Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Who spends $400 on a hotel room? Enough people where they're booking rooms. Then again, tonight I laid on a $20,000+ mattress at the mattress store in town. Yup, $20,000 for a mattress.....all you do is sleep on it! You can buy a car for less and you can sleep in that and drive all over.
There would be have to be one HELLUVA good reason for me to pay $400/nt for a room! In fact, I don't even like to pay $150 because all I use the room for is to sleep. I have stopped vacationing in favorite places (San Francisco, for a good example) because even cheap-quality lodging has gotten way too expensive.
Sorry, you can probably tell from the thread title that this is a bit of a rant.
I am a college professor and I usually go to 1-2 academic conferences per year. Usually the conferences negotiate "special" rates for the conference, but for one that I'm going to in late March 2018, it's still close to $200/night after you add in the 17% tax (it's in Indianapolis, which clearly has very high hotel taxes!). The sad thing is, I am coming to realize that that is actually a GOOD price for a hotel room!! (The conference rate is $164/night, but that's a bit over $190/night with the taxes.)
Trying to save a bit of money for my employer, I looked online for hotels close to the conference hotel (which is the J. W. Marriott downtown, not to be confused with about half a dozen OTHER Marriott hotels in the vicinity). The nearest hotel was something like $159/night plus taxes, which was not enough to make me go there since the conference hotel is $164/night. But at first, on a map I saw that the Westin in Indianapolis, just a few minutes' walk from the conference hotel, was $115/night. Yippee!!, I thought. But no, that was clearly an Internet error (and a GIGANTIC one!!). When I went to the hotel's site (the CHEAPEST site for its rooms), I saw that the rooms were actually around $400/NIGHT -- for a place to SLEEP!!
Maybe I am completely naive, but I was astonished at this. I guess business travelers pay this (since their corporations are actually paying)? That's the only thing I can think of as I try to understand how anyone in their right mind would spend $400/night on a place to SLEEP. And yes, I know I keep saying that, but seriously, for me that's all a hotel room IS -- a place to sleep. OK, I might watch a bit of ESPN on TV before falling asleep (especially if my favorite team is playing), but otherwise, I will mostly be OUT of the hotel room during the day.
Am I nuts to think that I should be able to get a decent room -- I mean, seriously, a place to SLEEP -- for, say, $150/night?!!
I don't get the high prices either. All you need is a bed, sink, shower, and toilet.
We're also at a point in our lives where we're willing and able to indulge in a little luxury now and then. I'm not sure about $400/night in Indianapolis, but we've spent a little more than that for suites in Manhattan.
The conferences that I attend are usually marathons in which I leave the hotel early in the morning 7-8 am and don't return to my hotel until after 10:30 pm or later that night which includes the mixers and evening sessions. Lunch and dinner is eaten at restaurants inside or near the conference location. Getting back to the hotel late at night means showering, a quick glimpse of both CNN and Foxnews (to get polar opposite perspectives) on tv, and then fast sleep to do it all over agan the next day. I never get to use any of the four and five star amenities that the hotel charges me (my employer) for. I've never been to a conference that is 9 am - 5 pm.
THIS! My job put us in classy hotels, but we'd be lucky to get to it by 7pm. Maybe later if we drove to it that night. Then we'd be up at 4-5am for work, and wouldn't go back. When you get up that early, you're not staying up until all hours. We were gone hours before the started the complimentary breakfast.
Who spends $400 on a hotel room? Enough people where they're booking rooms. Then again, tonight I laid on a $20,000+ mattress at the mattress store in town. Yup, $20,000 for a mattress.....all you do is sleep on it! You can buy a car for less and you can sleep in that and drive all over.
well, it is at least less stupid than spending $20,000 on a diamond ring, which is completely useless.
There would be have to be one HELLUVA good reason for me to pay $400/nt for a room! In fact, I don't even like to pay $150 because all I use the room for is to sleep. I have stopped vacationing in favorite places (San Francisco, for a good example) because even cheap-quality lodging has gotten way too expensive.
I don't even like to pay over a 100 unless I'm splitting it with someone. Less money spent on lodging = more trips you can take.
Who spends $400 on a hotel room? Enough people where they're booking rooms. Then again, tonight I laid on a $20,000+ mattress at the mattress store in town. Yup, $20,000 for a mattress.....all you do is sleep on it! You can buy a car for less and you can sleep in that and drive all over.
For business travel I will choose the nicest hotel my employer will pay for but if it is vacation travel, I am going to stay some place that is more than a place to sleep, it’s a place to relax and rejuvenate. I will pay whatever the cost for luxury vacation accommodations because for me, few things are more annoying than traveling to a great location, only to stay in “an average” lodging. I am paying for the experience. That is why I would never pay for a cruise. I want to experience luxury, not just a clean room.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
