subject: How To Weigh Up The Value Of A Hotel [print this page] Sometimes the value of a hotel seems completely disproportionate for the money you pay. If all you essentially need is a bed and a roof for a night and you have to pay 50 pounds for it, it does leave a bitter taste, to my mouth at least. When you factor how much you get paid on an hourly basis and weigh it up with the price you pay for somewhere to sleep overnight, it's very difficult to stomach.
Of course the value of a hotel stay is entirely subjective and I've been thinking about how a monetary value cannot easily be measured properly against to the conveniences and affecting factors a hotel stay can provide in certain circumstances.
For example, if I were traveling to London for a concert or a show and I was planning to get there by train, a hotel can be a brilliant addition to the experience. Most evening events finish around 11pm meaning you are rushed to catch the last train back to your home town. You might even have to miss the final song to make it in time. This train might take an hour or so to get you to your destination and then, most likely, you have to drive home. This means you get home at approximately half past midnight which is never too pleasant if you're beyond the age when staying up late doesn't appear to affect you. If it is a week day, attending the event becomes even less attractive.
In this instance, staying in a hotel can completely transform your evening: you can stay until the very end of your performance and maybe enjoy a drink afterwards before walking up the road to your hotel where you can enjoy a comfortable night's rest. In the morning you wake up whenever you feel like it, giving you time to recover from your evening, digest a hearty breakfast someone else has prepared for you before moving on to catch the next convenient train back home.
The value offered in this case can transform what would be a down-side to a great night into another highlight. The overall experience and memory of this evening is the most important thing and making it the best it can be is a very valuable service.
Another example is when you are flying away on holiday and you have an early flight time. Dragging yourself out of bed at an ungodly hour, driving all the way to the airport, finding your car park, catching the transfer bus in time for checkin is all very stressful and generally quite horrible. However, traveling there the evening before when time isn't an issue, checking into a hotel and enjoying a meal in their restaurant before retiring to bed, and then waking up at a slightly more sensible hour, putting away a hot breakfast and you're only a few minutes from the airport...now that's a far better way to start a holiday!
Getting yourself stressed and aggravated is a terrible way to start a holiday. It should be enjoyable from start to finish and anything you can do to optimise your experience is surely worth considering. Circumstances are obviously different depending on your travel arrangements but in the case mentioned above, a hotel stay is an absolute saviour, especially if you have kids to organise.
So hotels might not always seem the best value when you look at them in a material way, but their capacity for improving your nights out or holidays away are enormous. When we organise events like these it is too common that we don't consider the extra options that can improve the overall experience. My recommendation to you is to view your trips also weighing up the traveling, the convenience, the time and the other variables which determine your enjoyment from the beginning of the day until the end, and see if there are any services which can make it even better. It is very hard to put a price on them.
