| Hotel cost vs. enjoyment (2) | Wednesday, Jan 5, 2011 5:00 pm |
I have a hard time paying more money for something when a reasonably good option is available for less money. That might sound obvious, but I don't think everybody is with me on this. For example, I recently traveled with some friends where we stayed in two different hotels on two consecutive nights in the same town. One was $50 per night, the other was $100. For me, a hotel is a hotel; it's a commodity. Unless it's on a beach on a tropical island or you get the honeymoon suite on the top floor with free room service, a hotel room provides two simple services: A bed and a shower. Whether it has HBO or a curved shower rod, I couldn't care less, which is why my goal is to pay the lowest price possible, unless there's a strong correlation between cost and bug population. Much to my surprise, my travel buddies had different values than me, which is fine, but one of those values meant we were spending the second night in a more expensive, quaint, lodge-type hotel. "Quaint" is another word for "small and crappy," which is exactly how I would describe that $100 per night hotel. To me, that extra $50, which in this case made it literally twice as expensive as the previous night, didn't represent a doubling of enjoyment. And since I'm a nerd and think of everything in terms of math and practicality, that's why I stay in cheap hotels.
When I was younger, I would stay in hostels when travelling because they were so much cheaper. When I started making real money I was like "sweet, now I can stay in nice hotels" I hated the nicer places. You can't meet other people and the amenities are much worse in expensive places. You pay for the marble lobby, they fee the crap out of you, and everyone staying there is a business a-hole or with a family. Now whenever I travel alone, I'm always in hostels just cause I like the experience better. The people are friendlier and hostels are always in the happening place to be in whatever town you go to.
I feel compelled to add that as I type this I'm staring at the sun setting over the pacific using the free wifi while paying $25/night in Hermosa Beach, CA.