of Thailand and there is no better place than Phuket in Thailand. I don't remember what website I used to search for hotels, but I found the newly rebuilt Sugar Palm Resort as a last minute offer for 1300 Baht per night. It's located 2 blocks off of Kata beach, one of the nicest and more quiet beaches on the tropical island. The room was great with a sliding divider between bedroom and bath. Everything was new and functional. Internet access for their WLan had to be purchased in 80 Baht denominations for 3 hours with very slow connectivity and poor signal on the third floor. But, hey: other than that it was a great Phuket vacation hotel with nice pool, easy beach access with a lot of touristy places and restaurants near by. I would come here again any time.
Online Booking: Agoda Phuket.

Most people looking for budget accommodation in the Golden City of Prague do the mistake to search for rooms in tourist places where prices are exorbitantly high during peak season. Prague has an excellent public transportation system linking it's suburbs and center by metro underground rail, street cars and buses for very low fares. It's possible to commute to downtown within 20 mins from remote places like Vysocany (Prague 9). There are a lot of cheap stays around like Arlington Hotel. This place is a very basic 2-star tourist hotel with bed, separate shower, a small desk and cabinet. Arlington offers a small breakfast buffet included in your bill. For people who spend all day sightseeing it's all you basically need. There is no luxury at all, but it's sufficient as a decent overnight stay for tired tourists who need nothing more than a bed to rest and a shower in the morning. This Prague hotel room is pretty peaceful with a small park inside the square.
Booking offers:

It was my second visit to Kuala Lumpur. Because I arrived late night I was thinking about either booking the Pan Pacific Airport hotel or a hotel close to Sentral KL station. KL Sentral is the railway station in Kuala Lumpur that tourists arrive at via KLIA Ekspres, the highspeed train connecting KL international airport with the city, a 37 minute ride for the price of 35 Ringit.

Opposite KL Sentral there is a twin tower building that hosts 2 hotels: The Hilton and Le Meridien. The later is the cheaper of the two so I gave it a try. I booked a club room and was lucky to receive a complimentary upgrade to a jr. suite on one of the top floors as I am Gold SPG member. The room was very nice with a beautiful view of parks and the south of the city (the opposite side of Menara and Petronas towers). Very comfortable bed, good high speed internet and a wonderful bathroom with a corner view. On the downside they would not offer any late check-out and the complimentary water was 'hidden' on an upper shelf in inside the bathroom that made me buy the expensive Evian water out of the mininbar to satisfy my thirst in the middle of the night.
The location of the Kuala Lumpur Le Meridien is perfect when you arrive by air and take the KLIA Ekspres train into town. It's just a short walk across the street.

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Usually, I prefer to book apartments when staying in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, but for a short 3 day trip I chose to stay at a hotel and picked the Holiday Inn Express in Puerto Madero. It's location is very central with the ferry port and the railway station in walking distance as well as the central down town with shopping centers on Florida Street right around the corner. The hotel is designed for people that just need a bed for the night and don't spend to much time inside the house. The rooms are very small, but comfortable. Their prices are justified by the central location, not by the outfit of the establishment. Breakfast is very basic self service and the gym on the top floor does not allow a magnificent workout. It's a basic brand name hotel in a central location of Buenos Aires - no more and no less. But that's what the Holiday Inn Express brand is supposed to be in the first place, a clean hotel with basic amenities, only. I would stay there again for a night, but I think there are better choices with more luxury for the same price.

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My first stay in Hong Kong so I wanted to stay in a very central location and picked the Holiday Inn Hotel Golden Mile in Kowloon. What a good choice! The location is hard to beat, right in the middle of Kowloon beside Shim Hsa Tsui Underground station and just a few blocks away from the bay. The rooms are great, very comfortable and equipped with ultra fast internet. The breakfast buffet is fantastic with a wide variety of choices. I liked their wide selection of fruits and bakery products a lot. The staff was very helpful and sophisticated. It's by far the best Holiday Inn hotel I ever stayed in around the globe and I stayed in a lot of them over the past years. Maybe it's because of the tough competition as the house is surrounded by many other first class hotels like the Intercontinental, Sheraton and Shangri La Hong Kong. It has a certain patina, an stylish old touch combined with proven functionality.

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Some international flight connections are funny, so I ended up spending one night in a Washington hotel on my way from San Jose, Costa Rica to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Believe it or not, but the Hilton IAD Airport hotel was a superb choice for the large detour I had to take on this Star Alliance round the world trip. There is a shuttle picking up passengers from the arrival terminals on IAD Washington International Airport every 30 mins for transportation to Herndon, VA, a 15 minute drive. The rooms are very large and well equipped with king-sized beds and spacious bath rooms. The room service is fast with decent food and their internet connectivity leaves nothing to be desired. I had a wonderful night full of sleep. It's pretty quiet. The next day they arranged a private taxi trip for shopping around Washington for just 50 Dollars. It was a great pleasure to stay at this hotel. I enjoyed the great rooms and the good service. Discount Hotel Booking: Hilton Washington Dulles Airport

Two shots from my Hilton hotel room. Unfortunately, US Airways lost my luggage on the flight from San Jose to IAD so I did not have a good camera with me to shoot any better pix.