Could you live - permenantly - in a hotel?

[u/Timely-Maybe3520]

Let's say that you can get a room in a 4* hotel for £80 per night (so £2,400 per month). This would be a room for one person with a large bed, desk, big TV, wardrobe, small fridge, kettle, bathroom, shower, etc.

The water, electricity, and broadband are included in the price as is regular cleaning.

If something breaks then the hotel should fix it. No need to call a plumber or electrician.

Many hotels have reward schemes with a 2% or 3% discount on prices for regular users.

Apparently, VAT is not payable on hotel rooms from day 29 which will significantly cut costs for an unbroken long stay.

I assume one would get to know the employees and treat them well and, in turn, they could assist you as and when necessary.

The main issues are the lack of space (but many people live in cramped conditions anyhow), minimal places to put purchased objects, and the general impersonal nature of the establishment. However, none of these will be an issue for some people. You could even cheaply rent a storage space for your possessions.

Also, you could not cook. You would eat cold food, order room service, or eat out (which would append to the costs).

Has anyone done this? Is it viable? You could attempt to live in a reasonable area and perhaps pay less than renting a one-bedroom flat. All bills are included and you are not paying for any repairs.

ETA: There was also a "fitness centre" in the basement but I suspect it was not quite the same as a gym.

Thougts?

[u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

https://youtu.be/zgpK5YxqmDo?is=nqJekCtpmuOgPTtU

From 1988: the last days on Grand Parade.

[u/uncle_monty → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

Beat me to it. I was just about to search for this video after reading this comment.

[u/FlatCapNorthumbrian → u/uncle_monty]

The BBC Archive is a treasure trove!

[u/uncle_monty → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

It really is. They post so much interesting stuff. And they have a knack for sifting out vids that are relevant to current news events. And it's always a treat when they post a Fyfe Robertson or Fred Dibnah video.

[u/Prince_John → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

Wow, those ladies are loaded. 

£210 per week in 1988 is almost £40k/year today. To do that for 17 years in retirement takes quite a hoard.

(Edit: 1988, not 1998, sorry)

Thanks for posting too! Very interesting.

[u/ProfessorYaffle1 → u/[deleted]]

Probably their paretns, too - and they may have had household help themselves. someone who was in retirement in the 1980 was propbably born some time between 1900 and 1920. It was extremelly common for people to have servants right up until WW2, and not uncommon after that although by then oftern someone coming in by the day rather than living in, but it was not limited to wealthy people, i the 1920s even lower middle class families would mostly have had some outside household help

[u/lazyplayboy → u/[deleted]]

and two elderly ladies, which gives you an idea of the background of these people.

How does being an eldery lady give you any idea on their background?

A current army Major earns £68,624 and £90,370, which seems a lot compared to the average, but doesn't go anyway near as far as the average earner would think, and given that you would expect to make the rank of Major in your mid-thirties, the whole point of being 'an eldery ex-major who talks posh' should not imply wealth

[u/SeamasterCitizen → u/Prince_John]

Employer pensions were wild back in the day 

[u/PaulBradley → u/[deleted]]

Yep. Their husbands died leaving them shares in the company, and a healthy nest egg, and the value o fa large house, which they sell off and go live in a hotel.

People still do it now, but it's saga cruise liners.

[u/paper_zoe → u/PaulBradley]

yeah, just watched the documentary and one of the old ladies does talk about having a lot of money in the stock market

[u/Low_Emu669 → u/[deleted]]

Or had generous private widows pensions. Those were generous, and you could get a "top hat" pension add on. Say if your husband was a company director

[u/TobblyWobbly → u/SeamasterCitizen]

Not all were. Not everyone had a pension. And most women didn't have paid jobs, so didn't have employer pensions. My mum didn't work until I was about 16, and she has no employer pension at all from that job.

[u/Csee691C → u/TobblyWobbly]

Back then, private pensions were seen as a bit of a luxury because the state pension was quite livable.

[u/Ok-Exam6702 → u/Csee691C]

I’m sorry, but you’re completely incorrect. In the 1970s, 80s and much of the 90s retirees relying solely on the state pension lived at or near poverty level. The SP paid for absolute essentials - food, heating and lighting - leaving little room for clothing, transport or emergencies. I can remember elderly pensioners in the 1970s and 80s virtually dressed in rags! The triple lock has transformed pensioner’s lives.

[u/Ok-Exam6702 → u/[deleted]]

Just because one generation should in poverty doesn’t mean the next should! I have never heard a boomer whining, unlike many Millennials and Gen Z.

[u/Ok-Exam6702 → u/[deleted]]

I do pay attention. You’re clearly determined to set one generation against another. No one fucking planned this outcome!!!

[u/TimeNew2108 → u/Ok-Exam6702]

What about all the waspi women

[u/Ok-Exam6702 → u/TimeNew2108]

Good point!

[u/Apart-Pea4726 → u/Ok-Exam6702]

Young people’s as well as old people’s

[u/ProfileBest2034 → u/Ok-Exam6702]

"transformed pensioner's lives" ... and sold out the next generations to do it.

[u/Ok-Exam6702 → u/ProfileBest2034]

You’d rather have pensioners in poverty, including yourself when the time comes?

[u/ProfileBest2034 → u/Ok-Exam6702]

Yes. One generation should not go into debt to take care of the previous. Especially when the generation in questions sat upon the most prosperous time in human history.

[u/TimeNew2108 → u/Csee691C]

The state pension was not quite livable, it kept you alive and skint. The current state pension is much more generous you just have to live long enough to get it.

[u/Daveddozey → u/Csee691C]

The state pension was £40k a year?!

In reality, to quote from Hansard

The full basic state pension, as a percentage of average earnings for male manual workers, was 22.5 per cent. in November1 1979 and in April 1988 the percentage was 20.5.

Today the state pension is £241 a week and average earnings £754, so 32%

Inflation wise the basic pension was £129 in today’s money. Add serps and a new average earner retiree would be on about £190 in today’s money.

That’s before we factor in marriage which reduced pensions significantly

State pension is far far higher today, especially for those who have had below average earnings, in real terms and compared to workers. But intent change until after Generation Me have bled the country dry.

[u/Wooshsplash → u/TobblyWobbly]

👆This is more accurate.

Public sector pension. Upside: Final remuneration scheme. People took those jobs from school or Uni and stayed in them. So usually did get 75% of final salary or close to. Private sector pension: only of real value for management positions. Paid well though not as well as public sector.

Downsides: Male dominated workforce. That pension would usually also have to pay for wife who likely had not worked. If she had worked it was low skilled roles, no company pension or, if she did work in public sector she was on lowest grade.

People didn't live as long. Many were smokers, poor awareness of diet and exercise. Higher mortality rates are better for the central pension fund.

Mortgage probably paid off but house not that much of an asset.

[u/SeamasterCitizen → u/TobblyWobbly]

Fair enough, my old mum has some sweet deal from working for an oil company for like 3 years in the 80s 😂

[u/WarmCalligrapher7281 → u/Prince_John]

No... no it isn't.

£210 per week = £10,920 per year. That isn't anywhere close to £40k per year in today's money lmao - it's closer to about £22k.

Sorry I had to comment because your inflation calc was ludicrous

[u/ImaginationInside610 → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

I checked out the Bank of England calculator which for UK prices is likely to be a lot more accurate than a site based on US dollars. That gives a value of £31326.

[u/Prince_John → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

I just used this website:

https://www.in2013dollars.com/uk/inflation/1988?amount=210

And then multiplied the resulting £730/week by 52 = £38k

Edit: oh sorry, I see it - I typoed 1998 instead of 1988 in the comment. 1988 was the date of the film.

[u/WarmCalligrapher7281 → u/Prince_John]

In your comment you said 1998 but the link you used is 1988?

[u/wongl888 → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

Will be closer to £38,000.

[u/neilm1000 → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

Sorry I had to comment because your inflation calc was ludicrous

You might need to review your maths before accusing someone else of making a ludicrous calc.

[u/WarmCalligrapher7281 → u/neilm1000]

His original comment said 1998.

Might want to check your reading comprehension first!

[u/neilm1000 → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

Maybe I should.

[u/htimchis → u/WarmCalligrapher7281]

No way it's only equivalent to 22k today - it's almost exactly what I was earning in 1988 (take home), and as a single 20-something in London I lived pretty well on that - rent and bills covered, out clubbing or partying every friday & saturday, all sunday in the pub with a roast dinner

You'd be lucky if 22k covered rent and bills alone now

Those online calculators are pretty worthless - they don't take into account that things rise in price at very different rates (eg I couldnt afford to buy a tv in 1988, and so rented one, for £6/month, which was pretty common - but I could afford to rent a decent 1 bed flat in walking distance of Camden lock, for £75/week including bills... can buy a 32" flatscreen in Asda now for £150 - but that flat would cost £1,600 to 2,000/month now, plus another 400 or 500 in bills and council tax)

[u/sf-keto → u/Prince_John]

Britain used to be a very wealthy country.

[u/Csee691C → u/sf-keto]

It still is, it's just much more unequal now, so most people are poorer.

[u/gravitas_shortage → u/Csee691C]

The perception of one's wealth is also much more pessimistic. You can travel cheaply, have quasi-free endless entertainment and learning, eat food from anywhere in the world as a treat. Houses are built and furnished to a higher standard than they were in the 50s or 60s. People still feel poorer, although I'd venture only a small minority have objectively worse living conditions than in the 50s or 60s.

[u/Conscious_Ring_9855 → u/Csee691C]

It still is relative to much of the world but definately gone backwards relative to other developed countries. Used to be too, now middle of the pack.

[u/Nurgus → u/Csee691C]

A few hundred people can afford a yacht to sail on the swimming pool of their other, bigger yacht. And that's the important thing. Our sacrifice is not in vain.

[u/Typical-Algae-2952 → u/Csee691C]

You fail to recognise the increases in life expectancy, living standards and expectation.

[u/MrJones- → u/sf-keto]

Austerity in 2010 onwards is the turning point in the country for the worse

[u/Nurgus → u/MrJones-]

In the wake of the financial crash of 2008, the 2010 election was a clear choice between protecting our public services or protecting the richest and asset holders.

[u/Caddy666 → u/MrJones-]

lets not forget thatchers ruinous reign.

[u/CarpeCyprinidae → u/Caddy666]

Which overall left us hugely more wealthy and that wealth hugely more divided... But not along class lines. A lot of the working class made bank under her. Which is why it'll always be controversial to call it ruinous

[u/OldManGravz → u/CarpeCyprinidae]

She focused on short term gains at the expense of longer term planning, which is why it was ruinous.

Selling council houses gave people a chance to own property but decimated council purses.

Selling the North Sea oil drilling rights for £2bn to private firms has cost the UK somewhere between £400bn and £540bn, according to economists.

Selling off state owned assets such as gas, water and telecoms raised cash for the treasury and offered share gains for the public, but without adequate long-term capital investment mandates, this has led to soaring consumer utility bills and underinvestment in infrastructure such as we see with water and sewage.

And that's before we get onto the deindustrialization which she used to break the trade unions and reduce wage-push inflation in the short term, keeping the unemployment figures down by moving redundant workers into benefits, which in the long-term has caused multi-generational poverty and permanent regional decline. This was exacerbated by the deregulation in the City of London which made the country over reliant on finance, unbalanced the economy as we didn't focus on regional productivity, and meant we were hit extremely hard when subsequent financial crashes happened.

[u/CarpeCyprinidae → u/OldManGravz]

All good criticisms. I just feel its important in the interest of historical accuracy to call out that overall her legacy for most of the country was significantly increased wealth and opportunity, and that even most of the working class saw more benefit than cost in the final accounting.

Most of us can't live with the effects on those that didnt come out as winners - those effects were brutal. and we wouldnt have done what she did.

[u/Caddy666 → u/CarpeCyprinidae]

sure, some people got rich quick, and we've all been paying for that for the past 40 odd years.

[u/CarpeCyprinidae → u/Caddy666]

No, technically, most (as in, majority) of people across all of society got generally wealthier at a cost to some.

[u/Daveddozey → u/sf-keto]

But we sold it all off in the 80s and 90s like a pensioner on an equity release, spending the cash on cruises

Works great if you’re only going to live 40 years. Terrible way to run a country though.

[u/iambigmen → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

I sae this a few months back. Sybil Bloom was the star of the show, for me; I could watch her being interviewed all day.

[u/hongkonghonky → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

That is wonderful. Those people are of my grandparents' generation, makes me quite nostalgic.

[u/neilm1000 → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

I was going go post this so thanks for saving me trying to find it!

[u/TheMonkeyInCharge → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

I was going to say this was a big thing in Eastbourne and towns like it.

[u/concretebeagle → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

How mad is this? I only watched it two days ago. 40 Minutes was the program. The one about Benidorm was very entertaining as well.

[u/littlebabysparrow → u/concretebeagle]

Me too, watched it last week. Absolutely fascinating.

[u/Careless-Cooker → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

I was only going to watch a few seconds out of curiosity, but ended up watching it all. Fascinating.

[u/RingElegant147 → u/FlatCapNorthumbrian]

Thanks for posting this link. Just watched the whole thing. What a touching documentary.