First off I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for fun. It's no vaca.
There are perks. Like these....
Leave the room for an hour or so and come back to this...freshly made bed.
And fresh, clean towels NOT folded or washed by me.
Hot breakfast each day. The boys' favorite was the pancake machine. All you can eat...hotel lost money b/c of my boys. Aidan also LOVED the endless daily supply of "rotten" (aka) boiled eggs. Yes. Two boiled eggs daily that I didn't have to peel! Yay!
Not pictured: Daily fresh baked cookies every afternoon just in time for after school snack served at the front desk. :) AND daily swims in the pool!!!
Tips to survive your stay:
Learn Spanish. Makes communicating with housekeepers much easier. Otherwise they just smile and nod at what ever you are saying and to your children's endless rambling.
Use this as a grocery hauler. Ignore the looks you get from people who wonder why you are "stocking" up when checking into a hotel.
Don't make yourself crazy trying to convince your children to NOT jump & hopscotch down the circle patterned & checkered carpet hallways each day, several times a day.
If they have made you crazy in the walls of the hotel make sure you have a Chick-fil-A play place next door and a Toys-R-Us across the street. Lots of free play time!
Don't even bother trying to take a pacci away from a kid when you have people living on 4 sides of you. Admit defeat and postpone till later. Another tip for sleeping- glow sticks. Helped calm the kids in an unfamiliar room.
Couch cushions make great forts. And bring a blanket for fort making. Preferably blue.
Above mentioned blanket, if blue, can also serve as a sea for sorting your animals for fun.
Buy a Dust buster. It is a must and serves a dual purpose. First off children are crummy, especially noticeable if your family dog is not with you. Secondly it also serves as entertainment that will keep little boys busy for quite a bit!
Ice Machine is a special treat. Taking ice from the machine and putting it in an ice bucket suddenly makes ice a teat to be begged for. WARNING: The act of getting ice from the machine for supper drinks every night is a popular chore and will be fought over by your children.
Multiple daily elevator rides with children can be interesting. We lost a pacci, matchbox car & fresh from the mouth mint straight down the elevator shaft all by accident. The alarm button...the only button highlighted with color is a magnet to the fingers of little children. A child's hand can get wedged in a elevator door if they keep their hand on the door as it opens. It is best if the frantic mother pushes the "door close" button and not the "open" button to release stuck hand. Or in my case keep pushing the "open" button further keeping hand jammed and just yank the hand in a panic.
The plus side to the daily elevator rides is your children will learn their numbers! The down side is riding elevators with random strangers with a random, outspoken non-filtered 4 year old is nerve wracking. Just never know what he might say. We escaped all 3 months with only one embarrassing moment I can recall. I probably suppressed all the others. But once Isaac did fart while making googly eyes at a little girl. And announces "I parted!". With those pick up skills we won't have to worry about him having a girlfriend anytime soon. One elevator highlight was one morning the boys and I had finished breakfast. When exiting the elevator on our floor the doors open to no other than real life Santa & Mrs. Claus. He was so kind and smiled at the children and said hello. Then as he entered the elevator and the doors closed he bellows "Ho-ho-ho" followed with a big belly laugh. Wish I could have taken a picture of the size of Aidan's eyes!! We decided he was heading to FL for the off season. :)
Make sure your hotel has an indoor pool...but be warned your suites & hair will be destroyed and damaged by the massive amounts of chemicals used in a public pool.
You also accumulate massive amounts of hotel points during your stay. MAJOR perk!! Future vaca in the planning stages!!
Challenges-
Lack of space to play, to work, to move. My days seemed to blur by with all the emails, calls & texts relating to the relocation & house buying process. It was so much easier when Aidan would decide he had no where to sit in the room.
Laundry. Ugh. The worst. First I hate paying to do laundry in machines that you couldn't regulate the temp on thus really wearing on your clothes. Oh, they had the options, but they didn't work. Our clothes were so blazing hot coming out of the dryer they would burn your skin as you pulled them out. Luckily with no sheets or towels to wash & very limited outfits for everyone I only did about 3-4 loads about every 6 days. The back and forth from our room to the laundry, always making sure I had coins, the nasty stuff others would wash in the machines was all blech. Similar to the ice bucket chore, the kids fought over doing laundry so they could be the one to stick the coins in. Once laundry was complete there was then the task of getting it all put away in the 3 drawers we had. One for each kid. Then add in there a seasons/weather change creating more storage issues.
Cooking was so tough. I became a pro with the crock pot and electric skillet meals. Meat was easy. Sandwiches a breeze. But no pasta dishes, sides to go with meat was difficult. Doing dishes was a mess! The sink was a 10-12" square single sink. Our little fridge had inconsistent temps so salad as a side dish was a risk b/c often times the lettuce would freeze. Speaking of the fridge it auto defrosted each day always making me wonder if meat & such were kept at a safe temp. We all survived so I guess it was ok! :)
Emma and Isaac got a stomach flu during our stay. THAT was interesting & nothing you want to experience without your own washing facility, stash of extra sheets & blankets, cleaning supplies and....TMI...a puke bowl. Keeping in mind we didn't have extra sheets in the night, nor proper cleaning/laundry supplies and only small cereal sized foam bowls....it was a mess. The hotel was accommodating, but I felt so bad having them clean sheets and most likely throw out nasty soiled mess from us.
Recap & Tour:
We started out in a hotel about 30 minutes away from our (now) home & Emma's school. It was super, SUPER tiny. The layout we could have "managed" with, but the was NO way to cook. The ONLY counter space was the size of the electric skillet or crockpot I had to cook with. Kids were eating around a coffee table. Doable for a week or two, yes. As time pressed on we knew it wouldn't do for the long haul we might be in for.
So, after 2 weeks in that hotel we moved to another one. Pluses- closer to the house, Emma's school and much better layout for living. It had a big closet by the front door to store our randomness, change of season clothes we ended up with, all our suitcases, etc. A little kitchenette...which did have a sink (all be it small), a dorm sized fridge (the larger version with freezer "drawer"), mini microwave, cabinets, TONS of counterspace for crockpot & electric skillet & best of all 3 barstools for the kids to eat at!
Living area/Kids sleeping area beyond the bar stools. The desk was my place to eat. Each kid had one drawer for their clothes below the TV. The space between the desk and dresser I placed a rubbermaid tub for their toys. Couch folded out for Emma & Isaac. Aidan slept on the couch cushions on the floor...and then joined us later in our huge bed!! The chair/ottoman combination was not super comfy, but enough to still sooth Matt to sleep during his NASCAR races. :)
Luckily our room had a TV as well so once the kids were in bed snuggled to their glow sticks we retreated to our room.
The bathroom was so, SO, SO much better than the first hotel. Dual sinks in a large area outside the potty & shower. Our laundry hamper went here and designated place for everyone's shoes under the sink.
Luckily the first part of May after a very LONG process to purchase a short sale home we were saved from our stay at Holiday Inn Express by these folks...
What an experience it was. The actual hotel living wasn't as terrible as it might have felt in the midst of it. The uncertainty with the house made everything seem so unsettled and stressful. Even the day of our household goods delivery we were uncertain if the house was "ours", but finally on May 30th we closed and it was OURS! We were so grateful through this entire process for Matt's company looking out for us, helping us and making this as smooth as possible! Now to settle in. SO, so much to do...
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