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Traveling solo is already brutal because hotels and Airbnbs are priced on the assumption of two travelers. Traveling solo essentially costs double automaticall
by n8cpdx 1y ago
Traveling solo is already brutal because hotels and Airbnbs are priced on the assumption of two travelers.
Traveling solo essentially costs double automatically because of lodging, and it kind of sucks there’s a double whammy with airfare where, unlike lodging, the penalty doesn’t actually make any sense.
I guess as a family be grateful that all hotel rooms come with a 50% (or more) discount per traveler?
- growlNark 1y agoHostels are wonderful for single traveling, though. And that's in spite of the fact that hostels also have bulk discounts.
- hellisothers 1y agoHow are 2 travelers priced in? If I rent a 4 passenger car are 4 people priced in?
- 1776smithadam 1y agoWould a van cost more to rent then a sedan?
- chrisweekly 1y agoyes (car rental prices are mostly a function of size)
- aaomidi 1y agoBut in reality, rarely. The pricing is mostly a function of luxury AND space. I’ve regularly seen larger cars with more capacity equal to medium sedans.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- tshaddox 1y agoOnly when you're comparing the cheapest vehicles of each size, where the cost of the vehicle and maintenance is probably roughly in line with vehicle size. There are plenty of luxury and sports cars widely available for rent that will cost more than a minivan.
- dowager_dan99 1y agodifferent scenario; more appropriate would be the same car with zero or 1,2, or more passengers.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoSome countries (e.g. Japan) charge per person in non-Western hotels. Even then, you may get different prices for a solo traveler because the lower overall price means they need to increase the per person rate to make enough margin with their fixed costs.
- frank_nitti 1y agoThey do this in Mexico as well. Always just seems like an honor system thing unless they are checking people at the door to the hotel and/or room each time they enter, which only seems realistic in very small hotels who have no e.g. restaurant open to the public. Otherwise can’t one just rent the room as a solo guest, and just have someone come through later, as long as there isn’t an obvious group activity going on inside the room?
- sjf 1y agoWhy do people put locks on glass doors? Society only works because of the assumption that ~90% of people will follow the rules.
- carlosjobim 1y agoAre you going to bring your own sheets and breakfast as well?
- sgerenser 1y agoI don’t know about yours, but my spouse is OK with sharing sheets with me.
- carlosjobim 1y agoDepends on region. In many places a hotel room for two guests has two beds that are either separate or together. So make sure you book a king size bed, and also buy one of those fake moustache-and-glasses for your wife so nobody suspects anything at breakfast. Or she can wait in the room and you'll sneak some scrambled eggs and bacon from the buffet in your coat pockets for her.
- ghaff 1y agoI see people complaining a lot about single traveler (with their own room) surcharges on both group and self-guided trips. But, you're right, while per-person-double-occupancy rates make it explicit, it's pretty much the norm at most hotels whether stated as such or not.
- sidewndr46 1y agoI don't really find this relevant in the US because airline pricing is already the ultimate brutal form of pricing. Not only are they allowed to bill you whatever they want, they are never under any actual obligation to put you on the plane.
- hiAndrewQuinn 1y agoThis seems surprising to me. I was under the impression that airlines are pretty low profit margin industries, pulling in only around 3-4% in a decent year, and that of that the airline tickets themselves are the lowest margin items percentage wise, with other things like baggage fees being much more load bearing.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoDepending on which party you're talking about (airport, airline, etc), a no-bag economy ticket is often below cost, which is made up in volume and extras.
- sidewndr46 1y agoThis is correct, the single passenger 'economy' ticket is usually a loss leader. You can make the argument that airlines are companies that sell in flight beverages and also happen to fly a passenger airplane. The actual profit comes from an unusual sources, like deals with credit card issues for a "rewards" program that gives you frequent flyer miles
- dlisboa 1y agoYou are correct. As much as we like to bash airlines and their decisions, and liking low fares and quality service myself, it's objectively one of the worst businesses imaginable. Extremely high risk, low margin. Every year about a dozen airlines go bankrupt, get merged or bailed out. A small increase in the price of oil is a major risk for most of them. Most of the more profitable markets have high competition not only by other airlines but also other forms of transportation. Very few airlines are swimming in cash and even those are only a couple bad years away from bankrupcy.
- al_borland 1y agoCruises are especially bad for this. I’ve never gone, but I’ve looked at but after I had 3 independent people tell me to take one in the span of a few months. Most are priced assuming 2 people in the room and if you’re solo it seems like they expect you to buy 2 spots. I’ve seen a couple where they have a few solo cabins, but the amount of effort to surface this stuff turns me off to the whole thing. The only reason I’m still half looking is that it seems like the easiest way for a random person to set foot on Antarctica, which would be a cool thing to check off the bucket list.
- duped 1y agoEase is relative especially considering cost, but that's the kind of thing that having a good travel agent is good for (eg: finding someone with knowledge of where to stay in Chile and who to hire for a charter flight or boat trip). Economies of scale kinda kick in though so a cruise is probably the least expensive.
- ghaff 1y ago>if you’re solo it seems like they expect you to buy 2 spots Cruises are probably more complicated because they price things other than your cabin into the "experience." (Though I think the Queen Mary 2 a few years back was slightly less than 2x for just me.) But the random Marriott doesn't really care if there is one of you or two when it comes to pricing.
- MichaelZuo 1y agoWhy wouldn’t they care? I imagine 2 people use roughly twice the bedding, towels, toiletries, etc., on average.
- ghaff 1y agoWell, they mostly don't. They're often using the same bedding. Most toiletries are squirt containers these days. I don't think toilet paper is that expensive. And another towel or two to wash is probably not a big deal. And to the degree the hotel has a restaurant or bar they probably come out ahead. Your hotel may take a different approach but it's near universal (perhaps outside of resorts) that hotels charge the same for 1 or 2 guests.
- reliabilityguy 1y agoYou can make the same argument about food too: buying chicken at Costco is way cheaper per pound than in Whole Foods or Aldi. Are they also penalizing single people? No: buy more, pay less per unit.
- Mistletoe 1y agoYou can’t freeze a hotel room.
- tshaddox 1y agoThe hotel also cannot easily split and recombine rooms and beds on demand. They have to decide upfront how many single-person and two-person rooms to build, based on what they perceive the market desires.
- mrmanner 1y agohttps://www.icehotel.com/ https://www.icehotel.com/ :D
- reliabilityguy 1y agoHotel rooms can’t get spoiled. You can always stay in Motel 6 for $20/night.
- account42 1y agoIn my experience they often already come pre-frozen and room service will helpfully re-freeze them if you set a more reasonable temperature.
- authorfly 1y agoWhat packs do you buy where it is much more cheaper? Frozen > 5kg or so?
- patcon 1y ago(Saying all this with respect for those who value privacy more than me ) Hostels are for this market, no? Share physical infra (bathroom/heating/walls) with other humans (aka strangers) and you get the same family discount. You're not obligated to pay the premium unless you want your own bathroom and own personal space like families tend to want As in: families don't get a discount, they just amortise the cost of privacy that you also seem to specifically need/want. but many solo travellers don't care to pay for that.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- kaikai 1y agoThere’s a very big difference between sharing sleeping space with multiple complete strangers and sharing space with family.
- growlNark 1y agoHostels often offer private rooms, to varying degree of privacy. But i've certainly stayed at hostels that offer very comfortable single private rooms with private bathrooms for a third the cost of a local hotel room. Expensive for a hostel, but great value for the privacy. But if you're traveling with your family, just get hotel rooms. Hostels only came up in the first place in response to a gripe about solo travel.
- chgs 1y agoThe point is you are paying for one bed, one living area, one bathroom, whether you are a single traveller or as a couple. I’m in a hotel room at the moment with a bed and a sofa, can host 4 people or me, it’s the same size. At breakfast I usually sit on a table which can seat 4, but certainly one that can seat 2. I use almost all the resources a couple do, and spend less at the bar in the evening, so I’d expect to pay the same or even more.
- n8cpdx 1y agoI’ve done hostel and like that option when there is a private room. I often/always travel with electronics and things that I want to feel comfortable leaving behind, and I don’t like leaving my laptop and game consoles unattended in communal spaces.
- tshaddox 1y agoIt's probably also worth noting that the majority of these hotels and Airbnbs are also designed to accommodate two or more travelers. Thus the complaint isn't really "single-person rooms are priced that same as two-person rooms," but rather "single-person rooms don't exist, which means I have to pay for more space than I need." In this sense it's not really any different than any other product that you wish was sold in smaller quantities.
- ghaff 1y agoIt's probably a bit of a mixed bag. Beds are reasonable for two people (Usually a queen/king or a couple queens). But there may be only one sitting chair. Two people can manage but hotels split the difference a lot of the time.
- TheOtherHobbes 1y agoThe difference in costs between accommodating one person and two people is pretty minimal. Even things like breakfasts are prepared in bulk. Most single people own and sleep in double beds, so there's no sense in which a double bed is "designed to accomodate" two travellers. The issue is more that discounted single room rates would encourage unofficial double stays, which would lose significant income.
- tshaddox 1y agoI doubt the difference is minimal. Forget the size of beds, the point is that a hotel with 200 single-person rooms has twice the beds, twice the bathrooms, roughly twice the walls, etc. than a hotel with 100 two-person rooms.
- chgs 1y agoA hotel hosting 100 single people will be roughly the same size and operating costs as a hotel hosting 100 couples, even if the rooms had a 3’ bed rather than a 6’ bed And thus could be 3’ smaller
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- soperj 1y agoWhy wouldn't you just stay in a hostel? or rent a room on airbnb?
- garciasn 1y agoFor two reasons: 1. I don't want to stay in a hostel. See below for more on this; but, hostels, at least the ones I have researched, have bunk rooms and shared facilities. Hard pass for me. 2. I don't like sharing a bedroom and, especially, a bathroom in someone's home when they may be there. There's simply a different level of security (potentially false, I understand) in a hotel vs a rented room in a house.
- tshaddox 1y agoFamilies who travel together also share rooms and facilities, so if that's a hard pass for you then you wouldn't be happy with the "discount" of traveling as part of a family either.
- garciasn 1y agoI appreciate the pedantry; but, there’s a significant difference between several random someone(s) having travelers diarrhea in a shared bathroom and my family.
- jeremyjh 1y agoThe point is multiple people sharing facilities get discounts. It’s nothing more sinister than that. The hotel charges per room, and rooms include facilities. The costs for the hotel don’t depend on how many people are staying in that room.
- tshaddox 1y agoRight, but my point is that you're now no longer complaining about the concept of offering discounts for room-sharing. Now you're complaining that there's no one you would be comfortable sharing a room with.
- andix 1y ago> Traveling solo is already brutal because hotels and Airbnbs are priced on the assumption of two travelers The cost for the hotel and Airbnb doesn't really change a lot, if there is more than one person staying in the room. More or less another set of towels and a bit more soap. Even providing rooms with single beds only brings down the costs marginally.
- anigbrowl 1y agoLooks like the deal is to find someone else who wants to go the same way and then buy the tickets together. I'm pitching the movie to the Hallmark channel right now.
- the_third_wave 1y agoWhen travelling on your own just go to hostels instead of hotels and you-ll both pay much less (prices normally are per person, not per room) and you'll meet more people who are open to interacting with other solo travellers.
- mmustapic 1y ago> Traveling solo essentially costs double automatically because of lodging Travelling with somebody else brings costs down. Hotel rooms have the same surface for single and double occupancy (in fact they are usually the same rooms!). Even if you remove the surface of one single bed, the room stays almost the same. So, it’s much cheaper for 2.
- bdangubic 1y agoprovided you have someone to go with :)
- pwim 1y agoIn Japan, you pay by the person when it comes to hotels. Some will give you a slight discount for the second person. Others won’t.
- 33MHz-i486 1y agokids dont make any income. a weekend trip for 4 in the same timezone costs us $3k to 5k. a cross country trip is 10-20k. DINK > Solo >> anything else
- alexey-salmin 1y ago> I guess as a family be grateful that all hotel rooms come with a 50% (or more) discount per traveler? This is not always the case. A two-bedroom hotel suite on average costs more than two standard rooms. This happens because the vast majority of rooms are twin/double and cheap hotels often don't offer suites at all. At a given location two travellers would be chosing from e.g 100 options and at least some of these would be budget/discount offerings. In the same location a family of four would have to chose from 10 options and likely none of them are budget/discount. Now consider that you HAVE to travel during the school holidays so competition for these damn 10 options increases and the price for both hotels and tickets easily goes up 2-3x. There are some situations where a family of four would get a better price per person but most of the time it's the other way round.
- account42 1y agoThat doesn't make sense - the family in your example has 110 options whereas the single traveler only has 100.
- Aurornis 1y agoYou could look at it that way, but in practice I don’t actually divide travel costs by the number of people who go. It comes out of the family budget either way.
- account42 1y agoAirplane travel doesn't mean you actually need to pay for accommodations - visiting friends and family is also a thing.