Economics of RV vs hotel travel.

[Larry N.]

You must be unusually sensitive to many chemicals. Though it's been a long time since I was in a motel/hotel, I never encountered what you describe, anywhere. It's not whether the chemicals were there, but whether I reacted to/could detect such.

 

[Oldgator73]

We don't stop at the cheap fleabag motels like that.

We don’t either. If we went in the room and it was as mountainair described we would turn around and go to the office a get our money back. We have stayed in some very nice hotels all over the world. And we didn’t pay an arm and a leg for them. mountainair must have some pretty serious allergies. I think the worst place we stayed was the Old Soldiers Home in Washington, DC. Twenty five dollars a night each and we slept on Army cots with horse hair blankets. But it was clean.

 

[John From Detroit]

When Traveling I prefer the RV... When I get tired I overnight.. No reservation needed most of the time. However now days I'm not traveling that much save for "Events" and those are generally either day trips (Sleep in my own bed here) or Train or plane?

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

There's something about not having to deal with all the setup and maintenance, especially for shorter trips.

Yep, that's exactly what my BIL told me a couple of weeks ago when I asked him when is he going to take his TT out again. George is sort of a lazy guy and he complained that he has to do all of the pre-game prep and then set-up and take down, whereas my DW and I work as a team through all phases of an RV outing.

So he told me him and the wife enjoy traveling by car and staying at motels/hotels now. Of course those accomodations are going to be easier than everything involved about taking the camper. But, its a lot more than just how hard you have to work or not when it comes to RV'ing/Camping. It is the adventure, for me less expense, the places visited, the journey to the destination, and the destination itself. Out on the roads only listening to my DW, and myself with all of the comforts of home surrounding me.

If it was just about work, yep hotels win. Everything taken into the conversation, no comparison the RV wins hands down.

 

[Kirk]

We get very tired of living out of suitcases, when compared to RV travel. If you keep an RV and compare it will cost less with the RV but if you throw in the cost of the RV, then it gets more balanced. That is especially true for RV that has solar and so is able to dry camp most of the time. If you don't mind staying in parking lots, that drops the cost way down and making your own meals does the same. But most of us do like eating out to avoid cooking and cleanup. The pace of travel also makes a difference as you can usually drive longer hours if you do the motel/hotel style, but we rarely travel more than 200 miles per day with the RV so the time to setup isn't such a big deal. With motel travel we typically plan on 400 miles per day. I consider the RV to be a much more relaxed travel mode.

 

[tlmgcamp]

We just went through this discussion recently. There is a concert almost 3 hrs away that we want to go to and I had no desire to drive home afterwards, arriving home around 1am. We found a campsite for $67, which probably saved close to $100 over a hotel. We planned to drive up in the afternoon, dinner at camp, saving another $50 or so, then concert and driving home the next day. I was all in until I realized that the standard, and loud furnace would be working all night as it was to be late October in Connecticut. Choosing sleep over savings, we decided against the RV

 

[garyb1st]

We travel with two cats. They don't like motels.

 

[DonTom]

We travel with two cats. They don't like motels.

Traveling with pets is probably the biggest advantage of RVing over motels.

But I find it a lot more convenient to not have any pets.

But Tom & I did RV with two doggies for many years.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[rvlifer]

Strictly from a financial perspective taking the rv is less expensive because of the cost of buying groceries vs eating at restaurants, and cost of alcohol. Yeah i buy alcohol to drink at the hotel but still pay a lot more for drinks at the restaurant at dinner.

If i have less time to get there hotels are a bit faster. And when we want to take the pets the rv is far easier

 

[Bearcatrp]

I would prefer my RV than get a hotel if possible. It’s nice having your own utensils, bed and the comfort of your home away from home. Even if it costs a little more taking the RV, I prefer my RV.

 

[Fluffywhitedogs]

I travel with 4 dogs and a cat. Yes, I can leave them home when hubby isn't coming, but everyone is miserable. When I bring the trailer to our annual work event and camp instead of staying at the resort, everyone is shocked that I'm leaving the party and going back to the campground, but it makes me happy; a campfire and a night in my own bed with my fur-people beats the heck out of a drunken company get-together...

 

[jymbee]

So I ran the numbers...

Numbers be damned. Not even close for us no matter what the numbers say. Even if a hotel room was free, we're sticking with the RV if at all possible.

 

[Knobs]

Fill in your own numbers, since (literally and figuratively) YMMV!

 

[Isaac-1]

I have to semi disagree on Setup / Take down time, my wife and I just returned from our first real car road trip since buying our motorhome in 2016, this trip involved staying 1-6 nights over the course of 2 weeks, with 6 of those being 1 night stays in motels). Each motel stay required 3 to 4 trips in from the car to get luggage, refrigerated food/medicine, my wife's c-pap machine, etc. most of the motels were interior corridor motels, call it a 2-3 minute walk from the car to the room, maybe 4-5 minutes round trip, sometimes with an elevator ride to get there, with 1 person doing the work call that 15-20 man minutes to load and unload the car. When traveling by motorhome for a typical overnight stop, it is pull in, adjust the automatic levelers, electricity and maybe water, this is 5 minutes or less if not disconnecting the TOAD car, 10-15 minutes if disconnecting / reconnecting TOAD, add in 15-20 minutes to dump /refill tanks about every 5 days.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

And, Issac don't forget trips to the ice machine, if it's even working!

 

[Hfx_Cdn]

We sold the RV several years ago, so now we hotel it when we travel. But we both miss the RV lifestyle, when was the last time you sat around a campfire when staying in a motel, or even talked to the people in a nearby room. Yes, we sometimes chat with people at the free breakfast, but that is only for a minute or two. RVrs are mostly very outgoing and friendly, whereas motellers go into their room, turn on the TV and have no desire to mix & mingle.

Ed

 

[Ray-IN]

Health is another factor to consider. DW has been having severe stomach/bowel problems for about 3 years.(she was hospitalized for 2 weeks then) Just last week she was finally diagnosed with C-Diff as the cause of her problems.
For me that is proof enough to have my own bed and bathroom.
Ease of transmission at public/semi-public bathrooms is great.

 

[Adventurous Traveler]

What many folks don't realize is that the only real expense differences when RVing are fuel and the cost of the campground. Yes, you may have an RV payment with associated expenses such as maintenance and insurance, but so does your car if you are going to drive to destinations. I don't consider depreciation a factor because besides maybe real estate, what doesn't depreciate that you buy? Groceries? Don't you need them at home too? Eating out and entertainment, that may or may not increase when camping, but again, do you sit home 24/7/365? And, remember, if you want to get real picky, while you are away from the sticks and bricks, you are not using as many utilities such as water, electricity, sewer if additional where you live, and gas for a few dollars in savings here.

Air travel and most brand-name hotel chains will cost you more than visiting down the road with your RV.

 

[Larry N.]

Air travel and most brand-name hotel chains will cost you more than visiting down the road with your RV.

So very much depends on the specific RV you are comparing. For an inexpensive small trailer you're probably correct, if you don't take the tow vehicle on the car/motel trip but use a small car instead. For a 45' DP motorhome the numbers are rather different.

For example the Beaver Patriot I had (45' DP, 525 HP, 50,000 lbs max) got 5-6 mpg such that a full 150 gallon tank could get you over 700 miles with some reserve, if conditions were right, but adding 125 gallons of diesel at one stop will add up, usually over $400, depending on price.

And the above doesn't count tire wear and annual maintenance which, sometimes, varies with the miles covered, nor does it cover insurance, licensing ($1200 per year plus in Colorado).

The only way your figures work with something like this is IF you figure that you already own the RV and do not include the fixed expenses (including depreciation, etc.), and keep the car/motel trip to a small car (25+ mpg) and Motel 6 or such.

Or to state it more briefly: So very much depends on what RV/tow you are comparing with what vehicle/motel you use, as well as whether you consider that an RV is already owned or that you must include the cost of getting and maintaining an RV as additional cost.

And yes, I see that you have a DP and a Kia.

 

[oldryder]

I like analyzing things. When I compared auto/hotel to 5th wheel camping the RV option got cheaper at about 2 weeks away from home if not including the purchase cost of the RV.