I remember when I was growing up, I would visit our local AAA office with my mom when we started planning our next vacation. We would pick up the thick book for the state we were visiting along with our personalized TripTik (does anyone remember these?)
I would help her read through all the hotel descriptions, which included an AAA diamond rating and price. From an early age, I loved vacation planning!
But things were much simpler back then. When we decided on a hotel, my mom would simply call up and reserve a room. There was one price, that’s it. When we checked in, we were of the mindset “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”
Maybe it was due to the type of hotels we booked, or the location. We never worried about paying extra for an upgraded room with a view.
The Way It Is Now
Nowadays, there are hardly any hotels that just have one standard room price. Disney charges more for “preferred” rooms that are close to the restaurants and pools. Even hotels like Hyatt Place and Hampton Inn and Suites charge more for corner rooms and room on higher floors with a better view.
Many times, when we reserve a hotel with points, we don’t have the option to choose an upgraded room. There is one points price for a standard room and another points price for a suite.
Sometimes, if you have elite status with a hotel brand, you will get a complimentary upgraded room. I’ve been fortunate to experience this several times, even at the new Hyatt Explorist level.
My Philosophy on Reserving Upgraded Rooms
My position on this has been that my family never pays extra for upgraded rooms with a view. Most times, we are just happy to be at the hotel. We are all capable of walking further distances, so proximity to elevators and pools isn’t an issue for us.
My family doesn’t spend a lot of time in our room, and my kids won’t be impressed with a view for more than a minute. If we happen to get a room with a view, great! But I don’t want to pay extra for it.
Back in 2015 when we stayed at Disney’s Aulani Resort on Oahu, I reserved the lowest level standard one-bedroom condo. The view should have been greenery or the parking lot. If I paid extra, we could get a garden view, pool view or ocean view room. I priced the ocean view room, and it would have cost us $1000 more for five nights. No, thanks! We could just walk to the ocean instead.
As luck would have it, Aulani upgraded us to an ocean view room when we checked in. It was a handicap accessible room that happened to be available, and I don’t know how we lucked into the room. Boy, was that view nice!
But still, I wouldn’t have paid $1000 more for it.
We also enjoyed the upgraded ocean view room at Hyatt Place Daytona Beach.
Kauai Dilemma
The reason I’m even thinking about this is that we are soon going to be booking a place to stay in Kauai for our trip early next year. We are hoping to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points through my husband’s CSR card at 1.5 cents per point. The rewards portal has many condos available that will fit my family.
After pouring over TripAdvisor reviews, I’ve narrowed it down to one condo resort. The problem is, we can’t decide on what type of condo to book.
Our choices are partial mountain view (which I think means parking lot), garden view, park view, partial ocean view, ocean view, oceanfront and royal oceanfront. Too many choices! The difference between the worst view and the best view is $308 per night. Quite a spread!
We are struggling with this decision because we know that we’re not going to pay for an upgraded room at Aulani on the second part of our trip. It’s just too expensive.
However, for about an extra $420 total for six nights, we could upgrade from a partial mountain view condo to a partial ocean view condo. The cost to upgrade to an oceanfront condo is $888 for six nights.
On one hand, we could just save the money for an excursion on Kauai and just walk to the ocean to view it. On the other hand, when will we ever be in Kauai again? Would having a glimpse of the ocean from our balcony make our experience much more relaxing and special?
If this was any other location, we wouldn’t be paying for an upgraded view. But, it’s Hawaii, where views can make a huge difference. Of course, the last time we went to Hawaii we thought we wouldn’t go back until our kids were much older, but lo and behold we are going back just three years later. So, I can’t say with certainty that we won’t be back to Hawaii for many years. We may love Kauai so much that we’ll want to go back in just a few years.
What Is Your Philosophy on Rooms with a View?
I’m curious to hear from readers on this. Would you pay more for a room with a better view? Is Hawaii an exception to the rule? What locations warrant a better view?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
I totally understand your dilemma. I like having a nicer view, I just don’t like paying a lot of money for it. My two cents: personally, I would maybe pay an extra $180 for six nights to get a partial ocean view, but no more. But I’m cheap that way. Realistically, you won’t be spending a lot of time in your room while you are in Kauai. There is a lot to do, and if the kids are hanging out at the pool, you’ll have to watch them anyway. So the room view is almost worthless in that scenario.
Hi Nancy, great post! Depending on how many days I am going to stay in a place I choose one or the other. Also I love to chill out with my husband at the room and enjoy the views specially if there is a balcony. So I see why you are torn between those choices. But if you ask me I would prefer to save that money and use it instead for an excursion out there, like you said you don’t know when you will be going back there.
What a timely article – We leave for Kauai in 2 days. Went 5 years ago at the Hyatt when Club access OV rooms were cheap in Oct. Now we’re going peak season on points and will probably get upgraded to Pool view/club access thru Explorist status. My wife says she’ll be disappointed if we don’t get an ocean view this time (I called a mgr,, the chances of a POV or OV are very slim). Should I leave her at home? .
@Future ex-husband I would only leave her at home if you want to become future ex-husband sooner rather than later. 🙂 I think the pool view will be lovely too. Have a great time in Kauai!
I love sitting on the balcony outside so yes I would pay more for the view!
@Rachel I can see both sides! Which is why I’m so torn. 🙂
I do care about the view especially if there is a balcony as we like sitting outside. I also love oceanview there is something so tranquil and peaceful waking up to the sound of ocean waves.
@Boonie There is something very relaxing about looking at the ocean and hearing it. I’ve really only had an oceanfront view one time, in Daytona Beach. It was lovely.
I don’t think there’s a bad view in Kauai!
@Jennifer That really puts it into perspective! We will be on Kauai, so I really can’t complain.
We never pay extra for rooms with a view including cruises. I booked 2 condos on 2 Hawaiian islands and neither have a view – just easy access to the pools and ocean with enough space for all of us. I could always use the “view” money towards an excursion and experience different restaurants. Now I’m hoping to get upgraded to some sort of view at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, but we’ll see.
@Stephanie The space is the biggest plus of renting a condo, that’s for sure! I hope you get an upgraded view at the Grand Hyatt. 🙂 But if not, the entire resort looks absolutely gorgeous.
When I’m traveling I barely spend anytime in the room, so why pay extra to see a nice view? The same goes with cruise rooms. I’m only sleeping in the room, so why should I pay extra?
@Lyndsay We might spend more time in our room than others because our kids need their downtime/chilltime in the room. They ask for it and get grumpy if they don’t get some slowdown time. When it was just my husband and I, we spent last time in our room for sure.
So true!
My husband and I don’t care about the view, but in Hawaii, my mother is #TeamOceanView. Her thinking is that she is there for the ocean, and she wants to see it. So when we all go to Aulani next year for Christmas we are using our DVC points on an ocean view villa.
@Sarah That sounds like a great trip! I still can’t believe our luck last time at Aulani with the oceanview upgrade.
I’d say book the lower level and see if there are any upgrades available for free or at a discount. Spend the money on other things!
@Momma To Go We have had good luck in the past with upgrades, but in this case we have to book a specific condo from an owner. So we are stuck with whatever we book.
I don’t care about the view tbh as I would rather be out exploring than staring through the window lol 😉 I guess it’s tough as people may complain if they all pay the same but some rooms are considered better than others. But as a customer it is pretty annoying!
@Katie I agree, sometimes all of these choices are annoying. For the most part we will be out exploring, but the time zone difference in Hawaii makes our kids crash early. It might be nice for me and my husband to chill on the balcony with a view while they are sleeping.
My family wouldn’t care if the view was a dumpster if it was in Hawaii. Although, I definitely would pay extra to stay in a hotel in a safe area (obviously not an issue in this case). We would use the money we saved to do a cultural/historical or water based tour but that’s my family.
@Michelle It’s definitely worth it to pay more for a hotel in a safe area. I’m still torn on what we will do about the view.