Lilli Holland, 22, has spent more than a year living full-time in hotels with her husband and their two dogs, Selina and Diana, and says the lifestyle comes with unexpected perks, including free breakfasts, regular housekeeping, and access to gyms and swimming pools.
Holland, a remote worker and private tutor from Virginia, US, travels with her husband because his job as a military contractor for a private company requires him to work temporarily in different locations, with his employer covering their accommodation. The couple can spend months at a time in the same hotel, with their current base in Florida having been their home since May.
Perks of hotel living
Holland said one of the main benefits is the food. "There are definitely some benefits – free breakfasts being one. Until recently, I got breakfast from the hotel lobby every day. Now that I'm tracking what I eat more closely, I usually eat breakfast in our room, but I still go down to the lobby for my morning coffee."
Regular housekeeping is another major advantage, although arrangements vary between hotels. "From my understanding, this isn't every hotel, but at the hotels where we've had long-term stays, housekeeping has required access to the room at least once a week to make sure nothing is severely neglected or damaged," she said. "I usually schedule two days a week when housekeeping can come during certain hours. They change the linens, vacuum, clean the bathroom and occasionally clean the kitchen."
Because the couple travels with two dogs, Holland said she tries to make things as easy as possible for hotel staff. "Before housekeeping comes, I also make sure our personal belongings are picked up and out of their way – they're there to clean the room, not organise or handle our stuff."
Making a hotel feel like home
Every hotel the couple has stayed in has offered a gym, swimming pool and complimentary WiFi. They try to make each room feel more like home, putting up small decorations around holidays such as Thanksgiving. Where rooms do not have fully equipped kitchens, they have improvised with an air fryer to prepare meals.
The unusual arrangement has allowed the couple to save thousands of dollars, as Holland's husband's employer covers the cost of their accommodation. She estimates that renting a one-bedroom apartment in their home state would cost around $1,300 (£960) a month, with utilities adding up to another $300 (£220).
Costs and challenges
However, Holland stressed that living in a hotel would not necessarily be cheaper if they had to pay the full price themselves. "We aren't choosing hotel living because it's cheaper than renting. If we were personally paying the normal hotel rate, it obviously wouldn't be. The discounted rate for our current stay works out to around $1,000 (£740) per week, although it varies. At the hotel's standard rate without his employer's discount, the same stay would cost around $1,800 (£1,300) per week."
The couple are due to return temporarily to Virginia in October, where they can stay with family. For longer stays of several months, they instead use a furnished rental.
Despite the perks, Holland admits that spending months at a time in a hotel can be difficult. "The biggest con to living in a hotel is simply that it isn't your home," she said. "We have decorations, sentimental items and other belongings in storage back home that we can't display or use because we don't have space for them. It also makes having family visit more difficult. We usually have a pull-out couch, but then our beds are essentially side-by-side in one room, which doesn't really work when my husband has to get up for work at 4 a.m. the next morning."
There are also practical challenges that only become apparent after months of living out of a hotel room. "You have limited storage, limited kitchen space and very little separation between where you sleep, work, eat and relax. You have to get creative about making a relatively small space function as a home," Holland said.
Despite the drawbacks, the couple have no plans to give up their unusual lifestyle anytime soon. "We plan to continue doing this for at least the next few years," Holland said. "My husband likes his job, and being able to travel was always a goal of mine, so right now this gives us a lot of the best of both worlds. We're young and don't have children, so it feels like a great time in our lives to take advantage of the opportunity, experience different places and eventually figure out where we'd like to settle more permanently."
