YOUR HOME AWAY 
If you’re a student heading out for your first year of college, you’ve probably got a lot of excitement. This time in your life will likely be the first time you live away from your parents. You’ll get to grow and discover things about yourself you never would otherwise.
On the other hand, living at school also poses its downsides. Most American students spend nearly $10,000 each year to live on campus. They spend an extra $5,000 or more on meal plans. If this sounds like a financial nightmare to you, perhaps consider living in an extended stay hotel.
These hotels provide many excellent student accommodations. Most importantly, they save you significant amounts of money.
Sound intriguing? If so, read on to learn the many reasons why you should consider living in an extended stay hotel for school.
When you think of a hotel room, you probably picture a room with two beds, a TV, desk, nightstand, and full bathroom. It’s a place that may be comfortable for a week but would feel unbearable for a semester.
If that’s what you’re picturing, think again. Extended stay hotels provide much more comfortable, homey places to stay. In many cases, they’re more like small apartments. They feature a bedroom, kitchen, dining area, and study area.
Furthermore, they offer TVs and free Wi-Fi, granting you access to the Internet for online classwork. Once you wrap up your work, you can enjoy free access to Netflix to unwind with your favorite shows.
Depending on the size of your college or university, you may have class buildings scattered everywhere. Some universities look more like small cities than schools, which makes your residential location crucial.
After all, you want to live in a place that’s close to the majority of your class buildings. If you’re the studious type, you don’t want to live in a location that’s too loud, either.
For all these reasons and more, extended stay hotels are ideal for you. In many university and college towns, these hotels rest in excellent locations. These hotels often sit in central locations that place you near class buildings and recreational areas.
Moreover, since they’re hotels and not freshman dorms, you can expect a more quiet atmosphere to get your work done. If you’re more of a social butterfly, you can always have people up to your room to hang out.
If you live in traditional student housing, you can expect some baseline amenities. These usually include a hall bathroom, access to one or more campus gyms, and a dining plan that covers your meals.
While none of these amenities is anything to sneeze at, an extended stay hotel provides much better student accommodation. In most cases, these hotels include a kitchen, which allows you to cook your meals. This freedom lets you tailor your meals to your taste.
However, many of these hotels either include a place to eat or have affiliated restaurants nearby. If you’re like most students, you’ll eventually burn out on-campus meal plan food. After all, it’s not always the best quality cooking.
With these restaurants and kitchens, you can avoid that burnout. Another advantage is that these hotels often provide guest laundry rooms where you do your laundry for free. Many schools offer laundry rooms that charge you for each load, like a traditional laundromat.
You can avoid these fees by using these hotel services. You can also save yourself money on toiletry runs, as the hotel will provide most of your toiletries. Some hotels even offer free gyms and pools to their guests!
College schedules are often frantic, especially in the first semester. Long class hours, learning to travel the campus, and social events fill the first-year student’s days. At the end of these long days, it would be incredible to come home to a clean, orderly environment.
If you live with the average college student in a dorm, you’ll likely find that rarely happens. College students aren’t known for their cleanliness.
If you stay in a hotel, though, you can rest in a freshly cleaned room every night. Why, exactly? Because these hotels provide free, daily housekeeping services.
These services often include bathroom cleaning, replacing sheets and towels, and even a clean kitchen or kitchenette. These services save you from needing to find the time to clean, so you can spend your time enjoying your new independence on campus instead.
Usually, after a year or two on campus, students transition from dorm buildings to apartments. In many cases, these apartments are on campus, though some choose to go off-campus.
When you opt to live in an apartment, you have to sign a lease and pay your utility bill. If your apartment is a campus apartment, then you’ll pay an even more exorbitant fee to live there for a year.
Instead of a campus apartment, try out a hotel for students. You could potentially spend less money to live in this hotel than you would for a campus apartment. You would also have more flexibility with the duration of your stay, as you wouldn’t sign a lease.
Even if the hotel price were to equal the price of a school apartment, there’s one thing you can certainly save money with. With an extended stay hotel, you can forget about having to pay for utilities. All of that cost is the hotel’s responsibility, so you can enjoy keeping a few hundred dollars in your wallet.
As you can see, extended stay hotels offer many student accommodations to make your first year away perfect. With unmatched amenities and a comfortable, homey feeling, these hotels are an ideal environment for students.
If you want to save money and have an incredible experience, check out our locations today! We have hotels throughout North Carolina and Virginia ready to house you.