Motels are cheaper, right? WRONG!

I just got an email from Hotwire, trying to get me to book a hotel room in Gatlinburg. That got me thinking about the comparative cost between All Decked Out (our smaller cabin at 2,508 sq. ft.) and a motel room.

Here's the Hotwire listing - a 2-star motel (average room size of 150 sq. ft.), and I don't even get to pick my motel.


At $37.00 per night, the cost per square foot is 24.667 cents. When I multiply that number by the square footage of All Decked Out, our comparable nightly rate should be $618.64! And our ratings show that we're five star!

That's not all. When you stay in a local motel, you get...
...one bed and a bathroom (instead of 3 king bedrooms and 3 king baths
...one TV (instead of 5 TVs)
...no full kitchen (maybe a tiny refrigerator and microwave)
...no hot tub
...no pool table
...no game area with foosball & air hockey
...no eating area
...no decks
...no fireplace
...no phones with free long distance
...no mountain views

Let's look at it another way. If you take our current special price of $150.00 per night and divide that by the square footage of All Decked Out, then multiply it by the hotel room size, you should really only pay $8.97 a night for the motel. And that's without figuring all the extra amenities you get at All Decked Out.

And check out their tax rate. It works out to 20.9%, while ours is only 12.75%. Hmmmmm.

So why would anybody stay in a motel room when they can have all the extras at either All Decked Out or Smoky Mountain Tower? What do YOU think?