Last spring I went to Miami for a large electronic music festival they have there every year. The first step is usually to look for plane tickets and figure out "is this doable" in terms of making it down there from NYC. I never thought that this year I would discover a place better than some high-end resorts!



After you get your flight booked, while youare still putting off paying for your event tickets (which you should get during the presale so you donat end up kicking yourself for having to pay $30 extra), you need to figure out where youare going to stay.

I looked into finding a place fairly close but away from the immediate downtown area. My agent had located a place in Hialeah, and I thought I could walk to it, but when I got there, I found out that I was mistaken. It turned out to be over half an hour from where I needed to be and in a really bad area of town, so I ended up calling for a taxi.

So last year, I started to plan my trip a little earlier (yet somehow, I stilled missed buying my event tickets with the presale discount!). Because I was planning on attending the festival with my girlfriend, whom I didnat want walking through those bad areas of town, I began looking for a hotel while the event was still two months away.

But my search for a hotel boasted no affordable options. Searching online, "Hotel Miami" came up with everything on the priceline of $250/night and up, but I did actually consider the hotel suite for $500, the "if you're going to do it, do it right" mentality hinting in...

Even with different search terms, such as aMotel Miamia or aMotor Inn Miami,a I was still not finding anything that was either reasonably priced or still available. It was then I decided to check out bed and breakfast places in the area. I found several places with another online search, and I called the B and B number listed on the website. They explained how things worked, I reserved a room, and that was that. I found a place that was not only reasonably priced, but also close enough to downtown to walk to and convenient to the metro train we would need to get to the airport when it was time to leave for home.

The best thing I found about going with a nice bed and breakfast place is the flexibility the owners have. Just two weeks shy of my trip, I decided to invite my brother to join us. Knowing we would need more sleeping space, I emailed the B and B to let them know what was going on and that we would have an additional person staying with us.

You won't believe this, but a week before this event, surely they were booked solid, the owner (who we later met in person), emailed back and said, "we have upgraded you to an apartment suite, glad your brother could make the trip". Expecting a substantially larger bill to pay, we were surprised that the BandB hardly charged us $10 more, literally upgrading us to a full apartment with living room, kitchen and 2 bedrooms for free. This kind of customer service only comes from those owner-operated locales that really distinguishes a Bed and Breakfast from corporate chains.

We spent a long day traveling and a longer night partying, and then we were able to sleep well in a fantastic room. When we got up the next morning, we were treated to a great breakfast of cereal, fruit and banana bread, and then we took off for another fun-filled day and night. If you ask me, Bed and Breakfast places are more top of the line than most of those high-priced resorts, and they come with superior customer service at a truly affordable rate.