There’s a live social media debate over whether expensive hotels are “that much better” so as to justify their extra cost – that a modest price over cheaper accommodations may buy you a better stay, but that once you get past a few hundred dollars the extra money just doesn’t buy you very much.
I think there’s a lot of nuance to this, and I don’t spend $600 or more out of pocket on room nights myself though I regularly redeem points for hotels that cost far more than this. My controversial take is that I do feel that they can deliver a lot for the money! But that I’m reluctant to spend that money myself. I haven’t hit my savings goals yet!
I understand why you would choose a $200/night hotel over a $100/night hotel. What I don’t understand are $600/night hotels. How could they POSSIBLY be that much better?? It has always baffled me.
— Lucy Huber (@clhubes) February 29, 2024
I don’t stay in the world’s most exclusive hotels. I’ve certainly stayed in some of the better chain hotels, like the Park Hyatts in the Maldives; Tokyo; New York; Sydney; St. Kitts; DC; San Diego (Aviara); Buenos Aires; Paris; Dubai; Abu Dhabi; Siem Reap and more. I’ve stayed in nicer Ritz-Carltons.
Overwater Villa, Park Hyatt Maldives
Hyatt’s SLH partnership opened up redemptions for some special properties – I’d have never stayed at a $1600 per night hotel on Grace Bay Beach otherwise.
Point Grace, Turks & Caicos
Indeed, part of what you’re often paying for is location. At the Park Hyatt Sydney you’re looking right on at the harbor, directly at the Opera House.
View From Park Hyatt Sydney
Cash out of pocket though I’ve never spent $700 per night on a room. In fact, thinking back on spending $600 per night it was at a truly peak period and I leveraged it with a second night free certificate that made my average cost more reasonable. I’ve never stayed at an Aman Resort.
So maybe I’m the wrong person to ask here, but at the same time the question really isn’t that different – and repeats itself all the time – when discussing points hotels. Is a 40,000 point hotel worth it, when you can get a nice place for 20,000 points?
Park Hyatt St. Kitts, Deluxe Suite Plunge Pool
Of course the question applies beyond just hotels,
- “I can why you would choose to fly business class over coach. What I don’t understand is spending even more for first class. How could first possibly be that much better?”
- “I understand why you would choose a $60,000 car over a $30,000 car. What I don’t understand are $120,000 cars. How could they possibly be that much better?”
- “I understand why you would spend $800,000 on a house over a $400,000 one. What I don’t understand are $3 million homes. How can they possibly be that much better?”
I’ve Twice Stayed In Conrad Bora Bora’s Villa 105
‘There are always tradeoffs, values are subjective, and it depends on what margin.’ Of course, better hotels will usually provide larger and more comfortable beds, though honestly I’ve always slept well in a Sheraton Sweet Sleeper.
They’ll pay greater attention to details like blackout curtains. You’ll often have larger bathrooms and strong water pressure out of multiple showerheads. How much do these things matter depends on you.
I’m not going to argue that having a second housekeeping service at turndown, where bottles of water are placed by the bed and a treat and glass of dessert wine are left for me to find when I come in are worth $300 each day as such! But it does create a sense of tranquility and being cared for.
Evening Turndown Treat At Park Hyatt Chicago
In general I think some of the most important elements of a great hotel that commands a price premium and feels worth it.
- Effortlessness: you’re not waiting on staff, staff are waiting on you. Any requests are handled promptly and without follow up. Ideally you don’t even need to make the request at all, because they’ve anticipated what you might need (easier to do than you think, even for a first-time guest, as many guests aren’t as unique as they might imagine).
- Design and sense of place: the best spot on the best beach or most convenient location with the best view, all wrapped up in a thoughtful location that brings both calm and wonder. If you’re looking out over the city, the windows are large giving you a commanding view, and maybe there’s a comfortable piece of furniture in the window so you can work there… with a table beside you and a power outlet. Or maybe the hotel itself was once a special place that’s been repurposed, a fort or a castle.
- Space and serenity: there are likely fewer people around, so that it’s a place you retreat from the world at the end of your day or a place you can find some peace before it begins.
- Discrete service: everything is just handled, correctly, in the background.
Park Hyatt New York Suite Living Room
When the binding constraint isn’t dollars but time, and you don’t want to spend precious time or effort on the details of each moment of your stay then spending money for other people to think through those things for you is valuable!
Ultimately though prices vary, even for the best places. During peak times around popular events even hotels that are quite mid might charge over $600, while during off periods or even shoulder season you may get a hotel that ‘charges’ $600 – $900 for perhaps $300. Las Vegas is notorious for wide variances in rates and midweek the Conrad hotel there has had suites available for under $200.
When I stayed at the Park Hyatt Chennai my room rate was less than $100, and spa treatments were less than $40 per hour. It wasn’t the most polished Park Hyatt, but my status included free breakfast – in the restaurant or via room service. Unlimited South Indian cuisine delivered to me, complimentary, had to be the best elite benefit ever!
Do you think that expensive hotels (whether in money or points) are worth the extra cost? Why, or why not?
(HT: Hans Mast)
I think the answer is it depends – for example, is an expensive resort worth it say in Hawaii, Scottsdale, or the California coast where all beaches are open to the public? Likely not since it’s debatable if any of those are truly premium resorts given middling American service and the cost of labor. You can get the very close to the same experience at an upscale / 4* hotel.
However, is a premium experience on a safari where you have literal private concessions and the premium spots are dedicated for luxe resorts or private islands / beaches in Polynesia or the Maldives worth it? I would say so since there isn’t a like-for-like lower cost option. You don’t really have a middle ground – it’s either pay for the premium or compete with the masses for a lesser, more crowded experience and worse locale.
i’m retired, so this is easy. start with my annual income from all sources, including 4% withdrawal on investments/cash. if there’s a material amount of money left over unspent each year, i’ll start saying yes to more expensive travel, entertainment, transportation, dining instead of passing that wealth on to my hiers.
Everyone has to make this decision for themselves. On a pure logic basis, luxury products are NEVER worth it. A Gucci bag does about the same thing as a $20 Walmart handbag. Siimilarly, a $150 hotel is going to give you 95% of what a $1000 hotel room will give you (a peaceful oasis with climate control, a decent bed and clean, functional bathroom). But humans who can afford it often want better. Don’t try to justify it on reason: it’s not reasonable. But the person who dies with the highest bank account doesn’t win. You can choose to spend your money any way you want, even if you buy overpriced things.
@Jeremy — I hate to say it, but even if your “worthwhile splurges” aren’t really value justified. You can rent a nice oceanfront cottage in Polynesia on airbnb (consider Moorea) for under $100. This will give you more than 95% of what you’d get from a $1500 overwater (gimmick) villa. Similarly, get a $30 car rental from the Johannesburg airport and drive four hours to Kruger National Park where you can get 90%+ of the “premium safari experience” (you may actually prefer to explore by yourself) for a tiny fraction of the expense.
Again, if you have the money, you can spend it. But luxury trips are never going to be value justified.
So maybe I’m the wrong person to ask here, but at the same time the question really isn’t that different – and repeats itself all the time – when discussing points hotels. Is a 40,000 point hotel worth it, when you can get a nice place for 20,000 points?
Back in autumn of 2018, my husband and I took a long trip around Great Britain to celebrate a big benchmark event. We’d been hoarding AmEx points for well over a decade, and after we got our Virgin Atlantic Upper Class airfare, we looked for Hilton hotels since you could double your points. We ended up using them to pay for a week at a Doubletree on the NW edge of Hyde Park – not as nice as the actual Hilton Hyde Park, but a great location and we figured with London, location was the most important thing – and 5 nights at the Hilton Carlton in Edinburgh.
It was a huge chunk of our remaining points, and we did not regret it. On North Bridge across the street from The Scotsman, the entry to the hotel is about 250 ft from The Royal Mile. Even our standard King room was incredibly comfortable, we had a fun view of Calton Hill out towards Leith from our room, the service was solid (if not perfect, but paying with points, we weren’t so picky), and we were nice and close to Waverly and other public transit. Considering in some other cities we’d had to go budget – simply from lack of bigger chain hotels – it was a nice splurge of our points. (Though our favorite hotel was a boutique hotel in Devon – gorgeous with its own attached pub, it was absolutely the highlight of our trip as far as hotels went.)
However we’re planning on a 10-14 day trip to Edinburgh next spring, and we probably won’t do that again. We understand the city a little bit better now, and we are either going to look for a Vrbo/self-catering option so we have kitchens and separate bedrooms (jet lag impacts us VERY differently), or we’ll just jump between a few hotels to give us different launching off points.
It was a lovely Old Town experience to celebrate something big, but we have different goals now.
@listen, excellent points.
I’m aretireeand that’s how I live my life.
You can’t go by price. There are Fairfield Inns and Residence Inns by Marriott and Hyatt Places by Hyatt in random markets in the mainland U.S. that command $500 in-season. I do agree that some brands are overrated. Increasingly, Westin, W, Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott do not offer a standard of service worth the usually high prices of $250-$500 for a non-resort hotel and $500-$1,000 for a resort hotel. St. Regis still generally is worth the price. The real indicator isn’t price or brand but reviews and also trusted independent ratings like the AAA/CAA in North America and Mexico/Caribbean, AA in the UK, and ATOUT in France.
@chopstick: we go to southern Africa every year, about 6-8 weeks each time. On every trip we do a moderately-priced safari stay, usually 3-4 nights @ $800/night. That stay gets us in gear, tunes us into the bush, so to speak. From then on we do the rental car bit and drive all over southern Africa ourselves, self-guided.
Best self-trip you can do is fly from Kruger airport to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, stay at the Bulawayo Club (a relic from British colonial days), then take the local overnight train in a (private room) to Vic Falls. Excluding air it cost us $150 USD total for 3 days/2 nights. USD EUR GBP ZAR cash only, Zim has no currency. Unforgettable journey, can’t do it on a tour.
And yeah, that ^ sure as shoot beats a $600/night hotel room.
As long as you’re living within the your means, it’s all a personal preference and there is no right or wrong answer. I don’t spend money on alcohol, sports events, concerts, streaming services, expensive hobbies, etc. I like staying in fancy hotels. I choose to splurge on that. If someone instead wants to spend their money on an expensive car or box seats, that’s great for them.
Just don’t whine expecting someone else to pay for it. I saw a 20-something online demanding that society bail her out financially while insisting that spending $18 on a fancy coffee drink every day is good because unlike her parents, she won’t let money (or lack thereof) get in the way of living the life she “deserves.”
@ Gary — Weel, I admire your humility, as I’m quite sure you can easily afford to pay $2,000 per night for a hotel room, like another blogger. The money is better given to charity.
It really is personal preference and travel style. At this point, I only fly international business class, and usually domestic F. But I am not a resort person, and don’t spend much time in the hotel. Location is important, but not the amenities. In fact, I usually prefer mid range boutique or apart hotels in a central location.
What’s the difference between a Honda and a Ferrari? They both get you from A to B. These stupid rich people, how dare they spend their money in a way in which I, a person with not much money, wouldn’t? This is a silly discussion that highlights how social media makes everyone a little more stupid.
Only an or someone who doesn’t really know Hawaii resorts say something as that. Factually, there are many resorts that offer a serene beachfront without it having to be private. Well worth the cost for a special occasion trip.
As you say, it’s all relative. A couple in their 60s, no kids of heirs, where one is retired and the other is still working at $600,000 a year, and they have a net worth of 8 million, have more money than they know what to do with, and it keeps multiplying faster than they can spend it, can easily lay out $2000 or more a night on luxury hotel suites when they travel, without blinking. My own personal favorite luxury hotels include The Beverly Hills Hotel, Halekulani, and George V Four Seasons Paris.
I understand why you would spend $800,000 on a house over a $400,000 one. What I don’t understand are $3 million homes. How can they possibly be that much better?”
There is a huge different between what $400k of housing is in NYC or DC and what $800k is. And $3 million is a lot more and better housing than $800k in these places. And in a place like Stockholm, $3 million gets me whatever I want for housing while $800k would limit my choices.
With hotels, I really don’t value the difference between what $200 gets me and what $600-1800 gets me unless it comes with a much bigger accommodation and for some reason needing the additional space. And in circumstances where I would value the differences, I would rather rent a house or a condo when possible.
In general though these luxe hotels work well for people pressed for time who don’t want to do much homework about the place and want to get the best shot of having the best of the location readily available with little effort or time spent. If you don’t want to leave premises some days for privacy or other reasons, plenty of good on site.
If you have the time or inclination you can get more out of the location at a less luxe place with similar benefits, but less of the helping hand service – at a lesser hotel.
Let’s give Tokyo as an example…
Pretty much any chain business hotel will have very comfortable well appointed rooms, especially those from local chains. Service will feel luxury by US standards.
Food will always be as good or better off the hotel campus in a city like Tokyo
Location might even be better too at the lesser hotels
What does a Park Hyatt or Aman get you?
Space – the smallest room at an Aman is 2x the size of a typical hotel room in Tokyo. So that alone gets you 2x the cost if thinking on a square footage basis. Though you could probably get a similar sized room in a higher room category elsewhere for a lot less than 2x.
Almost certainty of a good nights rest – again in Tokyo standards are high, but almost impossible to not have a great bed at the high end chains, though not entirely out of the question
In Aman’s case privacy – if you value that – and anticipatory service if you’re someone who values that, including planning for your time elsewhere in the city. You also get exclusivity in the sense you expect guests of a certain caliber and behavior at that price point, though by design you should rarely encounter the other guests.
And let’s also factor in some places just have a ‘feel’ not replicated at home and that special feel is worth something to be immersed in for part of your trip
My top hotel criteria is view/location I want a good location with a good to great view. My lifetime hotel stays definetly skews to Hamptons and Hitons segments.
I’m retired and we are fortunate in the ‘time to spend’ phase of life (as opposed to saving for retirement while working.)
So last year for my Birthday I had a 270 degree view room at the Shangri La at the Shard, paying what I hope is the most I’ll ever pay. It was supreme!!!
OTOH not having the access like Gary does for earning masive amounts of hotel points, I use money, so I havn’t spent $$ to stay at the Sydney Park Hyatt. I will pay for Club level at the InterContinental and get great views and access to both Quay and the Royal Botantica Gardens. similar choices in other cities
I’m aware of my previledge and endulgences – I like to be upfront with my hypocrisies – but my 3-4 trips a year sure are fun and help me escape from the Zeitgeist 😉
Easy. If I’m going on vacation to stay mostly on hotel/resort premises, then I pay up, including for ocean views, balcony, etc. I’ve paid well over $1,500 a night for Cabo, USVI, St Barts, etc. If I’m going to a location to sightsee and spend most of the time off property, then I’m value-oriented. $150-200 per night in great AirBnBs in Paris, Stockholm, Rome, Florence, etc.
It’s all a personal preference that changes over time. I’ve moved from a dorm bed in a hostel to a private room in a hostel to a room in a family run hotel to a basic room that needs to have a coffee maker and an elevator (and I’ll usually go buy the coffee maker so it’s clean)
I’ve gone from a middle seat to paying for an aisle and will spend $100ish to upgrade but have not flat out bought a PE, business, or first seat. I HAVE purchased my hotel room for the night before so it’s ready when I get there.
I eat takeaway and street food when I travel but always take the time and money to eat lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant.
It’s all perspective. And the dorm bed guy would tell me to quit being bougie and wasteful.
@chopsticks we will agree to disagree. I’ve been to Kruger and a Singita in Sabi Sands and the Grumeti. IMO it’s definitely not 90% of the experience – maybe more like 50%. For one you have 50x+ the crowds so you can often have crowds grouping around a major sighting, cannot off-road or walking safari in a National Park, and there are limited accommodations in the park which restrict your hours – or if you stay in the park you face middling accommodations or food / bev. quality. At these luxe safaris you have basically none of those restrictions, private guides who will find major sightings for you with their network, and get you much higher quality hardware, food, and beverage.
Now is that worth the sticker price difference? Probably not to that extent, but imo it’s a materially different experience and not like say staying at a Courtyard or the Aman NYC (where NYC is 90% of the experience so imo the hotel doesn’t really matter)
I think you missed a category for why pay more and that would be facilities. For example I would value the Grand Hyatt Kauai at $600 or more because of the lazy river, waterside, lagoon pool and gardens as well as having enough chairs to sit at. Unfortunately most nights are $1200 or more. But if you value Hyatt points at 1.2 -1.5 cpp it’s a hotel I enjoy
My issue with high end hotels is that they aren’t happy just taking your room rate but everything in the hotel is horribly overpriced. And now they extend that to more and more fees since the rate apparently aint high enough.
This is the wrong crowd for this message but one thing people are paying for is to be away from the points crowd.
Hotels without points programs (Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, Aman, etc.) can command these prices for the service and for the other guests. Ritz-Carlton, JW, Waldorf, St Regis… they all have someone at breakfast trying to haggle over whether or not they should have to tip on their free breakfast. Then there’s someone complaining that they didn’t get their free upgrade and bottle of water. For people who have plenty of money to pay for high end service, they just don’t want to be around all that.
So… if you’re on this blog are you likely to be impressed with what you “get” for the extra money? No. Stick to your Bonvoy and Honors points.
Probably a very very slow day for TMZ.
This is one of the most absurd and word count boost posts ever.
Might as well ask why is Blue better than Orange.
If you have enough money, it is worth it if you feel it is worth it. It is really not a return on investment sort of thing. Zillow says my house could be sold for over a million dollars but to me it is the place I bought for less than 1/4th of that over 30 years ago and was worth only two thirds of the buying price in 1996. When I go to the store I see many things that I don’t buy because I think they are overpriced but others consider things differently and buy those things.
Once I’m asleep I find that all hotels are quite similar.
What’s the difference between a Honda Civic and Mercedes AMG GLE 53. You get what you pay for. Lucy doesn’t understand you get nicer looking rooms with better decor, more luxurious amenities, and turn down service. You spend 8 hours sleeping but also just as much time awake in a room on vacation. Someone I know said they spend most of the time on a cruise outside of the cabin buts that’s not true. They always went back to rest after walking around for 2 hours on the days at sea and spent half the awake time during the day in their cabin. The bathroom isn’t just standard tile but marble and nowadays the trend is toward stand alone tubs in addition to a separate shower. You get much better looking hallways. You get better hotel facilities. You get something that becomes part of the vacation and relaxation instead of just a room and building. You also get a greater degree of safety because the people who can afford the hotel tend to not be troublemakers like we can see at lower end hotels or Airbnb buildings.
When I travel, the hotel is not the destination. The destination is the destination.
Which means I’m not setting out for an idyllic (and expensive) experience in the hotel, because I’m planning instead to get out of there and into the city/neighborhood/national park/resort that is the reason for my travel. I can afford a fancy hotel, but I would rather spend that money on the experiences the destination offers.
Unfortunately many so called luxury hotel are imposters overcharging.
5 star are supposed to be defect free and luxurious.They are supposed to know how to recover from problems in real time.Some still do and most don’t.Many have a 5 star price and snobby reputation based on who stays there with VIPs
They can overcharge through the roof.
Let the buyer beware and educated or suffer the fate of being ripped off.
There are folks that just aren’t price sensitive as long as they think they are getting luxury
A buddy of mine is worth approx 8 million and is the cheapest guy I know.He would use a back pack and sleeping bag rather then pay for a hotel.He will always ask how can I get great accommodation for 50 to 100 dollars. He will say ny extra points you are no longer using?
I always say at least you can afford the parking for your stay with that budget 😉
In the real world globally some hotels offer luxury for 200 us a night and others that charge 1000
Frequently there is little difference.When I do pay 400 to 700 a night they better fully convince me they are capable of delivering the goods!
The way I see it is why would I want to spend my vacation in a room that’s uglier than my home where I spend 48-50 weeks a year. A vacation is supposed to be special and be nicer than what you have at home.
If you spend the day touring historical or natural sites in Europe or MENA or in the beautiful water of the Caribbean, do you really want to come back to a standard and ugly hotel room. I don’t. I like enjoying the room. I don’t immediately get dressed for dinner but take a bath and relax for a few hours before going out. When I come back I don’t immediate go to sleep. I spend a few hours relaxing, looking at the views on the balcony, and have the snacks or desserts I bought in the hotel pastry shop, cafe, or bought across the street at the bakery or convenience store.
People should admit it is a money issue. They can’t afford it so they pretend these things don’t matter. They are not telling the truth.
I did that once, a 2 day stay at the Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey Switzerland (home of the headquarters of Nestle). My grandfather worked for Nestle USA and my grandparents had stayed there three times on Nestle’s francs, of course. Still, the stories were implanted when I was quite young and I had vowed to stay there. Was it worth it? From a strictly analytical perspective probably note, but from an emotional and family history viewpoint, absolutely.
Luxury hotels save you time which is the most precious commodity. You save time during check-in, problems are solved more efficiently, there is more staff available for your needs, there are more amenities in-room and on-site, they offer house transportation sometimes, they’re always located in the most central locations vs. chain hotels areas far from the destination, they offer child and pet care, some offer butlers and assistants, there’s usually a better selection of dining options, and they anticipate your every need with a ready-to-go solution. All of these things equal more time to do the things you love, to see what you want to see. There is less waiting, fewer errands, fewer emergencies, and this means more precious time. When you go to sleep you’ll sleep better and have a more rewarding trip overall. I think every penny is worth it for a luxury hotel if you can afford it.
I stayed recently at conrad midtown new york
I used hilton certificate as I would not have spent 95k points a night but with 3 certificates that have no point limit I gave it a shot and I am glad I used certificates for 3 nights as it was waaay overrated
In fact would have been better off at hilton across the street as conrad does not even have a lounge and they only cover half the cost of breakfast to diamonds
There is no reason to spend that much when you have excellent hotels in same location and half the price
That said I assume if you go to bora bora or hawaii where you spend a lot of time in the hotel it might be a different issue
For me it deoends on reasonable value for money. While a coprorate exec for 10 years I stayed at so many, in my opinion, overpriced 4 seasons, st regis, ritz carltons, etc. Now , on my own dime, I usually find very reasonable hotels for under $200. per night and dont see the value added in most of these luxury hotels. maybe i am cheap:). I still remember a stay at the St Regis in istanbul which I thought won the prize in my book as the most ridiculously overpriced hotel in europe. for the qualtiy offered.
@KimmieA Can you provide more detail about that self-trip you reccomend. It sounds so amazing and I paln to be in Africa later this year.thanks
Chain hotels, especially ones that only pretend to be “luxury” (like Hyatts) are not worth $600.
But there are plenty of small private hotels that definitely are.
I think it comes down to, some people have more money than they know what to do with, and choose to spend it even when there’s little additional value for the extra spend. (How else do you explain Gucci and other luxury brands?) Other people, even if they can afford the extra, are value driven and would rather do something else with the extra money, even if that is donating it to someone else. So, how much money to you have, and what do you value in life?
We like to use points for the higher end hotels, and a lot of the time I’m very happy that points were used instead of cash, because the dollar price for the stay just wasn’t worth it. So far this year, we used points to stay at the Plaza and the Ritz Carlton Nomad in NYC. The Plaza was a bucket lister for me, so I’m glad we did it, but definitely not worth the dollar price, and the $180 buffet breakfast for 2, was absolutely the worst. We’ve had better breakfast at budget hotels. The Ritz Carlton Nomad, however, was absolutely amazing, and I would happily return and pay cash for the same experience and service we enjoyed. Last month we used Chase points for the Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, and it was terrible. They’re in the process of renovating that hotel, but the room they gave us overlooking the beach was extremely outdated with mismatched furniture and an odd layout. They told me that if I had booked directly, they could’ve taken care of the issue, but since I used points there was nothing they could do. If I had paid cash for that room, I would’ve been more irate, but their lack of caring to try and fix the issue means that they have forever lost our business. You never know until you have the experience. That’s why I try and keep up on the travel blogs and reviews.
Julie, if you can use points for it, it’s not a higher end hotel….
Al Maha comes to mind, blogs would drool over it for some reason, but given where it is, it’s not even close to luxury for the region.
@chopsticks, if you think selfdriving Kruger is the same as a week in the Grumeti, you need to get out more. @jeremy, I love Singita and agree they’ve figured out the perfect method to safari—the only way in which we depart is I think returning annually is worth it. @probably a snob, I agree. I purposefully choose to stay at non points places if it’s a meaningful trip to avoid the haggling and general coupon atmosphere redemption locations bring in.