Any suggestion on Portland hotels/motels that offer winter rentals? (living in, bus)

[jessrmccar]

Hi,

My family and I (my son and boyfriend of 10 years) are wanting to move back to Maine after a move to Nevada. We moved to Nevada with big dreams on big paying jobs, but we've realized that it is not all that is cracked up to be and want to raise our son in the same great environment that we were brought up in (we were both born and raised in Maine).

We are possibly thinking of moving back to Maine in October, which is not the best time to move in Maine in the rental market and we need time to save our security deposit. So we are considering possibly living in a hotel until March or April of 2009 so we have a better selection of rentals to choose from. However, we never lived in a hotel during the offseason, does anyone know of a decent hotel or motel that offers reasonable off season rates and has bus service to Portland? If you know of a hotel that is also pet friendly (we have a cat) it would be much appreciated.