After a long day of driving or waiting in airport terminals, there's nothing more frustrating than getting to your hotel and discovering it looks nothing like the booking photos. Plus, with hotel prices skyrocketing more than 16% over the past decade, you're probably wondering why you didn't just stay at home.

The good news is that a new lineup of hotels — called Spark by Hilton — has figured out a way to provide travelers with consistent, quality rooms across all its locations, with the backing of sustainability practices that help reduce serious waste.

And the pricing doesn't hurt either. For example, a night at the Spark hotel in Chincoteague, Virginia (near where the annual wild pony swim takes place), starts at just $125 and includes free breakfast.

Spark also makes it easy to see TripAdvisor ratings for each location as well as the exact distance and info about travel options from a specific address, making it easier to plan out a trip with a mind toward limiting unnecessary driving. 

How it works

Spark hotels launched in 2023 and now are available to travelers around the world. Their goal is to offer reliable rooms that don't break the bank, so that regardless of whether you're in Utah or  Europe, you'll know what you're getting when you book a Spark room.

There's more innovation here behind the savings than you might expect. The hotel brand is able to offer consistency at such low prices by converting existing hotels — that typically either were once not profitable or that fell under another hotel franchise due to expire soon — and streamline the experience under Spark operations. 

This also means that rather than having to build new hotels (a more expensive process involving more material waste and resources expended), the brand can pass along those savings to customers. It's a faster process, too, meaning more affordable hotels are popping up all the time.

The site's search system doesn't limit itself to just Spark properties, either, so it will also display other Hilton-affiliated hotels in the area for comparison and consideration.

Why budget-friendly travel is important

The U.S. is home to 63 national parks, 154 national forests, and countless wide-open spaces and areas of natural beauty that are almost always totally free to visit. But getting there can sometimes be extremely pricey, especially if you have to pay for airfare or rent a car.

In addition to that Chincoteague location, Spark has hotels in other beautiful areas around the country, including near the red rocks of Garden of the Gods in Colorado, the stark desert landscape of Joshua Tree National Park in California, and the scenic vistas of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.

Relatedly, you can change your mindset more often when planning a vacation by giving greater consideration to destinations closer to home. Just because you live in California doesn't mean Joshua Tree isn't just as fantastic of an extended vacation spot as it is for anyone else, for instance, and it saves significant money and pollution when travel distances end up shorter. 

What's Hilton's overall sustainability plan?

Spark hotels are part of Hilton, which operates via the guiding principle of Travel with Purpose to make a positive impact. That means Hilton is always aiming to create more sustainable stays for guests — by focusing on energy efficiency, reducing water and waste, promoting biodiversity, and sourcing products responsibly.

For example, the brand reports it has saved 3.9 million meals from ending up in landfills across nearly 200 hotels to date, and nearly 70% of its properties now offer hydration stations or on-site bottling to reduce single-use plastic. Furthermore, the Hilton Global Foundation invested more than $7.3 million into projects building a better world for travel in 2024 alone.

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