Detour: Expensive Hotels

I think from time to time I’m going to write what I call a “detour” -- a departure from our typical narration to comment (or more likely, rant) about a general traveling topic. This topic: Expensive hotels.

Let’s talk about why expensive hotels are bullshit. “Nice” 4 star hotels are much more expensive than their 2 star counterparts, but you don’t get anything for the money! The thing that angers me most is the extra charges that expensive hotels dump on you for all the most basic things: $15 for parking, $12 for internet, etc. When we stayed at a 4 star hotel in Vegas this past Christmas season they charged us $15 a day for our “free” water and newspaper. (No kidding, the adhesion contract that they served us with when we checked in required us to pay an extra $15 a day for something that was actually labeled “free” on the bill! THEN, when we didn’t drink our water one day, they didn’t even deliver new stuff! That hotel also charged us $7.50 to receive a letter - and I’m talking about your standard 3x5 size white envelope here.) How is it that an inexpensive 2 star hotel is able to offer us free parking, internet, breakfast, etc. when a “nicer” hotel is not? Simply put: because “nice” hotels are a rip-off.

This 4 star hotel last night was no nicer than any of the 2 star hotels we’ve been staying at: the room wasn’t nicer, or cleaner, the bathroom wasn’t even bigger. The only thing that was better was the bedding -- some nice down comforters. Is down bedding worth an extra $80 a night? Not to us!!!!

We’ll be staying at cheaper 2 star chains without exception from now on.