motel

The hotel industry has emerged from its recessionary doldrums and it's getting harder to score a cheap room. But even with occupancy rates rising, if you're willing to book your stay blind on priceline.com or Hotwire, good deals can be had.

Halloween is coming, so I'm going to kick off festivities by saying one of the scariest phrases in the English language: roadside motel. Norman Bates may be the drag queen emblem of all things horrifying, but across America, the stained bedspreads and mildewed corners of our country's motels are,...