Hotel Chain Offers Discounts

There’s good news on the hotel scene for mature travelers. More hotels, resorts and inns are offering discounts and other incentives in order to gain a share of the senior market.

Budgetel Inns, a chain of more than 50 hotels in 18 states in the Midwest and the South, are offering bargains even without the senior discount, with rooms from $23.95 to $35.95 per night, single occupancy. Add $5 for a double.

While prices vary for a choice of double, twin or king-sized beds, the rate for a double room is less than $41 per night. Their “leisure suites,” which have a work station, easy chairs and a sleeper-sofa, cost about $7 per night extra.

Roadrunner Club

Mature travelers 55 or older or members of the American Assn. of Retired Persons can get 10% off the quoted prices. Another incentive is the Budgetel Roadrunner Club, which gives guests a free night’s lodging for each 12 paid nights in any Budgetel Inns during a one-year period.

Each room includes free movies, news and sports on 24-hour satellite TV, free local telephone calls and free beverages.

There is no charge for children under 18 in the same room. For a free directory and club membership card, write to Budgetel Inns, Dept. MT, 212 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, Wis. 53203, or call toll-free (800) 428-3438.

The Westin Hotels of Texas are extending some Texas hospitality to mature travelers 60 or older with a program called Senior Citizens’ Advantage. Participating hotels are the Westin Galleria and the Westin Oaks, Houston; Westin Paseo del Norte, El Paso, and the Westin Galleria, Dallas.

Houston and Dallas hotels each adjoin a Galleria shopping complex. All four Texas Westins offer seniors a 50% discount off published room rates seven days a week and a 10% discount off food and beverage.

The rate for a standard room at the Dallas Galleria, for example, is $145 per day double, which means a $72.50 daily rate per couple for seniors.

For reservations or information, call toll-free (800) 228-3000.

Special in Alabama

In the deeper South, there’s a small Ramada Inn in Prattville, Ala. (near Montgomery).

The inn, catering to mature travelers, looks like a Southern plantation house, and has 108 guest rooms. Regular room rates are $41 for two people ($35 single), and there’s a Value Plus program that includes at no extra cost a full breakfast, ice cream and popcorn in the evening, and the daily newspaper.

For reservations, information or brochures on Prattville’s Ramada Inn, call toll-free (800) 228-2828. (Ramada Inns have a system-wide 25% discount for seniors in participating inns, but that discount does not apply to these rates.)

Add Sonesta International Hotels to the list of hotels offering discounts to mature travelers. Discounts are from 10% in Sonesta hotels in Portland, Me., and Orlando, Fla., to 15% in Amsterdam, Bermuda, Key Biscayne and Ft. Meyers, Fla., and in Boston and New Orleans.

These discounts are available to all members of the American Assn. of Retired Persons. Travelers must present a membership card upon check-in. Reservations must be made through the Sonesta Instant Reservation Service. For information or reservations, call toll-free (800) 343-7170.