An open-ended question: do you have an absolute dollar limit on what you’ll spend on a hotel room or does it always vary by location and date?
I realize this limits me from most higher end hotels like the Aman Resorts chain, but I have a huge psychological barrier to paying four digits for one hotel night, no matter how nice the property is.
This conundrum seems so out of touch for most travelers, but I feel those of us who play the miles and points game can relate since we often score incredible suite upgrades for rooms that may easily exceed $1K/night.
Truthfully, even spending $500 per night makes me uncomfortable. The problem is not the price itself, but the cost/benefit analysis that instinctively comes when I think about dropping so much money for one night.
I’ll give you an example. I could not get over the $1,000/night price tag at the Park Hyatt Zurich earlier this week, so I stayed elsewhere in Zurich. That spurred this post. This has nothing to do with whether I can afford it but has everything to do with the cost-bereft analysis I discussed above. There are so many better uses for that money.
Look, you don’t need to remind me how expensive Switzerland is. In the case of the Park Hyatt Zurich, it is undoubtedly a lovely hotel (I’ve reviewed it in 2012 and 2017), but it is also was significantly more than comparable hotels in the city and exponentially more (almost 15x more) than decent four star hotels near the airport.
Let’s not confuse issues, though. Let’s say all the hotels were $1K+/night so this was not an issue of cheaper alternatives, but of no cheap alternatives. Were that to be the case, I’d seriously consider sleeping in a hostel or taking an overnight train in a circle before spending that much on a hotel room.
What do you think? Irrational game of semantics, a reflection of my current socioeconomic status, or a valid point? I assert that no matter how nice a hotel is, at some point it is just too expensive to justify even if I’m Warren Buffet.
Agree with you 100%! Great column.
When you get a chance, can you respond to my recent reply concerning your June 10, 2016, piece about IAD airport? Here is the link:
http://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2016/06/10/international-connections-at-washington-dulles/#comment-60257
I value your opinion!
My limit is definitely below 4 digits! I don’t think I’ve spent more than $130 on a hotel before, since points can cover the splurges. Can’t imagine parting with more than a few hundred, even for the most luxurious hotel (and if there were no points alternatives).
I honestly get antsy for anything over $300/nt. I would rather be non-antsy in a fallback hotel than antsy in the preferred hotel.
That being said, sometimes you don’t have much of a choice. I recently stayed at the Muana Kea (Autograph Collection hotel) in Hawaii for a family wedding. The negotiated rate for base-level (“Golf View”) rooms was $400/nt; “Ocean View” was $1200/nt. I sucked-up the cost for 4 nights in the golf view, while everyone in my wife’s family paid for 7 nights of Ocean View. I think they’re crazy, but to be fair, it was a discounted rate.
It depends on location, purpose and duration of trip, etc. The cap can range anywhere from $100 (roadside motel for one night on a long road trip) to $500 (special occasion). Usually I purposely travel during shoulder season to keep costs down (luckily all of our “special” dates fall during that time period). I don’t think I’d ever consider spending $1,000/night on a hotel room, though. If everything in a particular location sells at that price point, time to reconsider the destination.
It depends on what we are getting. We’ll pay $300+15,000 points (total of roughly $525) per night for the Park Hyatt Zurich if we can confirm a suite (or if the stay is just one night). That is the most expensive hotel we stay at, about once every two years or so. No way in hell would we pay $1,000 per night to stay anywhere.
We have a stay booked this summer for IC Paris for about $490 per night, but we will get 8 AM check-in, a guaranteed suite upgrade, free club access with meals all day, free minibar, free wifi, about 10% back in points, qualifying credits for four nights, and about 24.5% rebated from Citi Prestige. The rebates bring the price down to more like $330 per night, and that is before subtracting the value of the included food and beverage. So, while we are not happy paying almost $500 per night, we can tolerate it.
Interesting thought exercise, but I think I am more flexible. For instance, on my honeymoon last year I covered most of the flights and half the nights with points/miles, so I was able to justify spending >$1000 /night at lovely safari lodges. Yes, this is mental accounting, but I’m okay with it (in part because the Safari included twice daily activities and was fully inclusive of high quality meals/drinks).
My willingness to splurge is also based in part on how tough it will be for me to experience the trip again. I take probably 3-4 long weekend trips a year and 2 separate weeklong trips and I think I probably average $250 or less for those nights, but I’d probably be willing to spend double that for a special 3 night stay.
For whatever reason, while I’m willing to splurge on nicer hotel with cash if I’ve used miles to cover business class airfare, I’ve never purchased business class with cash (even if I redeemed points for hotels). Maybe I would consider it, but I guess having more options to book flights with points has made me think the cash premium for business airfare is too much a burden. Again, mental accounting.
How much is too much for a hotel room?
I might ask the same about Swiss First Class.
And that’s a fair question.
I’ve gotten considerably more liberal with my hotel spending as I’ve aged and now don’t bat an eye at spending $125 on a hotel (assuming it’s just hotel with or without breakfast — different rules for all-inclusives). I’ll pay more if I have to be somewhere and there are literally no options (no cheaper clean hotels, or apartment rentals) but I don’t like it.
I was happier, though, when I was younger and rarely spent more than $20 per person per night because it’s impossible to be disappointed when you spend such a low amount.
Technically my limit is somewhere between $1200-$1400 per night and only under unusual or special circumstances. It’s a rare occasion that I would do this, and I like to spend less than $300 is at all possible ( and less is better). But, there are some properties I want to experience at sometime in my life and they require a high rate to visit.
Personal limit, I try and stay under $200 a night. Yes, there are times I would go over this, such as if I need a room due to an unexpected stay at an airport hotel, but if it’s a planned trip, then I’m usually in the $100-$150 range. It’s like how I chose the JR Gate Tower hotel over the Marriott Associa in the other tower over Nagoya station, but especially in Japan I’m willing to pay a small premium to stay right in/next to the local train station.
Feels like I’m on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale compared to Matthew and other posters, but considering $1000 is over half my monthly rent at home, I can’t justify spending anything near that for one night no matter how nice the hotel is.
You sure go out of your way to make clear that you could afford $1000 per night.
Anyways, $500 is the upper limit for me. My limit decreases based on the nature of the country and my impression of what local rents cost. I base this on the (perhaps irrational) assumption that if hotels were cheap enough, some people would choose to live in them over renting conventional apartments. For example, in place like San Francisco where a one bedroom apartment costs $3k per month or $100 per night, I would not expect any hotel of minimum quality to cost less than, say, twice that amount or $200 per night.
In third world countries, I expect there to be a much steeper premium on western hotels given the demand is almost exclusively foreign.
I don’t like to go over US$200/night and I don’t think I’ve ever gone above US$250/night. If it’s more than that I’ll either use points or not go.
I generally take one overseas leisure trip per year, for around 7-10 days. This is my one chance to truly decompress since the long-distance travel, foreign language and culture, new surroundings, etc. are deeply relaxing and therapeutic for me, even with the inevitable frustrations and screwups. I travel alone and am not a partier, so I spend most days walking and sightseeing as much as possible, and then like to return to the hotel in the early evening and read or just take in a great view if I can nab one. Speaking from that context, I have no problem whatsoever in the $500-$750 range per night and have had some amazing hotel experiences as a result — the Copacabana Palace in Rio, the Emiliano in Sao Paulo, the Four Seasons in Baku, to cite three really memorable examples in recent years. That said, I also balk at the $1000 price point, mostly for me because what it generally buys is more space than I need, rather than a better view or a better property (I also like reading and people watching in lobbies, which obviously can be done regardless of room type). Nonetheless, I am considering springing for a suite in that price range at the St. Regis in Astana next month, partly because given the brutal winter weather (not uncommon for the temperatures to stay below zero all day) my sightseeing is likely to be limited to hopping into and out of cars and I am really warming (pun intended) to the idea of hibernating in total luxury for a few days. It goes without saying that these are Rolls Royce problems, so let me conclude with an expression of gratitude that these are the type of “dilemmas” I face.
Yes – I’m the same way. I have an upper cash limit, and when it’s reached I start searching for AirBnBs, staying outside the city and commuting in, or even crashing in a lounge with a shower if I can get away with it.
But for points, I have no upper limit. I just don’t feel guilty about spending them like I do with cash. I realise this is totally irrational and that points do have value that should be husbanded (and I won’t spend a ton of points on a bad deal that gets a low value yield/point), but I also have no problem dropping tens of thousands of SPG points on high-end properties if they best suit the purpose, whereas I would never pay $300+ for a room on my leisure travel. The W South Beach is a great example on a Miami vacation I was just booking – no problem spending 24k starpoints a night there, but would never pay the $800+ room rates they were asking.
I’m not sure what my upper limit would be but it’s well under $1000 and likely under the $400 mark as well. Then at a resort property where it might be an all inclusive rate you have to factor that in as well. It would certainly also be impacted by the situation.
I try to book always under $300. But my absolute limit is $600. If the room prices over $300, I have to consider various factors: number of nights, how many of us are traveling, if there are other stops, hotel quality and many, many, many more.
Always relative, depending on importance of location and trip and uniqueness relative to other options.
The question is what do you get for $1,000/nt? Free breakfast? No. Bigger rooms? Not really. Better location? Possibly, but there are usually good hotels in good locations for much less. Better service? The staff should be more numerous and offer things like nightly turndown and full service concierge. So should you pay a month’s mortgage or rent or a couple of months less on a car for one or two nights in a slightly better location and nightly turndown? I think there are other luxuries to pay for.
Maybe I’m on the cheap side, baulking at anything over $300 or so. That said, I don’t ‘slum it’ and usually travel in out of peak season, with obviously lower prices. It’s not hard to find good quality hotels in most places at that price, although it does require ‘cash and points’ bookings to make it work if the straight cash price is too high, eg Park Hyatt Milan, Churchill London, Park Vienna ( all make much more sense to me on points/cash combo). NYC is better for me using straight points at IHG ( like Even Hotel) as I’m not going to pay insane prices at PH.
Doing 150 nights plus per year I like/need to control the rate , without compromising on enjoyment.
Switzerland? I went there in 1972 or ’73. Not rushing back.
The way I book a hotel is go on Kayak.com and search from price high to low and book the most expensive one I can find regardless of cost. Life is too short to sweat the small things and money comes and goes. You only live once so enjoy every moment.
That’s a fortunate position to be in, Dean.
I’m in the “don’t like to go over $300” crowd. Recently paid $800 in NYC for the Edition (not worth it) and will be paying nearly that in Hong Kong for the RC. I think that’s pretty close to my limit.
Fun replies. I guess it is a lot like asking: “How much would you pay for airfare?”
Guess most of us (who read this blog) are more infatuated with the flight than the destination in terms of beds, lounges, etc.
As a “what if” question: Would you not fly on a potentially interesting flight because you might not be happy with the accommodations at the destination?
I’ve stayed at some pretty bad accommodations, but loved the adventure, and tend to feel guilty spending over $400 even when it is a “bargain.” Yet, several thousands on airfare barely make me hesitate. Go figure.
I’ve only paid >$1000 a night for a hotel once. It wasn’t even a hotel either, it was a luxury all-inclusive resort with only 14 rooms. It was for our honeymoon in Fiji and the flights from Munich were all paid for in points, so we could afford to spend a bit more on hotel. Normally, I’d say $500 would be a max.