I once read that the threshold of where you begin to waste money on accommodation is around $10. For a single one-night stay, it's difficult to extract more than $10 worth of value from the room between cleaning, laundry, electricity, water consumption, etc. The more I travel, the more I realize that hotels are a ripoff and that I was right to stay in all those cheap hostels in Southeast Asia. Is a Luxury Hotel Worth It? In March 2021, Dan and I spent 14 days in Hawaii. This was before I decided to move to the North Shore of Oahu, and this trip actually solidified my decision to relocate. We first visited the North Shore for 5 days before going to Maui for 9. (Check out a little bit of our Maui trip in Top 7 Tips for Driving the Road to Hana.) To fly out, we had to fly back to Oahu for a night before catching our flight to Seattle. As a special treat, he decided to book a fancier hotel than we had been staying at during the rest of our trip. He reserved a single night at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Waikiki Beach for that night on credit card points. As this was the tail end of our 2-week vacation, we were so excited to be able to relax in luxury. However, the check-in time was a bit off-putting. Pre-COVID I would have sworn that the typical hotel check-in time was between 1-3. Now, most hotels have check-in times of 4 PM. Sure enough, the Ritz advertised their check-in time as 4 PM and their check-out time was 11 AM. "That's not even 24 hours," I remarked looking at the email. Given the price tag, I was a bit disgruntled. "Hotels are a ripoff." Because capacity was low, we were able to get into our room in the early afternoon, and we didn't check out until the following day after dinner to catch a red-eye flight. I feel certain that we got our money's worth from the Ritz, and they were kind to accommodate us. I loved our experience at the hotel. I do feel (as the person who admittedly didn't pay for it) that it was worth it. Final Thoughts I can't help but feel that 4 PM to 11 AM simply doesn't cut it. That goes for a $50 per night hotel and a $500 per night hotel. There has to be a way that they can turn over those rooms faster to at least give the illusion that the stay is worth it...even if we know it's not. Above everything else, I'm paying for access to the room. Just give me that!
