I’ll be honest. My man and I are snobs when it comes to where we stay.
We like boutique hotels. Places with character. Places where you walk into the lobby and immediately feel about 17% fancier than you normally would. Give me some funky wallpaper, a velvet chair, a suspiciously expensive candle burning somewhere in the vicinity, and I am a happy woman.
So you’re probably wondering why the hell we stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites in Rehoboth Beach.
Welllll, because there is a LIMIT to how much we are willing to spend.
And I’m sorry, but Rehoboth Beach hotels have gotten absolutely ridiculous.
I am not spending $400-$500 for ONE NIGHT in a beach town. Are you kidding me? It’s not the Ritz in the middle of New York City. It’s a beach town that a shocking number of people have probably never heard of.
Forgettaboutit.
So when the Quality Inn & Suites came in at well under $200 a night, we figured we would make our peace with it. We assumed we would stay there, sleep there, and leave the next morning thinking, “Well. That was certainly a hotel.”
Instead, we freaking loved it.
Look at this refrigerator AND microwave. ABOVE AND BEYOND, PEOPLE.
I know what you’re thinking.
“Kristen, calm down. It’s a microwave.”
No.
You don’t understand.
When you’ve stayed in enough hotels where the room barely has enough surface area for your toothbrush and the only refrigerator available is a $9 minibar stocked with three bottles of water, having an actual refrigerator AND microwave feels downright luxurious.
And this hotel had storage space.
SO MUCH STORAGE SPACE.
There were places to put our crap. Actual places. I didn’t have to perform an elaborate game of Tetris every time I wanted to put something away.
There was also a coffee maker because apparently the Quality Inn & Suites understands that some of us would like to remain among the living before breakfast.
And then there was the separate sitting area.
This may have been my favorite part.
Because I love my beloved very much.
But after spending a significant amount of time traveling together, sometimes you need to be able to banish that beloved to another part of the room before one of you says something that results in a murder investigation.
Separate sitting area?
Marriage-saving technology.
The room itself had everything we actually wanted: microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker, plenty of storage, a sitting area and a clean bathroom with a FAN.
A FAN.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
THE BATHROOM HAD A FAN.
Take that, Kimpton.
I have stayed in considerably more expensive hotels where the bathroom apparently operates under the assumption that whatever happens in there should remain permanently suspended in the atmosphere.
Not here.
The bathroom was clean, had a proper door, and had ventilation. I was thrilled by things I have apparently decided are now luxury amenities.
The only place where I felt like the Quality Inn & Suites was cutting a little corner was the bed linens. They were definitely coarser than the linens you might find at a pricier hotel.
But you know what?
I STILL SLEPT JUST FINE.
And honestly, that is what I care about.
I don’t need my sheets to be woven from the eyelashes of Himalayan unicorns. I need them to be clean, comfortable enough and attached to a bed on which I can actually sleep.
And sleep I did.
We also took advantage of the swimming pool, which we mostly had to ourselves. Because apparently everyone else in Rehoboth Beach had the good sense to be somewhere eating French fries.
They also have laundry facilities, which is a glorious thing when you’ve been traveling for more than a week and your clothing has entered that stage where it is technically still clothing but is beginning to develop its own ecosystem.
You know what I mean.
And then there was breakfast.
Oh, sweet breakfast.
As someone who loves food far beyond all reasonable reckoning, I was VERY interested in what the “free breakfast” situation was going to look like.
Sometimes hotel breakfast means a sad little muffin sitting under a sneeze guard while a waffle machine silently judges you.
Not here.
They had a pancake station, bacon, sausage, eggs, cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt, milk, orange juice and an entire mess of toppings.
I went back for seconds.
#NoApologies
This is what really surprised me about the Quality Inn & Suites.
For a budget-friendly hotel, it had an absolutely ridiculous amount of stuff.
And not just stuff for the sake of stuff. Actual useful things.
A microwave. Refrigerator. Coffee maker. Storage. Sitting area. Clean bathroom. FAN. Pool. Laundry. Breakfast.
Meanwhile, I have stayed at hotels that cost considerably more and have charged me enough money to make me wonder if I should just start sleeping in my car.
The Quality Inn & Suites did not give us the boutique hotel experience.
It gave us something arguably better for this particular trip: everything we actually needed without making us sell a kidney to pay for it.
So yes, my fellow hotel snobs, I am saying it.
We adored this place.
And by “adored,” I mean that when we go back to Rehoboth Beach, we will happily book ourselves another Quality Inn & Suites room without hesitation.
Apparently, I am not nearly as difficult to please as I thought.
Either that, or this hotel is just really damn good.
I’m going with the second option because it makes me feel fancier.
