13 April 2006

I miss my US Hotels


Hampton Inn Douglas, GA - with a Walmart nearby.
The US hotel system is really good. For a reasonable price you can get good accomodation and a free breakfast. We enjoyed the Hampton Inn chain with their large rooms, two large beds per room and great breakfast with just the room charge of around $100 US ($140 Aud). We used to book one room with two queen sized beds, bring along an inflatable bed and we all squeezed in and had a tasty breakfast.

In Australia the hotel system does not want families to stay. They all have a base price per room (in the suburbs about $90 to $100 ($70US)) plus a cost per person above one or two of around $20 ($15 US) per person. Also, fire regulations limit each room to 3 tenants. So with any reasionable sized family you need at least two rooms plus extra costs and no breakfast! So for us to stay with a family of 8, we need three rooms. Hotels only have two rooms which may connect, so some of the children are banished.
If we somehow "squeezed" into two rooms the cost would be around $270 ($200 US) and then we have to find breakfast somewhere.

Maybe that's why so many families don't travel as much here as is done in the US.

Oh yes, and most Australian hotels don't yet have Broadband Internet - Free or otherwise.

2 comments:

Anne said...

Douglas, Georgia? You're not too far from where I grew up! How's the weather? I'm heading home next week for a visit.

DavidofOz said...

Back in August 2004 we visited Douglas. I worked and Lana and her parents (who were visiting us) did some exploring. (As is the usual way). It was a fun place to visit, not on the typical tourist maps, and being Australian made us celebrities!
We posted it here: Bruggies Visit Douglas GA