What's the cheapest place you've stayed in that was actually meant to be a hotel or motel or such?

Gila bend - the Willow Motel, i think. $47. Hostels are far cheaper but I don't think that is what you intended.

hmm. I've had cheaper hotel rooms in Mexico.

I stayed at the IQ Ball in Nairobi for something like $3.50 a night. You basically got a clean bed. The showers and toilets were shared. I remember wrapping myself in a sheet & going to take a shower :-) This was in 1993 - wonder what they charge now?

LOL Jeanne OK I think you win here!

I think $49/night is fairly typical for some motels around here if we go up to Maine or such. Bob likes to stay at pretty bargain places. He tends to balk if it gets over $60. He chose some really smarmy places and I began to put my foot down about "no bugs" at least

$25 at a state park in Colorado. We were RVing and brought our own bed and bathroom. Does that count?

Using one of those travel books they have in the welcome stations, I used a coupon and got a holiday inn room for $49.

Just average US traveling, not a hostel or foriegn, third world country, but I love travel any way I can get it. But, specifically United States, we stayed at a hotel called Value Place.

It was $169.00/Wk or $700/Month

For that price you could choose 2 double beds or 1 queen, bathroom, table and 2 chairs, kitchen - but it was like the top of a stove, microwave, fridge, sink and pantry, cable, internet and security doors, so no outside enterance, a laundramat down the hall. I really loved it. You could check out a vacuum for free if you wanted and they had maid service once a week.

All of that for about $24.00 a night for the week $22.00 a night if you paid for a month.

11 dollars per night at the Ramada Express Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nevada. It's now the Tropicana Hotel, and is a great hotel and you can still get it almost that cheap when they run specials. Amazing deal for a super nice hotel complete with a pool area, several restaurants, and refurbished rooms.

Hmmm. When I backpacked through the Middle East for three months in the winter of 1964/65 with a girl I met at a Youth Hostel in Greece, our travel costs were ten shillings a day each - about USD1.50. Of that magnificent sum, about half was spent on each night's accommodation. Is this posting outside the terms of reference of this thread? I'm sure it is! But I can't be the only former backpacker on this site, and I would dearly love to read others' experiences of bumming around on the cheap.

I once did a $4 deal at the Riverside (I think) in Laughlin. It was like 20 years or so ago. I found the coupon by looking in the Phoenix AZ Sunday classifieds. They have all kinds of travel deals there.

Years and years ago hotels in Portugal and (I think) Spain used to have Youth Hostels that were part of (and physically connected to) some fairly expensive hotels. My wife and I were travelling around in a car, and made good use of them. Do such places still exist? They may have been called "posadas": does that ring a bell with anybody?

What are some great deals that are currently available?

Try backpacking in Asia, really cheap rooms but careful with your belongings.