The Suite Life: Hotel-Hopping in 2025 for Nomads
[A year ago, in April 2024, I took part in an ACCOR conference to share my perspective with their customer relations managers on what it means to be a Diamond member. I spoke about what really matters to us when choosing a hotel and what they should focus on.
I also shared my experience as a hotel hopper.
Here, I’ll explain what that actually means—and how to do it right.]
Most people rent apartments because that’s what everyone does. They furnish them, maintain them, and stay put—partly out of habit, partly because they assume the alternatives are either too expensive or too chaotic. But more and more of us are opting out. No furniture, no lease, no fixed address. Just a rotating calendar of hotel stays across cities and countries, not as escapism but as a way to live. It’s structured, efficient, and cleaner than most rentals. If you work remotely, travel frequently, or simply don’t want to deal with a clogged drain ever again—hotel living starts to look less like indulgence and more like logic.
Here’s a mini-disclaimer: hotel hopping isn’t for everyone – you probably won’t see a family of five or a hardcore home chef embracing it. But for singles or couples without kids who crave mobility and hate household chores, the allure is real. Think entrepreneurs, remote professionals, or adventurous retirees who value experiences over possessions. Key reasons this crowd is ditching traditional rentals for hotel life include:
Ultimate flexibility: No year-long leases. You can move cities (or countries) on a whim, chasing opportunities or better weather.
Minimalist freedom: Everything you own fits in a couple of suitcases. This lightness is liberating. You’re not tied down by furniture or clutter.
All-inclusive convenience: Forget cleaning, cooking, or even doing laundry. Hotels provide housekeeping, fresh linens, and often laundry service or credits. Your “landlord” is essentially a professional hospitality team dedicated to your comfort.
Comfort and service: LandlordsIn a hotel, if something breaks, it gets fixed. Fast. No emails, no waiting around for your landlord to finally respond. You ask, they handle it—sometimes within minutes. That’s the difference when you’re a guest, not a tenant. You’re not asking for favors. You’re paying for service, and you actually get it. It’s efficient, predictable, and weirdly satisfying once you realize how much time you used to waste chasing down basic maintenance.
Meanwhile, those who should think twice about the hotel-hopping lifestyle are folks with pets, young children, or anyone who truly loves home cooking and big personal spaces. Hotels can start to feel constraining if you need a full kitchen every day or room for lots of belongings. And of course, if you’re on a very tight budget, constant hotel living might not (yet) be the frugal choice – though as we’ll see, it can be more economical than you’d expect when done smartly.
The Minimalist Mindset of Hotel Hoppers
At the core of this lifestyle is a shift in how people think about home. It’s no longer tied to one place or a pile of belongings. Home becomes wherever you’re staying right now—clean, functional, and temporary. Most long-term hotel hoppers end up traveling light. A couple of bags, the essentials, and not much else. The less you carry, the less you worry about. And over time, the focus naturally moves away from owning things to actually doing things. Experiences replace stuff.
The Minimalist isn’t concerned about owning less, but about maximizing what you get in return for your money and time. By paying for a hotel, you’re effectively outsourcing all the mundane parts of daily living.
That frees up hours of your life to focus on work projects, exploring your city, or relaxing – time that used to be spent on grocery runs, cooking, and chores can be invested in your business or personal growth.
Hotel living also fosters a nomadic spirit. Each new hotel or location is a chance to experience a different neighborhood, city or culture without long-term commitments. One month you’re living atop a high-rise in Bangkok, the next you’re in a boutique hotel in Lisbon’s historic Alfama district.
This constant change feeds curiosity and adaptability. You learn to navigate new environments quickly, meet new people, and maybe pick up bits of new languages – all while having a consistent “base” experience of a hotel room that feels familiar no matter the country.
Lastly, being a long-term hotel guest can actually feel empowering compared to being a renter. In a hotel, you are the customer, and as the saying goes, the customer is king. If something isn’t right, you can ask for it to be fixed (often more promptly than any landlord would) or you can simply check out the next month and take your money elsewhere. This dynamic motivates hotels to keep high standards for cleaning and service. For the hotel hopper, that means a consistently high quality of living – a far cry from the unpredictable plumbing and maintenance issues of many city apartments.
Crunching the Numbers: Is Hotel Hopping Affordable?
Okay, indulgent as it sounds, what about cost? It’s easy to assume living in hotels full-time would obliterate your budget. Surprisingly, when done right, hotel living can be economically competitive with renting – and sometimes even cheaper. Let’s break down the numbers with updated 2024–2025 data in a few digital nomad hotspots:
Tbilisi, Georgia: A high end one-bedroom apartment in Vake rents for around $1500 USD/month on average (nice high-end apartments can run up to ~$2,000). In contrast, long-term deals at a five-star hotel like the Pullman Axis Towers Tbilisi can be found for about $85 night (≈$2,550/month) – which includes all bills, daily breakfast, gym/pool, housekeeping and even suite upgrades. Factor in loyalty point rewards rebated (10–20% value), and the net cost can be very close to the apartment – without the hassle of utilities or paying rent while you travel away.
Lisbon, Portugal: Rental prices have exploded recently – a one-bedroom in central Lisbon now averages about €1,415 per month (≈$1,500). By comparison, many 3–4 star hotels in Lisbon offer monthly rates in the €60–€80 per night range in off-season (roughly $1,800–$2,400 a month). That’s a bit higher than rent, but again remember you’re also getting cleaning, linens, and often breakfast or spa/gym access. In a housing market where locals complain that €1,500 gets you a musty old flat, some nomads find paying slightly more for a hotel is worth the comfort and central location.
Bangkok, Thailand: You can rent a chic condo in Bangkok for relatively cheap (around $600–$800 USD/month in a nice area). Yet Bangkok’s hotel scene is ultra-competitive – long-stay packages at reputable hotels can be as low as $30–$50 a night for monthly bookings, which is ~$900–$1,500 per month.
Mexico City, Mexico: A one-bedroom in a trendy area like Condesa or Roma might cost around $800–$1,200 USD/month. Hotels in CDMX vary widely, but extended stay rates at business hotels can be found in the $60–$100 per night range ($1,800–$3,000 per month). One traveler on a forum noted they negotiated a rate of MXN $2,000 (about $110) per night at a luxury hotel for a month – pricier than rent, but that came with club lounge access, daily cocktails, and gym/spa use, which were valuable perks for them. Depending on your taste (basic room vs. suite) and negotiation skill, you might break even or pay a premium for the hotel life here.
Dubai, UAE: Dubai is known for high living costs. A one-bedroom apartment in the city center averages about $1,742 USD/month (approx AED 6,400), and easily $2,000+ in popular expat districts. Hotels in Dubai often charge $100+ a night normally, but long-stay deals can drop that substantially, especially in the hot summer off-season.
Big picture: If you approach hotel living strategically, the cost can be surprisingly on par with traditional renting once you account for all the extras. Remember, an apartment’s rent is just the start – add utilities, internet, furniture, cleaning supplies, maybe a gym membership, and not least double paying rent when you travel. (If you keep an apartment year-round, every week you go on a trip you’re essentially paying two accommodations). Hotel living eliminates those hidden costs: you pay one bill that covers everything, and if you leave for a week, you simply don’t pay for those nights or use your points – no sunk cost for an empty apartment. As one full-time traveler calculated, after tallying points rewards and periods they stay with family, their total accommodation expenses averaged about $3,000 per month for two people, which was actually cheaper than their previous rent in San Francisco.
Playing the Points Game: Rewards and Perks in 2025
Long-term hotel living isn’t just about convenience – it’s also about hacking the system to maximize rewards. Loyal hotel hoppers can turn stays into a virtuous cycle of free upgrades and free nights.
If you’re going to live out of hotels, you quickly learn the language of loyalty programs. Major hotel chains want your long stay business, and they incentivize it heavily through points and elite status benefits. By 2025, some loyalty programs have become even more generous for frequent guests:
Elite status = VIP treatment: Stay often enough and you’ll climb to top-tier statuses (think Marriott Bonvoy Platinum/Titanium, Hilton Honors Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Diamond). The payoff? Complimentary suite upgrades, daily free breakfast, club lounge access, late check-outs, welcome gifts – every day of a long stay. Over a month, free breakfast for two can save a huge chunk of food costs, and a suite upgrade means more space to live and work. These perks used to be for business road-warriors; now remote workers can earn them by staying put! Notably, IHG revamped its program in 2022 to add free hot breakfast for top-tier Diamond elites and milestone rewards for staying 40+ nights, directly targeting longer-stay guests with more value.
Points back on every stay: Hotel points are essentially a rebate on your spending. A savvy hotel hopper earns roughly 10–25% back in value through points and credit card rewards. In 2024, I calculated that I was getting back around 16% of my hotel spend in Accor loyalty points, thanks to elite status bonuses. Add another 4% from credit card rewards on hotel purchases, and the total return was close to 20%. That translated to roughly two months of free hotel nights over the year. When you’re spending that much on accommodation anyway, stacking loyalty programs and credit card perks makes a real difference. And with all the promos—double points, stay bonuses, free nights—it adds up faster than most people expect.
Long-stay specials and memberships: Beyond traditional points, hotels are experimenting with long-stay packages. Some offer “stay X nights get Y free” deals or hefty discounts if you book 30+ nights direct. Brands like Marriott, Accor, and Hilton sometimes have property-specific extended stay rates (often not advertised online – you have to call or email to ask). In one example, a Marriott Executive Apartments property in Asia offered 30-night packages with free breakfast and airport transfers. New hybrid housing startups are emerging too – subscription services where one monthly fee lets you hop between different hotels or co-living spaces (more on this trend shortly).
Pro tip: When negotiating a long stay, don’t just haggle on price – ask for value-add perks. Often, a hotel may be unable to drop the nightly rate beyond a certain floor, but they’ll happily throw in extras: free breakfast, free parking, laundry service, or a better room category. These extras cost the hotel little but can greatly enhance your stay (and save you money). For instance, if a hotel includes laundry service twice a week, that saves you time and local laundromat fees. If they comp your breakfast or give a 30% restaurant discount, you’ve effectively reduced meal costs. Seasoned hotel hoppers often build friendly relationships with hotel managers – over time, this can lead to unofficial perks like an occasional airport pickup or being invited to hotel events, all because you’re a valued long-term guest. The bottom line: being polite, loyal, and asking nicely can unlock a lot. Don’t hesitate to request breakfast in the room, free parking, discounts on amenities...you might be pleasantly surprised by what they provide.
(Yours truly with Vincent Dujardin, General Manager of Pullman Tbilisi, and his wife Aurellia at an Accor event in 2024. Personal relationships go a long way.)
Lessons from Long-Term Hotel Nomads
Let’s bring in a few voices of experience. Beyond the cost analyses and tactics, what’s it really like to embrace hotel life for months or years? Here are a couple of quick case studies:
The Tech Power Couple: Daniel G. and his wife, both AI professionals, started living in hotels in 2020 when their jobs went remote. Three years later, they’ve logged over 1,000 nights in 4- and 5-star hotels across 25+ countries. Daniel reports that their average nightly cost is under $150 (as low as $100 in cheap cities, up to $300 in expensive ones) – and that’s for two people, often in luxe suites thanks to top-tier status. They split costs, use points heavily, and note that not paying rent during home visits or work trips balances out the budget. Importantly, they say the lifestyle enriched their lives: “We could work from anywhere, so we thought why not travel? It was more fun and less exhausting than we thought,” he told Business Insider. They did settle down in NYC for two months at one point – got bored – and hit the road again. For them, hotel hopping not only saved money, it eliminated life admin. “We haven’t had to clean rooms, change bedsheets or take out the trash in years,” Daniel says gratefully. Instead, they focus on work and exploring. This freedom also allowed them to optimize taxes (by spending most of the year outside the US), an interesting perk for high earners.
The Luxury Nomad on Points: Another traveler, Claude A., shared how leaving London’s costly rentals for Marriott hotels felt “inflation-proof.” He was paying about £2,000/month for a tiny London flat with bills – and dealing with issues like mold and dodgy maintenance. With rents rising, he realized that money could be put toward hotel stays where everything just works and is clean and modern. Using the Marriott Bonvoy program, he planned to leverage points to keep costs in check while enjoying a far higher standard of living (imagine trading a cramped studio for a serviced suite with a view). For Claude, a big motivation was also psychological: if he’s paying so much anyway, he might as well get pool access, a concierge, and daily cleaning out of it, versus an unpredictable landlord experience. Many others echo this sentiment: the intangibles of comfort, safety, and service can make hotel living feel worth any premium you might pay.
Every nomad’s story will differ, but common threads emerge: increased freedom, less stress about chores/maintenance, and a sense that life becomes “richer” in experiences even if materially simpler. Of course, there are challenges too – living out of suitcases can get tiring, and some miss having a fixed community or the ability to decorate a space. Loneliness can creep in if you don’t make an effort to socialize (you’re always a newcomer in a hotel). However, many hotel dwellers combat this by tapping into communities of other nomads (coworking spaces, local meetups) or by alternating solo travel with periods of group travel programs (like Remote Year or Hacker Paradise). In 2025, you’re far from the only one doing this – which means it’s easier than before to find your tribe on the road.
Digital Nomad Visas, Co-Living & the New Travel Lifestyle
It’s no coincidence that hotel hopping is catching on now. The whole ecosystem for remote work and nomadic living has exploded. Consider a few trends shaping the landscape:
Countries rolling out the red carpet: Hopping between countries long-term no longer means visa runs and uncertainty. As of 2024, over 50 countries offer digital nomad visas or remote work residencies, letting you legally live in a country for 6-12 months (often with extensions) as a remote worker. Recent additions like Italy, Spain, Brazil, and South Korea have joined pioneers like Estonia and Georgia in courting nomads. Europe is a hot region – 9 of the top 10 countries in one remote work index were in Europe, with factors like good infrastructure and paths to residency. For hotel hoppers, this means you can slow-travel; you’re not forced to hop every 90 days on a tourist visa. Portugal’s D7 or digital nomad visa has you covered if want to base in Lisbon for a year. Thailand’s got a special remote work visa too (up to 5 years) if Bangkok is your wet, humid dream. The bureaucratic friction is easing, making long stays (in hotels or otherwise) far more feasible.
Rise of co-living hotels and hybrid spaces: The hospitality industry is adapting to the “work from anywhere” client. Co-living hotels are a big trend heading into 2025, blending the amenities of hotels with the community of hostels and the functionality of coworking spaces. For example, Zoku in Amsterdam pioneered the idea of a “loft” that’s half hotel room, half office, with communal areas where guests can socialize or work together. Brands like Selina (with dozens of locations worldwide) combine boutique hotel rooms with hostel-style dorms, on-site coworking hubs, yoga classes and local experiences. They even offer subscription packages: Selina’s Nomad Passport lets you buy 30 nights to use across their locations, starting around $360 for dorms or pricier for private rooms, making multi-country travel easier. Other examples include Outsite and The Collective, which focus on longer-term co-living with furnished rooms and shared social events. The idea is that you can check in and immediately have a network of other remote workers around you. This sense of community helps combat the isolation some solo travelers feel, and it’s redefining hotels not just as places to stay, but places to live, work and make friends.
Corporate housing and serviced apartments: On the flip side of the same coin, there’s growth in high-end extended stay options. Think furnished apartments or “aparthotels” that offer the space of an apartment with hotel-like services. Many traditional hotel chains have their own versions (Marriott Executive Apartments, Hilton’s Homewood Suites, Accor’s Adagio, etc.), which often give discounts for 30+ night stays and include kitchens. The aparthotel sector is booming, with more operators converting buildings to this hybrid model. These cater to corporate travelers on long assignments, but also digital nomads who want a bit more of a homey feel. Trends in 2024 show aparthotels adding co-working lounges and communal events, effectively mirroring the co-living concept but usually at a more upscale level. If you desire a cooking space and a living room but still want weekly cleaning and a concierge, this is your jam. Just know that popularity is rising – so prices may be higher than a standard apartment (though still often less than regular hotels).
Subscription living: Perhaps one of the coolest innovations is the idea of a subscription for housing – pay a flat fee and hop between cities. A new startup called Portal (launching in 2025) offers a membership that lets you live in any of their hotels across different cities on a month-to-month basis. The concept is “the convenience of a hotel, the comfort of a home, and the connectivity of a coworking hub, all in one”. Every Portal room comes with an ergonomic workspace and fast Wi-Fi, and there are communal lounges for remote workers to network. No long leases, no separate utility bills – just show up and live. We’re essentially seeing housing-as-a-service tailored to nomads. This is an emerging area, but it points toward a future where hotel hopping isn’t done ad-hoc with bookings, but via platforms that package the lifestyle for you. It’s Airbnb’s monthly stays meets Soho House, in a way. And as more people go remote (over 18 million Americans now identify as digital nomads – a 147% increase from 2019), the market for these solutions is only growing.
Final Takeaways: Is Hotel-Hopping for You?
Hotel hopping in 2025 sits at the intersection of luxury travel and practical remote living. It’s simultaneously a lifestyle hack (freeing you from domestic chores and leveraging loyalty rewards) and an adventure that treats the world as your home. To recap the key points for anyone intrigued by the idea:
It’s more feasible than ever. With so many countries welcoming remote workers and a proliferation of long-stay deals, you truly can bounce between, say, Tbilisi and Bangkok for a year and have a smooth experience. Infrastructure and communities exist now to support nomads wherever they go.
Cost vs. value. You might spend a bit more than a bare-bones apartment in some cases, but you get a lot for your money – including time back in your day. When you add up rent plus all the hidden costs of traditional living, full-time hotel life can be quite competitive. And if you’re diligent with points and off-season rates, you can absolutely score great bargains (or splurge without guilt knowing you’ll get free nights later).
Know thyself. If you thrive on novelty, hate routine, and work online, you’ll likely love the hotel hopping journey. Waking up in a new city every few weeks, with a cappuccino in the lobby and housekeeping knocking when you’re messy – that can feel like heaven if you crave freedom. But if you need a rooted community, large personal space for hobbies, or simply really love your own cooking, you might feel something is missing. Many nomads find a hybrid approach best: do hotels for a year or two to scratch the itch (or during a scaling startup phase when you’re too busy for anything else), then maybe slow down in one place if you want to nest.
Approach it intentionally. The most successful hotel hoppers treat it like a lifestyle to be optimized. They research which credit card maximizes points on hotel spend, they join Facebook groups or subreddits for “travel hacking” tips, they test different chains to see where they get the best treatment. They also set routines despite the changing environment – maybe always hitting the gym in each hotel at 7am to stay disciplined, or setting up a familiar work corner in each room to be productive. In short, they make hotel life into real life, not an endless vacation (though it certainly can feel indulgent at times!).
If you’ve ever daydreamed about living in a hotel – having someone else make the bed, enjoying a breakfast buffet then logging into work from a poolside cabana – know that it’s not a crazy fantasy. It’s a viable lifestyle that more people are trying as work and travel evolve. As one article declared, “Ever wanted to live in a hotel? Surprise: It’s easier than you think.” And as our look into 2025 shows, it’s getting easier, smarter, and more rewarding each year.
Sources:
Entrepreneur – Interviews and feature articles. Available at:
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High5 Hospitality Trends – Industry research and insights. Available at:
MBO Partners Nomad Report 2024 – Annual data on digital nomad trends. Available at:
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