Hotel, hostel or Airbnb?: Why this former backpacker now chooses five-star hotels over hostels every time

I first came to Australia on a working holiday from the UK, and I’ve always thought of myself as a backpacker. I’ve written guidebooks for Lonely Planet and spent months on end in bare bedrooms with shared bathrooms, falling asleep (or, rather, lying awake) to the whine of mosquitoes and the crank of the ceiling fan.

So I never imagined I’d say this — but these days I’d choose luxury over economy every time.

I’m writing this column from a five-star hotel in England, where I just watched a woman take 16 teabags from the breakfast buffet. I had thought that she might be on holiday with a big family, or perhaps on a hens’ weekend, but she sat down alone in a booth with her small teapot and large teabag collection.

She was a luxury traveller thinking like a backpacker — and that’s what I’ve become too.

Read the latest edition of ROAM by The Nightly here.

Here are 10 reasons why…

1. The best hotels tend to be in town centres, which cuts down on travel time from railway stations and airports and usually has you closer to the big attractions. It also saves you money on the taxis you actually take, rather than the buses that you imagine you might use until you realise you’ve got too much luggage.

2. Luxury hotels are generally soundproofed, which is a big bonus in European city centres where drunken young men often run around all night shouting “aaaaaargh!”.

3. Five-star hotels always have bars, which means you can return from a hard day’s sightseeing and wind down within lurching distance of your bedroom. Yes, hotel bars are sometimes soulless, but at least they are rarely full of drunken young men shouting “aaaaaargh!”.

4. Five-star hotels always have fitness rooms. Although I wouldn’t pay to use a gym every day while I’m away, I tend to have better days when I do. See also: swimming pools.

5. The best hotels often have the best views. The Grand Hyatt Athens, for example, has a rooftop bar (tick!) and infinity pool (tick!) with a view across the city to the Parthenon. Now, I enjoy sightseeing as much as the next chump, but I prefer to do it (and pretty much everything else) while sitting on a deckchair with a drink in my hand.

To my surprise, I have discovered that this kind of travel experience can be just as rewarding as hiking through the jungle getting bitten by insects before crashing out on the bare floor of a thatched timber hut in a remote village in the Solomon Islands where everyone uses the ocean as a toilet.

6. In most five-star hotels, the staff at least pretend not to see guests as a pestilent and unnecessary obstacle to the efficient functioning of a hospitality business. In cheaper places in England and France, however, many of the workers appear to have recently been released (or escaped) from jail.

7. The concierge is a particularly important figure in a good hotel, as they can ensure you catch a legitimate taxi that charges the correct fare and takes you where you want to go. This is especially useful in places such as Istanbul, for example, where many taxi drivers seem to have been in similar jails to Parisian budget-hotel receptionists — and serving longer sentences.

8. A good hotel will also store your luggage, which isn’t possible in Airbnbs and often attracts an extra charge in budget hotels. The unappetising alternative in Italy, for example, is to spend $10 per bag to leave your valuables with a dodgy-looking storefront business or an app-operated locker system. So once again, you can save money by staying in an establishment with minibars, dressing gowns and a pillow menu.

9. The reception desks at international-standard hotels are staffed 24/7. If you book an Airbnb, you can easily waste half an hour waiting in the street for a sullen young bloke on a scooter to deliver your key. And it can be impossible to arrive at night: I once had to break into a budget hotel in Antigua in Guatemala at midnight to get to my room.

10. Of course, if you’re truly dedicated to squeezing value for money from your stay in a five-star hotel, you can pocket enough teabags in a week to get you through the year.