Preferred types of accommodation

[Ortac]

If you go on holiday or vacation, or just simply need accommodation away from home for any reason, what are your favorite and least favorite forms of accommodation, and why?

 

Sorry if I there are any options I haven’t thought of missing from the poll.

[Skycaptain]

So long as I have a room to myself I'm not over fussy. 

No sleeping in the car, though! 😛 😛, and I'm not into "luxury" hotels - no point paying more for a large room which you don't need 

 

[Homer]

If it has an even surface to sleep on, I'm good. Spent nights at stations that were more comfortable than some actual beds...

[Lunala]

For me, I would probably pick a nice hotel.

 

I googled "homestay" because I didn't know what it was, and it does NOT sound like something I'd enjoy. (I don't think many introverts would like it)

[iff]

I like a nice small hotel. I have a couple in Dublin I like.

[Grumpy Alien]

I only consider resorts, Airbnb, and staying at family’s or friend’s when traveling. I’m a hotel snob, I guess. I don’t fully feel comfortable unless I’m in my own house with my own bedroom and bathroom. Hotels gross me out. The idea of camping horrifies me.

[Ortac]

The reason why I raised this topic was because I was thinking about how I don’t particularly like hotels and find them to be extremely frustrating experiences.

 

My preferred type of accommodation is anything where I have access to kitchen facilities (cooker, refrigerator, oven etc.) and laundry facilities (washing machine, tumble drier), and very few hotels offer that. I don’t know how they realistically expect people to live like that, and I don’t know how people manage. I hate not being able to cook my own food and forced to go to restaurants, and I particularly hate not being able to wash my own clothes!

 

Much of the time though in many places, hotels are the only possible option; they outnumber all other types of accommodation vastly.

 

My biggest frustration when travelling and staying in hotels is being unable to wash my clothes, and so often my trips revolve around the logistics of how I am going to manage clothes wise, and I always end up packing ridiculous amounts of clean clothes to make sure I am not going to run out.

 

Sure, most hotels offer a “laundry service”, but for that they take your clothes off you, charge half a week’s earnings for each single pair of underpants, it takes 24 hours to get your clean clothes back, and when you do, they usually smell of some overpowering undesirable fragrance because of the type of detergent they have used. Like hell I am going to accept that.

 

Why the hell can’t it be the standard thing for hotels to have guest laundry rooms? Some do, but not many. Any that do are guaranteed to get a five star Trip Advisor rating from me!

 

Rant over. For now.

[everywhere and nowhere]

I prefer cheaper options such as guest house, hostel... However, I need to have a room with a bathroom.

I have been to camping site once (I was 11) and I hated it because of my nudity aversion. I don't remember how I managed to wash myself without anyone seeing me, but anyway it's just not for me. I absolutely require privacy.

I also checked dislking sleeping in the car, but that's theoretic since I don't have a car and never will. However, my mom does. But if I travel alone, then exclusively with public transportation - buses, trains... I'm also not afraid of hitch-hiking, but nowadays it's really hard to catch a ride. In the communist period Poland was one of few countries to try formally organising hitch-hiking (it was legalised in 1957 and people interested in hitch-hiking could buy special booklets in stores with touristic equipment. After a ride they would give the driver a coupon from the booklet - this way drivers were encouraged to give rides because they could win awards. In fact, these hitch-hiking booklets were available until 1995, so even in free Poland), but nowadays hitch-hiking culture has almost died out. I sometimes feel that drivers simply look down on me as a pedestrian.

In fact, nowadays instead of on-the-road hitch-hiking there is carpooling - but the problem is that it doesn't work. Really, there is the carpooling site BlaBlaCar - and every single time I tried asking a driver about where exactly we could potentially meet, or where they could drop me, or about a ride for a friend and not myself - the message was rejected by the automated system because of supposedly having disallowed content. So it effectively doesn't work if I can't contact drivers...

[Ortac]

2 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

I'm also not afraid of hitch-hiking, but nowadays it's really hard to catch a ride. In the communist period Poland was one of few countries to try formally organising hitch-hiking (it was legalised in 1957 and people interested in hitch-hiking could buy special booklets in stores with touristic equipment. After a ride they would give the driver a coupon from the booklet - this way drivers were encouraged to give rides because they could win awards. In fact, these hitch-hiking booklets were available until 1995, so even in free Poland), but nowadays hitch-hiking culture has almost died out.

I occasionally see hitch hikers, and the thought has crossed my mind to pick them up, but so far I haven't been brave enough to do so. When you see one, you have to pretty much make a split second decision if you are going to stop, and I always worry that the person might be a psychopath who is going to attack me with a knife. 

 

2 hours ago, Nowhere Girl said:

there is the carpooling site BlaBlaCar

I wouldn't be brave enough to use that myself. I have a colleague who did use BlaBlaCar to travel to Paris, and on the return journey he got a driver who drove like a complete maniac and nearly got them both killed. 

[GoneForGood]

People who are aware of my recent life are shocked by this - I hate travel, I don't like staying anywhere that is not my home. The closest I managed to being ok with it was living in a camper for 5 months, that was ok but since I was homeless and my camper was my home I don't think it counts as travel or vacation.

[everywhere and nowhere]

2 minutes ago, Ortac said:

I occasionally see hitch hikers, and the thought has crossed my mind to pick them up, but so far I haven't been brave enough to do so. When you see one, you have to pretty much make a split second decision if you are going to stop, and I always worry that the person might be a psychopath who is going to attack me with a knife. 

I never see the problem from this side because I don't drive. However, I have of course heard about both sides - about hitch-hiking being particularly risky for women, but also about the sterotype of a male psychopathic hitch-hiker. Actually, I've even encountered it myself. In 2003 I've been to Harrachov to visit/climb its ski jumping hills (split links because there are three separate ski jumping facilities in Harrachov. At that time Harrachov had eight jumping hills altogether, now it has nine - I'd love to visit it again... Similarly, when I've been to Lahti, it had six jumping hills and now it has eight, two yet smaller ones have been built). I took a ride back to the Polish border, but the driver admitted that he hesitated whether to take me because he mistook me for a guy. (At that time I had shoulder-length hair, was wearing jeans, a polo shirt, trekking boots and a baseball cap.) I have no doubts about being a woman, but I still don't feel sour about being mistaken for a man... when my mom said that I looked "like a butch", I almost regarded it as a compliment.

[Alejandrogynous]

As long as there's a bed and a shower, I'm really not picky. I'm the type that would rather have cheap accomodations and spend my money on food and experiences than on fancy hotels. I sleep in my car a lot and mostly use hostels, Airbnb, and couchsurfing when I can't. 

[Karst]

I can't sleep very well unless my surroundings are quiet.

Staying in a tent with no running water or other "modern conveniences" is fine by me, but you can't do it everywhere.

I find it virtually impossible to sleep in cars.  I just can't stretch out properly.  Same goes for sleeping on bus/train/plane rides.

Like most people I know, I prefer luxurious hotels over cheap ones, but you can't always get what you want, especially when there's money involved.  However, if you're good at finding discounts, you can spend the night in seriously posh surroundings without cutting into your food budget.

[ColeHW34]

I'm okay with homestay, motorhome, motel , and small or large hotels that aren't expensive.

Not okay with camping in a tent, hostel, or luxurious hotels.

 

[Gloomy]

Preferred type is staying with family or in a hotel. Small or large doesn’t really matter to me. Luxurious if I can afford it but economy is fine too.

 

Least favorites are Air Bnb’s(because I don’t trust random strangers enough to sleep in their houses), camping in tents, and sleeping in cars.

[Karst]

I've had the experience of staying with random strangers before, when I did a foreign exchange in school, and I do not recommend it.

[iff]

@Ortac

 

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iff, Census Forum Moderator