Would You Spend >$500 on a Hotel Room?

By Robert McGarvey

Call me a hotel cheapskate.  I don’t recall spending more than $500 on a hotel room night, ever.  Occasionally I got comped a room that is that much or more but I wouldn’t personally shell out that much because, well, a room is just a room, a bed is just a bed.

Now it turns out I have company, lots of company, according to an MLIV Pulse survey for Bloomberg where 69% of respondents said $500 was their top hotel dollar and another 24% put their high mark at $1000. Respondents are Bloomberg readers which tells you money is on their minds.

Keep in mind that an average room at the Mark in Manhattan will run upwards of $800 most nights, the Watergate in Washington DC runs $600 and higher, the Langham in Chicago usually is $450 and up, and the list goes on.  It just is very easy to eclipse $500 in major US city hotels.

Per Bloomberg in explaining our tight fistedness: “This may be a reflection of diminishing consumer confidence or complaints that inflated pricing hasn’t been accompanied by a proportionate increase in service quality.”

Probably it’s a combination of both is my guess.

Service complaints, often at five star hotels, have hit new, high levels. Even Robb Report has sniffed, “Hotels Are Trying to Recapture Losses With Skyrocketing Prices. Too Bad Service Isn’t Following.”

As for diminished consumer confidence, even among executives, during a recent week in Boulder where I chatted with multiple fintech executives, I heard loud teeth gnashing about the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and what that portends for other, aggressive regional banks.  Worries were heard about deposit safety – a topic last aired in 2008 as many banks failed.  There also appeared to a growing belief that we are in for a recession this summer, although it is likely to be of short duration and mild impact.  Nonetheless, there is no disputing that consumer confidence – even among very high rollers – is on a downswing.  

The Bloomberg poll also asked participants about their “revenge spending” on travel post pandemic. That is, will they splurge to make up for lost travel due to the pandemic?  50% said nope. 18% added that they planned to reduce spending.  Just 25% said they might splurge on travel “a notch higher” than their norm. Only 7% said they would “really splash out” on their travels.

Will you “really splash out” or will you pull the belt in a notch? Personally I am more in the pull the belt in crowd – not so much because I envision an economic cataclysm as that I see us in what will turn out to be three to five years of a choppy economy with definite downs.  

The way I read the Bloomberg poll results, lots of their readers share my cautions and concerns about the short-term economic outlook.

And then there is my lifelong stinginess when it comes to hotels.  On a recent trip to Boulder CO I spent $175 per night on a room at the Hilton Garden Inn and, you know, I had no complaints. I don’t think there are any hotels in Boulder that charge above $500 per night anyway. Either way, I was satisfied with my room and don’t wish I had splurged on a better experience.

For an upcoming trip to Dallas I am booked into the Crescent Court at significantly under $500.  Sure, Dallas has hotels that cross that mark but do I need them? Nah.

What if I have to go to New York? Probably I’d stay in Jersey City – a room at the Hyatt Regency on the Hudson runs around $250 (and the views are indeed gorgeous). In Washington DC I’d stay at the Washington Plaza Hotel in Thomas Circle, a midcentury hotel across the street from where I lived many decades ago (and just a few blocks from the White House). In Chicago the Palmer House Hotel is around $200 per night. Pretty much wherever I’ll go there’s a hotel in my price range that I like.

I’ll blame it on my concerns about the economic outlook – but, really, we both know I am just stingy about splurges at hotels.