A woman who lives full-time in a hotel alongside her husband and their two dogs has revealed the serious perks involved – from free breakfast and swimming pool access, to housekeeping every week.
Lilli Holland has been living long-term in hotels for over a year due to her husband’s job requiring him to temporarily work from different locations – and the company provides housing for the pair.
They are often stationed in one hotel for months at a time, with their current Florida base being ‘home’ since May.
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As a remote worker, Lilli is able to accompany him on his travels, along with their two dogs, Selina and Diana, and uses the opportunity to see more of the country – not to mention enjoy some of the undeniable perks.
“There are definitely some benefits – free breakfasts being one,” Lilli, a private tutor from Virginia, US, told Whats The Jam.
“Until recently, I got breakfast from the hotel lobby every day.
“Now that I’m tracking what I eat more closely, I usually eat breakfast in our room, but I still go down to the lobby for my morning coffee.
“Housekeeping is another benefit.
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“From my understanding, this isn’t every hotel, but at the hotels where we’ve had long-term stays, housekeeping has required access to the room at least once a week to make sure nothing is severely neglected or damaged.
“I usually schedule two days a week when housekeeping can come during certain hours.
“They change the linens, vacuum, clean the bathroom and occasionally clean the kitchen.
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“We travel with our two dogs, so I also try to make housekeeping as easy as possible for the staff.
“Before housekeeping comes, I also make sure our personal belongings are picked up and out of their way – they’re there to clean the room, not organise or handle our stuff.”
Another big perk of hotel-living has been making use of the facilities – with every hotel they have stayed at having a gym, swimming pool and complimentary WiFi.
Lilli, 22, moved into hotels alongside her husband starting in June 2025, a necessary part of his work as a military contractor for a private company.
Over the past year, they have had one long-term hotel stay in Maine, followed by their current placement in Florida.
At holidays like Thanksgiving, they put up small decorations to make the space feel more homely, and have a makeshift kitchen with an Airfryer if the hotel room doesn’t come with a fully equipped cooking space.
The unique arrangement means they are able to save thousands of dollars, with Lilli’s husband’s employer covering the cost of their hotel stay.
If they were based in their home state, she estimates rental costs for a one-bedroom apartment sitting at $1,300 per month, as well as up to $300 in utilities.
Lilli said: “We aren’t choosing hotel living because it’s cheaper than renting.
“If we were personally paying the normal hotel rate, it obviously wouldn’t be.
“The discounted rate for our current stay works out to around $1,000 per week, although it varies. “At the hotel’s standard rate without his employer’s discount, the same stay would cost around $1,800 per week.”
In October, they’ll have a temporary reprieve back in Virginia, where they stay family other than for visits of longer than a few months – in which case they get a furnished rental.
While the couple enjoys their current set-up, it does come with drawbacks.
Lilli said: “The biggest con to living in a hotel is simply that it isn’t your home.
“We have decorations, sentimental items and other belongings in storage back home that we can’t display or use because we don’t have space for them.
“It also makes having family visit more difficult.
“We usually have a pull-out couch, but then our beds are essentially side-by-side in one room, which doesn’t really work when my husband has to get up for work at 4 a.m. the next morning.
“There are also little things you don’t necessarily think about until you’re living in a hotel for months.
“You have limited storage, limited kitchen space and very little separation between where you sleep, work, eat and relax.
“You have to get creative about making a relatively small space function as a home.”
But despite that, Lilli and her husband are happily planning to spend the next few years continuing their current unique living arrangement.
She added: “We plan to continue doing this for at least the next few years.
“My husband likes his job, and being able to travel was always a goal of mine, so right now this gives us a lot of the best of both worlds.
“We’re young and don’t have children, so it feels like a great time in our lives to take advantage of the opportunity, experience different places and eventually figure out where we’d like to settle more permanently.
“It was also always a goal of mine to travel, so it works really well for us at this point in our lives.”
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