I’m a bit of a cushy traveler. Not in terms of the places I go- with the notable exception of Fort McMurray I’ll go just about anywhere. But when I’m there, I’m always willing to pay more for a bit of extra comfort and privacy. Call me prissy and un-frugal (correct on both counts), but I like having an oasis to return to at the end of the day. It’s not that I can’t handle rough accommodations- I’ve stayed in places that make an Albany roach motel look like the Hilton. I’ve slept in hostels with five snoring Swedish dudes, and I’ve lined up with shady characters to use the literal hole in the ground that is generously referred to as the “toilet”. Perhaps it’s precisely because I’ve slummed it on many occasions that, now that I can afford it, I’ll gladly cough up extra yuan for pillow mints and a concierge. But while I’m usually quite willing to pay extra for a nicer hotel or a more luxurious room, I always find it difficult to bring myself to pay extra for a room with a view.
Wifey and I are preparing to embark on our annual mid-winter vacation, this year to Whistler in the Canadian Rockies. We’ve got a nice enough spot booked, but when it came time to make a choice being a “standard” view and a mountain view, I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the extra $20 a night. The notion of a room overlooking the mountains (or ocean, or lake, or beach volleyball court, as the case may be) is certainly romantic, and I suppose it would be nice to curl up after a long day with a bottle of wine and gaze out at nature’s beauty rather than the side of an air conditioner. However, I suspect the reality is much less idyllic- very few nights will I choose to stay in and stare out the window. If I’m staying in, it’s probably going to be to watch foreign language news or make a pillow fort and down a mickey of local hooch. I appreciate a good landscape, but after 2 minutes I’ve seen it and am ready to move along. Will I pay an extra $20, $30, or even $50 a night to have a postcard view out my window that I can ignore for the entire trip? No gracias, senor. Or, in this particular situation, “No thanks, eh!”
Everyone I ask seems to have a different take on this. There are those, like me, who will pay for a nice hotel but don’t see any added value in a potentially nicer view, seeing it as the undercoating andScotchGuarding of the hotel world. Others consider it silly to pay good money for a room without a memorable view. One colleague tells me that he always picks the nicer room within a category because he finds that he’s much more likely to get an upgrade to a suite if he’s paid that little bit extra. And then, of course, are those friends who will consistently stay in the absolute cheapest places possible wherever they may wander and are appalled at the idea of paying any real money for a bed at night, let alone for a picturesque view. According to one compatriot who travels extensively for business, when his company is paying he demands nothing less that 24 hour butler service and thousand thread count sheets, but when it’s on his own tab the youth hostel or by-the-hoursexytime special will more than suffice.
So, what’s your “view” when it comes to these upgrades?
Photo by annethelibrarian.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Usually I’m fairly complacent about hotel rooms when I travel. I’ve logged somewhere around 1,600 nights in a hotel so far.
Last week at the Marystown “Hotel and Convention Center” (the former Motel Mortier - the plywood palace) was rough. I would have given up my two children for an upgrade.
When I’m traveling for personal reasons, I normally stay in the same sort of room I would stay in for business. Very modest.
Traveling to Cuba
One trick I learned while traveling to Cuba was to book the cheapest room in the place. After the first night, I went down to the front desk, offered up a $50 for a better room and was promptly placed in a much much better room. I saved hundreds of dollars on my two week stay. I’ve done this two times with great success each time.
As long as there’s a comfortable bed and NO BEDBUGS, I’m good. Ideally, you’re not spending too much time in the room, anyway.
Unless it’s your honeymoon… in which case, totally spring for the room with the pretty ceiling.
I am not interested in rooms with views, but apartments and homes? Possibly. I don’t plan in staying in the hotel room day in day out, so what’s the point of the view?
That’s the way I see it anyway.
I’ve always wanted and paid for the cheapest rooms, and never had a problem. I also tend to be pickier on whether or not it has a mini fridge and a microwave so I can eat leftovers, but that’s just the frugal consultant in me…
I like that tip about Cuba though.
No interest in the views either, but I am a bit pickier in my old age about comfy mattresses and cleanliness and mostly stick to Sheratons and other SPG hotels as much as possible. I have a colleague who will not stay in a room without operable windows, which drives the admin people booking them in crazy.
When I am traveling I just want the room to be clean and comfortable. I can spend that extra money on other stuff. Really, you don’t spend a lot of time in the room, so why waste the money?
I drove to Nova Scotia last summer with my husband, our 7 year old daughter and almost-5 year old son. By the second night, my husband and I only cared if our motel room had an “anteroom” outside the bathroom where in the evening we could drink, read, and recover from the day without disturbing our sleeping kids. By the end of that first week, a spacious and well-lit bathroom was enough!
When I’m travelling for work the choice of hotels is pretty standard among the big hotel chains; Holiday Inn etc without the good views. I don’t care too much as long as the room is clean and not next to the ice or drink machine. Hate being woken up by the sound of drink cans at 3AM!
When travelling for pleasure without the kids, I’m less fussy. I stayed in a dinky room on the third floor of a hotel in Amsterdam, up a narrow wooden staircase, where the window faced on to another building. My wife and I stayed at at B&B in Chelsea in London where one of the towels had a big hole in the centre, like it had been used to cover the muzzle of a gun and had been blown away. In both cases I didn’t mind the room because I left each day after breakfast and returned at ‘9 or ‘10Pm each night. No bugs, no view, no problem.
However I did go for an upgrade on a trip to PEI with the kids. We initially booked a couple of nights at a U of PEI residence but it was too rustic (remember what your residence room smelled like after a good year?) so hastily booked in at the Holiday Inn Express.
I’m happy enough to stay in a basic room when it is just me - or me and my husband. After all, we won’t spend much time in the room.
But when we travel with our kids, we pay extra for a room with a balcony or a separate sitting room. Nancy is exactly right - when you’re stuck in after eight as your little ones sleep, it’s not a vacation if you have to sit quietly.
In a given hotel I’ll usually go for the cheapest room, but always spring extra for location. If I’m going to a city I want to be close to where I intend to go, without the necessity of a cab or bus. I’ll always fork over extra for that.
If I am traveling alone, it’s usually for work, in which case all I don’t care much about the view. I do shell out extra (er, the company shells out extra) for a suite with a kitchen so I can do my own cooking. Nothing like hotel and restaurant food to layer on the flab.
If I’m traveling with my (what does a 37 year old call a girlfriend anyway?) and/or my daughter, I’ll always shell out for the view. We love to travel, but we don’t travel a lot, so when we do, I do tend to go premium.
Mark
Generally, don’t care about the view.
Actually, I used to travel mostly in hostels so these days, I’m happy just to have my own toilet.