Should You Splurge on a Nice Hotel When You Travel?

Is Staying In a Nice Hotel Worth The Price When You Travel?

I think this question is best answered by examining a few things about yourself, your budget, and the place you’re traveling. For some locations, you can get an amazing hotel room for not a lot of money, and you’ll often get a free breakfast and an amazing view, too. Even if you’re in pursuit of the most affordable vacation possible, I think there are times when stepping into a nicer hotel room makes a lot of sense.

Let’s take my recent trip to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco in Mexico. A lot of the popular and well-known vacation spots in Mexico offer incredibly affordable rates for nice rooms, and it’s easy to get a view of something spectacular for the rate you’d pay for a budget hotel in the United States. Like a basic Quality Inn or a Super 8 motel.

Saving money on your hotel in a country like Mexico can open the door to spending more money on adventures, so you can devote less money to where you lay your head at night and more money to things like city tours, guided adventures, and tickets to various tourist sites. Also, if you’re on a micro budget vacation, finding an inexpensive hotel can mean the difference between getting to visit and having to save a bit longer for your trip.

For all of my trips, almost every time I’ve splurged on a hotel room has been worth it as far as the experience goes, but I’ve sometimes felt a bit of a sting when I’ve handed over my card despite the luxuries that have awaited me in my room. Is there any clear and defining line between when a fancy hotel room is worth the money and when it’s just money better spent elsewhere? Let’s discuss it a bit.

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Gauging The Overall Budget of Your Vacation When Choosing Hotel Rooms

When I travel, my budget is often influenced by the overall cost of the country I’m visiting and the price of the plane tickets. For example, when I visited Southeast Asia and explored Vietnam and Cambodia, the tickets were quite expensive since airlines were trying to make up for lost time after the Covid epidemic. I paid around $2,000 for each plane ticket (there are two of us), but it was for premium economy.

(my traveling partner REALLY likes premium economy, so it’s an area where I have to spend a lot of money. . .)

However, throughout Vietnam and Cambodia, the costs for our hotels, food, and tours were absolutely the most inexpensive you could imagine, when compared to what we’d pay for comparable services in the United States. We paid no more than about $30 per night in any of our excellent hotels in Vietnam, and we stayed in what I would consider very nice accommodations.

When we flew over the border into Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat, I did choose a luxury spa hotel that cost a lot more, comparatively, to our Vietnamese rooms, but was still incredibly cheap nevertheless. I think our per-night rate was around $200, and the place was absolutely incredible. I had the best food I’ve ever eaten, and the room was huge, spacious, and peaceful.

Interestingly, when we traveled to Morocco on a trip about a year later, I had a similar opportunity to snag really affordable accommodations, but I opted for a more luxurious stay in the picture you see above. Our riad was absolutely gorgeous, and the room was oh-so-comfortable. And that really brings me to my next point: with greater price often comes greater comfort.

Often, Paying More Means Sleeping Better

While it’s not a hard and fast rule, paying more often means getting a better night of sleep because you end up with better beds, higher quality pillows, and softer bedding. Sure, I’ve had the odd experience where I’ve paid what I thought was a lot of money for a room and felt a little disappointed by the accommodations, but overall, paying more usually gets you a more comfortable sleep.

If you’re someone that needs a good night of sleep or you risk feeling like dog doo the next day, it might be worth your pennies to upgrade your hotel room to a nicer one with better beds. When I conduct searches on the websites I use for booking, I do read through the reviews and usually do a search for “bed” to see what other people think of the sleeping options before I add hotels to my itinerary.

Many times you’ll get opinions about the amount of light in the room or the noise level or the size, but sometimes it’s the beds that are the most important and can influence whether it’s a good idea to pay more or not. All I can say is that every time I’ve gone cheap on a hotel I’ve been mildly disappointed at the flat pillows and scratchy bedding. If bedding is important to you, it’s probably worth upgrading your hotel experiences.

However, if you’re one of those people who can go go go all day and just needs a place to rest for a few hours each night, upgrading your room probably isn’t worth it. Spend your vacation budget on the paragliding adventure rather than the upscale hotel in Medellin. (I actually did both – the hotel was gorgeous, and the paragliding was unforgettable!)

It’s Never Worth It If It’s Over Your Budget

I have to say the one thing that makes a hotel room not worth it is when it pushes your budget over what you want to spend. No matter how lovely the accommodations and how amazing your experience, you won’t enjoy yourself fully if you’re thinking about the extra spending on the credit card due to the expensive hotel you chose in a particular city during your trip.

I do try to fit at least one really nice hotel into every long trip I take. It’s not so important on the weekender trips I take around the United States where I’m only gone a few days, but when I’m traveling across the planet, I do like to throw in a nice hotel, usually at the end of our trip somewhere. It doesn’t always work out that way, but when I can conclude our trip with an extra fancy place, it does make a nice ending to our travels.

While I do have a vague number in mind each time I plan an international trip, it’s not too often that I breach that number by thousands of dollars because of an addiction to staying in fine hotels. Sometimes, I’ll just throw in a few extra hundred dollars at the end of the trip for a night or two in a really nice place, and it’s usually always worth the extra money I have to save to make it happen.

Now, that’s not to say I’m not totally on board with pursuing an ultra budget-friendly vacation and staying in the most affordable accommodations I can find. With the right ear plugs, travel pillow, and a travel blankie, I think I can make just about any place comfortable. After all, I’m usually traveling to see the sights, not stare at the ceiling of my hotel room. But every so often, a few days in a fancy hotel room is kind of fun, right?

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