Still time to book a room for the Kentucky Derby

Held annually on the first Saturday in May since 1875, the Kentucky Derby is less than two weeks away. Ticket packages to The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports are available through Churchill Downs and plenty of regular seats are available on the secondary market (in the past two years at least, face-value tickets have been an easy find a day or two before Derby).

Interested in booking a hotel in Louisville for the race on May 7 but concerned that no rooms are available (marquee downtown hotels 21c Museum Hotel, the Galt House, the Brown Hotel, and the Seelbach Hilton are sold out)? Don’t worry, you have options. The following places still have vacancies for checking in May 5 and departing May 8.

• • A search on CheapOair (that’d be this site) lists rooms for as low as $194 a night.

• If you can get over paying $594.15 a night for a Hampton Inn, the chain’s Louisville Downtown outpost has rooms available. And, hey, free breakfast!
• The Legacy Hotel has spacious modern rooms available in a historic setting on Derby weekend. And prices start at just $199 a night. One caveat: the historic setting is the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Rooms are available to the public, but guests need to follow the seminary’s rules (hint: they’re the strict Christians).
• Home rentals often provide more affordable accommodations than hotels, although it usually means foregoing housekeeping (but if you’re lucky, you might find some smut lying around that’ll compensate for the lack of SpectraVision). Kentucky Derby Home Rental has six Louisville homes for rent while Craigslist has dozens of listings (disclosure: I own the former site, but get no money commission should a home rent).

Still not sure if 2011 should be the year when you cross watching the Kentucky Derby off your bucket list? Watch Calvin Borel ride Super Saver to victory in the 2010 Derby.
If that video doesn’t convince you, read Hunter S. Thompson’s The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.