Ever Done This? (Stayed In A Hotel In Your Own City)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I live about a 40 minute commute from my work. Last week I had a very early morning meeting. I’ve been really tired of recent weeks, and to boot, have a slow-healing injury that makes me kind of drag on the commute.

So – I used some frequent flyer points and booked a hotel a five minute walk from the office. Showed up about 8:00 the night before with a change of clothes in a gym bag, checked in, ate at the hotel’s nice restaurant, drank a good bit and had no more harrowing a tipsy commute than a six floor elevator trip, awoke 35 minutes later than I would have otherwise (actually a bit earlier than that, as I enjoyed an (overpriced of course) room service breakfast), and strolled over to the office. It was very civilized. Of course, now I want to do it every night, especially the part about the maid service and in-room dining.

Now, objectively, I know I shouldn’t like hotels (bedbugs, strangers’ DNA in all sorts of places). But it was fun (and also fun the one time I’ve done this before – which was a stay-at-home mini-break with ex-GF).

Ever try this (by choice or necessity)?

2

Yes, but never for my regular commute, which has never been very long. Most recently, I had a three-day meeting about an hour away, with morning start times of 8:30 am. (The drive is more like 90 minutes in traffic, actually.) I stayed in a hotel near the meeting site for those nights.

I travel a lot, and a rule of thumb I have is not to try to cram travel into the nooks and crannies of the day but to let it be its own thing. In the same way that I would not schedule a meeting at 6:30 am, I never pick flights (or whatever) for 6:30 am. Occasionally my hand is forced due to needing to be in two places at once, but I am simply much more productive and happy if travel is a feature of my day rather than a burden on it.

3

I have, by necessity, stayed in a hotel in my home city.

I was in SE Asia when SARS broke out. I had gone away for a break from my caregiving responsibilities, leaving my husband to care for his, fully bedridden, mother, without me. (We did have 2hrs a day of homecare, plus friends helping out, so he wasn’t entirely alone!)

Knowing he would really, really need a break by the time I returned, I had prearranged for her to go into respite care on my return (short stay in a long term care facility). This required a great deal of pre arranging, etc, etc. But I set it up because I knew we’d need it.

My husband calls me in S’pore to tell me he’s been notified that if I return directly to my home she will not be permitted into the care facility. (Keep in mind, at this point, no one really knew very much, people were dying, but there was still a lot of uncertainty!)

So, we decided I should just stay on a while as a hotel room here is not cheap, after a week, he called again to say he wanted me to come home, he was scared because of the news he was hearing. Getting home was getting harder too, no one was flying in, flights were being canceled left and right, my 23hr inbound journey turned into 33+hrs outbound. Yikes.

So, yeah, I flew home and had to stay in a hotel, for about 4 days until he could get her into the facility (without my help, not part of the plan, and tons of work for one person, tv, meds, clothes, etc, etc on endlessly!)

It was a real drag for me. I wanted to be home with her, and my hubby, and my dog. It’s a killer to come such a long way home, and then have to sit across town and wait!

But I’m glad to hear it was a sweet experience for you. You should do it again, definitely, it sounds like it was a really wonderful experience.

4

My husband and I spent one of our anniversaries in our own town. Our kids were really little and had never stayed overnight somewhere, so we didn’t want to go somewhere too farflung. We also decided we’d rather spend the weekend enjoying ourselves instead of fiddling with a commute. Instead of booking a weekend away in the mountains or at the beach, we drove 10 minutes downtown, got a really nice hotel, and got a great dinner at a restaurant we’d never tried before (that has since become one of our go-to places). It was fantastic. We got to explore our own city like tourists, we didn’t have to drive forever or go to the airport, and we certainly didn’t use a lot of gas!

5

My wife and I do this occasionally as well. We live across the water from Seattle in a small rural community but we both work in downtown Seattle. So if we have a late night gig or going to a party, etc late at night it is easily an hour or more commute home depending upon ferry schedules or just driving around. And if drinking is involved I am not too keen on a hour drive!

So depending upon the lateness of the hour, and/or our activities we occasionally preplan an overnight stay. As we normally get up at 4:30 to start out day we likely will opt for the hotel room if our late night is going to be past 11 or so. It takes a bit of planning as we have to find a place for our daughter for the evening , etc. But she is 16 now and driving so it is getting easier.

I would say we do this half a dozen times a year, and it is awesome the next day. We can sleep until 6 and still make it the office with plenty of time. It is very nice and relaxing and I can certainly understand why you enjoyed it too.

6

I think I’ve done it three times. Twice were get-away weekends where we just needed to stay somewhere other than home but didn’t want to leave town. The third was by necessity: we returned home at 11pm to find that the doorknob on our front door was no longer working and we couldn’t get in (and the basement door was barred). After spending an hour trying to get a hold of a 24-hour locksmith, we gave up and checked into a hotel.

7

Yes. My brother was living with me, and driving me crazy. Outside the home, my bf was really getting on my nerves. One night I checked in to a nice hotel without telling anyone - brother assumed I was at bf’s, bf assumed I was at home, no harm no foul. I got room service and had a nice time.

8

Not technically “in my own city” but when I was living in Chicago I almost always stayed at the hotel when I was attending local science fiction conventions. Partly because trying to commute to and from the convention was a pain in the ass, but mostly because I wanted to have a place to stash my stuff over the weekend.

Next year I’m going to be attending a convention being held at a hotel that’s only a fifteen minute walk from my house, and I’m still probably going to be spending the weekend at the hotel.

9

For our first 4 New Years Eves together, we got a room at the Westin in downtown Seattle, a room facing the Space Needle. We played dressup, had a lovely dinner in one of the hotel’s restuarants, had drinks around the panio bar in the lobby. Then, just before midnight, we’d go to our room to watch the fireworks shot off the top of the Space Needle.
Of course, it was a risk. One year the fog rolled in at 11:45PM and back out at 1:00 AM. We saw the fireworks on the hotel TV, which we could have done at home for $500 less.
The rest of the evening was worth it, though.

10

Mr. S spent the night in a hotel 5 miles from our house during a blizzard this past winter. He works second shift about 30 miles away, and the roads were impassable from town to our house when he tried to get home from work. He made it home in the morning . . . and then had to turn around and go back to work that afternoon.

11

One of my former employers always held our holiday party at one of the nicer hotels in Nashville. The hotel offered a discount for any employee wishing to stay as an overnight guest, so my late SO and I did that a couple of times. It was fun to just take an elevator to our room when the party was over, have a swim and soak in the hot tub the next morning after breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. It was one of our Christmas presents to each other.

12

Did it a few times when I was living with my parents and my boyfriend visited. Actually hung out with an ex boyfriend a few months ago while he was chilling in a hotel, since he lives with his parents.

I’ve also taken a “vacation” in downtown Cleveland which is about 18 miles away.

13

I’ve stayed in local hotels in recent years when our furnace died and the next summer when our A/C died, when there was a water main break and we had no water for 60 hours or so, and when snowmageddon '10 left us without electricity for 72 hours.

Then, just this weekend (Friday & Saturday nights) we decamped to a hotel 7 miles from home, to be close to the church and reception site for my cousin’s wedding on Saturday, and just to relax. It was a nice room, a mini-suite with a big screen TV and very comfy furniture and we got room service and let the hotel valet service press our dresses for the wedding and shine my shoes, and just made a little mini-vacation from it.

14

Once, for a wedding. Two core people from my drinking group got married. The reception was at the hotel across the street from our regular bar. I knew that getting a room was a good idea. :slight_smile:

Once, because the A/C at the house was broken. I have a real hard time sleeping when it’s too hot.

I think I did it once as a stress reliever vacation, too…but since I don’t really remember it, maybe I only thought about doing so.

-D/a

15

I’ve done it because I had out-of-town visitors and it made more sense to stay at the hotel with them than to unleash them on the streets of my town trying to find my house or to make myself crazy going back and forth to pick them up.

16

I stayed in a hotel for a week after knee surgery - at the time, I was living in a fourth-floor walkup (i.e. no elevator), and I wanted at least a little time to heal before I had to face the stairs. It was fun, and the manager of the hotel restaurant was a friend of a friend, so I got free room service. Too bad I was on too much morphine to eat much.

17

I believe that affairs often happen because it is fun to have sex in a hotel room. So, from time to time, my wife and I get a hotel room in our city and enjoy. Not really sure if my theory on affairs is accurate, but I am positive that it is fun to have sex in hotel rooms.

18

Sure. We’ve done it for a “weekend getaway” We’ve both done it for work releases where you won’t 20 hours, sleep four, get up again and work 12 - you don’t really want a 30 minute each way drive in there. Weddings, conventions.

19

I do not live in a metropolitan area but I did stay in a hotel once for a wedding. The wedding was in the hotel with the reception and open bar afterwards. Made sense to us to get a room and enjoy the open bar. :smiley:

20

I have for several reasons. At least one wedding, several times when working very late hours past the end of our commuter train schedule and once when I got snowed in at work, again due to the commuter trains not running.

While I’ve never stayed in Toronto as a local vacation I have gone to Niagara which is really only an hour away.