RV trips have changed things!

[loulou57]

Hubby and I love to do last minute trips. We could be gone a night or a few weeks. We have done this for the last 25 years.

We bought our TT last year and take it wherever we can. Before the TT we always stayed in Hilton Hotels.
We like them because they are always the same. All!! bed coverings and pillows are changed daily. In fact the staff at a few automatically knew which room we would like.
The reason we bought a new TT is because we are a bit OCD about cleanliness and organization. We did not want to have something someone else had slept in.

Sadly, buying our TT has reduced my status on the Hilton Club because we don't stay there as often.


Do you still like to stay in hotels, or do you prefer to stay in your RV whenever possible?

[wbwood]

jnharley wrote:
Bed bugs are not the only things you can "catch" when staying in a hotel. Think scabies and a host of other things like that. We do not like staying in hotels and avoid them if at all possible. The number of rating stars does not mean the establishment will not have bed bugs.

And think about how many people on here buy used rvs. Do you not think any of that is capable of being in a used rv?

[Padlin]

Did a 2 week trip from Ma. to Asheville in hotels and such this fall after 7 years of just the trailer. A couple nights we had hotel rooms that were fun as they were in town and all we had to do was walk out the door and down the street to restaurants and shopping, others were just rooms to sleep in. One we really enjoyed was the main lodge in Shenandoah National Park. For about half the trip the trailer would have been preferable. So it was a mixed bag, fun but expensive. We didn't care for lugging around the suitcases or having to find somewhere to eat all the time. Some of the rooms were just okay, decently priced ones were for the most part very dated.

I think we'll keep skip hotels on longer trips when possible.

In the 16 nights we had no bug issues.

[sidney]

[colliehauler]

Campfire Time wrote:
Hmm... Hundred of thousands, no wait, millions of people stay in motels and hotels every day. How many do you know that have contracted diseases or other things from them? Yes, bed bugs are real. But how many personally know someone who got them? The media has done a wonderful job creating a paranoia about something that isn't really a problem.

That said we do both. It just depends on where we want to go and what we want to do. For example we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a week at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. We took Amtrak there and back and had a roomette. Awesome! An experience I would not trade for a month in an any RV. This past Sept. we spent a week in a cottage at Natural Bridge State Park in KY. Next year we aren't doing anything but using the trailer.

To each his own I guess. We all have to be happy doing what we do. Its all about the memories we make. No one's way is right or wrong, or better or worse.

I have a friend that stays 4 nights a week in a hotel for the company he works for. He has done this for 30 years and never had a case of bed bugs or anything else. I just got back from a company trip to Tulsa and stayed in the Hyatt. It was clean and comfortable. I prefer my RV so I can take my Collies but short trips Hotels work just fine.

[TOMMY47]

On a recent 15 week trip, I never stayed in a motel room although I planned to.
My thought was about bedbugs also. I didn't plan on the mouse running across my bare back during one night, however. Laundry day was the next morning.

[abc40kids]

I love my camper and sleep great in it but when we visited my daughter at college it's just not worth it to pull the 5er thru the mountains for 6 hours to have the closet cg 45 min away.... We always stay at the Hampton Inn and I sleep great, steakhouse next door and the rooms are always perfect!!!

[Campfire_Time]

Hmm... Hundred of thousands, no wait, millions of people stay in motels and hotels every day. How many do you know that have contracted diseases or other things from them? Yes, bed bugs are real. But how many personally know someone who got them? The media has done a wonderful job creating a paranoia about something that isn't really a problem.

That said we do both. It just depends on where we want to go and what we want to do. For example we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary with a week at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. We took Amtrak there and back and had a roomette. Awesome! An experience I would not trade for a month in an any RV. This past Sept. we spent a week in a cottage at Natural Bridge State Park in KY. Next year we aren't doing anything but using the trailer.

To each his own I guess. We all have to be happy doing what we do. Its all about the memories we make. No one's way is right or wrong, or better or worse.

[opnspaces]

I do both and don't really have a problem with Hotels. In fact before I joined RV.net I never even considered or worried about bedbugs. Now I do check under the covers for typical bed bug hiding places. If I see nothing (and I never have)I don't worry about it and enjoy my trip.

Edited for spelling

[snowdance]

We have had RV's of one kind or other for over 40 years. I worked as a trouble shooter for a company that built factories. They picked up the cost of travel, motels, food ect for both my wife and I as I spent so much time on the road. Even ate every meal out for over 2 1/2 years and 4-1/2 years in motels. Not cheap ones. When we had a chance we were in our RV,s and love them. Unlike many we have a small cottage we live in and our RV is small so day, weekend or longer trips are common,even use it for a day of shopping, but really have no intrest in full timing. As far as motels and eating out. Not if we can find any way to get around it. But we do cook some great meals in our RV. Guess we kind of lived our life backward. Travel first then spend some time at home.

[jnharley]

Bed bugs are not the only things you can "catch" when staying in a hotel. Think scabies and a host of other things like that. We do not like staying in hotels and avoid them if at all possible. The number of rating stars does not mean the establishment will not have bed bugs.

[Kittykath]

Some of us are not lucky enough to have year-round use of our campers. We don't pull ours out of our seasonal site anyway during the camping season, so we just choose carefully when searching for hotel rooms. We've never been big germaphobes, and have never suffered the consequences either. No big deal really.

[loulou57]

We love been in the bush way up north. No cell service, no noise, no people, not even a plane overhead.

We also enjoy the occasional trip where we are pampered, rooms tidied, beds turned down and then made, luggage unpacked, room service.

With both types of holiday we could encounter little bugs that are annoying.
In the bush we have to check for ticks and bites that could be serious. In hotels we have the fear of bed bugs.

I do think that the issues with bed bugs are being looked at very seriously in hotels. I think that the chances of the little guys crawling in you bed is decreasing. Also we are becoming more educated about lyme disease we are being more careful.

As I said we are a little OCD in this house but it has never stopped us from travelling and enjoying the great outdoors as well as great hotels.

[mockturtle]

The finest hotels in the world don't have the appeal of my little 'womb with a view'.

[wbwood]

We are unlike most on here and not as uptight about hotels. We enjoy the RV for some our trips, but often times it does not pay to take an RV with you. An example would be our trip a couple years ago to Los Angeles for a week. First of all, it would of taken us almost a week to drive out there and back and that would be driving 12 hours a day. I've done the cross country trip 3 times, so I know how it would be. Secondly, for the week, we spent about $2000 on the flight, hotel and rental car. It would of cost us more than that in just gas for the RV to drive out there and back. And we were there in about 6 hours, not 3 days. Our hotel was a suite and included evening meals(with beer/wine) for 4 nights of the week. We took advantage of it one night. It was a Homewood Suites by Hilton. We would do it in a heartbeat again and probably will in the next couple of years.

We have been trying to plan a summer trip for next year. We decided on a 2 week trip to southern colorado. We were strategizing and had a hard time getting over spending $1500-1800 in gas alone for round trip. Once again, spending about 5 or 6 days of it traveling out there and back home. That was including paying to stay out there or even renting a car. It's not in our plans anymore. We've opted for a closer and shorter timed trip to DC/NY. Less than half of that cost for the gas and our travel time is within a days drive at the most.