Do you ever book cheap accommodation when you can afford nicer?

[desap]

Planning a beach holiday for two of us. Options that I like are:

A) Mid-Lux Standard - Villa for £2,000
B) Mid Standard - Cottage for £700

I actually like cooking some days on holidays, especially if I can try cooking some local fish or other delicacy. Obviously in a hotel you can't cook.

We could potentially afford somewhere even more expensive than the £2k villa, but I kinda think "what's the point?" the cottage is very cute and then this way, we can splash the cash on dinners and excursions without really giving it much thought.

We’re the opposite. We’re lucky enough to live in a lovely home so definitely wouldn’t want to spend our holiday somewhere “worse” in comparison. That being said we don’t necessarily go for the most expensive option, but it definitely would be luxury and wouldn’t be the cheapest.

nearly always. I much prefer more relaxed places where you can chat to staff/family run. Rather than stiffer 5 star places. Having said that, I do like a nice place occasionally but most of the time I like relaxed and low key. I stay at youth hostels with friends for walking trips. £20ppn. Great atmosphere and location. Bunk beds and shared showers and loos are part of the fun🤣.

I don't really have a budget that I can't exceed but I have criteria the holiday must meet.
Civilised flight times from local airport.
Minimum 4 star hotel.
Must be 4.5 on trip adviser and consistently good reviews on google
Must have sea view room
Must be a good location within resort.

I won't consider anything that doesn't tick those boxes but if two hotels tick all the boxes I might choose the cheaper one.

Depends on what I need at any given time.
Im recovering from illness right now, and have had 4 bereavements this year, 2 of which have been direct members of DH family, so hes been hit as well.
So we are going somewhere nice, to the Nicer hotel, with the nicer facilities, in the most convenient location, because we need it and i dont care about the money this time round.
Other times, i dont have a budget anymore, but I look for value for money and id stay in the cheaper if it was good value but not if it was a bit ropey.
When the kids were small and we were on a budget, my budget went to the best we could afford always.
So I guess, no, i dont go for cheap cos its cheap.

Very much so. It cannot be a shithole, but budget friendly options are often great. O e just has to be very careful when picking.

People did wonder how come i went on more holidays than even them on considerably higher wages. Because their budget per person was 2ppl budget for me😁

Often as I'd rather go on hol more often with the savings, and rarely use the room beyond sleeping in so no appeal

Yes.

I love booking into a really rather basic place where your accommodation is a train carriage that's been converted and they don't even have wi-fi there (or shops, or restaurants etc.. although they are just a train ride away).

I could easily be in the much more expensive all mod cons place a few miles from that, but sometimes you go with the one you like and I rather like staying in an old train as it's got more character than the regular place that looks like every other place.

I have moved away from 5 star hotels because the reality never quite matched the price tag so I would be annoyed if small things were wrong or the service wasn't quite right, plus drinks would be expensive.

Plus we like lots of holidays and want to retire before state retirement age, so I would rather do 2 trips in comfort than 1 in luxury.

I do check reviews very thoroughly though- I surprised myself by staying in a hostel in the Douro Valley ( our own room) which was incredible value with excellent wifi and aircon, plus help yourself breakfast for 60 euros per night.

If both are nice and meet your needs then I’d always choose the cheaper.

i wouldn’t go cheap and be miserable, but often a good bargain can be found and once you meet a certain threshold (clean, nice pool etc) more money doesn’t necessarily buy much more.

like others, savings made now pay off my mortgage quicker and buy me longer term financial freedom!

City break where accommodation is literally a bed for the night, yes definitely.

A holiday or spa hotel where the accommodation is part of enjoyment no I wouldn’t

Yes we book cheaper and prefer to spend on nice meals and trips out. As long as it’s clean, functional and convenient I’m happy. I could never go on holiday with my sister though as she wants “nicer than home” and her home is beautiful!

Yes and no. I can't go to Rome, Paris, Florence etc and stay home! So I like to stretch my budget a little, but at the endofif the day, the travel is what I'm going for. So if it's clean and comfortable that's good enough for me.

When it's Maldives , always priced options

Otherwise the lesser option if we will be out and about

I tend to do city-based holidays and am often in a well located 3 star rather than splashing out for something fancier.

When I do spend more I almost always get disappointed e.g stayed in the sheraton in Edinburgh over the summer and the blackout curtains didn't close properly so I got woken up at 6am by sunlight shining on my face.

If it had been the nearby travelodge I would have just shrugged it off but when I was paying over £450/ night I cared a lot.

Is this in the UK or abroad? If it's abroad and likely to be hot then I would want a pool. Otherwise I'd definitely go for the cheaper accommodation - at less than half the price you've saved enough to have another holiday.

Absolutely - my finest moment was when I crammed DH, myself and two teens into family room to save having two rooms (also the DC got a free breakfast) We were visiting DS1 at university and he found it completely hilarious. Probably because it's not something you can do with 3 DC.

I'm not tight with everything, but I am so tight with flights and hotels.

Yes. I have minimum requirements which might vary from one trip to another and choose accommodation at the lower end of the price range in which those requirements are met. Making economies where it doesn't matter to us (food is another, I don't mind shopping and cooking on holiday) leaves more money in the pot for extra days on holiday, better theatre seats and sightseeing.