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Hotel living... still going!


zbenye
By zbenye,
in

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This Saturday will mark the 5th anniversary of my living in hotels. It all began soon after 9/11 when hotel occupancy rates tumbled and room rates on Priceline and Hotwire were very low. Five years later, rates have creeped up a bit in some areas, and a lot in others. Nonetheless, the cost of living at the Hyatt Regency or the Hilton in downtown San Francisco (now going for about $70) would still be comparable to what rent+utilities+maid would cost for a rental luxury studio. However, I'm stingy so I now live in South San Francisco (La Quinta, Homewood Suites, Courtyard) where I'm paying between $42 and $55.

I had a period of 7 months in St. Louis where I was able to negotiate to rent a 1-BR suite at a hotel at a monthly rate identical to Priceline's, so did not use Priceline or Hotwire all that time. I also had a period of 8 months in San Francisco during which I subleased someone's apartment. And now I am again looking for a sublet situation for the winter months, but the asking rates are so high that I might as well continue in hotels, and maybe get over myself and proceed to book 4* on Priceline in downtown SF. I find hotels more comfortable than apartments and I really don't need a kitchen.

According to my Excel spreadsheet, I've paid Priceline and Hotwire a total of $41,175 for 961 nights (taxes/fees included). This does not include some 400 nights spent in hotels during travel away from "home", even when those nights were booked on PL/HW. I also had many free nights through the use of hotel points and FasterFreeNights earned during PL stays.

The low average rate of $42.85 per night was helped significantly by some outragous promotions on PL during 2002-2003.

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No book, but the local FOX affiliate interviewed me back in 2002 for the evening news, when rates were oh-so-low. The clip can be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7506772443435075690 (click the little triangle button and choose "Original Size" or the large picture will be very blurry).

My domestic stuff is all in storage. The little furniture I had I gave away to friends who needed it. Until a couple of years ago, I had two suitcases in the trunk of my car filled with clothes and that was pretty much all I needed. But then with congestion on the roads and $14/day parking in SF, I dumped the car and got a motorcycle. So now I keep my clothes in a big cabinet I have at the office, and take in my backpack just what I need for the next days. Fortunately there's a laundry place right here in the office building so that's easy. Yes, I have to agree that this lifestyle is bizarre, but evidently I'm not the only one doing this. Some on this board have spent long terms in Priceline hotels, though not quite this long.

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This Saturday will mark the 5th anniversary of my living in hotels.

Congratulations! It is impressive especially considering recent run up in PL prices.

I do the same midweek in OC (as it ends up being cheaper than renting an apartment close to my work) and mix PL with occasional point promotions from regular stays. I doubt I would be able to handle it every day though.

Good luck!

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  • 7 months later...

Congratulations and happy anniversary on your hotel living. I looked into doing it in San Diego but it's too tight to fight with tourists and bids are around $100/night.

I was trying to figure out which hotel frequent stay program was best to use with Priceline and Hotwire stays and figured you would be the one to know. My experience is that Marriott is the best because they give credit for Priceline stays. I have had no luck with Radisson or Kimpton Hotels. Which hotel program have you found to be the best?

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At this time only Marriott still gives me points for PL/HW stays, but I think they are in the process of changing that. On my two next-to-last stays at the Residence Inn LAX-Manhattan Beach they refused to enter my number when I checked in. So prior to my last stay there, I called the 800 number and asked to have my number entered into the record. The agent told me that there is no sense in doing that, because I would not get points. I talked her into entering the number anyway, saying that "I know I won't get points, just that they tend to assign a nicer room if they see my status". She entered the number and I did get points for the stay.

A couple of weeks ago I checked into the Courtyard in South San Francisco. Although I booked on Priceline and did not call to add my number, somehow the reservation showed them that I had Silver status. They gave me the usual welcome amenity, but said that they can't add my number into the record. Consequently, I did not get points for that stay. (Now I'm thinking that perhaps they knew I was Silver because I presented my Marriott Visa card. Holders of this card automatically get Silver status.)

So it seems that if you can get your Marriott number entered into the record then you'll get points, but personnel are being instructed to not accept numbers for PL/HW reservations.

In the past (at least two years ago) I used to submit requests for retroactive credit on Hilton's website for stays at Homewood Suites. But one day I got an email from them informing me that I was exploiting a hole in their system and asking that I do not submit any more requests for PL/HW stays. They threatened to revoke my accumulated points if I did not stop.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My wife and I (girlfriend at the time) did a lot of Priceline stuff after 9/11, too. I think we stayed in hotels 95% of the time for almost a year. Prior to that we were living at my mom's house, but obviously that gets old. We were able to have a lot more privacy without having to spring for a year lease and buy furniture and all that. One time we got a $20 a night bid accepted (2* Orange County, Brea/Fullerton) Those were the days! Most of the time we got $25 a night. Last year we stayed a lot in some of the same hotels, usually for $30. We moved out of our $2200 a month 2 bedroom apartment in OC, stored our stuff at my industrial business unit and prepared for a full time existence with apartment or house. We purchased a bunch of timeshare interests and live in them almost full time. We use Priceline to fill in some of the gaps. And we get free rooms and stuff from casinos and things like that. We travel a lot, so we don't have to pay to stay in OC or use our timeshare credits when we are in other places. It took a while to get up to speed, but Priceline got us by for 6 months until our timeshare reservations started kicking in. We are not limited to 7 night stays in the majority of our timeshares, but reservations need to be made 6 months to a year in advance at some places. Others are available last minute, including a resort in Vegas that is as nice as it gets. We go there all the time. For those interested, you could easily live in Vegas on timeshares...

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

ditto

we have some marriott time on a timeshare (up to four weeks ) and some interval international getaeays are useful too

we obviously need to seek out more timeshare deals to tide us over until we retire and can roam around from place to place like timeshare/priceline/nomads - only another 20 years to go then! :)

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