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Comment by gmays | Hacker News Reader

Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms. My favorites so far have been in Chine with the mix of modernity and service.

In particular I’ve had great luck with Marriotts it’s Shanghai and Shenzhen. I was surprised since Marriotts are nothing special in the US.

A friend’s Marriott room in Hong on the harbor was also great, but I didn’t stay there.

The great thing is you also benefit from permanent elite status, which makes it more affordable and the stays even better with the lounge, free food, etc.

For example, in Shenzhen (tech hub next to Hong Kong) you can get a room for well under $150/night—less than some SV rents monthly. Pay with a hotel/travel rewards card and you’ve got something good going. I’d seriously consider doing this if I didn’t have wife/kids, but pretty happy with things now.

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I once had to work a 5-hour production issue in a Hilton hotel room. The temperature, desk ergonomics, and lack of distractions (people or things) led to nearly superhuman levels of efficiency and clarity of thought. This solidified my view that open floor plans and cubes that are only a few feet high are absolutely horrendous for getting any work done. It perturbs me that offices are wasted on management that is typically in meeting rooms 90% of the day and thus can't take full advantage of them. I'm an extrovert too, so I can't fathom the annoyance of people who really don't like being in a crowd.

I remember reading that John Carmack used to stay at hotels just to get coding done. Apparently it's an anecdote in Masters Of Doom but I think I've heard it elsewhere too.

This HN comment mentions the anecdote, but also others who have done similar (eg coding on cruises):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16518726

EDIT: Missed that this has already been mentioned in comments below too

It’s also a pretty common thing that writers (of novels) claim to do to get work done.

> Love this, I’ve done some of my best work in hotel rooms.

One of the things a hotel room has going for it is that it's very uncluttered and maybe even 'feng shui'. As such it doesn't have a lot of distractions (visually with objects) that a typical home or office has. That alone (imo) can go a long way toward being able to do your 'best work'.

Plus the fact that you're being bill nightly :) There's a need to make those dollars count.

So, something I've found in pretty much every hotel I've ever stayed in, whether it costs $50/night or $1500/night - internet access is slow AF, and prone to total dropouts every now and then.

Honestly, that alone makes working from a hotel a bloody miserable experience - even if you're staying in a luxurious suite with your own butler.

Do you get any discounts for long term stay? And, having status, will the hotel tend to upgrade you?

This may be a good work travel option: pick a city with high quality but cheap hotels, stay a few weeks, get excellent work done, have everything handled and food largely provided.

It's hit or miss for discounts. The biggest discounts I've seen are just from booking early. If you can pick a good chain (Marriott/SPG has been the best for me since they're everywhere and reasonably priced) and get a rewards card it can offset the cost. Free food from the lounge is great too (pick a hotel with an Executive Lounge)--rarely pay for food.

As for upgrades, yes almost all the time if you're top tier status. You just have to pick a hotel that isn't fully booked so they can upgrade you. It pays to research upfront to find a hotel with a lounge, good upgrade options, good free breakfast and seldom fully booked, but its worth it.

There are a lot of things to consider based on what you want. E.g. gym, pool, fast wifi, lounge, free breakfast, near a park, good place to run/walk outside, high-rise for the views while you think through problems, rooftop bar, near a movie theatre, rewards card, airport shuttle, etc.

Yeah I was looking at Marriott, before seeing this post. I travel a moderate amount for work and had thought of consolidating it to get Platinum status.

Your post made me realize I could also go to a hotel 3x per year when I have a big writing assignment to finish. Could work very well with having the status and upgrades.

>It pays to research upfront to find a hotel with a lounge, good upgrade options, good free breakfast and seldom fully booked, but its worth it.

Any good resources to research this efficiently? I looked at marriott's site, and it wasn't obvious which hotels had lounges. I think it's by brand, but apparently some are missing/closed/closed on weekends.

Likewise for breakfast, how do you research it?

TBH, I don't do this very well, so I don't have any suggestions. I typically travel to the same places, so I stick to tried and true favorites I've discovered over the years or learned about from coworkers.

Beijing and Shanghai have some nice extended stay hotels that are 4 to 5 stars. Rates are weekly or monthly, I lived in one for a couple of months when I first arrived in China.

The "long stay" discounts you'll find online are often available for stays over 1 or 2 weeks.

For really long-term stays, if you are able to speak to someone at the hotel, then it's often possible to negotiate much more favourable discounts than you'll find online.

Just out of curiosity, what do you consider your best work?

When I'm able to break through creative blocks I've been wrestling with for long periods of time and seemingly get weeks of work done in days. It's some combination of the novel environment, lack of distractions, ambience, etc. I assume.

I've trained myself to be somewhat "productive" on planes to get large amounts of work done out of necessity, but the creativity (new/novel work) tends to happen in hotels with the ambience I described. On the flip side, shitty hotels tend to have the opposite effect--completely unproductive (the ironic costs of saving money).

I hope that makes sense. I actually haven't thought deeply about what makes this work before, so these thoughts are rough.

"For example, in Shenzhen (tech hub next to Hong Kong) you can get a room for well under $150/night"

Well, also in the vast majority of the US, no?

Not in a tech hub.

Not in a tech hub. They also have much better food, service and s significantly more modern. I’d take them over a Ritz any day, even if they were the same price.

Well, if by "tech hub" you mean the Bay Area, there are hundreds of options under $150 right now. I assume there are other places that meet the definition of "tech hub" in the US, and I'm certain they also have many hotels under $150.

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