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When I'm rich enough to afford it, I want to live in a hotel. A beautiful, luxurious hotel, where I don't have to worry about interior decorating - other than s

When I'm rich enough to afford it, I want to live in a hotel. A beautiful, luxurious hotel, where I don't have to worry about interior decorating - other than switching out the bland art for more tasteful pieces. Or cleaning. Or, keeping the fridge stocked. Or scrounging up healthy food in the morning. Or getting a good meal at any hour. Or paying the utility bills. Or worrying about the electrical wiring of my house. Or dealing with water storage in a drought. Or dealing with water at all. Or dealing with the home owner's association. Or thinking about home security. Or procuring the subtle furnishings that make a home a home. Or dealing with hiring the occasional cleaning lady or service. Or doing home repairs etc etc. No, I want to outsource all of that. I want to be able to wake up. Get to work on a dedicated high-speed internet connection. Yawn a bit. Go down to the lobby in my pajamas. Grab a good healthy breakfast buffet. Sit down next to the pool. Pull out my Kindle or iPad, read a textbook or Iain M Banks. Get a work out in by swimming around after I'm bored. Go back to my workstation in my suite. Do a few emails. Shower in the gorgeous bathroom. Dress in something comfy. Sit down, get some serious hours in. Have a keto snack or two brought to me for when I'm peckish. Go down for dinner. Enjoy the hub hub of people. Go behind the bar (something no one else can do). Pour myself a small drink. Talk to the chef about what he's into that night. Have a tiny portion of that for dinner. Go to swim in the pool again. Go back up, read a book, and then fall asleep. It's a seamless frictionless lifestyle. And when I have enough money that I don't have to worry about money. That's what I want. I don't want fancy cars or planes and stuff — just a life where I can think about the better things in life. Having your own house is overrated. I would settle for a good suite at the Ritz.

b_tterc_p 7y ago
Is this tongue in cheek? Because it reads as more worldly and self aware but is largely about living a more extravagant, expensive and luxurious lifestyle.
- jsty 7y ago
  To be honest, it sounds like quite a lot of big 'luxury' blocks of flats (gym, pool, cafe / restaurant, concierge) with a slightly higher class of building management than usual (the centralised cleaning and interior decoration). Heck, this is basically the modus operandi of most luxury student accommodation in London.
  - throwawayjava 7y ago
    Most luxury apartment buildings have an affiliated cleaning service and can recommend an interior designer. Find one with a restaurant on the bottom floor and you're done. It'll cost close to 5K/mo all in for decent square footage. That's before food, which will probably run around 50/day at least. Still very achievable on a dev salary in a major market, as long as you don't make any other expensive life decisions (i.e., children). Not what I would spend my money on, but certainly an option if it's what you want
    - pm90 7y ago
      A good 1 bed in new luxury highrise in SF can be had for ~$4k in the current market (2019), which is affordable on a dev salary (I live in one).
      - azinman2 7y ago
        Assuming you’d spend 50% of salary on rent...
        throwawayjava 7y ago
        Yeah, this is maybe something more appropriate mid career than when just starting out.
        indecisive_user 7y ago
        4k per month is 48k per year. That's 50% of your salary(after taxes) if you're making 140k, but 1/4th of dev salaries in SF start above that. https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=San+Francisco%2c+CA%2c+United+States&ed=1&ex=0&ff=1&dr%5B0%5D=BackendDeveloper&tl%5B0%5D= https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=San+Francisc...
      - throwawayjava 7y ago
        Plus 1k for the cleaning and delivery services.
- galago 7y ago
  It reminds me of the retirement home where my grandmother lived for several years. Her room was like a one-bedroom apartment without a kitchen. I visited her for meals which were served in what looked like a hotel restaurant. Guests could pay for a meal individually. The total cost for her was not extravagant--cheaper than living in a house and making your own food.
  - phkahler 7y ago
    When you say "cheaper than living in a house" are you talking about one with a mortgage or one you own and just pay taxes and utilities? Because the later is hard to beat.
    - jsty 7y ago
      If you're of the age or condition where you're living in a retirement home, there's likely the additional costs of at-home care, panic / fall systems, etc. to add to your "living in a house" costs.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      Nothing is cheaper than another thing if you arbitrarily remove a sufficient almost of the cost. If you have equity you can use that to pay for your apartment. But what parent was saying is that a small assisted living apartment is cheaper than a big unassisted house.
  - b_tterc_p 7y ago
    Sounds... improbable? Are you sure you’re not just comparing two areas of different cost of living?
- gweinberg 7y ago
  I believe it is. This part convinced me it had to be a joke: "True, working lying down brings its own challenges: it’s hard to avoid dozing off every few minutes. My solution is constant snacking, the fear of choking acting as a stimulant."
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
Ididntdothis 7y ago
the people with enough money have staff working in their house that do all that for them so basically they have their own hotel.
- areoform 7y ago
  It's still really difficult to manage. Someone has to manage the staff. Verify what they're doing etc. You have to do the hiring. Help them buy the stuff they need etc. It's less involved than doing it yourself, but for a large enough household, it becomes fairly involved and like a job. There's also more of a lady and servant relationship in a one-to-one scenario. That's extremely uncomfortable for me. In a hotel, it's a job and some chains actually pay their employees quite well, making it a true profession. A professional job where no one is under you per se or serving you explicitly is much better than having people follow your every whim directly. There are buffer layers here and the hotel can very much say no and protect their employees if the guest goes too far.
  - humanrebar 7y ago
    You outsource the "boss" role to the butler.
    - jsty 7y ago
      Might be different in other countries, but in the U.K. at least I believe the highest-ranking member of staff is usually the steward / majordomo.
    - areoform 7y ago
      Butler + staff + cleaning + food + chef combined would be either in striking distance or more expensive than renting a suite for a year. The smaller suites are around $2k to $3k per night. You can usually get up to a 40% to 60% discount if you pay upfront for a year (or three) and they throw in all kinds of stuff for free. Assuming $1.5k as a conservative estimate, we get about $550k/yr. Or, $45k/mo. If you have a mortgage, then for a marginally expensive home ($3M in the bay), a 20-year mortgage all in at 3% is $21k. A good butler starts at around 9k/mo before taxes etc. And goes up to $12k/mo to $15k/mo. Let's assume $10k, then that's $31k so far. Add about $6k more for household cleaning and a part-time chef (pricey!), then we get to $37k before the groceries are brought in. Depending on how you shop, this can be between $2k/mo/head to $5k/mo/head. let's assume $2.5k. So $39.5k before utilities, upkeep etc are taken into account. Add $2.5k in high-speed internet and utilities. If you want a house with a good HVAC system, air purification and all the other bells and whistles that are incidental in a hotel. We're now at $42k with a $3k difference so far. I'm sure that can be easily made up if you buy a more expensive property or the property taxes go up or you refurnish your home... It's fairly price competitive to live in a hotel for a rich person versus having your own gigantic household. The biggest tradeoff is space. And I'm happy to do that for the greater peace of mind.
gmays 7y ago
Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms. My favorites so far have been in Chine with the mix of modernity and service. In particular I’ve had great luck with Marriotts it’s Shanghai and Shenzhen. I was surprised since Marriotts are nothing special in the US. A friend’s Marriott room in Hong on the harbor was also great, but I didn’t stay there. The great thing is you also benefit from permanent elite status, which makes it more affordable and the stays even better with the lounge, free food, etc. For example, in Shenzhen (tech hub next to Hong Kong) you can get a room for well under $150/night—less than some SV rents monthly. Pay with a hotel/travel rewards card and you’ve got something good going. I’d seriously consider doing this if I didn’t have wife/kids, but pretty happy with things now.
- hkon 7y ago
  Just out of curiosity, what do you consider your best work?
  - gmays 7y ago
    When I'm able to break through creative blocks I've been wrestling with for long periods of time and seemingly get weeks of work done in days. It's some combination of the novel environment, lack of distractions, ambience, etc. I assume. I've trained myself to be somewhat "productive" on planes to get large amounts of work done out of necessity, but the creativity (new/novel work) tends to happen in hotels with the ambience I described. On the flip side, shitty hotels tend to have the opposite effect--completely unproductive (the ironic costs of saving money). I hope that makes sense. I actually haven't thought deeply about what makes this work before, so these thoughts are rough.
- gist 7y ago
  > Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms. One of the things a hotel room has going for it is that it's very uncluttered and maybe even 'feng shui'. As such it doesn't have a lot of distractions (visually with objects) that a typical home or office has. That alone (imo) can go a long way toward being able to do your 'best work'.
tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
I've always wondered if there is are hotel/apartment combos. I would love that. One that serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, manages a towel/trinkets service, handles laundry. I'd throw my money at that without hesitating.
- arethuza 7y ago
  Dedicated apart hotels are pretty common and its fairly common for "normal" hotels to have apartments or even entirely separate houses.
- lgeorget 7y ago
  In France they're (cleverly enough) called "appart'hôtel". You can stay there for one week up to several months (or years I guess if you keep paying?) and you can use it as a hotel or an apartment depending on the level of service you want. You can cook yourself or eat outside, you can order the number of times a week the room is to be cleaned, etc.
- jsty 7y ago
  I know there's some flats you can buy in London close / connected to some major luxury hotels that provide that. E.g. https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/luxury/property/1125m-apartment-for-sale-on-the-top-floor-of-the-corinthia-hotel-london-residences-a125586.html https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/luxury/property/1125m-apa...
- Brajeshwar 7y ago
  Been thinking about this for quite a while. Now, trying to make it happen - https://primechasm.com https://primechasm.com :-)
  - tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
    I love this idea.
- jacurtis 7y ago
  Many of the hotels in Las Vegas allow you to buy condominiums on the highest floors. Often the top 10% of floors are permenant rooms and suites that are sold as apartments. You purchase them like a house, you can sell them any time, and you are the sole owner of that room. Most of the hotels also have private elevators only for condominum owners so you don't have to mingle with the guests. You pay an ongoing fee each month for the hotel services and utilities. But this is flat rate and is surprisingly affordable. Comparable in price to a high-end HOA fee in an upscale planned community ($300 - $400 per month). Remember this also includes utilities, access to hotel amenities, and house cleaning on a limited schedule (usually just 1 time per week). Additional house cleanings are sold at a fixed schedule of around $50 per cleaning. I have a friend who has an apartment in the top of Las Vegas Trump Tower (yes yes, i know all the political presidential comments will follow now, but really the hotel is incredible). This caused me to look it up for myself. I live nearby in Utah and visit Las Vegas frequently. I considered purchasing an apartment in a hotel for myself. Like any other house, these are listed on the MLS. You hire a real estate agent, etc. I looked at Cosmopolitan, The Palms, MGM Signature, and a few others. They are all surprisingly competitive. Prices start around $250k (which gets you a studio style room). $350k seemed to be the average price for a 1 bedroom. And $500k seemed to get you in the 2 bedroom range. Penthouse suites are also available in the > $1M range. But all-in-all you can basically live in a hotel for roughly the price of buying a home. Even the ongoing hotel fee isn't too far off what I pay for utlities alone at my home, and also includes the hotel services. Vegas is not alone in this concept. I know that New York does the same thing and there are similar ones when I was visiting Vancouver, Canada last weekend. Look at most premium hotels and they will often have this option available to a certain amount of their rooms. Tl;DR: for anyone wanting to live in a hotel, it is INCREDIBLY realistic.
hos234 7y ago
It gets boring. Hotels are full of airheads. Even Trump got bored of it.
cm2012 7y ago
By the way you can cruise 24/7 with all of this for $2500 a month if you plan it right. (NCL has a high quality 7 day cruise from NYC to Bahamas you can buy for $499)
- kirubakaran 7y ago
  High speed internet would the problem.
  - EwanG 7y ago
    Have we finally found the perfect use case for SpaceX's Starlink here? Assuming you get a suite with a window that the pizza-box receiver can use...
- noodlesUK 7y ago
  It’s my understanding that plenty of older people who are getting to the point where it’s difficult to stay totally independent do this as an alternative to having to go into residential care. Makes sense too, it’s probably one hell of a lot nicer if you can make do with the medical care onboard.
- krackers 7y ago
  The sea sickness is a severe downside for some
Justsignedup 7y ago
To add... If you have enough money for that, the hotel can easily be accross the street from your company. Why commute when your commute can be two minutes. If you need to focus on a different office, just move to that office.
gdubs 7y ago
I’ve had some great hotel experiences, but none feel like “home”. I’ve stayed at a few Ritz too and while they’re nice they still feel like hotels. Your description sounds a bit like a luxury version of a nursing home.
- brownbat 7y ago
  It's really weird how hotels scale up. They prioritize appearance of luxury over function in most cases. Will I be able to be able to stream video to the TV? Probably only at cheaper hotels. Beds and rooms get bigger, fine, but showers and closets? Could be tiny. Gyms? Some great ones out there, but it's really inconsistent, a lot of expensive places still just have a row of treadmills, some dumbbells, and giant inflatable ball. Extreme breakfast buffets are a common perk. Would you prefer to pay $100 for the same admittedly phenomenal breakfast several days in a row, or would you rather spend that money and those calories on the best dinners in the area at several different places? Towels. Towels are the only thing that's predictably better. Something's strange about paying a few hundred per night on great towels. There's an opportunity for a mobile concierge service. Uber eats, sure, but maybe also press clothes for less than $50 per item. Maybe it could even loan you a set of really great towels.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Try staying at a five star resort villa style hotel in Bali or some other SE country. The last one we stayed at was two stories with a living room/kitchen/massage room on floor one (next to a private pool) and the bedroom/huge bathroom/walk-in closet on floor two. Seriously would love to have a real house like that. Most of the bungalows I’ve stayed in haven’t been as elaborate but have felt very much like home. Hotel rooms in the city are always much smaller, but non urban tourist areas are very different (Eg Manila vs Boracay).
ChristianGeek 7y ago
So you want to be Zach or Cody.
- KibbutzDalia 7y ago
  Why not both?!
MuffinFlavored 7y ago
> I would settle for a good suite at the Ritz. How much would this cost a month, roughly? Would you get some kind of volume discount? For comparison, a $3k/mo mortgage would be about $100/night (30 days a month). Most Ritz suites I see are about $579 - $2,500/night.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Given the Ritz’ reputation they have nothing to gain from offering volume discounts to a long-term guest as they are pretty much fully booked anyway, but for a smaller hotel it would definitely make sense for them to offer a discount, and in fact most do. There are even serviced apartments whose entire business is to provide long-term “hotels” at a much more affordable per-night price than the short-term equivalent.
- appleshore 7y ago
  You can buy a Ritz condo in LA for $1.2 million and pay about $2000/month for HOA. Or lease it for $5500-6500/month. If you bought a bunch of condos, could likely reduce the HOA fees. Comes with an amazing free breakfast and a target on your back for confidence artists.
  - MuffinFlavored 7y ago
    Link? Edit: https://www.zilbert.com/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour_details.asp?R=A10532995 https://www.zilbert.com/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour/ritz_carlto... $4,900/mo TV looks kind of cheap shrug
Nextgrid 7y ago
When my income increased significantly due to switching to contracting I considered a serviced apartment. It was much cheaper than I expected. I'll let my current lease run out but it's definitely a possibility and definitely not as expensive as you'd expect.
mhb 7y ago
Book recommendation: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
grosswait 7y ago
Rick Majerus lived long term in hotels. Maybe he felt the same way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1998/03/25/hotel-bound-majerus-having-a-suite-dream/718dfe40-1835-4300-a180-c3c708f9e593/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1998/03/25/hot...
obiefernandez 7y ago
You can create most of this for yourself at a modest cost in Mexico City, in fact, it's what I did for the last 2 years. For the cost of my mortgage in suburban Atlanta, I rented a very large luxury condo in the heart of the hottest urban neighborhood, including service suite. Earthquake proof building, with just a few very rich neighbors (including a novella actor and expensive airbnb). 24/7 security and valet. For about $600/month, I hired a live-in cook/head of household named Maria. She handled all the shopping and cooking, including fresh fruit every morning when I woke up, and a large mid-day meal. She made my bed every morning once I was up, and reminded me to do things that needed to be done by me. Maria was only about 6 years older than me, but fit easily into a mom role. A mom that was never judgmental, and always sweet and accommodating. A true friend, who I could pour my heart out to if necessary. In the evenings, she played guitar and sang, which made it easy to forgive her for listening to the same pop female playlist on youtube almost every day. For another few hundred per month, I got Denise, who would come in 3 days a week to handle all the laundry and cleaning, and help with meals and shopping. I tasked Maria with managing Denise so I didn't have to, including making her schedule and making sure she was doing what she needed to do. During those 2 glorious years, during which I worked from home, from the time I woke up in the morning to the time I went to bed at night, I didn't have to do anything at all at home other than work or have fun. My meals were provided. My bed was made. My house was always spotless and sparkling. The fruit in the morning was always fresh, and the food in the afternoon was always delicious. I'm constantly surprised that more people in my kind of position don't relocate to Mexico. After a couple years I got fed up with the pollution and decided to do the digital nomad thing for awhile, which is why I've been in Europe all summer and headed to Bali and China in the fall.
- mandeepj 7y ago
  > I'm constantly surprised that more people in my kind of position don't relocate to Mexico > After a couple years I got fed up with the pollution You addressed your surprise
  - eof 7y ago
    Well the same thing can be done (minus the hot urban social aspect) all over the place in Latin America and other places as well.
jameslk 7y ago
If you live in the Bay Area, you can already afford to live in a hotel in a lot of places. $2,500 to $3,000 a month (price of a studio) = $83 to $100 a night (median hotel price in the US is $133). Considering hotels give discounts for longer stays, this should be more than enough.
- azinman2 7y ago
  What luxury hotel is $133/night?
  - mixmastamyk 7y ago
    Steep hotel taxes are what generally make this infeasible.
  - coldtea 7y ago
    Tons of luxury hotels (4-5 stars) around the world have rooms for $133/night or even less. Note that the grandparent didn't say "luxury" anywhere.
  - brownbat 7y ago
    Fair point. If you're good with 4 stars you could probably get there with a little internet sleuthing. Casinos running specials trying to attract gamblers during the off season is probably the best bet. Or low population areas like the midwest. https://www.wonderslist.com/15-cheapest-5-star-hotels-usa/ https://www.wonderslist.com/15-cheapest-5-star-hotels-usa/ https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/hotels/states-with-cheapest-5-star-hotels/#4 https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/hotels/states-wi...
diveanon 7y ago
Just leave the western world and you can have this. Source: been traveling for six years for less than 12k a year.
buboard 7y ago
You're probably rich enough to afford it, i believe that is what digital nomads do. Co-living in large scale serviced properties is probably better for the environment.The technology is not there yet, but maybe one day it will be the default mode of living. It's what weWork would do if it was a real technology company.
NikkiA 7y ago
I've "lived at a hotel for a couple of months" twice due to moving for a new job, and it's never very satisfying, it never feels like home, and it's more cramped than even the tiniest studio apartment. One hotel room I lived out of had 'cooking facilities' (a microwave) but it still was more hassle than I could bear.
cactus2093 7y ago
I like a lot of the other comments here about other countries and situations where you can hire full time staff to take care of you. But you can really have a similar lifestyle in any big city in the US on a mid-level tech salary. It’s not a hotel but you can rent a 1 bedroom apartment in a building with a pool and a gym, and order dinner every night on Uber eats/DoorDash/etc. Get groceries delivered and eat a combination of quick minibar style snacks and delivery for breakfast and lunch as well. Pretty much the way a lot of young professionals in cities live already.

b_tterc_p 7y ago

Is this tongue in cheek? Because it reads as more worldly and self aware but is largely about living a more extravagant, expensive and luxurious lifestyle.

jsty 7y ago
To be honest, it sounds like quite a lot of big 'luxury' blocks of flats (gym, pool, cafe / restaurant, concierge) with a slightly higher class of building management than usual (the centralised cleaning and interior decoration). Heck, this is basically the modus operandi of most luxury student accommodation in London.
- throwawayjava 7y ago
  Most luxury apartment buildings have an affiliated cleaning service and can recommend an interior designer. Find one with a restaurant on the bottom floor and you're done. It'll cost close to 5K/mo all in for decent square footage. That's before food, which will probably run around 50/day at least. Still very achievable on a dev salary in a major market, as long as you don't make any other expensive life decisions (i.e., children). Not what I would spend my money on, but certainly an option if it's what you want
  - pm90 7y ago
    A good 1 bed in new luxury highrise in SF can be had for ~$4k in the current market (2019), which is affordable on a dev salary (I live in one).
    - azinman2 7y ago
      Assuming you’d spend 50% of salary on rent...
      - throwawayjava 7y ago
        Yeah, this is maybe something more appropriate mid career than when just starting out.
      - indecisive_user 7y ago
        4k per month is 48k per year. That's 50% of your salary(after taxes) if you're making 140k, but 1/4th of dev salaries in SF start above that. https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=San+Francisco%2c+CA%2c+United+States&ed=1&ex=0&ff=1&dr%5B0%5D=BackendDeveloper&tl%5B0%5D= https://stackoverflow.com/jobs/salary/results?l=San+Francisc...
    - throwawayjava 7y ago
      Plus 1k for the cleaning and delivery services.
galago 7y ago
It reminds me of the retirement home where my grandmother lived for several years. Her room was like a one-bedroom apartment without a kitchen. I visited her for meals which were served in what looked like a hotel restaurant. Guests could pay for a meal individually. The total cost for her was not extravagant--cheaper than living in a house and making your own food.
- phkahler 7y ago
  When you say "cheaper than living in a house" are you talking about one with a mortgage or one you own and just pay taxes and utilities? Because the later is hard to beat.
  - jsty 7y ago
    If you're of the age or condition where you're living in a retirement home, there's likely the additional costs of at-home care, panic / fall systems, etc. to add to your "living in a house" costs.
  - lonelappde 7y ago
    Nothing is cheaper than another thing if you arbitrarily remove a sufficient almost of the cost. If you have equity you can use that to pay for your apartment. But what parent was saying is that a small assisted living apartment is cheaper than a big unassisted house.
- b_tterc_p 7y ago
  Sounds... improbable? Are you sure you’re not just comparing two areas of different cost of living?
gweinberg 7y ago
I believe it is. This part convinced me it had to be a joke: "True, working lying down brings its own challenges: it’s hard to avoid dozing off every few minutes. My solution is constant snacking, the fear of choking acting as a stimulant."
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

Ididntdothis 7y ago

the people with enough money have staff working in their house that do all that for them so basically they have their own hotel.

areoform 7y ago
It's still really difficult to manage. Someone has to manage the staff. Verify what they're doing etc. You have to do the hiring. Help them buy the stuff they need etc. It's less involved than doing it yourself, but for a large enough household, it becomes fairly involved and like a job. There's also more of a lady and servant relationship in a one-to-one scenario. That's extremely uncomfortable for me. In a hotel, it's a job and some chains actually pay their employees quite well, making it a true profession. A professional job where no one is under you per se or serving you explicitly is much better than having people follow your every whim directly. There are buffer layers here and the hotel can very much say no and protect their employees if the guest goes too far.
- humanrebar 7y ago
  You outsource the "boss" role to the butler.
  - jsty 7y ago
    Might be different in other countries, but in the U.K. at least I believe the highest-ranking member of staff is usually the steward / majordomo.
  - areoform 7y ago
    Butler + staff + cleaning + food + chef combined would be either in striking distance or more expensive than renting a suite for a year. The smaller suites are around $2k to $3k per night. You can usually get up to a 40% to 60% discount if you pay upfront for a year (or three) and they throw in all kinds of stuff for free. Assuming $1.5k as a conservative estimate, we get about $550k/yr. Or, $45k/mo. If you have a mortgage, then for a marginally expensive home ($3M in the bay), a 20-year mortgage all in at 3% is $21k. A good butler starts at around 9k/mo before taxes etc. And goes up to $12k/mo to $15k/mo. Let's assume $10k, then that's $31k so far. Add about $6k more for household cleaning and a part-time chef (pricey!), then we get to $37k before the groceries are brought in. Depending on how you shop, this can be between $2k/mo/head to $5k/mo/head. let's assume $2.5k. So $39.5k before utilities, upkeep etc are taken into account. Add $2.5k in high-speed internet and utilities. If you want a house with a good HVAC system, air purification and all the other bells and whistles that are incidental in a hotel. We're now at $42k with a $3k difference so far. I'm sure that can be easily made up if you buy a more expensive property or the property taxes go up or you refurnish your home... It's fairly price competitive to live in a hotel for a rich person versus having your own gigantic household. The biggest tradeoff is space. And I'm happy to do that for the greater peace of mind.

gmays 7y ago

Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms. My favorites so far have been in Chine with the mix of modernity and service. In particular I’ve had great luck with Marriotts it’s Shanghai and Shenzhen. I was surprised since Marriotts are nothing special in the US. A friend’s Marriott room in Hong on the harbor was also great, but I didn’t stay there. The great thing is you also benefit from permanent elite status, which makes it more affordable and the stays even better with the lounge, free food, etc. For example, in Shenzhen (tech hub next to Hong Kong) you can get a room for well under $150/night—less than some SV rents monthly. Pay with a hotel/travel rewards card and you’ve got something good going. I’d seriously consider doing this if I didn’t have wife/kids, but pretty happy with things now.

hkon 7y ago
Just out of curiosity, what do you consider your best work?
- gmays 7y ago
  When I'm able to break through creative blocks I've been wrestling with for long periods of time and seemingly get weeks of work done in days. It's some combination of the novel environment, lack of distractions, ambience, etc. I assume. I've trained myself to be somewhat "productive" on planes to get large amounts of work done out of necessity, but the creativity (new/novel work) tends to happen in hotels with the ambience I described. On the flip side, shitty hotels tend to have the opposite effect--completely unproductive (the ironic costs of saving money). I hope that makes sense. I actually haven't thought deeply about what makes this work before, so these thoughts are rough.
gist 7y ago
> Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms. One of the things a hotel room has going for it is that it's very uncluttered and maybe even 'feng shui'. As such it doesn't have a lot of distractions (visually with objects) that a typical home or office has. That alone (imo) can go a long way toward being able to do your 'best work'.

tenaciousDaniel 7y ago

I've always wondered if there is are hotel/apartment combos. I would love that. One that serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, manages a towel/trinkets service, handles laundry. I'd throw my money at that without hesitating.

arethuza 7y ago
Dedicated apart hotels are pretty common and its fairly common for "normal" hotels to have apartments or even entirely separate houses.
lgeorget 7y ago
In France they're (cleverly enough) called "appart'hôtel". You can stay there for one week up to several months (or years I guess if you keep paying?) and you can use it as a hotel or an apartment depending on the level of service you want. You can cook yourself or eat outside, you can order the number of times a week the room is to be cleaned, etc.
jsty 7y ago
I know there's some flats you can buy in London close / connected to some major luxury hotels that provide that. E.g. https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/luxury/property/1125m-apartment-for-sale-on-the-top-floor-of-the-corinthia-hotel-london-residences-a125586.html https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/luxury/property/1125m-apa...
Brajeshwar 7y ago
Been thinking about this for quite a while. Now, trying to make it happen - https://primechasm.com https://primechasm.com :-)
- tenaciousDaniel 7y ago
  I love this idea.
jacurtis 7y ago
Many of the hotels in Las Vegas allow you to buy condominiums on the highest floors. Often the top 10% of floors are permenant rooms and suites that are sold as apartments. You purchase them like a house, you can sell them any time, and you are the sole owner of that room. Most of the hotels also have private elevators only for condominum owners so you don't have to mingle with the guests. You pay an ongoing fee each month for the hotel services and utilities. But this is flat rate and is surprisingly affordable. Comparable in price to a high-end HOA fee in an upscale planned community ($300 - $400 per month). Remember this also includes utilities, access to hotel amenities, and house cleaning on a limited schedule (usually just 1 time per week). Additional house cleanings are sold at a fixed schedule of around $50 per cleaning. I have a friend who has an apartment in the top of Las Vegas Trump Tower (yes yes, i know all the political presidential comments will follow now, but really the hotel is incredible). This caused me to look it up for myself. I live nearby in Utah and visit Las Vegas frequently. I considered purchasing an apartment in a hotel for myself. Like any other house, these are listed on the MLS. You hire a real estate agent, etc. I looked at Cosmopolitan, The Palms, MGM Signature, and a few others. They are all surprisingly competitive. Prices start around $250k (which gets you a studio style room). $350k seemed to be the average price for a 1 bedroom. And $500k seemed to get you in the 2 bedroom range. Penthouse suites are also available in the > $1M range. But all-in-all you can basically live in a hotel for roughly the price of buying a home. Even the ongoing hotel fee isn't too far off what I pay for utlities alone at my home, and also includes the hotel services. Vegas is not alone in this concept. I know that New York does the same thing and there are similar ones when I was visiting Vancouver, Canada last weekend. Look at most premium hotels and they will often have this option available to a certain amount of their rooms. Tl;DR: for anyone wanting to live in a hotel, it is INCREDIBLY realistic.

hos234 7y ago

It gets boring. Hotels are full of airheads. Even Trump got bored of it.

cm2012 7y ago

By the way you can cruise 24/7 with all of this for $2500 a month if you plan it right. (NCL has a high quality 7 day cruise from NYC to Bahamas you can buy for $499)

kirubakaran 7y ago
High speed internet would the problem.
- EwanG 7y ago
  Have we finally found the perfect use case for SpaceX's Starlink here? Assuming you get a suite with a window that the pizza-box receiver can use...
noodlesUK 7y ago
It’s my understanding that plenty of older people who are getting to the point where it’s difficult to stay totally independent do this as an alternative to having to go into residential care. Makes sense too, it’s probably one hell of a lot nicer if you can make do with the medical care onboard.
krackers 7y ago
The sea sickness is a severe downside for some

Justsignedup 7y ago

To add... If you have enough money for that, the hotel can easily be accross the street from your company. Why commute when your commute can be two minutes. If you need to focus on a different office, just move to that office.

gdubs 7y ago

I’ve had some great hotel experiences, but none feel like “home”. I’ve stayed at a few Ritz too and while they’re nice they still feel like hotels. Your description sounds a bit like a luxury version of a nursing home.

brownbat 7y ago
It's really weird how hotels scale up. They prioritize appearance of luxury over function in most cases. Will I be able to be able to stream video to the TV? Probably only at cheaper hotels. Beds and rooms get bigger, fine, but showers and closets? Could be tiny. Gyms? Some great ones out there, but it's really inconsistent, a lot of expensive places still just have a row of treadmills, some dumbbells, and giant inflatable ball. Extreme breakfast buffets are a common perk. Would you prefer to pay $100 for the same admittedly phenomenal breakfast several days in a row, or would you rather spend that money and those calories on the best dinners in the area at several different places? Towels. Towels are the only thing that's predictably better. Something's strange about paying a few hundred per night on great towels. There's an opportunity for a mobile concierge service. Uber eats, sure, but maybe also press clothes for less than $50 per item. Maybe it could even loan you a set of really great towels.
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Try staying at a five star resort villa style hotel in Bali or some other SE country. The last one we stayed at was two stories with a living room/kitchen/massage room on floor one (next to a private pool) and the bedroom/huge bathroom/walk-in closet on floor two. Seriously would love to have a real house like that. Most of the bungalows I’ve stayed in haven’t been as elaborate but have felt very much like home. Hotel rooms in the city are always much smaller, but non urban tourist areas are very different (Eg Manila vs Boracay).

ChristianGeek 7y ago

So you want to be Zach or Cody.

KibbutzDalia 7y ago
Why not both?!

MuffinFlavored 7y ago

> I would settle for a good suite at the Ritz. How much would this cost a month, roughly? Would you get some kind of volume discount? For comparison, a $3k/mo mortgage would be about $100/night (30 days a month). Most Ritz suites I see are about $579 - $2,500/night.

Nextgrid 7y ago
Given the Ritz’ reputation they have nothing to gain from offering volume discounts to a long-term guest as they are pretty much fully booked anyway, but for a smaller hotel it would definitely make sense for them to offer a discount, and in fact most do. There are even serviced apartments whose entire business is to provide long-term “hotels” at a much more affordable per-night price than the short-term equivalent.
appleshore 7y ago
You can buy a Ritz condo in LA for $1.2 million and pay about $2000/month for HOA. Or lease it for $5500-6500/month. If you bought a bunch of condos, could likely reduce the HOA fees. Comes with an amazing free breakfast and a target on your back for confidence artists.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  Link? Edit: https://www.zilbert.com/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour_details.asp?R=A10532995 https://www.zilbert.com/ritz_carlton_bal_harbour/ritz_carlto... $4,900/mo TV looks kind of cheap shrug

Nextgrid 7y ago

When my income increased significantly due to switching to contracting I considered a serviced apartment. It was much cheaper than I expected. I'll let my current lease run out but it's definitely a possibility and definitely not as expensive as you'd expect.

mhb 7y ago

Book recommendation: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

grosswait 7y ago

Rick Majerus lived long term in hotels. Maybe he felt the same way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1998/03/25/hotel-bound-majerus-having-a-suite-dream/718dfe40-1835-4300-a180-c3c708f9e593/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1998/03/25/hot...

obiefernandez 7y ago

You can create most of this for yourself at a modest cost in Mexico City, in fact, it's what I did for the last 2 years. For the cost of my mortgage in suburban Atlanta, I rented a very large luxury condo in the heart of the hottest urban neighborhood, including service suite. Earthquake proof building, with just a few very rich neighbors (including a novella actor and expensive airbnb). 24/7 security and valet. For about $600/month, I hired a live-in cook/head of household named Maria. She handled all the shopping and cooking, including fresh fruit every morning when I woke up, and a large mid-day meal. She made my bed every morning once I was up, and reminded me to do things that needed to be done by me. Maria was only about 6 years older than me, but fit easily into a mom role. A mom that was never judgmental, and always sweet and accommodating. A true friend, who I could pour my heart out to if necessary. In the evenings, she played guitar and sang, which made it easy to forgive her for listening to the same pop female playlist on youtube almost every day. For another few hundred per month, I got Denise, who would come in 3 days a week to handle all the laundry and cleaning, and help with meals and shopping. I tasked Maria with managing Denise so I didn't have to, including making her schedule and making sure she was doing what she needed to do. During those 2 glorious years, during which I worked from home, from the time I woke up in the morning to the time I went to bed at night, I didn't have to do anything at all at home other than work or have fun. My meals were provided. My bed was made. My house was always spotless and sparkling. The fruit in the morning was always fresh, and the food in the afternoon was always delicious. I'm constantly surprised that more people in my kind of position don't relocate to Mexico. After a couple years I got fed up with the pollution and decided to do the digital nomad thing for awhile, which is why I've been in Europe all summer and headed to Bali and China in the fall.

mandeepj 7y ago
> I'm constantly surprised that more people in my kind of position don't relocate to Mexico > After a couple years I got fed up with the pollution You addressed your surprise
- eof 7y ago
  Well the same thing can be done (minus the hot urban social aspect) all over the place in Latin America and other places as well.

jameslk 7y ago

If you live in the Bay Area, you can already afford to live in a hotel in a lot of places. $2,500 to $3,000 a month (price of a studio) = $83 to $100 a night (median hotel price in the US is $133). Considering hotels give discounts for longer stays, this should be more than enough.

azinman2 7y ago
What luxury hotel is $133/night?
- mixmastamyk 7y ago
  Steep hotel taxes are what generally make this infeasible.
- coldtea 7y ago
  Tons of luxury hotels (4-5 stars) around the world have rooms for $133/night or even less. Note that the grandparent didn't say "luxury" anywhere.
- brownbat 7y ago
  Fair point. If you're good with 4 stars you could probably get there with a little internet sleuthing. Casinos running specials trying to attract gamblers during the off season is probably the best bet. Or low population areas like the midwest. https://www.wonderslist.com/15-cheapest-5-star-hotels-usa/ https://www.wonderslist.com/15-cheapest-5-star-hotels-usa/ https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/hotels/states-with-cheapest-5-star-hotels/#4 https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/hotels/states-wi...

diveanon 7y ago

Just leave the western world and you can have this. Source: been traveling for six years for less than 12k a year.

buboard 7y ago

You're probably rich enough to afford it, i believe that is what digital nomads do. Co-living in large scale serviced properties is probably better for the environment.The technology is not there yet, but maybe one day it will be the default mode of living. It's what weWork would do if it was a real technology company.

NikkiA 7y ago

I've "lived at a hotel for a couple of months" twice due to moving for a new job, and it's never very satisfying, it never feels like home, and it's more cramped than even the tiniest studio apartment. One hotel room I lived out of had 'cooking facilities' (a microwave) but it still was more hassle than I could bear.

cactus2093 7y ago

I like a lot of the other comments here about other countries and situations where you can hire full time staff to take care of you. But you can really have a similar lifestyle in any big city in the US on a mid-level tech salary. It’s not a hotel but you can rent a 1 bedroom apartment in a building with a pool and a gym, and order dinner every night on Uber eats/DoorDash/etc. Get groceries delivered and eat a combination of quick minibar style snacks and delivery for breakfast and lunch as well. Pretty much the way a lot of young professionals in cities live already.