Florida hotel, pay now or on arrival?

HI,
will be travelling to Florida in Jan and have booked direct with hotel. I can pay accommodation on arrival $2500.(have stayed in this hotel before) or can pay now. I am wondering if I should pay now as the dollar is in my favour or is there any point in taking money from savings. I hate to have a cc bill in Jan.

maggie

why are you paying so much for accommodation over there. you can rent a 4 bed condo for usd 500 a week and i am sure that is much cheaper than a hotel. how many rooms and how long are you staying there for, it seems very expensive. i recommend that you search the internet for better value. where in florida is this ...orlando i presume

The USD is very weak, it's even fallen through the 1.40 to the € mark today. It's a great time to be doing any USD transactions.
I'd defo buy some USD now (maybe not all, hedge you bets).
Below some comments from AIB Bank

The dollar remains under pressure as markets
look to interest rate differentials. The euro has extended
its gains this morning to trade above the $1.41 level.
Yesterday’s comments to Congress by Fed Chairman,
Ben Bernanke, indicating that he sees further housing
market weakness and sub-prime delinquencies, did
nothing to support the dollar. Today there are a host of
ECB and Fed officials speakers to grab market attention.
There are no US economic data due but, in the
eurozone, the flash September PMIs are likely to
moderate as the current financial market turmoil impacts.​

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I dont' think there's too much danger of the US$ appreciating rapidly before January so I certainly wouldn't pay 4 months in advance for a hotel (what would happen if you had to cancel / consider the benefit to of the 2.5k sitting in your account for 4 months)

bsloe is dead right why give a hotel your hard earned cash when you can rent out a multi-room villa with its own pool at half the cost of what you are paying. I am being slightly bias here as we have a villa over there. Hotels are so passe. Get on the net and start trawling.

As Maggie has stayed at this hotel on a previous visit, she has obviously made an informed decision re accommodation.

I would suggest buying your USD in advance - buy half now and leave the other half in your account to build up interest and change it to USD nearer the time. Enjoy!

Hi,
thanks will buy half now and half later. I know this accommodation is expensive and I have looked at private villa's but still went with this one.

Have booked a 2 bed villa for 14 nights at "The Sheraton Vistana resort" as will have family joining us from NY.
We like the location, accommodation is quiet/clean and has everything we want. There are acres of grounds for walks, choice of bars, restaurants etc.
I liked the idea of a private villa with own pool and got very good quotes only problem is we will not be driving and would feel isolated till other family came but thanks for all replies.

Sorry for cutting in on your thread but I will also be travelling to Orlando in Jan and would like advice on best place to book a private villa as location names do not mean anything.
We do not drive so would like to be near restaurants and entertainment. We are not bothered about the parks as we can get a bus when required.

Private villas really aren't an option if you are not driving as even the nearest ones (probably Windsor Hills) are 3/4 miles from the nearest theme parks (Disney) - and 15/20 miles from Sea World, Universal studios etc. There's not much in the way of public transport out where the villas are - although Windsor Hills does have a private (expensive) shuttle to the parks. You would be much better off staying in the International Drive area where there is some semblance of public transportation and you may be in walking distance of some restaurants and entertainment. For a private villa, I would recommend orlandovillas.com and for I-Drive, most of the US chains have a variety of accommodation there - e.g. Embassy Suites, Marriott etc.

Marcecie
Would agree with previous poster - stay somewhere on International Drive or Universal Blvd if you don't drive as the villas are quite a distance from restaurants and entertainment. Public transport is definitely not to be relied upon as most people drive anyway.

Many of the hotels/suite hotels offer free shuttles to the parks/attractions and there is a hop on hop off trolley which travels the length of I Drive. Take a look at the I-Ride Trolley routemap which shows you the trolley route and the various hotels, restaurants and accommodation along the way - you can download it in pdf format. By the way would recommend Bahama Breeze at the end of I Drive as a place to eat with great atmosphere.

http://www.iridetrolley.com/visitorInformation/maps.asp

great to get some useful info thanks.