By Marty Graham

SAN DIEGO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A luxury room in a high-rise hotel, $238. A night on a cot in an emergency shelter, no charge. Finding out your home didn't burn to the ground after all, priceless.

Among the hundreds of thousands of people forced from their homes by wildfires raging across Southern California, the evacuation experiences of the well-heeled and those of more modest means have been very different.

Mobile home park resident Janet Tucker, 51, a retired bus driver who lives alone on disability, was one of an estimated 10,000 people who sought shelter at a makeshift evacuation center set up at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium.

Former stock broker and mortgage executive Jamie Feldman, 34, spent two nights with his pregnant wife ensconced in far cozier quarters at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego, watching TV news coverage of the fires from the comfort of their room.

Both were grateful for their temporary accommodations.

"They were perfect," said Eldman, who lives in an exclusive San Diego suburb where homes are valued at about $800,000. His two-night hotel stay cost $476, after special discounts for lodging, food and parking.

Tucker, who brought her two cats with her to the stadium, said her experience at Qualcomm was also positive. A diabetic who recently spent 12 days in a hospital, she was well fed and tended to by medical personnel at Qualcomm.

"They treated me really, really good here, better than at home," she said. "They even got me my own wheelchair. They took me down to the pet area so I could see my kitties and brought me all the way back."

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders announced on Wednesday that evacuation orders for parts of the city were being lifted after three days, and that he expected most of those displaced by fires to return home by nightfall.

Most of the county's hundreds of thousands of evacuees bunked with friends or family, or stayed in hotels and motels, with only about 20,000 going to shelters, said Sanders, who took in a number of emergency guests himself.

"Every family in San Diego has their family and friends with them," the mayor told a mid-afternoon news conference.

Tucker and Feldman each planned to spend one more night, Wednesday, in temporary quarters.

But both said they were grateful to know they were among the overwhelming majority of evacuees whose homes survived intact.

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