You may have heard about The Man Who Lived at the Ritz. It was a novel, then a TV movie, about a man who spent several years at the famous Ritz Hotel in Paris during the Nazi occupation.
In real life, Coco Chanel did live at the Ritz (although, apparently, not in the actual suite that now bears her name).
For many, it’s a dream to live in hotel, never having to worry again about cleaning up or washing the sheets and towels. For others, who like their own stuff around them (the “comforts of home”), it’s a nightmare.
Me? I’m in the former camp. I’d happily live out my days in a hotel — although in a multi-roomed suite, with a balcony and some sort of view, rather than a standard room. Or, better still, I’d be on a cruise ship. And there are plenty of people — mostly wealthy and/or elderly (and I’m neither) — who do that.
I have friends who stay in serviced apartments, and would like to be in that group — although for reasons too tedious to go into here, that seems not to be an option for me.
I was reminded about this by reading the Quora forum where the question is posed: how long do hotels let you stay?
Respondents noted that high-end hotels (like the Ritz, no doubt) are more likely to allow long, even open-ended stays than other properties.
Contributor David Ash wrote: “Motel 6 in California, for example, will only let you stay 28 days at a time. This is to prevent someone from acquiring the legal rights of a tenant which they’d acquire if they stayed more than 28 days. Another reason for limiting the stay length at lower end motels can be because longer stays might tend to attract a criminal element—drug dealers, prostitution, etc.”
Another contributor pointed out that it depends on the time of year. Hotels are more likely to allow long-term stays during slow periods, when it guarantees and income, but would make more money in peak season when they can sell the room at a much higher rate than the regular patron was willing or able to pay.
I’d certainly like to hear from anybody who has done this and can explain the advantages and the pitfalls.
Update: A Twitter user referred me to this story about a woman, Beatrice Muller, who lived on the QE2 cruise ship. There is some discussion online about what happened to her when the QE2 stopped sailing, but I can’t find a definitive answer.
