The Hotel Paradox

photo credit: the_toe_stubber

Over the past year I have had the opportunity to do a great deal of traveling and I am eternally grateful for it. Nearly a dozen conferences have invited me to speak and most have been generous enough to provide me a hotel room to stay at. 

Though I have no complaints about my accommodations anywhere that I have been, it has given me a strange and unique opportunity to stay at a wide variety of hotels all over the world. From inexpensive chain hotels to b&bs to several very high-end establishments, I’ve probably stayed in them all within the past 12 months.

In this time, I’ve noticed something very unusual. There seems to be something of a paradox in the world of hotels. The nicer a hotel is, the less you actually get for your stay. Where there are some products where price paid has no effect on the quality of service, hotels seem to have taken the whole “You get what you pay for” cliche and turned it around, ensuring that you always pay for what you don’t get. 

It’s a frustrating kludge that has me wondering if, as customers, if we have gotten the whole idea of what makes a good hotel completely wrong and, rather than an abstract star system, its time we actually rate hotels based upon whether they actually provide what we need. 

I know it’s a radical idea, but I think it may be one whose time has come.

How We Use Hotels

When we travel somewhere far from home and we don’t have friends or family to stay with, most people stay at a hotel. The problem is that, when you travel somewhere else, you probably have a reason for traveling, be it business or pleasure, and the hotel is just a means of having a roof over your head so you aren’t sleeping in your car or in a public park.

This means that, for most of us, if you are spending a lot of time in a hotel room, you’re doing something wrong. Basically, it’s a place to sleep, go to the bathroom and rest between doing other, more important things.

If you’re on vacation, you’d rather be out sight-seeing, playing mini-golf or wind surfing. If you’re at a conference, you’d be better off mingling and rubbing elbows. Time in a hotel room is time wasted. Period.

But, for this rather limited service, many of us pay a huge premium. Hotels vary wildly in price, even in the same region, based upon the amount of “luxury” it is assumed they provide. But how much luxury does one need? If the bed is comfortable and the TV works, most people will be reasonably happy since they’ll spend most of their time being somewhere else.

Yet, there are a few things we’d like to do in a hotel, especially business travelers. It is a place to park our car, check our email and do the stuff that we would do at home or office when we can’t be doing the things we’d rather be doing.

This, however, is where the high-priced hotels seem to get you. These “incidentals” are what can turn a $300 per night room into a $400 per night room. Yet, somehow, most $60 per night hotels seem to have all of these incidentals for free.

Let’s take a look at some of the common “gotchas” that high-priced hotels seem to thrust upon customers that their inexpensive counterparts do not.

That’ll Be $15 for Air

Take, for a moment, the following considerations:

1. Parking: You’ll almost never pay for parking at an inexpensive hotel. Granted, most are outside of city districts and have enough land for a traditional parking lot, there are no valet or overnight parking fees. You pull your car up to your room or the door to the hotel and go to sleep. Fast and free.
2. Internet Access: Inexpensive hotels almost always have free Web access. As a business traveler, this is a must for me. At higher priced hotels I’ve paid as much as $25 per night for Web access, something a Holiday Inn has never charged me for. Though there seems to be a dirty trend of some lower-priced hotels partnering with paid wifi companies, such as T-Mobile, that trend seems to be waning and most hotels have expressed great dissatisfaction with these services.
3. Phone Service: At every cheap hotel I’ve been at, local calls have been free, period. At nicer hotels it is a crap shoot. Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not. Best to stay off the phone either way as the prices aren’t likely to be clearly spelled out.
4. Pets: Like traveling with your pets? Too bad if you stay at a nice hotel, most bar pets and the few that do tack on a hefty deposit. Inexpensive hotels are far more likely to allow small pets in the room and often have specific rooms for pets.
5. Business Services: Nice hotels advertise their luxurious “business areas” but fail to mention how much they cost. If you need a few quick moments on a computer or to print out a small file, you’d better bring your credit card. Cheaper hotels I can usually get the receptionist to do quick printouts for me and use the free wifi as needed. They will also look up any information I need at no charge.

The question then becomes, “What do you get at a nice hotel for that extra $100-$200 per night?” It’s a tough one to be certain.

First, you do get a more luxurious room. Though there is no promise the room will be bigger, you get more pillows, a robe, and other amenities. For example, all hotels seem to come with a coffee maker, nicer hotels give you a better selection of coffees and teas.

Second, you are likely closer to what it is you need. Conferences tend to favor nice hotels because they are near conference destinations (or actually where the conference is being held) and they are usually within walking distance of other attractions. So they are convenient in that regard.

Finally, they do carry a better brand name. This instills confidence, albeit often misguided, in those that stay there or visit such hotels.

The question is whether or not these amenities are worth the extra cash spent and the extra paid in incidentals? In most cases, I would say no. Though I will pay a premium for a good location, I typically just make sure that the hotel has the features I need and then look for the cheapest one within reason.

It may mean I stay at a hotels with names not easily recognized, but I have never had a truly bad experience, not within the past few years, doing this kind of shopping around.

Conclusions

The simple truth is this. A hotel is a necessity. It has a role to fulfill and nothing more. We don’t pay two or three times or more for “luxury” gasoline and we should really think twice before we do it with hotels.

I’ve had great stays at all kinds of places, the only thing that has changed is the amount of money that I have paid.

On the other side of the coin, if a luxury hotel is going to charge many times its competitors a mile away, it needs to offer some services that justify it. Rather than giving us amenities we don’t need and charging us for the ones that we do, it is time for these hotels to actually service the customers that pay the bills.

Then again, I guess they figure that if you’re wealthy enough to pay three times as much for a brand, you’re wealthy enough to pay extra for Wifi.

If only that were true…