The Hotel Chain That Should Be On Every Parent’s Radar

When it was just me, my husband and our pug, we were really loyal to Best Western when traveling. Whether we were going skiing for a night or two or moving across the country twice, we got to know Best Westerns all over the country because of their pet-friendly policy. They were one of the few hotels that didn’t charge a million dollars to have your dog with you, so we stayed there a lot.

Now that we aren’t traveling with a pet anymore (sadly), we’re much more open to different hotel choices. We usually go by convenience and location off the interstate and what hotel is in our line of sight when the kids have had it with driving for the day, usually about 600 or 700 miles into our 1,200-mile drive to Kansas for the holidays. But we made a discovery this time around that I knew I had to share.

We’d never stayed in a Drury Inn before, and I’m not going to lie: My sole reasoning was that the name looks and sounds like the word dreary. But we were pulling into an area with several options in Ohio, and it looked like our best bet. Upon check-in we discovered the true benefit to the hotel chain: Drink tickets for the adults and a free hot food option from 5:30 to 7 p.m. My husband and I were able to relax with a drink or two, I got carded (insert cry-laughing emoji here), and the kids were able to eat chicken fingers, hot dogs and nachos to their hearts’ content. There was also salad, chili, soup and baked potatoes, depending on your location and what’s on the menu for the night. (That’s right, we tested out two Drury Inns, one on the way to Kansas and one on the way back to New Jersey.) We didn’t test out the hot breakfast option because we got back on the road early both stays, but it’s there if you have a more leisurely hotel experience.

I must say that Alan and I opted out of the dinner option in favor of nearby dining options, but being able to feed the kids for free was great. They are at their pickiest when traveling so it’s nice not to spend money on something they won’t eat, and chicken fingers and hot dogs are pretty much going to always get their stamp of approval. Sure it’d be nice if the options were a little healthier, but the convenience was unbeatable. The drinks were also a really nice touch after a day of driving. I never used all three of my allotted drinks, but two tiny glasses of wine after 11 hours in the car made me a loyal fan for life.

Have you ever found a hotel with perks that made you loyal for good? I wish we’d found this option two cross-country trips ago! —Erin