Why You Should Mix Up Your Accommodation Types

TTT 62 - Accomodation Types
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Meggan: Hey everyone, and welcome back to this week's Travel tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. We are just so happy you're here. As always, I am joined by Jenn, my trusty co-host. How are you today, Jenn?

Jenn: Oh, I'm good. I'm just chugging along through winter trying to get to get to Spring.

Meggan: Same girl, same. So that's why I think we do this podcast. We're just dreaming of, of travel and, uh, getting out of winter. So today I wanted to take a bit of time and talk about accommodations. So everyone has preferences, obviously for where they want to stay and what types of accommodations they enjoy. And some people have budgetary concerns, which, which kind of dictates sort of where they can and will stay. And for others that isn't a concern. there's honestly such a wide variety of scenarios for people when they're actually choosing accommodation. So I wanted to chat about is when you're, uh, saving for travel in advance.

And you should be, we've talked about this many times on podcast, save in a way that allows you to mix it up when you're booking your accommodations during travel. So looking over our recent accommodations for our upcoming Iceland trip because I'm dreaming about the future. Every once in a while I revisit. I'm like, where are we staying? 'cause you forget if it's so far away. and we realized that some of our nights are actually super inexpensive spots. These are booked for when we're there for one night, just literally passing through. And we need somewhere to put our head down. Then there are some nights, especially for those two nighter stays where we're actually spending a bit more, whether it's because of location or just the type of place that we're staying, but these are the times we've splurged a little bit more, I guess you would say. So I want to encourage, if this is possible for you, of course, to use this method of mixing and matching prices. So this allows you to hopefully stay within whatever your budget might be. by staying in a few places that are sort of below the average room cost, uh, per night without giving up, of course cleanliness and basic necessities. and this will free up your budget, which allows you to stay in some nicer spots along the way as well. So mixing a bit of luxury with a little bit of frugality as you go, I guess you would say. And what we have found by doing this, Is you have some of course utilitarian days, so inexpensive basics and that's okay once in a while and it is usually okay. We're fine with that because then you know, you also have some really sweet spots booked to look forward to, and it really makes for a varied trip. And the hope is at the end of the day that this also evens out with your budget. So allowing you to stay in some budget places, within your budget, while not sacrificing every single accommodation you choose. Now you could also take the same theory and apply it to accommodation types, so to have a more varied experience you could also book a variety of places to stay in on the same trip. So maybe a cabin, Airbnb, an inn, a bed and breakfast, a glamping dome, or even a traditional hotel room. Just as a few examples. So this way, throughout the same trip, you can have a multitude of different experiences every night doesn't look exact same. Um, so Jenn, how do you usually book your stays when you're doing multiple nights in a country, like in a different cities or town? So do you do it this way or do you have another method to experience different scenes?

Jenn: Yeah, I think similar to you, I do less trips that are moving around than you do. But this is definitely the approach we took when we did Scotland. When we were doing a multiple city, it depended on how long we were there for and you know, sometimes we were staying with others, um, two other couples or one other couple, so we would you know, book a bigger house, uh, like an Airbnb and sometimes we were just a small hotel room, um, the two of us. So it is, uh, it does definitely depend and it depends on the purpose of the hotel stay, like you said. Is it somewhere to literally just lay your head and leave in the morning or do you need to be close or want to be close to the things that you want to experience?

Do you wanna walk to things, you know, for example, if you're in a city, I like to be able to walk to the things that I wanna do. are certain amenities important? And it's really funny that you brought this up and I, I kind of meant to bring it up in my trip report, but, um, we were booked to stay at the Quality Inn by the Halifax Airport.

And if anyone in Halifax knows what the quality Inn is like near the Halifax airport. It is not very nice. They have upgraded the rooms, they're fine, but um, they do give you two weeks of free parking, which is why most people stay there, right? And so the morning we stayed there the night before the morning of we were in line to get on the bus to go to the airport. It was gross outside, and I'm looking at how many people are standing there waiting for the bus, and I was like, Ryan, we're not gonna get on this bus. Like there's too many people. Ryan looks at me and he is like, I'm going to get the car. So we ended up parking at the airport in the covered parking also we had had so much snow and I was like, I don't wanna dig my car out when we get home. So we parked in the covered parking and it paid off because we did get a foot of snow while we were in Florida, and we did not have to wait for the bus or dig our car out afterwards. So, you know, we paid $160, but it was worth it in that case.

So, yeah, no offense to the Quality Inn, but we, we've discussed it and feel like we have outgrown it through. Probably not stay there, especially not in the winter when you have the chance of having to dig your car out.

Meggan: Yeah, I think we've all heard too many horror stories of people getting back to the airport and their car being covered. What a nightmare.

Um, wouldn't it be so bad of course, other times of year, but in the winter, nobody's got time for that after you get off of a

Jenn: No, I, no, I wanna get in my car and drive away.

Meggan: If it's over, let it be over. Exactly. Well thank you so much for sharing that as well. Good tip there too. So that is it for this week's Travel tip Tuesday. We hope you have, we have inspired you to mix and match your accommodations on any upcoming trips you have. we love to save and we also love to splurge, but. You know, there's a way to have both if you plan in advance. As always, you can find us at our website, travel mug podcast.com, on social media at Travel Mug Podcast. Give us a follow to stay up to date with episodes and fun posts, and you can the show by leaving us a review or buy us a coffee that helps us pay for some of our expenses. So no matter what though, we're just really glad you're here. And until next time, safe travels and bye.

Jenn: Bye!