In one place I’ve never gone past say 6 days. But back when I was in sporting goods I did a series of shows on the west coast and used the same chain (in 5 different cities) for over a month. All the rooms were pretty much the same but this created a small problem for me of forgetting just where I was. Since the schedules were slightly different I) would sometimes wake up and call the front desk “just what town is this”. I did this for several years and other exhibitors had the same problem so the front desk was used to us. But it always felt strange picking up the phone.
Yeah – there were clues in the room. But hung over sometimes and without my glasses, the phone was easier to find.
**The Worst Extended-Stay in the Universe:
**
My garden (read: basement) apartment in Anchorage AK got flooded out with RAW SEWAGE up to my knees. Sewage was shooting violently up and out from the cracks in & through the foundations and through the carpet. The bathtub backed up to its brim. The kitchen base cabinets were also flooded out. Needless to say, it became un-inhabitable and I (and about 16 other tenants in the two apt. blocks) lost a lot of possessions. We were relocated to a nasty hotel for two nights; then on to another suspect hotel.
There was NO phone service. NO internet available. NO restaurant nearby. And of course we had no clothes except what was on our backs. My Sorel winter boots were useless against the sewage and I had no more socks. (This was reported on TV for about a day and 1/2).
We all were there for about three weeks; by then I had found somewhere else to stay. Some people had to move back in.
When I attempted to check out / move to my (less-than deluxe) new place / get the storage locker unlocked to see what had been “preserved” … the hotel refused to acknowledge that I was a part of the “flooded-out group” … I was presented with a bill of something over $2,000. I threw the bill on the counter and drove away as quickly as I could.
Can’t say that my renter’s insurance did any good.
I’m in a north suburb and I have a kid - so I rent a 2 bedroom. There are also a couple of things with regard to living standards that I can’t suffer - so that puts me at the 2K a month mark for renting. I’d love nothing more than to relocate to a town/city with less expensive housing options, however, I’m legally bound (divorce settlement/parenting plan) to remain in my child’s current school district.
Unless I’m missing something, you’re comparing apples and oranges - a single hotel room vs a two bedroom apartment. The hotel is not going to be a great deal if you compare like to like - like renting a single room in a multiple bedroom apartment. My son shares a 4 bedroom apartment in NYC with three friends. His rent is $525 a month. A hotel room in his neighborhood would be at least $80 per night - or about $2400 a month. That’s nearly $2000 a month for the free breakfast , cleaning , and a fitness room. * In your situation you’d need to rent two hotel rooms to be comparing similar arrangements. (If you didn’t actually need two bedrooms, you could rent a one bedroom apartment but if you need two bedrooms, you can’t live in a single hotel room) Even if you only had the kid (and therefore needed two rooms) half the month, the hotel would be closer to $3K a month. And that’s leaving out all the non-financial reasons that people have mentioned.
It would actually be more- most of the hotels are over $125 a night and it’s not a desirable neighborhood.
What kind of hotel was it? I stayed in a hotel designed for long stays (paid for by my new company) waiting for the stuff to come for our new house. It had two bedrooms and a living room - we had one, the kids had the other. It was great. And I stayed in a normal hotel for two weeks for a class I took, also great. That was even better because everyone in the class ate together.
Karakol Kyrgyzstan, Negombo Sri Lanka, and even one in Europe – Vanadzor Armenia. There’s one in Bangkok, with free airport shuttle, for $20, that I went to four times, but I didn’t stay there that long.
Where on earth are you getting a hotel for that little a night???
I stayed in an Embassy Suites for a solid month back in the 1990s. Didn’t need a kitchen as I was on business travel - and rarely had time for meals anyway (I lost a chunk of weight that month).
We stayed in an extended-stay place for 10 or so days when our kitchen was being remodeled. I didn’t love that - it had basic cooking stuff but not my stuff that I was used to using.
Shorter business trips are fun, sort of - like others have said, no household responsibilities, a good breakfast right there and so on. As long as the room has a real fridge as opposed to one that’s prestocked and costs you money just to put your own stuff in it (I’ve heard that some hotels, if you just move stuff around it’ll trigger a “you drank it” flag).
I’ve stayed in Residence Inns for well over a year. Let me recall:
[ul]
[li]Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (actually Norman, I believe), five months or so. Old style Residence Inn.[/li][li]East Lansing, Michigan, three months before getting a corporate apartment. Old style Residence Inn.[/li][li]Mississauga, Ontario, one year and a month, new style Residence Inn.[/li][/ul]
That’s nearly two years! Given the number of shorter stays that I don’t recall, I’m willing to round up to that.
The old style Residence Inns were much nicer in that the buildings were separated and there were only a few units in each building. Some of the large rooms were two floors, had fire places, and most of the entrances were external. Sadly, the new style places are just big cube building with slightly larger rooms and a workable kitchen, and nothing really differentiates them from their competition these days (Staybridge, etc.).
A hotel tried to charge me for stuff I hadn’t drunk. I challenged them to come up with the inventory showing what exactly was I supposed to have taken. They backed down.
I’m not paying more for a mini-can of Coke than the supermarket charges for two liters
My husband and I made our work-related move from Chicago to Denver more quickly than we would have liked as the company purchased our home to speed up the process. That meant we hadn’t had any time to take a look around Denver to see where we might want to live.
Our solution was to pay for 3 months in an extended stay hotel so we would have a pied a terre while we explored the city and found a home. We had all of our belongings in a storage unit across the street from the hotel, so if we really needed something from ‘home’, we could access it fairly easily. So all in all, it wasn’t a terrible experience. It was tedious having to cook with only a microwave and two burners, but we ate dinner out every night in whatever neighborhood we were exploring, which yielded leftovers we could reheat the next day for lunch. So cooking was mostly breakfast food, as our hotel didn’t have a breakfast.
Pros: Central location, clean and safe facility, on-site staff were helpful both at the hotel and in giving us suggestion on what neighborhoods to avoid. And of course, having our storage unit so close was a big plus also. Cost at this facility in 2002 was $199/wk, but by paying 3 months in advance, we wound up paying $159/wk. Definitely reasonable.
Cons: It could get noisy and parking could be an issue. They didn’t clear the parking lot after an early winter blizzard, so we had to trek across to the storage unit and find our snow shovel to dig out our car. Obviously there was no privacy, but since we liked to go out in the evenings, and there was plenty to do within walking distance during the day while my husband was working, we could get around the confinement.
In retrospect, I would do it again under the same circumstances. Although, if local prices are anything to go by, it might no longer be affordable. The place we stayed at for $159/wk in 2002 now charges $479/wk in 2016!
:mad: :eek: ICK.