Does it count if I’m trolling local hotel bars for lonely business travelers and stay over with them?
When we were getting our floors refinished we couldn’t stay since we couldn’t walk on them and they really stank. It was nice to stay closer to work, and it was fun being forced to eat out.
When I was general chair of a conference I got the Presidential Suite of a hotel, not in our town, but just a hop, skip and a jump from work.
Also not in our town we’ve stayed in hotels in San Francisco, easy commuting distance, and in New York when we lived in Princeton to go to shows and stuff.
I stayed at a hotel in my town (well, in the metroplex) this past weekend, in fact.
My club put on a late-night event at a convention here in town. We’ve done it a number of times, and have learned that we get walkups for the event well into the wee hours of morning and have an hour of cleanup after the last of them are gone. Now we book a suite in the hotel for everyone to crash in, rather than letting people drive home in an exhausted daze. By the time we got to it, my stretch of floor with a few couch cushions on it was awfully inviting. (It certainly beat the tent I spent the previous weekend in.)
My husband and I used to do this from time to time when we lived in Auckland, New Zealand. We’d plan a night on the town with an overnight stay in a fancy hotel. Good times.
I had done it a couple times for work, and we did it for my friend Tara’s wedding, and we used to rent rooms in the hotels where the sub MWR committee would have the holiday parties so we wouldn’t have to drive afterwards.
We also found a local hotel that had a couple hot tub rooms, and we stayed there a few times so I could use the tub before we got our own hot tub. [which reminds me, we need to top off and shock the tub now we are not using it to water the poultry since we finally got power back after Irene.]
I stayed at a hotel within a mile of my house. After some drunk and stoned a-hole parked his pickup truck in my living and dining room.
Sure. I’m a member at one of the local big hotels nearby and they often have special deals for rooms/events so my wife and I go to stay for single nights whenever there’s something worth it. It’s fun.
I’ve tried and can’t enjoy it for a minute. First, I wonder why I am wasting money on a hotel when I’ve got a perfectly good house that I’m paying for right across town. Then, I think that there are jobs that need done at that perfectly good house that I’m not doing, thereby wasting this day lounging around drinking 6 beers at the hotel bar, when .79 beers are at home in the refrigerator.
Then, if I want to eat at any restaurant (including the one in the hotel) I could have just driven there from home.
The money aspect ruins it for me. I’ve got to at least travel somewhere far enough away that I can justify needed to sleep somewhere besides home.
My house is only 50 min from the airport, and often people stay in a hotel near the airport the night before if they have a morning flight. The only thing that makes it not “staying in a hotel in your own city” is the fact that it’s a different city.
But do they really let you park your car at the hotel for two weeks while you vacation? Or do they just not notice?
Anyway, there are a couple of spas in town here that one might stay at for the “complete experience”, but in general I wouldn’t bother.
Once when I had very small children and I hadn’t slept well in about 2 years, I let my husband and the little ones have a bonding night while I checked into a hotel just down the street. It’s amazing what a difference a good night’s sleep makes.
I did that in Burbank for LosCon, even though I lived 5 minutes away.
Once in downtown Cleveland I stayed in a hotel attached to my office building during a blizzard, to avoid the 2 hour drive home that normally took 20 minutes.
I’ve never stayed in a hotel in Hamilton, but I’ve done it elsewhere in the Toronto area, for conventions, or when I’ve got more than one thing going on in the city over a weekend and don’t feel like going back and forth. It’s fun. 
My parents live downwind of a major charcoal factory that, 10 years back, had a minor accident that turned into a major fire. The actual fire was “contained” within a couple of hours, but, well, it’s a charcoal factory. That sucker burned for days. As Grandma was living with us and in her late 80s, the family decided it was better to find a hotel upwind rather than breath the smoke. The hotels were filled with locals that week.
One time only, I thought it would be romantic.
It was not.
I was a co-chair of a conference held in my city, and as a perk, I got a really, really excellent hotel room–the sort of hotel room that people have in movies. Huge space, plenty of room for a party (I had one), piano(!)–it was great. Unfortunately the first night I could only get the shower to lukewarm, and by then I was too tired to try for better luck in one of the other TWO bathrooms. But it was a great experience. My husband and son were extremely impressed.
I couldn’t believe it the first time my gf suggested it. I called and asked, then rephrased my question a coupla times. They have a huge parking lot and get much business this way.
I used to park at Globe Parking and thought it was a godsend. Free shuttle, etc. But now we use La Quinta and it costs less (on a two week trip).
We are doing this tonight!
Here in Las Vegas we call them “stay-cations”, booking a room here in town.
In our case, and for many who live here, every once in awhile the local casinos will send you offers for free/cheap rooms when business is a bit slow.
We are getting this room free tonight - and I know it might seem kind of stupid to stay in a hotel/casino two miles from our house, but it is sort of fun to be able to go to the buffet, take a little nap afterward, then go play a few nickel slots and have a few beers and then just go up to your room and crash. Nice to get up in the morning and saunter down for a quick breakfast and feel like you have been on vacation, at least for one night.
Which hotel? I used to live in Vegas.
This offer was from Green Valley Ranch, a great local’s hotel/casino nearby.
We had a great time - checked in, hit the buffet, went back to the room to watch some TV (and yes, nap), then played some slots, had a few beers, crashed. Then got up for the breakfast buffet, went to see a movie (The Debt - quite qood BTW) and then drove the two miles home.
Was really like taking a mini-vacation.
Did it once. As a result of a fire in a nearby car dealership (during which, unfortunately, three young firemen were killed. Irrelevant, but I won’t pass a chance to point at the courage of firefighters). Since there were gas tanks in the building, the place I’m living in was sort of (*) evacuated, and I spent the night at a nearby hotel.
(*)“Sort of” because whoever was in charge of the evacuation of nearby buildings definitely should be left behind a desk next time. Although some (most? I don’t know) residents were warned by the police, I was only thanks to an afterthought of a neighbor. I wasn’t allowed back in the building but nobody would care about the mother of two who had refused to leave, despite my repeated attempts to point at her presence (I was just told that there were people in charge of the evacuation and please go away, but nobody ever checked on her). Later in the night, some people were barred from coming back and sent to a gymnasium to spend the night, others were similarly not allowed to enter but told to fend for themselves, others (including me) allowed in but only briefly to pick things up, others told they could safely spend the night in their apartment, and the aforementioned mother never left the place to begin with. This without rhyme nor reason (people showing up both before and after myself weren’t let in while I was)
OK…I’m realizing my post is about the fire/evacuation and not about me spending the night in a hotel in my own town. But what could I say? The hotel was OK, rather cheap and near my place, which might be useful to know someday, what else there is to add?