How do you see your hotel room?

[MelGirl]

So I've been lurking around the boards for a while now, and something that I find very interesting, is how different people see/use their hotel room on a vacation. Some people see it as a place to sleep, shower, and store their stuff and are happy with the cheapest option, but for others, the room is part of the whole vacation experience and worth spending a little more on. What is it to you?

I got interested to hear more people's persepectives, so I thought I'd open it up for discussion

For me personally, the room is definitely part of the experience on any vacation. Its more than just a place to sleep and shower, its where I can decompress after a long day and watch a movie or read a book, and where I can escape to for a rest and some quiet in the middle of the day. I've always been fascinated with interior design and living spaces, so the place I get to call home for the trip is part of the fun to me

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

It depends on where we go and what we're doing.

On our honeymoon, the room was very important seeing as how well you know. We got the whirlpool heart shaped tubs, the whole 9 yards for our cabin. A trip to Hawaii, yes a beach side resort would be very nice as opposed to say a Motel.

If it's something like a cruise, or Disney we get a fairly cheap room. We're never going to be in it except to sleep.

Edited to note. The best part of the deluxe resorts are their nice lobbies and restaurants. And well you get to do those things no matter where you stay at Disney or even if you stay off site. The pools are extremely nice at some. But we do the water parks which are far better than any pool at any hotel. We can hang with just a regular ole pool at our hotel.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

To me it's not just the room, but the whole hotel or resort. Most of the time anyway.

For this, though, I am assuming you are mainly talking about Disney?

We actually build at least a couple of days into our Disney trips to enjoy the resort so it's pretty important to us. If our budget allows we are willing to pay more for the experience.

 

[dclpluto]

I'm a dvc member I only stay in 1 bedrooms.

 

[BadPinkTink]

For me it depends on the purpose of my visit. For Disneyland California, my Disney time is part of a longer visit to the LA / California area. Im in the parks open to close, the main focus is time in the park so near location and low price are my priorities. For Disneyland California I just need bed, shower and somewhere to store my stuff.

For Disneyland Paris, I am specifically travelling just to go to the parks. Staying at a Disney onsite hotel is part of the experience. When I go to Disneyland Paris, it is not part of a longer trip to the Paris area. Price is still an issue but basically I can get 4 days at Disneyland Paris onsite for the same price as 2 days offsite at Disneyland California.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Depends on the length of the trip. If I'm at Disney for 4 days or less, it's go-go-go, so it's just a clean place to sleep and shower. But if I'm there for a week or so, I do spend time at the resort, so it "counts" more.

 

[indimom]

Our vacations typically revolve around what we are doing/new experiences and we are busy every day. We spend very little time at our room. So, we go for convenience and lower price. We see no reason to pay more for a space we are just going to be sleeping and showering in, essentially.
We did rent a cabin in the Smokey Mts last summer and we planned the trip to allow plenty of down time there to enjoy the game room, hot tub, deck, etc. We are taking a cruise next spring, and getting a balcony view. (Because the trip was a prize DH won and it's not costing us anything extra for the perk.)

 

[Shanti]

So I've been lurking around the boards for a while now, and something that I find very interesting, is how different people see/use their hotel room on a vacation. Some people see it as a place to sleep, shower, and store their stuff and are happy with the cheapest option, but for others, the room is part of the whole vacation experience and worth spending a little more on. What is it to you?

I got interested to hear more people's persepectives, so I thought I'd open it up for discussion

For me personally, the room is definitely part of the experience on any vacation. Its more than just a place to sleep and shower, its where I can decompress after a long day and watch a movie or read a book, and where I can escape to for a rest and some quiet in the middle of the day. I've always been fascinated with interior design and living spaces, so the place I get to call home for the trip is part of the fun to me

It's a home away from home for us. I value comfort and well-themed decor, so we typically stay at deluxe resorts. They are as much of the Disney experience as visiting the parks. We also make a lot of use of the resort pools. The deluxe pools at Disney resorts are wonderful.

 

[L&Lfan]

Our deluxe club level room is DEFINITELY a big part of our Disney vacation. We go every year so parkstorming is no longer the main focus of our visit. We are more into the non park attractions which WDW and DL have to offer.

 

[Tattylou]

For Disney, the room is mainly for shower and sleep. Although I've never stayed in a deluxe 2 bedroom villa - maybe something like that would change my mind!
For other vacations, the resort and room is usually more important bc we aren't on the go as much. I think I have discovered that I prefer a house or condo on other trips.

 

[design_mom]

Eh, I'm somewhere in the middle. We don't spend a lot of time in our room, so top-notch resort amenities are not paramount to us. However, I want a good night's sleep and a decent place to get ready in the morning. (For me, that means at LEAST a queen size bed. DH and I have a king at home...dropping down to a full bed makes for a not-so-restful night of sleep.) We also like to have a refrigerator, coffee maker (DH, not me), etc in the room.

At Disney World, we normally go for the moderate resorts, although I have stayed at Deluxe and Value at various times and would do so again. On other vacations, we will normally go for something like a Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express... but we've stayed in all sorts of places, both high- and low-end. Of course, high-end places are a treat, but honestly, as long as it's clean, I can deal...

 

[clutter]

Depends on the vacation. I prefer vacations where I don't end up in the same place for more than a night or two, so the rooms really are for a place to relax a little and sleep. If I was to spend a week in a resort type area for a more relaxing vacation I'd want comfort. When I spend some time visiting my dd at school I want convenience. At Disney - I want AKV.

 

[Klayfish]

Depends on the purpose. My hobby is auto racing, and when I go I have to travel for the weekend. In those cases, it's a place to get some sleep, grab a shower. I find the cheapest hotel I can find. We have a rewards credit card, so I often stay free at a Marriott or Sheraton, but if there isn't one around, any Motel 6 type place is fine.

If I'm travelling for work, I do one step up. I don't want to spend too much of the companies money, but don't stay at the $40/night motel either. Usually the cheapest Holiday Inn type place. It's still just a place to sleep and relax, but I usually have a little more time than when I'm racing, so I want the place to at least be decent. I'm actually going to Vegas in about 6 weeks for work...going to the worlds' largest car show. My company would let me stay on the strip, but the cheapest hotel rooms are $250/night. Forget it. I'm staying at a nice place 4 blocks off the strip for $110/night.

On family vacation, there are 5 of us, so we don't use hotels. We rent condos/townhouses. We're not luxury type people, so we don't care if it has high end furnishings. We're very budget minded. But we obviously want it to be clean, fairly well kept and in a decent neighborhood. For our most recent WDW trip, we rented what was basically like a double wide mobile home. It wasn't actually mobile, but it was a pre-manufactured home. It was great, we loved it. It was well pretty well cared for, had plenty of space for us to stretch out and relax, have a cup of coffee in the morning, watch TV at night, the master bedroom was on the complete opposite side from the kids rooms . All of those things are important to us. But we don't consider it as much a part of the experience as the destination (WDW) itself. As long as it's got the space we need and is clean, we're happy.

 

[mousefanmichelle]

For me it isn't always the room that sells me on the hotel, it's the pool area. I like to have a nice pool area. In a hotel room I don't just book it to sleep, shower and shave in - I want to have space and a balcony with a good view to sit out on and enjoy. I prefer a condo for my own room and own bathroom vs a standard room at say POP. Of course budget always plays into our accomodations so its what we can afford but there are times if I can't afford what I want I wouldn't go (balcony room on a cruise ship for example - won't do an interior room).

 

[kimj88]

The room and hotel/resort are a HUGE part of the vacation for us. It always sounds odd to me when people say stuff like oh you will hardly be there but to sleep and shower. That is not us at all.

 

[DisneyHardin]

A nice room is important to me on vacation. At Disney we stay Deluxe because we do enjoy spending quite a bit of time at the resort and in the room. We have even begun upgrading a little bit when traveling other times of the year. We always stop in Hendersonville, NC to spend the night on our way to the beach in the summers. The first few years I booked the cheapest room in town. After a couple years of really crummy rooms and super hard beds, we now spend the $50-$60 more to stay at the Hampton Inn (not that a Hampton is a 5 star hotel, but it does have a certain level of quality that a Days Inn does not have).

 

[ronandannette]

We've only been to WDW once and that trip was planned with the resort definitely being a big part of the experience. We stayed CL at AKL and I will never forget our wonder at stepping out and meeting giraffes at eye level!

We visit DLR much more regularly and frankly, nothing about the on-site hotels there is worth the price to us, compared to other accommodations in the area. Never booked them, never will.

When we travel elsewhere it really depends on the nature of the trip. Almost always we're in an area for a specific reason and have lots of activities planned. The most important features in a hotel are location and price, and that the rooms have comfortable bed and bath arrangements, as well as good tv and wifi. On the very rare occasion that we go away just to get away, the hotel becomes more important as we usually plan to make spa appointments, spend time at the pool and eat at the on-site restaurants.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

A hotel room is a place for me to sleep and shower while I'm on vacation. But the experience is important. Maybe we want to take an afternoon in the pool or something. I won't stay anywhere run down or dirty. But I don't need extravagance, either. So, at Disney, a moderate is fine with me . Anywhere else, we are usually happy with a Hampton Inn. Not staying at a seedy motel, but not paying for the Ritz, either.

 

[Wishing on a star]

To me, it is more than a bed and a shower....
I need a good amount of down-time, so a clean, pleasant, comfortable, room is important.
We don't book the biggest, nicest, rooms. But, the hotel/resort has to be nice!

 

[smiths02]

We don't travel to travel, really, especially Disney. I do have a dream to go to England/Ireland and maybe Italy one day, but we generally don't like to travel. We like to vacation. Also, my DH will take very little time off. (He is constantly at the end of the year trying to take days off or he will "lose them" permanently. He's only been at his current job about 6 years and he already has so much time off accumulated that he has to use it or lose it.) In other words, again, our vacation isn't a travel, it truly needs to be a relax and refresh, enjoy time with each other, etc.

I do love Disney. Growing up in Southern California, I come by my love of theme parks honestly. However, I won't do anything just to have more time at Disney parks. The offsite, $50/night motel is not going to happen just so we can go to Disney multiple times a year. (Now, if that was the only way we could EVER go, we might do it)

I think that is why Disneyworld and a cruise have been our best vacations. (It's not just the room, also the resort or ship as a whole). We want to be pampered, relaxed, spoiled, etc. on vacation.