Most people view hotels as their only option for lodging, but the reality is that hotels have become a nasty habit of travelers. The following are the eight biggest reasons why people should kick the hotel habit, and find alternate lodging (such as a vacation rental) for their next trip.
1. Hotels Are Expensive
Many travelers can spot a good nightly rate for a hotel. The reality is, the vast majority of the traveling public would be shocked to learn that many hotel alternatives are less expensive than hotels.
Even the options such as vacation rental homes and B&Bs that are near in price to hotels offer many perks that hotels don’t, making them a better value. Vacationers can use that savings to see more attractions, buy more souvenirs, or even better; stay an extra day.
2. Hotels Offer Limited Amenities
Sure, hotels are great if you are looking for an Olympic-sized pool filled with strange children, but when all you want is an iron that isn’t tethered to a wall, hotels fall unbelievably short. For all of the amenities hotels offer, only a miniscule fraction offer the amenities of home.
Things like washing machines, kitchens, and a refrigerator large enough to hold at least TWO Styrofoam leftover containers, all are standard in vacation rental condos or homes, but are considered high-end in the hotel industry. Travelers who prefer coin-operated televisions are best suited for hotels; the rest of us are better off exploring alternatives.
3. Hotels Are Impersonal
There is something warm and inviting about knowing the actual owners of the property you are inhabiting, and not just the 21-year-old assistant manager who is working over Christmas break to earn some extra cash. Hotels are mainly corporate chains.
Vacation rentals are often owned by the families who run them, guaranteeing a personal and inviting touch that cannot be offered by their hotel counterparts. Until Paris Hilton gets a job delivering room service and making beds, hotels will remain impersonal and uninviting.
4. Hotels Are Crowded
Nothing is more romantic than a private getaway between you, your loved one, and the four college kids doing keg stands in the room next door. Although a week in a hotel sounds like the pinnacle of romance, the reality is most people are subjected to the sounds of romance bleeding-in from the room above them.
Hotels are crowded, have thin walls, and are usually filled to the brim with tired guests. Choosing to stay at a private house, villa or condo instead of a hotel guarantees a much more private experience, and that your private memories don’t become the memories of Jerry from Cleveland as well.
5. Hotels Are Dirty
Although most travelers find hotels dirty, anyone studying forensic science will find no better location to spend a week. Because of their high volume, fast turnaround, and the general mindsets of their visitors, hotels take a much worse beating than any other inhabitable space on the planet.
While condos, cabins, and bed and breakfasts may be subjected to the same sort of messy activities as hotels, they have a significantly higher cleaning power-per-room ratio, ensuring that each room spends more time under the scrub brush, and less time under the black light.
6. Hotels Shuffle People to Tourist Traps
While hotel alternatives offer comfort, great locations, and neighbors who have great advice on what locals actually like doing in town, hotels are programmed to shuffle everyone to the same tourist traps. Even a well-intended concierge will assume that you want, “the experience,” read: “the same experience as every other three-star schmoe. If you want insights into the culture around you, just ask your neighbor.
7. Hotels Are Tiny
“Cozy” is an extra $200 per night; what you get for affordable accommodations in hotels is often disturbingly tiny. Why keep yourself cramped in a small, cookie cutter box, when you could spread-out and enjoy a larger space in a hotel alternative.
8. Hotels Are Forgettable
Perhaps the greatest, reason to kick the hotel habit is that at the end of the day, hotels are all the same. Hotels are a lot like wedding meals; you remember the best and the worst you’ve ever had, but all the rest blend together and disappear into obscurity.
Hotels are designed to look the same, offer the same, and fit within the same floor plan. They are, by definition, cookie cutter and bland. For those looking for a memorable experience, staying in a hotel alternative guarantees that vacations (and lodging) are remembered for a long time.
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