Like most people, I like a good deal.

I’m more drawn to whip out my credit card when purchasing a bottle of wine or a blouse if it’s marked 30% off.

And when putting travel plans together – although, I like to be pampered, I prefer to devote a greater portion of my vacation budget to dining or music or experiences that are special to the place I’m visiting than to pop for a four-star hotel.

This past week, I started to get excited about my plans to attend the National Storytelling Festival In Jonesboro, Tennessee.  I haven’t planted my butt on the town’s courthouse steps or on a folding chair in one of their tents to lose myself in a skilled teller’s yarn for twenty years or so.

Several weeks ago, when I purchased a pass for the weekend event, I looked into hotels that were near Jonesboro.  I like to use Airbnb when I expect to be in one place for several days or when I’m traveling with someone else, but motels or hotels seem to be in order when I only plan to stay in one place for a night or two.

I found a room at an Econo Lodge, and when I made my reservation, I decided to join Choice Hotels’ member program for additional discounts.

If you watch television, it’s hard not to notice the high proportion of commercials dedicated to pharmaceuticals and travel.

I’m tired of seeing the Trivago Man enjoying a breakfast buffet or jumping on a luxurious hotel bed, and I’ve grown suspicious that most Americans must suffer from erectile dysfunction, rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriasis.

While Expedia, Hotwire, Kayak, Priceline, Cheap-O-Air and others might offer discounted rates on lodging, I have to wonder what my time is worth.  I don’t think it’s a great deal to save $20 on a hotel when it takes me 2 hours to pour through my options.

So, because I ended up booking at a Choice Hotel for the duration of the festival (in nearby Johnson City), I decided to look into options they could offer in Louisville,  Knoxville, and Nashville, the other planned stops along my road trip.

I called up Choice’s call center, discussed the cities I planned to visit, shared my preference for staying near city centers, and confirmed that I was not currently a Triple A member or entitled to a senior discount, and –

Ba Da Book, Ba Da Boom!

I’m not a spokesperson for the company and can’t yet say if the rooms are dirty, if the walls are paper thin, or if the waffle maker in their breakfast bar is broken, but I can say that making my reservation was EASY.

As business travel is not part of my life now, I don’t have points with Marriott or Hilton or Sheraton, so membership here seemed to be a reasonable decision.

I declined their special offers (having learned that special offers often come with costly strings attached), reviewed my email confirmations and checked off hotel reservations from my to-do list.

I now had more time to determine if I could visit the Louisville Slugger factory and select which bourbon and whiskey distilleries I’d like to tour en route to Jonesboro.

Saving money is great, but I really value saving my time.

I like the process of telling someone what I’m looking for and discussing my options.  I like to enlist the help of others who are more knowledgeable about things than I am on different topics like on other discounts I could take advantage of.  I appreciate being helped by someone who is better than I am at simultaneously scanning different databases.

Even though, our relationship is strictly transactional, I like it when someone is patient with me while I make my choices and make sure all my questions are answered; when he or she seems to care that I am making the best decisions I can considering what I want.

The sincere help of somebody working in a call center is no small thing.

(Free waffles and wifi are not bad either… Ba Da Book. Ba Da Boom.)