As advised in a previous posting, we've owned a holiday home in France for the past number of years which has worked out very well for us. I've read with interest the various views and in particular the benefits of a hotel holiday where one has the luxury of leaving after 2 weeks care free.
Recently, we took ourselves and our two kids on holiday and stayed in hotels for about 16 days. While we have on occasion, previously used property-exchange sites in the past to travel beyond France, this was our first significant stay in hotel accommodation in many years. It was interesting to compare holidaying in our holiday home versus the hotel holiday experience.
My observation of the main differences are as follows:
Other people:
My intention is not to offend or in any way come across as pretentious, however, the 4* hotel we stayed in was busy. I know it is an obvious point, but the main difference in this hotel holiday experience was having to become used to sharing one's space with lots of other folks when using hotel amenities. Boy does this take getting used to again. The freedom and benefit offered by having one's own space in a private holiday home quickly became apparent and was not something I had actively expected. I now have far more awareness and appreciation for this factor.
Schedules - Your time is not your own
We opted for a half-board type of package. Quite early on, we found this very restrictive and in hindsight it was a poor decision on our part. Breakfast and evening meals were at a set time and was an ugly feeding frenzy, almost trough-like. We found the evening meal time slots very restrictive as we were clock watching a bit early on to ensure we were back at the hotel at the correct times. Additionally, the menu was unappealing and we ended up eating out every pretty much every evening which was expensive and a quite frankly a nuisance having to make reservations for specific times etc. Comparatively, a holiday home allows the freedom to eat when you want and to eat outside enjoying the evening sunshine or to have an impromptu BBQ. Again, not something we had considered until we missed it.
Pool times were restrictive. The hotel also had a public gym which facilitated lane swimming each evening for members. The times were awkward as kids only want to go and play in the pool when it suits them. By comparison, there is a pool with our holiday home so the kids (and friends) are in and out as they please all day and evening. Please note that almost every holiday home worth its salt has a pool in France so its considered standard.
Sleep:
In a word, disturbed. We had requested a "quiet" room located in a quiet part of the hotel when booking and this was confirmed during check-in. With kids we retired early most nights and were woken regularly by one or more of the following: Inadvertent banging of hotel room doors by other guests late and early, phone rechargers being plugged/plugged out/ plugged back in again by guests next door ,sockets being switched on and off at 4am, flushing toilets at all hours. Guest TVs being turned on in the early hours, or at 6am. Guests with too much alcohol consumed arguing (and fighting... I kid you not) which upset our own kids for a few days. Room service banging their room cleaning carts off door saddles, walls and anything else they could find religiously at 7:30 each morning in the hope guests would get up and allow them start their cleaning duties. Having to vacate the rooms to allow cleaning, which for whatever reason could start anywhere from 8am and not finish until 2pm... become annoying very quickly as you effectively had to be out of your hotel room for the entire morning each day... not good when the weather was raining... the amount of noise generated in a shared space took some getting used to. When holidaying in a hotel, you are simply not in control of your environment in any shape or form and your night's slumber is at the mercy of everyone else and their habits. Not a relaxing experience at all.
Cost:
15 nights for Two adults, two kids 4* hotel and pretty much 3 x meals out a day... the cost was eyewatering equating to approximately half the mortgage interest cost (mortgage of €180K @ 3.89%) for the entire year for our holiday home... and this was just for one holiday !! We would simply not considering doing this type of holiday on cost grounds. Its far cheaper to finance and run a holiday home (in France at least) if you are taking 2+ holidays a year using decent hotels. Eating out was very expensive. When staying in a hotel you lose the freedom to supermarket shop and prepare your own meals.
In conclusion, personally, I was surprised by the things we take for granted having a holiday home which we have become accustomed to. This recent hotel experience made me realise that on holiday we value our independence and being able to do what we want, when we want is of real value and importance to us. Ultimately, in our circumstances we could simply not justify the cost of hotel holidays for 2-4 weeks against the freedom offered by our holiday home.