In the US, you really cannot, generally speaking, get a room for under 30 USD a night and in most cases, nearly all of them are around 40 USD a night. However, though, there are exceptions. For instance, I've seen rooms in the tourist traps of Las Vegas and Miami to have some rooms hovering around 20 USD a night. I suppose the reason is that there is so much competition there that certain owners have to give rock-bottom prices. Anyway, I'm always assuming people are looking online for deals, and that's where I found out about these incredibly cheap prices.
In India you can get a good room in the range of $10-20 depending upon your preferences. A room in a 3 star hotel in almost all cities of tourists' interest is available for $30-40 and 4 star from $50 onward. However if you are not fussy at where you stay overnight, you can get a room as cheap as at $7-10 in almost any city. However, in Australia especially Sydney where I currently live hotels and other rental properties are perhaps the costliest I have seen anywhere in the world.
Cheap maybe one thing but you want safe and clean. You can either book early to get a sale deal or late to get a last minute deal, but I think $40 is fine. It depends on what day you are staying and whether there is anything else happening such as an event nearby. Often if you stay a few days they can reduce the daily rate, but you have to ring and haggle or email ahead. Places out of season rent weekly for a fraction of the price, so it all depends on where you are going and how long you are going to stay.
Rooms can be expensive sometimes, but it depends with the location, country, length of stay, among other factors. If the motel is secured with electric fence, availability of security officers, privacy, good customer care, with no doubt prices must skyrocket. I have seen few places where bargaining is allowed, but why should you go to a place that is beyond your means? Unless if it is an emergency and you are in a place where there are no cheap motels.
OK, here is an update. I found that where I live a campground can be rented for 10 USD a night and there are also certain places where you can get a room for around 20 USD a night. Anyway, to check out this stuff and book online, just type in AirBnB.com. I think it's well worth it, but the problem is that seem to only allow stays of 7 days.
When we travel, we always buy plane tickets in advance like 6 months. That gives us a lot of time to look for bargains for accommodations. Online booking sites have the standard 10% discount for advanced booking and sometimes they give more depending on the season. I am right now in South Korea for a vacation and we got a good discount in Tmark hotel for the early booking. Our room was also upgraded aside from the early check in granted to us.
Actually, it's quite easy to find cheap places in South Korea. However, though, you might not want to rough it on a real vacation. The cheap stuff is more for young singles. Anyway, one thing is a hostel type place which is only around 12 USD a night I think (It's been awhile since I was there.). Also, there are dorm-like apartments known as Goooshewan and finally you can sleep overnight at a bathhouse for around 7 USD a night or less I think.
