“A Houston man says living in a Holiday Inn is cheaper – and better – than moving into a nursing home.
“With the average cost for a nursing home care costing $188.00 per day, there is a better way when we get old and too feeble. I’ve already checked on reservations at the Holiday Inn. For a combined long term stay discount and senior discount, it’s $59.23 per night,” Terry Robison wrote in a viral Facebook post.
Robison added that the Holiday Inn also features a pool, a spa, a workout room and a washer and dryer.
“Breakfast is included, and some have happy hours in the afternoon,” Robison wrote. “That leaves $128.77 a day for lunch and dinner in any restaurant we want, or room service, laundry, gratuities and special TV movies.”
My take on this:
It could make some sense assuming that you are still not that old/sick yet. The hotel market is more competive and the capitalism works at its best efficiency due to its much larger size of the market. (and less monopoly than nursery home market.) Also, the younger/healthy/high-earning customers may indirectly support the older customers/retiree — somewhat like Obamacare does - the young ones support the old ones (you could argue it is kind of “Robinhood” strategy: rob the young and give it to the old, depending on your point of view.)
There is also one about how it’s cheaper to go on cruises instead of skilled care facilities…and cruises have a ship doctor. And all meals included. Free entertainment and the like.
This is comparing apples to oranges. If you need a nursing home, you need some sort of medical care. A Holiday Inn won’t provide that. Also, if you have long term insurance, that pays for nursing home care. Medicare pays for the first 20 days of nursing home care, and many supplements also pay for days 21-100.
Now if he wants to say it’s cheaper than moving to a retirement home, then he has my ear.
I heard of this story from my wife. She also said Holiday Inn likely does not want this kind of publicity which is bad for them. If too many such customers live there, there will be more incidents of ambulance being called. Other customers may shy away from staying there (who would like to hear the siren of the ambulance all the time in the mid night!)
Back in the day…we are talking 1950’s…there WERE hotels that had long term residents. My grandpa lived in one…in what would now be called a minisuite. It had a nice small eat in kitchen and a main room which was for living/sleeping.
Folks gathered in the lobby to watch TV…which was a HUGE luxury back then.
This was in a walkable small business area…and was very full all the time!
On the other end of the market, I think there are still some motels which are for long term customers whose credits are not good enough to have a lease for an apartment/condo/house. I once read about it from the newspaper (awhile ago, when I still subscribed to the paper version of the newspaper.)
Re: TV.
My family started to have a TV when I was early in the middle school. It was my relative who bought it for my grandparents who lived with their eldest son, my father (and my mother, me and a sibling.) Many neighbors visited us to watch it often. We were kind of “upper-middle” class back then in my town (most are farmers.)
Just to add: When we had the TV, it was mid 1960s. I think US was still financially supporting us (because we were “anti-communists” ) At least when I was in the kindergarten (affiliated with a church), we were told that the milk we drank everyday at school was donated by US. The church also regularly handed out bags of flour to poor families also. They all came from US.
I stayed several nights at a nice family-owned hotel in Southern California (Laguna Hills Lodge) that was about $100 a night with free breakfast, a pool and jacuzzi, lush landscaping, laundry room, and friendly staff. I asked if people ever stayed long-term (such as a few months in winter to escape the midwest). I was told that the hotel’s current longest-term guest has been there for three years!
A really nice, suite style apartment complex was recently built in nearby city.
It was allowed to be developed, as it is in a very historical building, because it was originally zoned for boarding house in the 1920s.
To get around it looking like an apartment they don’t have a formal kitchen. No stove and it’s not an apartment. Just microwave and fridge, sinks etc.
Suites one and two bedroom units.
On the first floor are several restaurants, quirky shops, salons and clothing stores open to the public.
They have a huge waiting list. Both retirees and commuting businesspeople are snapping them up. Only 800 to 1500 per month and right in a prime downtown location.
I think you will see more of this style being opened.
Nobody should plan to “retire” at a nursing home. Plus, the number in the original post is low. Here are Wisconsin’s current numbers: "The new daily average nursing home private pay rate is $286.15 per day. The new monthly average nursing home private pay rate is $8,703.73 per month. "
I met an older couple on a cruise - fully retired, and hopped from ship to ship. They had accumulated enough loyalty nights to have laundry, priority boarding, special events and other perks. I spent one afternoon chatting with them (and a few others who were curious about their life on ships). They seemed to really enjoy themselves and it was cute to see them at dinner, all dolled up.
Not everyone can afford or qualify for the sort of long-term care insurance that would pay for a decent nursing home. My husband and I bought our policies 5 or 6 years ago and they were horribly expensive. We tried to buy similar policies for our parents but they did not qualify due to health issues. So in order to get a decent long-term health care policy you have to be well off and very healthy. There is a sweet spot in middle age where if you’re going to be well off and healthy, you’ve got to act quickly. Before that, the policy may be unaffordable, and after that, you may be too unhealthy to qualify. They disqualify for all kinds of reasons.
Yes, a hotel is cheaper than a nursing home, but as already pointed out, it doesn’t include nursing care. The proper comparison would be “Assisted Living.” My parents lived in an assisted living facility for 3 years, had they not needed more assistance (they were on a dementia floor), it would have cost them $5000 a month - $3000 a month for one in a single room with a mini-kitchen. That’s $100 a night including meals - in Boston, a high cost of living area.
^ We are neither “young enough” nor “well off” to afford a long term care insurance.
I think some choose to go overseas to spend their old life, purely based on the affordability reason. The labor cost in many other areas is much lower. This is the main reason why the cost of the care is much lower. I think you could live “better” with your SS income and a not large sized nest egg in such a lower cost area. When your budget is limited, and can not afford a high quality care here, this may be one way to live your last decade or two of your life.
A problem is that, in an unfamiliar country where you do not have someone you have a trust in, you could be cheated on and you could put yourself in an unsafe situation.
We stayed at a nice residence in near IAD airport. A lady in the shuttle was chatting With the shuttle driver who was taking us back to the airport. She was living there long term—months or longer. She liked that they had buffet breakfast and M-Th dinner with wine and beer. I’m not sure the price she paid but for H and I and our kids we paid $50/nite or so with free parking and free shuttle within 5 miles. There were lots of restaurants & shops a short walk from the hotel and IAD was a free short shuttle ride from the airport as well.
I can see that it would be an ok place for a long term rental, say if we were visiting S or just wanted a place convenient to IAD. I would miss developing relationships with neighbors though, unless the long term renters were housed near one another, or I suppose we’d see one another in common areas and meals. At this time, I’m not at all tempted other than seeing it as a possible place to stay if our kid(s) start families far from us and we want prolonged visits.
There are hotels that specifically cater to the extended stay market. One chain of such is called Extended Stay America.
Regarding the general theme of using hotels or cruise ships as retirement homes, that is more of an option for those who do not require assisted living or nursing care. Those options may be attractive to retirees who want to do a lot of traveling.
No sane person would voluntarily go to a nursing home in this country. Assisted living can be fine, and dementia care-well, despite the 10k per month per person price tag, it is pretty horrifying.
People don’t seem to see the distinction between independent retirement living, assisted living, and nursing home care. They are not the same and one solution -“Holiday Inn” or cruise ship with a single doctor onboard (who is usually certified in emergency medicine rather than geriatric or internal medicine) does not even begin to address the needs of the various individuals within these totally different care models.
Of course it is-but no person capable of living independently in a hotel would even be accepted as a resident of a nursing home in the first place. So the comparison is absurd.
I don’t see how that comparison is appropriate. With assisted living usually comes help in the form of medication management, assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing/dressing, meal prep, transportation, etc., provision of a safe environment with hand rails in bathrooms and hallways, and planned social interaction opportunities. None of these would be available at a Holiday inn without significant additional expense, at which time the comparison becomes completely inadequate.
) At least when I was in the kindergarten (affiliated with a church), we were told that the milk we drank everyday at school was donated by US. The church also regularly handed out bags of flour to poor families also. They all came from US.