Tales From The In Town Suites

It's not really tales so much as a general wondering. The In Town Suites is an intriguing take on hotels. After years of living in hotels in my old job and the company (or actually Uncle Sam) paying for it, I've had to find a cheap place to stay for the three weeks before I go to Colorado. This place offered the cheapest weekly rates and seemed pretty clean on the outside. It is apparently ran differently than a hotel. Smoking is allowed everywhere but the hallways and common areas which means every room smells like boiled cat's ass. On top of which the cleaning crew uses industrial strength cleaning compounds to cover the odor, so now it smells like boiled cat's ass sautéed in concentrated lemon acid. The room has an air of mold to it and I find myself with a headache the more time I spend here. I can handle that all for three weeks though.

What I'm curious about is the people that live here, there seem to be families actually living here instead of an apartment or house. I'm curious why? I don't think on a monthly basis it's cheaper than a house, let alone an apartment. A flyer posted in the office has some bullet points listing the advantages. There are no utilities to pay and you get room service (once a week). There are some other advantages but none seem to offset the boiled cat ass. Two advantages are the kitchenette but there are no utensils or cookware, you still need your own stuff.

Are the people staying here military waiting for base housing? That doesn't seem logical. There aren't any bases close by. Maybe they're just adventure lovers. There are several utility and work trucks so I bet there are contractors, ones not lucky enough to have Uncle Sam pay (or taking advantage of per diem in hand). Maybe some are member's of a sixties radical group like the Weather Underground and they've been on the run with their kids since the early seventies, like Judd Hirsch and River Phoenix. That's one of those notions that sounds more romantic in theory than in reality.

Whatever the case is I hope they're all happier here than I am. Although there's always been a demented side of me that likes living in dives. Oh and you get to keep the towels when you leave, so it's got that going for it.