To live in a Travelodge

[oakkiln]

Inspired by the other poster who started a threads about liquidating their assets and living in luxury hotels in their old age (but, for us, sadly without the assets!)

My husband and I are in a desperate situation. We are both late middle age and still rent. We are doing everything we can to save for a deposit for a house and live very frugally.

Rent, rates and all house costs etc come to £21k a year. But we could live in a Travelodge for £11k. Storage for furniture etc would be £2k

Are we crazy to consider it for just a year or two?

I don't think it's allowed
I'm sure there's a limit of how long you can stay( which is why the OP was thinking of a luxury hotel)
It's not about the cost, it's the practicality
No cooking facilities so you would eat out which is costly
What about laundry? Laundrettes aren't available everywhere and the machines are expensive.
I would consider a static caravan but obviously there are site fees/ ground rent too.
Renting isn't the worst thing in the world.
At least you can please yourself when and what to do and can relax.

Would a house share be better for you. 1 room and access to kitchen? Or become lodgers?

There is a facebook group called Van Life which is all about people living in motor homes and vans so you could see what it might be like.

Just can’t imagine how awful this would be, why would anyone even consider wanting to do this.

It sounds quite grim.

What about lodging instead? You can get deals relatively cheaply, as long as you are happy to live with the expectations that lodging entails. Sometimes people even offer free or very reduced rent in return for services eg babysitting

have a look on booking dot com for accommodation, it might be relatively similarity Travelodge prices but with cooking facilities - especially if you were booking for a month a time

looking at somewhere like Coventry you can get a studio apartment of a month for under £1000

@oakkiln watch By the curb on YouTube. He's upgraded to a motor home now but did live in a small campervan. There's other youtubers live this way too. I quite fancy it but dh wouldn't.
Also there's Facebook pages showing where you can park overnight free or behind pubs etc.

God no. I had to live in a hotel for six weeks once when work sent me on a project in India. It drove me nuts and that was in a nice hotel with a pool, gym and full laundry service.

I have lived in a touring caravan (9 months) and a tent (2 years but in a warmer less wet climate!). It was fine for us, we are very resourceful and resilient. It is not for everyone, it is cold, hardwork and everything will go wrong at once 😂

We got into this situation because my husband was a full time carer for our disabled son, so only one income. (Son is now an adult and living in assisted living with carers etc. No chance of him living at home again). I'm 55 and my husband is 62.

Very low pension pot for me and absolutely no pension for DH but too much to entitle us to pension credit so surviving in old age in private rental is going to be almost impossible. We would probably end up in a one bed council flat in a dodgy area. I'd rather slum it for two years in a tiny caravan and then have the luxury of being able to buy a little house in a nice area.

I work in an office, salary £50k, and very secure (well, as secure as it can be these days) but it's family owned and flexible so perfect for me. My husband hasn't worked for 25 years due to being a carer but he's hoping to pick up some unskilled work to tide him over until his state pension kicks in.

There was a lady who lived in a hotel in our town. We’d stayed there ourselves on and off between a house move and renovation. She had a cozy spot in reception, people to talk to and someone to cook, clean and make the bed everyday. I’d say she was in her early 70’s - too full of life to be living in a residential home somewhere. Sadly the hotel is now housing asylum seekers. Such a shame it was a nice hotel and she was happy and settled there. I hope she’s found another nice hotel.

You'll need to save up for two places because you'll have split up after the stress of living in one room with no kitchen, storage or laundry facilities for 2 years.

Hire a mobile home instead

What about shared ownership, council list application etc

oh, ok. I just saw you are too proud for an ex council 1 bed flat. Good luck then

Agree.
Or an air bnb somewhere with a few moves a year
You definitely need to consider meals and laundry

OP, I hope you'll forgive me if I tell you that you made me think of the major and the two little old ladies in Fawlty Towers. It's such a cliche of mid-20th century crime fiction too - Agatha Christie is full of ladies living in hotels.

I can see the travelodge/premier inn plan working only if you are happy to live of sandwiches and soup, essentially, and really don't mind being cooped up together. But given the way things are going (i.e. old age poverty becoming ever more of a thing), maybe you can advertise on local facebook or similar for other people of a similar age and lifestyle to houseshare with?

It's odd how hard it is to imagine what would happen if you 'lived' in a hotel. I'm a veteran of many premier inn family room holidays with the kids, and the thought of being able to flounce on the bed every evening and turn on the TV sounds rather appealing (we don't have a TV at home). But then I think of the constant struggle to keep clothing and stuff from overrunning the room... you'd actually need a lot of householding discipline.

It sounds like life has dealt you a bad hand and you are very level-headed about it. Hats off to you and your husband and I hope you find a solution that works.

For diversion:

Ive friends who live on a canal boat because they cant afford to buy/rent in the SE and are “permanent cruisers”. They quickly discovered if you’re not on the electoral role you cannot get any loan mortgage credit card or open a bank account. They used their parents address. After three years of living in a boat they got fed up and having saved some money they applied for a mortgage they found it difficult the banks /building societies asked for proof of regularly paying rent/utilities/council tax etc. none of which they were able to demonstrate and were only offered mortgages with much higher interest rates and not as much as they would need to have borrowed. I’ve sort of lost contact but I believe they are still on the boat and have resigned themselves to living like this until maybe they in the future when they hope to inherit some money.

I have not RTFT but I worked there.

You'll have to move rooms within the hotel every couple of weeks - you won't be able to stay in the same room the whole time.

It's against T&C to bring any sort of camping stove or hob etc. Anything like that.

They have a lot of long term guests living there mostly council paid emergency accommodation. Some of these people are living incredibly difficult lives. Each lodge is different but if its a cheap roadside expect lots of long term social housing guests and expect the drugs and police that often come with it.

Basically you can do it, but you'll need to accept that you won't be able to cook or have a fridge. You'll need to pack and move rooms all the time. And the rooms are really small.

I'd rent a trailer at a caravan park for 9 months and do 3 in hotels personally (to avoid council tax)

I’ve known a couple of families living in the local travel lodge while waiting for housing and it was quite bleak. One room: can’t get away from your spouse!

I think it would be the equivalent of a camping holiday vs having to live in a tent.

@DesperatelySeekingDan you are absolutely spot on! In our 30 years together my husband and I have lived in 9 different houses. The last five moves have been because the landlord has sold up. I know our current landlord wants to sell one day.

Renting is hell. You never know when you are going to get the news that you have two months to find a new place to live. Difficult at the best of times with 100+ people going for each place (one waiting list I joined to view a house had over 180 people on it), let alone trying to find one that's suitable for a disabled child. Then there's the cost of moving, getting the carpets professionally cleaned, removal costs, having to buy new furniture because the old stuff won't fit, buying new curtains. Our last house move cost nearly £5k.

We can never have pets as that would put us at the bottom of the list for potential landlords. Not that we can afford them with eye watering rents.

Renting is awful. I feel like a nomad and would love to one day have a place I could call home.

Sounds brilliant. I'll take a look. Thanks

with 50 000 a year you can buy a very decent maisonette or a flat in the SE also. Some weirdo brainwashing happened to the lady