Hotels

So to take a break from some of the city discussions of the past few posts, here's something a little different, yet equally as important to a trip - the hotel! I'm one of those people, like many many of us, who sees a hotel as not much more than a bed. After all, why travel all that way just to spend hours and hours in the hotel! But still, a great hotel can really add to my experience of a city, and a really bad hotel can really hurt it. This is not a rant like some of my previous posts, per se, but merely observations and my opinions about the phenomenon of hotels while traveling.

This is vastly oversimplifying, and I realize that, so try to bear with me a little. I feel like there are essentially 2 types of people where hotels are concerned: People who want to feel like they're at home and people who want to immerse themselves into the local culture. The first type stay in Hiltons and Marriotts down to Holiday Inns and Best Westerns and Ibises (which are like Red Roof Inn etc). The second type like smaller hotels, bed and breakfasts, places that have a little of the local flair and culture, perhaps a little worn, places that embrace the location's unique culture. Neither type of person is right or wrong - we're all different (though I happen to be the latter). The problem that sometimes arises is when one type stays in a hotel typically associated with the other type.

It's funny to read hotel reviews sometimes. For example, I LOVE TripAdvisor; I booked all of my hotels pretty much solely based on the reviews there. But it's funny to read what some people call bad or good. Some people think a little stain on the floor means a place is nasty or that if a blanket is slightly worn it is in horrible disrepair. Just like every other decision we make in life where we take other people's advice, I think it's important to read these reviews with a grain of salt. For me, a slightly rude owner or a small breakfast wouldn't be reason for me to lower my rating of a hotel, as long as it meets my qualifications as described below. For others, these would be important. It seems like people can sometimes save themselves a poor experience if they did the research beforehand and found a place better suited to their personality and desires. For example, in our hotel in Brussels - the lovely Brussels Welcome Hotel - we stayed in the Istanbul Room, which receives many negative TripAdvisor Reviews. However, I found the room warm and inviting and the worn bedspread did not bother me (see picture at left, click for larger).

A few things are particularly important to me in picking a hotel. Price of course. But also location, location, location. A couple of things important to me are amenities (is breakfast offered, is there an elevator, if it's in a warm climate, is there a/c - a MUST for me), etc. A private bathroom is essential for me. Other nice things are free wireless or internet access, cleanliness, how quiet the hotel is, etc. Things like the size of the room are irrelevant to me. My hotel room in Venice (see picture below, click for larger) was not much larger than my apartment's walk-in closet, but it was clean, comfortable, in a perfect location, had a/c, nice staff, great breakfast, and all the modern amenities everyone would need (even a mini-fridge, which is always a plus for me so i can sample some local produce) - so for me it was a nearly perfect hotel. Someone else I suppose might feel claustrophobic. This is why reviews are so very valuable.

Something else on the topic of hotels that I never really thought of before my trip is how much the location of your hotel can actually shape your experience of a place. My hotel in Florence was across the river and a bit away from the historical center. Thus, I barely saw the area around the Duomo. My hotel in Rome was near the Forum and Colosseum, so I walked past both multiple times and I walked through the nearby Piazza Venezia many times - yet I saw someone on a message board ask once where Piazza Venezia was (for the record, there's nothing really of note in this big square, it's just a way to note how the hotel location actually shapes what one sees in a city) but talking about Piazza Barberini - a square I never once saw during my stay in Rome. My hotel in Venice was right around the corner from Piazza San Marco, so I saw it at all times of the day and got to know the streets around it quite well. These are just a couple of examples; the list goes on and on. So I think something I learned is that for the cities I hope to return to one day, I'll try to stay in hotels that are in different locations from where I stayed before. That way, I won't just be returning to a particular city, but since I'll be staying somewhere different, I might increase my chances to see something completely new!

I found hotel research to be tiring, frustrating, and exasperating. Trying to find those "hidden gems" in each city, nice hotels that are affordable, is a little like finding a needle in a haystack. But they're out there, in every city. And I think it's worth the search. Some of the hotels I stayed in throughout Europe were so lovely and so reasonably-priced that my experience at each place really did add to my experience or understanding or enjoyment of a particular city. I realize not everyone has time to undertake such a time-consuming process, but if you do, I do think it's well worth it in the end.

Happy hotel hunting!