Hotels That Serve Glorified Prison Food For Breakfast

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

8-18-2012 @ 3:03PM

Carol said...

While we are on the subject of 'added costs of a motel stay', its just not right that contractors have to pay the same as tourists. When you're a night worker, its even more unfair to pay $75 per night, you can't check in until 3 pm and you have to check out by 11 am. If you work from 8 pm until 5 am .........you aren't going to get up just for the dead breakfast bar anyways and you only are getting a few short hours of sleep. There should be a rate (NOT HOURLY thats at the hooker havens) just for contractors and night time construction workers at the budget motels and short term stay motels such as Extended Stays, Motel 6, Days Inn, La Quinta, Best Western, Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, and all the other chains who claim to be guest friendly. Tourists come and go, workers are usually in the area for a month or even longer, where are the worker friendly motels that actually bring in good revenue for the motel? And what is up with "tourist taxes"? I've actually been charged a "linen tax" at one motel. Taxes can bump up the cost of the night stay an extra $20. And forget about the boost in cost when its 'graduation time' or 'leaf peeping season'. I've stayed at a La Quinta for $63 per night and when I called the front desk to extend my stay by another night, was told it would cost $135 because there were only 3 rooms left. Mind you I was already in the room and didn't even expect housecleaning services. "Supply and demand" were the words from the front dest hostess. Guess she took a lesson from the local gas station for marketing prices.

8-18-2012 @ 4:20PM

ncgemini said...

I'm going to try to address a little bit of this without seeming crass or rude. First of all it does seem odd that there isn't at least some kind of discount for a long stay. The problem from the hotel side of things is that often times contractors and the like (no offense) expect such a low rate that if they did stay a long time it changes from a quick "heads in beds" situation to a flat out loss.

In the case of you calling and extending your stay and the rate changing - Again from the hotel perspective for all the front desk person knew you were due to check out then you call up and extend and extra night where if the rate stayed the same it would be less than half what could be made. When it comes to special events and tourist type seasons hotels have to make whatever they can when they can to either get a boost in revenue to help with upkeep issues that may not be visible on the surface or in my case to literally make sure we make enough during the busy summer to survive the dead winter.

Here is a small tip for you that might help you as a contractor looking for a long stay in a hotel.
-Call as much in advance as your work schedule will allow.
- Call during the day when it is likely someone beyond the front desk "grunt" is working.
-Try to get an assistant General Manager or front desk manager.
-Once you've gotten in touch with someone like that explain your situation and how long you are looking to stay. Most of the time hotels are willing to work something out.
-If you are not entirely sure if it will take 15 days or 17 days book the 17 days so the room does not get sold when you need it (especially during the busier seasons etc)
Again - most of the time (in my experience) hotels are willing to work with you. It is much easier from the hotel side to check you out a day or whatever early than it is to try to cram an extra day on when the hotel is close to being full.

I hope this helps in some way - again I am not trying to be condescending or anything just trying to give you some potentially useful info.

Good luck!

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