Time saved/lost versus using motels

I considered selling our trailer and then just renting one every year for our big summer trips, where we go for 2+ weeks and go a further distance. But when I compared a 2-3 week rental vs 12 camper payments, it came out pretty close to even. Hotels would be pretty close also. I know there are maintenance, fees, etc. But we just compared it to our lifestyle and using the thing for our one big family vacation. And by purchasing we can use it throughout the rest of the year as well.

For me it's about several things: 1) we take our large dog with us every where we go, I don't have to worry about whether or not motels/hotels accept pets or large pets. 2) I get to sleep in my own bed. 3) I can drive as long or short as I choose and can stop anywhere I want to sleep for the night. 4) I have my own shower/toilet and don't have to worry about who's used it before me. 5) I save a ton of money because I don't eat out as much.

I've done a cursory analysis of the cost differences. Excluding the cost of the rig and truck because I would have them anyway, its a break even situation between dining out/hotel/pet boarding costs and fuel/RV camping costs.

I'm a little slower in the camper and truck because I only drive 65 mph but it's easier to see the countryside if you slow down a bit so we don't mind. Plus the slower pace is easier on my camper.

I have traveled both ways and if you already have a MH it is a cheaper and better way to travel to see the country. I used to track all my costs when I first started to travel in the MH and found most of my trips ranged from $70-100/day. That includes gas, food, CG's, propane, gifts my wife buys etc. The most expensive trip was Alaska in 2006 which cost $106/day. I could not do this cheaper traveling by car and staying in hotels. I think most hotels that my wife would want to stay at would run between $80-100/night without counting eating at restaurants everyday. Another consideration is if you want to drive after dark it is much easier to pull into a well lit Walmart etc at night that trying to find a CG off of your route and pull into a site after dark. The later you drive into the night by car the more the hotels fill up and the less chance of finding a room. If you don't already own a MH it will never be cheaper when you consider all the costs of ownership.

My general experience has been that driving my car (a pretty fuel efficient Honda Fit) and staying in motels and eating in restaurants--neither being fancy--is pretty much always a cheaper way to travel than driving my motorhome and camping in campgrounds.

When staying in one place for a few days, the camping often becomes more economical.

I prefer to travel with the motorhome; it's more fun and in many ways more comfortable. I can make a good cup of tea quickly in any rest area, or go potty without having to run out in the rain, or take a quick nap comfortably wherever I happen to be. But the fuel expense adds up pretty quickly, and it's a little slower going overall, and slightly more exhausting driving.

In many parts of the country, it's not difficult to find either motel/hotel accommodations or camping spots, at least for much of the year. Camping places in the north during the winter are pretty hard to come by. In some rural areas, motels or hotels are few and far between. But for the most part it's not too hard to find a place to spend the night in either case, at least with a tiny bit of research and preplanning.

As I like to use campgrounds, set up an outside kitchen and cook for myself, RV traveling means much shorter driving days for me. Sleeping at motels or hotels, I might get in 7 PM, or maybe almost midnight, and get back on the road 5-6 hours after falling asleep.

But this would be different for someone who checks into a motel at 4 PM and checks out at 9-10 AM, compared to someone who just parks their motorhome somewhere on the street, parking lot, or rest area and is there only long enough to get a few hours sleep.

It is not always easy to get a room, without planning. Many times I've reached a place I would have liked to stop, only to learn that something is going on (sports event, concert, fair, livestock auction, etc) that has filled all rooms so that I must move on. But with the recent rapid growth of RVing, it is also getting difficult to find camping spaces without planning and making reservations.

Like others have mentioned, depends on the situation. I actually like staying in Air BnB/VRBO type places over hotels/motels when it's going to be for more than one night since they have kitchens and often separate living room areas. We are also still younger, working stiffs, so the option to drive everywhere for say, a weekend wedding, isn't an option unless we plan an entire week off work around it.

Just a few examples of when it was more convenient and possibly cheaper to not take the camper:

This past summer we went to Nashville for a wedding. Driving would have taken 2 very long days plus probably $350-$400 in gas each way, plus the cost of wherever we stopped for the night, or two nights if we split it up over 3 days. Plus the cost of the RV park once we got there. We ended up flying, using Southwest points, and stayed in an Air BnB about 10 min from downtown for around $110/night, we stayed for 4 nights. We did not rent a car, just used Lyft. We ate out probably as much as we would have even if we had brought the camper, since we had a full kitchen and stopped at a store for breakfast items and snacks, but no way could we have driven our dually in downtown Nashville, so we would have also taken Lyft even if we had the camper. In the end, it was cheaper and more convenient to fly, and this way, we got to actually enjoy the destination since we didn't have to spend half our vacation driving.

On the Friday before Labor Day, we drove up to Laramie for a concert. We've taken the camper before for football games, it's about a 2.5 hour drive with it (about 2 in a car), and stayed at the KOA there. It's $50/night at the KOA. We found a cheap motel room for $75/night. So it was a bit cheaper to stay in the motel because of gas savings, and the motel sucked and wasn't nice but it was just one night. Plus we were able to get there and get back faster, which was important that weekend. But for a game day, hotels are at least $150/night, so the KOA is cheaper for those instances.

But, we didn't buy the camper to save money, or to use it for every vacation. It's just another form of recreation for us. If we were retired and didn't have time constraints, we'd use it more for sure though.

bukhrn wrote:
As ReneeG (and others)said, you just can't rationalize the expense of RV'ing, it's a lifestyle, I've stayed in a lot of hotel/motels, and to this day, I can count the ones that I have special memories of on 1/2 of one hand, not that there were anything wrong with most of them, but they just weren't special memories.

The one hotel stay I remember well, was in Great Falls, Montana. The hotel backed up to a park along the river, so it felt sort of like staying at a nice campground :-)

We do both. I guess we could be called "fair weather campers" - if it's going to be really hot or cold or stormy, we motel it. If we're in a place to savor being outdoors, we camp. Our camper is pretty minimalistic, so time involved in arrival-to-bedtime is pretty similar. IMO, camping is a total sensory experience - motels just offer a place to sleep.

There are just too many factors to justify one over the other.

For every person who had a bad experience at a hotel there are at least five who had a great experience. For every five persons who had a great experience in an RV, there is at least one who didn't. But you won't see that here because this site is for people who HAVE and LIKE RVs. Likewise, you won't see it on a traditional travel site because they cater to people who stay at and enjoy hotels.

It's a personal choice.

We just spent two nights in a motel $186 and it was a dump in comparison to our old tent. In comparison to our Winnie it was a Siberian Gulag vs Top of the Mark.

While it was a lot more convenient to the festival we were attending and we did get to talk to other attendees, I hated it. DW didn't feel it was worth taking the MoHo for 425 miles each way, her explorer is more economical to drive than the Winnie but we had two evening meals nearby and one was yuck and the other was not my favorite style of food so I was disappointed both nights and at a cost of over $35 each night, one buffet and the other two bowls of soup.. Lunch for one BLT and a curry bowl was over $30 without drinks.

I like my home with wheels.