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A Tale of Two Hotels
Feb. 19th, 2026 06:54 amDallas Trip #3
Irving, TX · Wed 18 Feb 2026. 10:30pm.
Hotels were expensive in Irving when I booked this trip a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what's up, maybe it's people flying in for the mini trade show I'm working with a customer tomorrow, maybe it's another company running a bigger show, maybe it's a concert at the nearby arena. Either way, the hotel I wanted, a Marriott walking distance to the event, was $400/night. That's well above our company travel guidelines.
Being a good corporate citizen I looked for other credible hotels nearby. I booked in at a Hilton Homewood Suites about 1 mile away. It's $200/night. Meanwhile my colleague, Maya, booked the Marriott. Maya scoffed at $400 being "expensive" and said that's just the reality today.
Well, my $200 Homewood Suites is worth maybe half of what I'm paying. It's a suburban hotel, spread out, and I'm in the room pretty much farthest from the front desk. I have to walk through the parking lot to get to a separate building at the far side, then either take the stairs up 2 levels or use the elevator at the far end of the building.
Oh, and the wifi's was busted all day. When I arrived at 1:00 there was a guest in the lobby grousing about it. The staff said a tech was working on it. By 6pm this evening, when I had a customer demo call to support, the wifi was still busted. I tethered from my phone. At least I had a decent 5G signal. But my meeting was still laggy.
This evening after dinner I stopped by the Marriott with Maya. Wow, what a night-and-day difference between the hotels. The Marriott is a high-rise with an upscale lobby. The Homewood Suites looks like a suburban motel built 30 years ago— and the threadbare furniture in my room looks 30 years old, too. The Marriott is definitely worth more than the Homewood, probably even 2x. I just wish it hadn't been $200 vs. $400 when my company's asking me to keep it to $200. Because when local demand is up, $200 often doesn't buy decent basic accommodations anymore.
Update: When I got back to the Homewood after 10pm, wifi was finally working... but barely. Signing on took 5 minutes with multiple retries after failures.
Irving, TX · Wed 18 Feb 2026. 10:30pm.
Hotels were expensive in Irving when I booked this trip a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what's up, maybe it's people flying in for the mini trade show I'm working with a customer tomorrow, maybe it's another company running a bigger show, maybe it's a concert at the nearby arena. Either way, the hotel I wanted, a Marriott walking distance to the event, was $400/night. That's well above our company travel guidelines.
Being a good corporate citizen I looked for other credible hotels nearby. I booked in at a Hilton Homewood Suites about 1 mile away. It's $200/night. Meanwhile my colleague, Maya, booked the Marriott. Maya scoffed at $400 being "expensive" and said that's just the reality today.
Well, my $200 Homewood Suites is worth maybe half of what I'm paying. It's a suburban hotel, spread out, and I'm in the room pretty much farthest from the front desk. I have to walk through the parking lot to get to a separate building at the far side, then either take the stairs up 2 levels or use the elevator at the far end of the building.
Oh, and the wifi's was busted all day. When I arrived at 1:00 there was a guest in the lobby grousing about it. The staff said a tech was working on it. By 6pm this evening, when I had a customer demo call to support, the wifi was still busted. I tethered from my phone. At least I had a decent 5G signal. But my meeting was still laggy.
This evening after dinner I stopped by the Marriott with Maya. Wow, what a night-and-day difference between the hotels. The Marriott is a high-rise with an upscale lobby. The Homewood Suites looks like a suburban motel built 30 years ago— and the threadbare furniture in my room looks 30 years old, too. The Marriott is definitely worth more than the Homewood, probably even 2x. I just wish it hadn't been $200 vs. $400 when my company's asking me to keep it to $200. Because when local demand is up, $200 often doesn't buy decent basic accommodations anymore.
Update: When I got back to the Homewood after 10pm, wifi was finally working... but barely. Signing on took 5 minutes with multiple retries after failures.
