There's Something About a Dive Bar—or is There?

One out of three U.S. hotels and motels is "in foreclosure, has changed hands under financial duress, or will hit the skids next year, reports Joe Sharkey, a reporter for Portfolio. The reason: Many hotel owners are running short of cash to pay their creditors after real estate prices have collapsed and banks have become less generous in their lending policies. Here's what this financial news means for travelers: The best values tend be found at hotels that cater to business travelers. Travelers can also find deals in cities whose real estate markets were overdeveloped in the mid-2000s, such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles, because the owners there are under high pressure to fill their rooms. Foreclosures are most likely outside of cities, so discounts can be found across the country. Tip: There are exceptions, of course. You'll have to look harder for deals in New York City and Florida, where many international tourists have been booking up rooms and pushing up rates. Many hotels and motels are becoming run down. Travelers may increasingly see out-of-service elevators, broken furniture, and flickering lights as many owners struggle to keep their properties in ship-shape. Tip: It's as important as ever to consult a hotel's online ratings before booking. Try TripAdvisor, the giant of such sites for a quick gauge of mass opinion. Or else look at the reviews from past customers on the major travel sites like Expedia, Hotels.com, and Priceline, which only allow guests who have actually paid to stay at a hotel to rate it. Hotel owners are desperate for guests, and that means there are discounts to be had. About 38 percent of U.S. hotel rooms go empty every night on average. The best deals are to be found at the last-minute, when hotels are afraid their rooms will otherwise go vacant. Tip: Look for last-minute discounts of up to 70 percent off standard room rates on three- and four-star hotels in major US cities on the same day by using apps like Hotel Tonight for Android and iPhone and Priceline's with Tonight-Only Deals on its Hotel & Car Negotiator for Android and iPhone. Brand names don't mean much. Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton, and so forth don't directly own most of the hotels that have their names on them. So, your experience of staying at a Hilton in one town may differ significantly from you stay at a Hilton elsewhere. Tip: The main benefit of a hotel chains is its loyalty program. Because hotel occupancy is low, you'll earn free stays quickly, and you shouldn't have a problem booking a free reward night. You can start often start a "bidding war" for your business. If you need to book your room ahead, find two hotels you like in the same neighborhood and then see which one will offer you the better deal. Here's how: Book a hotel reservation that's refundable at one hotel, but then call the other one you like to see if it might provide you a better deal. Say, "I've got a reservation to stay at [insert property name] with a King size bed for [insert the price], but I was looking at your TripAdvisor reviews and am wondering if I should cancel it and stay at your hotel instead. I really like your hotel because of [insert reason]. Could you give me a discounted rate, or a better room?" With luck, the clerk will try to tempt you with a better rate. Tip: Be sure to call the hotel's front desk directly, not a chain's toll free reservations hotline, which won't have the same flexibility or incentive to cut you a deal. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL What Happens When Your Hotel Is in Foreclosure? 6 Foreign Car-Rental Fees to Watch for on Vacation Peer-to-Peer Car Rentals

Today a U.S. citizen received a prison sentence of two and a half years for breaking Thailand's "never bad-mouth the King" laws, reports the LA Times. This case shows that foreign visitors to Thailand are not exempt from the country's laws against defaming the monarchy. In this particular case, Thai-born Joe Gordon, a 55-year old used-car salesman, wrote a blog posting several years ago—while he was living in Colorado—that included a Web link to a site featuring an unflattering biography of the king. Gordon then made the mistake last May of visiting Thailand for its famously affordable medical clinics. Yes, he was jailed today for something he wrote in the US several years ago. To be sure, Gordon's case is extreme, and the average American traveler's chances of being arrested abroad are only .006 percent. But Gordon's case does underline an important point that affects all travelers: A few laws may be so unexpected that they can catch even culturally sensitive Americans off guard. In the case of Thailand, travelers may discover that police are obliged to investigate every complaint that someone has defamed the monarchy, and prison terms can last up to 15 years. Here are four other surprising foreign laws to watch out for while vacationing abroad, based on reporting by Katherine Spiers for Budget Travel. Over-the-counter medicines in the U.S. are sometimes illegal in Japan, and that includes some Vicks and Sudafed products and anything else containing pseudoephedrine. If authorities at customs catch you with such products, they may detain you. Singapore puts a great deal of effort into keeping its public toilets (along with many other things) pristine. And visitors are expected to help keep them gleaming. Failure to flush may result in fines. Traveling by scooter in many major cities of the Philippines has its challenges: You can get ticketed for driving in sandals or bare feet. In Finland, taxi drivers playing music in their cars are required to pay a copyright fee. The idea is that the music is being presented to the "public"—the cabs' paying customers. So your cabbie might keep things quiet to save a few euros. WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE ARRESTED OVERSEAS? FIND OUT BY CLICKING HERE: 8 Worst-Case Travel Scenarios SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: Can You Spot the Travel Rip-off? 5 Surefire Ways to Offend the Locals

Too often, travelers jump into rental vehicles and start driving without adjusting their side-view mirrors properly. Sure, many drivers do adjust their side-view mirrors. But some do it the wrong way, risking blind spots that can lead to accidents. The most important thing to keep in mind, says The Society of Automotive Engineers, is this: You shouldn't see any part of your own vehicle reflected in the side-view mirrors. If your side-view mirrors show the sides of your own vehicle, then the mirrors aren't pointing outward enough. So, you may not see cars coming from behind. This advice on mirrors also applies to personal vehicles, obviously. But it's when people are renting a car that they most often have to re-adjust side-view and rear-view mirror settings. Car and Driver has taken the Society's advice, which is based on crash data and driver surveys, to create a simple chart on how to adjust your rear-view and side-view mirrors. The following chart is courtesy of its article How To: Adjust Your Mirrors to Avoid Blind Spots, via Lifehacker. SEE MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL Zipcar Is Driving Competition in Rental Cars You'll Never Guess the Highest-Rated Car Rental Agency Hertz Changes Its Loyalty Program

Here's proof that when there's little competition at an airport, travelers pay a hefty price. Wanna clear demonstration of the so-called "Southwest Airlines effect" in action? The phenomenon describes the way airfares drop when big "legacy" carriers are forced to compete on routes with other airlines, specifically low-cost airlines such as Southwest. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently reported the findings of a study about the impact low-cost carriers had on the fares paid by passengers. The major local airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP), is the 11th most expensive gateway in the country, according to the Department of Transportation. MSP also happens to be dominated by Delta Airlines, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the domestic flights in two of the airlines' terminals. On routes at MSP that only Delta flies, the average one-way fare is $218. When Delta competes on a route with another legacy carrier, such as United or American, the average fare goes down to $200. And when Southwest or another low-cost carrier competes on a route with Delta, the average price for a one-way ticket is $159. That's 27 percent cheaper than the average fare on Delta-only routes. This scenario, in which a monopoly yields higher prices for passengers, is hardly limited to Minneapolis. For years, Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) has been infamous for consistently hosting fares among the highest in the nation, on average. Like at MSP, the routes flown to and from CVG are dominated by one airline in particular. Yep, it's Delta. Delta also has a huge presence in Atlanta. But ATL is among the country's biggest, busiest airports, and Delta must compete with low-cost AirTran (which has a hub there) and tons of other carriers that use the gateway. As a result, ATL winds up being a reasonably priced place to fly to, through, or from: It ranks as the nation's 45th most expensive major airport. MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL: What Makes Your Least Favorite Airport So Awful? ?src=blgrc">Should Airlines Have to Allow One Checked Bag By Law? 5 Airport Innovations Worth Praising