Rant about fancy hotels
I have just arrived in Cambridge, MA for a week of consulting for Microsoft Research. They paid for my flight and hotel room so they put me in a fancy $200/night hotel. In this post I will try to explain why in my opinion, in general, the fancier the hotel the worse it is.
I have nothing against hotels as a service. Hotels provide a traveler with a clean place to spend the night, and with basic necessities. Hotels are useful when traveling, or when you need a clean neutral place to have sex. However, fancy hotels do not seem to provide these well, and charge a lot of money to do so.
Compare, for example, the fancy hotel I’m staying at now with a cheap motel for $40/night. The motel included a microwave and fridge, free parking, free wifi, and a free “breakfast”, which, admittedly, is nothing to feast over. However, the fancy hotel includes none of those (or least without caveats galore).
Here is a comparison of the cheap motel and the fancy hotel. I am purposefully omitting hotel names, as this is common for many hotels and motels.
| Amenity | Cheap Motel | Fancy Hotel |
|---|---|---|
| Price per night | $51 | $211 |
| Parking | free, right outside room | $20/day |
| Internet Access | free WiFi | WiFi free with loyalty program, otherwise $10/day |
| Getting there | free airport shuttle | 15 minute walk from subway station |
| Breakfast | free coffee and popcorn | $21 for continental breakfast |
| Refrigerator | free in room, empty | only mini-bar |
| Microwave | free in room | not available |
| Location | right off highway | near center of town |
| Storage Space | lots of empty drawers, closet | one drawer, small closet |
| Bed | Queen size, comfy, extra pillows on demand | King size, very comfy, useless decorative pillows |
| Power outlets | Limited | Limited |
| Phone | One phone near bed | Three phones (one cordless) |
| Phone Costs | Free local calls | $1/local call |
| Bath/Shower | Included, with fancy showerhead | Included, with fancy showerhead |
Given the above comparison, why would anyone choose the fancy hotel over the cheap motel? I’m really curious. If you blog readers willingly stay at (and pay for) fancy hotels, why do you do so?
I have found that the quality of the beds and sheets (and pillows, but I always bring my own anyway) are substantially superior in the nicer hotels and are worth the cost to upgrade to at least a Marriott level hotel.
The only hotels I’ve ever stayed in that were around $50 per night were Days Inns, Motel 6s, and similar motels when I was driving across the country before I met Jason. While we had some “nice” ones (the beds and sheets were never what I consider to be nice,) we had just as many dirty disgusting bug-infested hell holes.
Comment by Blake | August 10, 2009
I guess I can’t really feel the difference between a Motel 6 bed and a Hilton bed. Not to mention that even the Motel 6 bed is much much comfier than what I have at home. Why do people spend so much extra for beds specifically while traveling?
Comment by epsalon | August 10, 2009
I think it has to do with what a person is used to… for example, I grew up in a home full of firm beds. It’s what my parents always bought and I even got to choose a new bed sometime in high school and I chose a firm bed, so looking back, I know I used to like firm beds.
When I started sleeping at Jason’s, I thought he was insane for having an “ultra plush” pillow top mattress and had trouble sleeping. Now I love it. Just this week I spent a night at my parents and had a horrible time falling asleep because the bed was too hard!
I have also trained myself into needing very high quality bed sheets. Anything “standard” feels rough to me, including basic Best Western level hotel sheets and I don’t sleep with much clothes on so it makes it that much worse.
So I think what it comes down to is that I am spoiled when it comes to beds. I can’t sleep well on a bad bed and it’s worth the extra $75 dollars or so to Jason and I to ensure I have a good night’s sleep, not to mention that the better hotels are pretty much guaranteed to be up to our cleanliness standards. I am DEATHY afraid of bringing fleas or bedbugs home because they are so hard to get rid of!
Comment by Blake | August 10, 2009
As someone who translates travel guides, including listings for fancy hotels, I have also often wondered about this. What fancy hotels have and motels lack is usually refered to by two code-words - ‘amenities’ and ’style’. ‘Amenities’ are things like a spa, fitness center, business center, a concierge that calls cabs for you/helps you plan a night on the town, etc. - usually things that are not very important to you (or me) but are to others. ’style’ is even more fickle, as it has to do with nothing functional and only with the design (usually in the lobby, sometimes in the rooms too). However, the three advantages that I really enjoy in high-class hotels (the few I’ve slept in) are:
1. The comfy beds (already mentioned)
2. The room size (motels can be very cramped, especially for two people)
3. The location - a midtown hotel saves time, money and hassles.
Comment by RAK | August 10, 2009
I never use fancy hotels when traveling on a vacation. I just don’t think that the nice bed is worth the extra money.
When traveling to a city, the location is very important and being at the center of town is really useful, so I usually choose smaller, usually privately owned 3 star hotels in the center of the a city.
Fancy hotels are almost always geared for the rich and for people on business. When you are hopping between cities, sleeping every night in a different hotel, the following is important:
1. Somebody who is around at 3am in the morning when you arrive, and the area of the hotel well illuminated.
2. Somebody who will call you a trustworthy taxi, and will tell you how much time it will take to get to the airport at 7am, with traffic.
3. Iron for your shirts, as well as a dry cleaning service in case you require to clean a dirty suit, or have no time to iron your shirts.
4. Parking is never a problem because business people usually don’t rent cars.
Yuvaler
Comment by yuvaler | August 10, 2009
By the way, the best sex by far is at home when the girls are deposited at their grandparents.
Comment by yuvaler | August 10, 2009
Thank you all for the interesting discussion. I would like to reply to several important points:
1. Amenities - even the cheapest of motels have someone at the reception office 24/7. Even in the cheapest of motels, they’ll call a cab for you. Usually, it’s easier to get reliable information on the Internet than from a concierge anyway. Regarding things like spa, fitness, and business centers, in most fancy hotels these cost (a lot) extra. For the same price, you could usually find similar third party nearby the cheap motel, and the price will still be cheaper if you include cab fare.
2. Location - Cheap motels can be found in extremely convenient locations, e.g. the airport shuttle I mentioned above, or within short walking distance of Stanford University. Moreover, the daily price of a rental car is significantly lower than the difference in price between hotel and motel.
3. Room size — I’ve seen crowded fancy hotels and spacious motels. Not to mention that for the price of the fancy hotel you could get three motel rooms…
4. Ironing and cleaning service - These are usually extremely expensive. For a lesser price you could call a third-party cleaning service to your motel room that will provide the same service.
Your comments confirmed my suspicion that these hotels cater to people who don’t pay their own bill, or have so much extra money that a $500/day hotel bill is negligible to them.
Comment by epsalon | August 11, 2009
They pay for the convenience of having everything close by, within the same building. It’s just like how Stanford charges so much for parking, food, and other amenities, or how movie theaters and sports stadiums charge so much for their food. They own or are paying for the location and want their money’s worth.
Comment by math4origami | August 25, 2009