Budget, Value, and Hotel Listings

I love Budget Travel. It's my favorite American travel magazine. It's the only mainstream, commercial U.S. travel magazine that succeeds consistently in coming up with tips, advice, news, and information of real value to travelers determined to see the world on a reasonable budget. In the prevailing U.S. travel publishing context, where aspirational travel nearly always trumps value-based travel, Budget Travel offers a much appreciated alternative.

I hope that the following will be taken in the context of my sincere appreciation for the magazine.

The lead story in the BT's February issue is titled "Best Values 2008," and it's a list of 100 hotels around the world. The magazine teamed up with TripAdvisor to come up with the list, which utilizes the latter's "Popularity Index." The theme driving the listing is "value," based on what the editors refer to as "a quality experience without ... exorbitant rates." (So far, so good, though I find that user-generated review-driven sites like TripAdvisor are by no means the best guide to actual hotel quality, which is itself far less quantifiable than many seem to want it to be.)

The main problem with the listing lies in its rate ceiling, which is $250 per night.  I understand that the main criterion here is a "quality experience" and not cheap charm, but the question has to be asked: Why is a budget travel magazine recommending hotels that run $250 per night? A $250 rate ceiling is downright alienating to me, a travel writer who travels for work and fun as much as possible. What does it look like to people of moderate means who want badly to travel and budget accordingly for their one or two trips per year?

For me and for most people I know, $250 is an exorbitant amount of money to spend on a hotel for a single night's accommodation. I don't know how else to phrase it.

$250 per night means $750 for a long weekend. It means $1750 for a week's stay.

A high-value budget hotel list would be far more valuable with a ceiling of $100, or, pushing that limit into splurge territory, $150. Such a goal is by no means impossible. Over the last several greenback-unfriendly months, I've stayed at many lovely hotels with rates under $100/night, in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia. I have even managed to stay at stylish hotels in the too-dear eurozone for $150 per night. One quick example: Madrid's utterly gorgeous Hotel Meninas, a polished boutique charmer that charged Matt and me €102 (under $140 then; a hair over $150 today) per night for a room this past August. The rate included breakfast and a shuttle to the airport.

Elsewhere, the letter from the editor hits all the right notes for this weak dollar moment. It suggests three basic budget saving approaches: traveling to places like Mexico and Argentina where the exchange rate won't leave Americans broke; looking beyond hotels to house rental agencies and house-swapping; and getting beyond first-tier destinations. All sound, all very helpful. And online, Budget Travel pairs the top 100 hotel listing with two others, both far better: its irresistible list of 50 hotels with rates under $150 per night (from last November) and its primer to non-US hotel chains (from last September.)

Comments

[Schmutti Weber]

Thank you for this note of sanity, Spendthrift! I too am a huge fan of Budget Travel, but they've missed the mark badly on this one.

An inveterate traveler, I average five trips abroad a year -- and no, I'm not pulling in a six-figure salary. Many of my similarly-waged, high-rent-paying New York friends are bewildered as they watch me jet off to location after exotic location -- how do I make my earnings stretch so far without going into credit card debt? The answer is simple: by not being intimidated into thinking that $250 a night is a "bargain," or the price one has to pay for safe, comfortable, stimulating travel.

I'd no more pay $250 for a hotel room than rent a house in the Hamptons when I could be on the Dalmatian coast or in Buenos Aires. To me, "budget" travel means paying under $50/night for accommodation; $100/night is pushing it; anything over that is de facto luxury. Hard to do in the Eurozone? Sure, in some places. But, as you say, it's far from impossible. Keep on keeping it real, Spendthrift!

[Diane]

Same here... when I'm traveling on my own, paying my own way? Then my rough budget is usually less than $50 / night. I was appalled that I recently had to pay the equivalent of US $65/night in a HOSTEL in Eilat, Israel!

(granted, that was for a single room... I'm past the bunk-bed / student travel phase)

When I travel for work, our average per-room budget is about $200/night -- and the bosses consider that to be quite generous.

[frequentflyer]

I absolutely agree with the point of this post--and the Hotel Meninas looks lovely! Where else did you stay in Europe and Asia for under $100??

[Evan Silverman]

I agree. Usually I travel with someone, and we try to keep our room to $100 or less a night. Why does Budget Travel put their price at $250. Fill in the blanks: ADV_R_IS_ING. Hotels that get mentioned in the article are going to advertise Budget Travel, and the magazine is hoping they'll buy ads.

It's hard to figure out who to trust in the Travel World. I like reading your blog and your fresh opinions, though. Maybe you're one of the good guys. Keep it up!

-Evan Silverman
New York, NY

[poet with a day job]

In reference to rating hotels you say: "which is itself far less quantifiable than many seem to want it to be..." I cant agree more, so at the start, the hotel rating system is problematic. Then, to say $250 is a reasonable rate is just frightening: for $250, if I happen to get something less than desirable because someone else thought it was "quaint" would drive me crazy, and keep me from trusting any rating system from either the Mag or TripAdvisor. For $250, which is a crazy one night only splurge, I want The Hotel Vitale in SF with breakfast and internet included...and actually they have cheaper rooms than that.

On the obvious note: I would rather hear about under $150 "cheap" finds from a budget mag, since I can find the $250s myself.

[Coco]

right on! we are living in a world gone mad where people have completely lost touch with reality. glad to see someone with their feet firmly on the ground.