Why small, cheap hotels beat luxury

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This was published 8 years ago

Why small, cheap hotels beat luxury

By Ben Groundwater
Taormina, Sicily is home to one of the best, friendliest  little hotel anywhere.

Taormina, Sicily is home to one of the best, friendliest little hotel anywhere.Credit: Alamy

The guys at the Red Tree House in Mexico City have something of a ritual. Every evening, around 6 or so, they'll lay out platters of cheeses and meats at the communal dining table, crack a few bottles of red wine, and invite all of the hotel's guests to sit around and chat while they enjoy the snacks.

You meet people from all around the world at that table, from Swedish backpackers to the inevitable fellow Australians. You learn about Mexico City from the owners, you learn about every other country in the world from the people sharing your hotel, and you get to eat great cheese and drink nice wine.

There's no cost for this experience, either. This isn't the kind of thing you'll find added to your bill when you check out. It's just part of staying at the Red Tree House: wine and cheese and a chat.

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I've stayed in some pretty fancy hotels, but I'm yet to find one that treats guests the same way as they do at Red Tree House. This is a little more than a basic guesthouse, a boutique place with a few mid-priced rooms and a resident labrador who'll do pretty much anything for pats. But the guys who run it truly love their jobs, and meeting people, and it shows.

Cost per night? Around $100.

Now go further south, across the border and into Guatemala, an occasionally rough place where tourism is still in its infancy. Down there you take your chances with accommodation. Some hotels are nice, some are definitely not. However, there's one place that almost every traveller you meet talks about: Casa del Mundo.

It's not just popular because of the views, although when you have a guesthouse that rests on the side of Lake Atitlan, with a vista across the shimmering waters of the lake to two volcanoes on the other side, you could easily come just for that. But there's more to it.

Again, Casa del Mundo is a family sort of place. It's run the way a home would be run – everyone gets their own room, but you're welcome to socialise in the communal spaces.

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That's why there are "family dinners" every night at Casa del Mundo, when all of the guests gather around a large table to eat. That's why the lounge area is always filled with people hanging around drinking juices and reading books and chatting. It creates an atmosphere and an experience that you don't readily forget.

The cost for this one? About $70 per night.

The point here is not to make you want to travel to Central America, although you should. The point is to show that to have a great hotel experience, you don't have to pay a lot of money. In fact sometimes the less you pay, the better the time you'll have.

There's a perception that you have to shell out a lot to get the good stuff. That enjoyment on holidays requires luxurious accommodation. That if can afford a plunge-pool jacuzzi and a walk-in wardrobe the size of your apartment back home, you'll have the time of your life.

But that's not true. Spending a lot of money will just guarantee you a nice room. It won't take care of the other stuff. You necessarily won't meet anyone. You won't have any cultural experiences. You won't feel welcomed. You'll just get a set of crisp sheets and four-digit bill.

Go cheap, and things get better. Go to somewhere like Hostel Taormina, a very basic place that sits atop the charming mess of hillside houses in the Sicilian town of Taormina. This is a village of fancy boutique hotels and five-star luxury. The hostel, meanwhile, is a place of dorm rooms and a shared kitchen.

It's run, however, by Francesco and Freddie, two young Sicilians who are the nicest guys you could hope to meet. I arrived at the hostel after a long train journey and sat down at the reception desk, where Francesco took a quick glance at me and offered a beer from the fridge.

"Thanks," I said. "How much is that?"

"Oh, nothing," Francesco said, waving me away. "It's for you. To say hello."

That night, Freddie invited me to go and see a band with him. A few days later Francesco took me to his family home to meet his parents.

These are the experiences you can't have at a big, fancy hotel. The concierge isn't going to invite you out for a family meal. The bellboy isn't going to shout you a beer. There will be no communal dining on traditional food, no platter of cheese or bottles of wine to share with the other guests.

You just get luxury. And that's not everything.

b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au

See also: The 10 most extraordinary hotel experiences you'll never forget

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