Living in an extended stay hotel as a mobile, modern nomad lifestyle
I’ve lived in plenty of hotels full-time. People find it glamorous (it is not), and people find it weird (also not true).
WHY WOULD ANYONE LIVE IN A HOTEL?
..because we can?
Ok that’s a terrible answer.
People live in hotels for various reasons:
- They’re migrant workers who cross the border and live in a country for only a few months, and then go back (many apartment leases are at least a year)
- They don’t want to sign an apartment lease for a year because they’re looking for a house or very mobile
- They can’t get an apartment lease (bad credit score)
- They’re consultants on projects and instead of going back every weekend, they just stay in a hotel — DING DING DING! This was me.
HOW CAN ANYONE LIVE IN A HOTEL?
Easy.
You just think of it as your home. There’s a kitchen, a bedroom (sometimes separate, sometimes not), a full bathroom and all the amenities of any apartment .. except it’s just rented by the month or week.
IS THIS REALLY CHEAP AND EFFICIENT?
It is if your projects move around a lot. Some of my projects were only about 3 months long, so I would move from one city to another like a modern nomad and just live in that city for 3 months before flitting off to the next.
Had I taken a lease for a year in each city, I’d be out the rest of the 9 months, or scrambling to find a sublet.
Or breaking the lease, it would have cost me money as well (if I was able to).
IS IT EASY TO LIVE IN A HOTEL?
Fairly easy.
You have a telephone number, a person at the front desk who receives packages and mail, and you have a maid service to come in ONCE a week (not daily) to clean up and give you clean towels.
You also have internet (although a lot of people using it at once makes it super slow), and you have an ironing board as well as a full kitchen to use with utensils to cook.
I never let anyone in and always cleaned the place myself because I don’t like the cleaners they used (too smelly) and I feel very weird having people clean my home.
I’m actually very uncomfortable with hired help when I am able to do it on my own. If I had a justified reason to hire help — I am crazy busy with work and always traveling 24/7, I don’t have help at home and am a single mother, and/or health and physical problems — then why not?
As it stands, I have none of those reasons that justify hiring help to clean the place, and therefore it all falls on my shoulders.
I keep the place clean and I make sure that the whole place is SMALL enough to manage and clean, which is part of my minimalist philosophy.
11 Comments
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Rosalie Galoosis
I’m thinking about it, the only thing I know is I hate landlords. Icounld not have gone from the place that I was renting because of the fact he always enter my house when I wasn’t home. Things were moved around and yes taken from me.
So yes I had thoughts of renting a motals until, this way I a save up and try to correct my credit sores.
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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
Not all landlords are like that, and what he is doing is illegal. FOR SURE. The good landlords, are the ones where the apartment costs more, unfortunately, or is in a better area.
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Taylor Lee @ Engineer Cents
My dad used to live in a complex that doubled as extended stay hotel and apartment building. His rent was pretty much equivalent to what he’d pay for a 1-bed in our neighborhood and the place came furnished. All his neighbors were constantly moving and the ones that were sticking around were mostly seedy guys hiding from child support payments. It was a weird place.
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save. spend. splurge.
Yeah, they’re all transients.. that’s kind of the downside of this lifestyle, depending on the area, and the apartment hotel you live in.
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Ali @ Anything You Want
Interesting thoughts. I think there are some hidden costs to living in a hotel, such as the higher overall “rent” and the cost of extras like laundry.
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save. spend. splurge.
Laundry is included / free in apartment hotels. At least, in all the ones I stayed in, like Candlewood Suites.
I also did the math between renting an apartment or an apart-hotel and it was just a BIT more expensive, not by much
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Clarisse @ Make Money Your Way
Living in a hotel would be perfect if your projects or work move around a lot, like yours. I know a good friend too, he used to live in a hotel for almost half of his life when he was still working.
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