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For the way I like to travel, expensive city center hotels are mostly, pointless and a waste or whatever currency I'm spending and I have to admit to being a bit bemused by how much a lot of these hotels get away with charging.
Everyone has their own ways they like to travel, so something that works for one person may well not work for another, and that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that.
For the way I like to travel, expensive city center hotels are mostly, pointless and a waste or whatever currency I’m spending and I have to admit to being a bit bemused by how much a lot of these hotels get away with charging.
If I’m heading on vacation in search of some well-deserved (to my mind!) rest and relaxation, a spacious room or suite at luxury resort would work well. If what I plan to do involves a lot of reading and a lot of lying around (while reading), I’m probably going to be spending quite a bit of my time in the grounds of the resort or on the balcony/terrace of my room.
Under those conditions it makes sense for me to try to book something upscale and something a bit more refined than an average resort. Somewhere where I have a reasonable chance of getting some peace and quiet which, almost inevitably, will have to be somewhere where prices aren’t low.
When I’m visiting a city, however, I’m never there for a relaxing, do-very-little, vacation. I’m either there to work or to explore and enjoy everything the city has to offer, and none of that involves spending much time in whatever property I book.
If I’m working, I’m usually out of the hotel by 07:30 – 08:00 and I’m not usually back until at least 19:00 and as I almost never eat dinner wherever it is I’m staying (because it’s often overpriced and mediocre), the amount of time that I actually spend at my hotel is relatively insignificant.
If I’m visiting a city outside of work, I’m usually out and about by 09:30 (sometimes earlier if jetlag has kicked in or if I have a early tour booked) and after that, I’m usually not back at my room until mid-afternoon (at the earliest) at which point I freshen up, have a short rest (an hour at most) and then head straight back out to enjoy more of the city.
Again, the length of time that I actually spend inside the hotel is quite limited, so in both scenarios, it’s very hard to justify splashing out on a property that costs a small fortune.
The thought of paying $750+ per night to stay somewhere where, effectively, I’m having breakfast and then, many hours later, going to sleep and doing very little else, makes me wince in pain.
To my mind, that’s open wallet surgery, and for what? Nice decor, possibly a beautiful building, an upscale-looking doorman and high-end bedding? No thanks.
That’s not to say that when I’m planning a city trip that I’ll default to a Motel 6, an Ibis Budget, a Four Points Flex, or a Spark by Hilton. I won’t go that far. But I’ll still be very conscious of how much I’m spending given how much (or how little) time I’ll be spending at the property.
When I’m traveling alone, as long as a property gets good reviews and is reasonably well located, anything from a Hampton Inn/Hyatt Place to a Renaissance/Grand Hyatt usually falls within the range that I’ll consider, and if the Hyatt Place is noticeably cheaper than the Grand Hyatt, that’s what I usually end up booking.
If I’m traveling with Joanna things get a bit more “fancy” (for want of a better word), but we’re still almost never going to be staying at a city center St. Regis, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, or Regent unless there’s some kind of stunning offer on the table.
And we’re definitely never going to be staying at city center Aman, Raffles, Rosewood, or Mandarin Oriental.
Yes, sometimes there are exceptions to this, but they’re reasonably rare.
I have, for example, stayed at the Park Hyatt London River Thames (reviewed here and here), I’ve booked the Park Hyatt Milan for a trip next year, and I’ll probably try to book the St. Regis London when that property finally opens up award availability, but there are specific reasons for all of those bookings.
At the time of my visits, the Park Hyatt London was a relatively new hotel that I wanted to review for this site, the St Regis stay will be booked using a free night certificate (possibly with some points thrown in) for review purposes as well, and the Park Hyatt Milan has been booked as part of one final blow out before my Hyatt points get devalued to the point where I’ll be lucky to be able to use them for a single night in Fresno.
I also, occasionally, use my Marriott Bonvoy 85k free night certificate to book a 1-night London “staycation” at a property at which I wouldn’t otherwise pay to stay (the Grosvenor House JW Marriott and the London EDITION are examples that come to mind), but that type of booking isn’t what this article is about.
The thing that perplexes me is why people pay eye-watering sums of money to stay at some of these properties.
To illustrate my point, I just picked a random night in October (13th) for a stay at the Park Hyatt New York, and the cheapest room rate I was offered was over $1,700 … and that doesn’t include local taxes!
Who’s paying that? And for what? What are you getting at the Park Hyatt New York that you’re not getting at, say, the InterContinental New York Barclay which is charging $691 (+ taxes) for the same night.
I’m sure a lot of people will say that the Park Hyatt is a nicer property with a Central Park location, but does that justify paying over $900/night more?
The $691 that the InterContinental is charging is already, to my mind, too much to pay for a city center room, so the $1,700+ rate blows my mind (yes, I know New York is ridiculously expensive, but this kind of pricing can be seen in other cities too).
Believe it or not, I’m not judging what others choose to pay for their city center stays (ok, maybe I am a bit). What I’m saying is that I cannot begin to understand where the value is here.
I guess my issue is that while I often find it relatively easy to see the difference between a property charging $150 – $250 per night and a property charging $350 – $450 per night, I struggle to see enough of a difference between properties charging $350 – $450 a night and properties charging $750+ per night to make it worth paying the difference given the amount of time that I spend in these properties.
Perhaps I’m the odd one out here.
Are people visiting cities like New York, London, Paris, Rome, Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney and then spending a considerable amount of time in their chosen hotels rather than out and about enjoying what the city has to offer?
If they are, the high-priced properties probably do offer them more value than they’ll offer someone like me, but then I have to question why they’re visiting the city in the first place. Just to see the inside of a room, suite or spa? That seems a little pointless to me.
Yes, now I really am judging 🙂 … and yes, I know I shouldn’t. You do you.
The thing is that there’s clearly a big market for staggeringly expensive city center properties otherwise places like the Park Hyatt New York, the Ritz Paris, the Aman Tokyo, Raffles Singapore, and Claridge’s in London wouldn’t exist.
What I don’t understand is who or what is supporting the demand for such properties as the room rates seem unjustifiable.
It can’t just be famous people looking for privacy, people booking one-off splurges or millionaires for whom the room rates are a rounding error on their year end accounts who are booking these hotels, so who else is paying these rates? And why?
Answers in the comments please as I’d love to know what readers think.
Do you frequently pay $800+/night for a city center stay? If you do, why?
