The average US hotel room now costs over $100 each night. Of course, this varies widely by region. In New York City, that average room will set you back more than $250 per night. And that's the base price, before the 19% lodging tax.
I wish I could attribute prices triple the national average to Manhattan hotel rooms being nicer, but they're not, they're just smaller and located in Manhattan. Hotel chains that charge $50 elsewhere routinely bump that up to over $150 a day in New York City.
It's always about location. The hotel we're currently staying in is top-notch. It easily falls into the luxury category. If you could pick it up and move it 200 miles north to New York City the nightly price per room would easily triple. The service is excellent -- efficient and attentive yet unobtrusive. It's really a great place to stay -- beautiful, comfortable, every detail just right.
It's wonderful but it's not good enough for me. I freely admit it: I am spoiled. this weekend's stay made us vow to never again use any hotel if an exchange home is available.
It is a nightmare to stay in a hotel with small children. Each day my baby wakes up at 5:30am. She and my son are too little to have a separate hotel room so I have to yank her out of the single room our family shares before she wakes her brother.
Instead of lying down on the bed in another room or relaxing on a living room couch while she plays I have to tote her down to the drafty hotel lobby. The attached restaurant isn't open yet, so I feed her packaged, processed foods that don't need refrigeration. In an exchange home we'd have a full kitchen so I could easily prepare the same healthy breakfast she eats at home.
During the day, when each child naps separately, one spouse is trapped in the hotel room with the napee. At night we are forced to eat in another restaurant with fussy children who have a hard time waiting for all the entrees to come out simultaneously. After they eat we then tire ourselves out trying to keep them from yelping or running around the tables. When dinner is over we are forced to retire early so the kids can sleep.
One day my children will grow up. When that happens, I will still not enjoy having to eat every meal in a restaurant when I am on vacation. At every stage of life home exchange beats even the best hotel.
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