Extended Stay America: Why It Should Be Your Office Away From Office or Home

I love being able to discover new things that save a ton of money, are practical and perfect for those who want to save big time money. 

That’s why I want to share this next idea with you. We even tested it out ourselves. Extended Stay America let us stay in their hotel for free for us to tell you about our experience. The thoughts and opinions are 100% our own and we only share what we think is going to be of benefit to our readers. In addition, we share our honest thoughts and experience. 

Remember that last month, we travelled down to Southern California for vacation. During the course of my research, we stayed at a hotel chain that I had never stayed at, and even barely knew about, Extended Stay America. 

In fact, I am really surprised that I, the thrifty gal I am, had not known about Extended Stay America by the sheer fact that they have full kitchens in each room. 

The full kitchen requirement is always a huge one for us as we are picky eaters, and eating out is so, so expensive when you are on travel (at least if you want to eat half way decent). So I generally end up looking to by someone’s timeshare week, primarily for that full kitchen. 

But with buying a week off of someone, you still have many limitations, like a pretty strict travel schedule, which is difficult for families like us who rarely go somewhere for more than 2-3 nights. So it hasn’t been the easiest option. 

Instead for those shorter trips we generally use our hotel tricks and just stay at a hotel and do a lot of cold foods (like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). 

That was until we were introduced to the world of FRUGAL, HOTEL and KITCHEN, all at once in Extended Stay America. 

It is the perfect trio! 

I shared videos and talked about the many amazing benefits of our Extended Stay America stay when we went on vacation last month. This is our new favorite option for family travel. 

But, there was another aspect to this trip that I wanted to highlight additionally in this article. 

We work from home or on the road. Even Alex’s job can be done remotely. We are not only trying to find a place to have a kitchen, but a place that is accommodating for work – home away from home. 

Since the last time I talked about Extended Stay America, it was primarily regarding the fabulous family travel and extended stay idea, I really wanted to show you why it is great for those working on the road. 

When we work and travel on the road, we are usually having to sacrifice something like a kitchen, office space, poor internet, or price. 

But as we were gone and Alex needing to work, we weren’t sure how Extended Stay America was going to work. We knew we weren’t sacrificing price or kitchen, so we thought it was probable that he would not have good internet or working space, but we were going to “tether” off of our phone’s internet…yes, using our data and paying extra.  But if it meant he got his work done, then he got it done and could go with us in the first place. 

When we arrived at the Extended Stay America, we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the King room. The room was huge! We also had a standard room and it was standard size and so also workable. 

Like pretty much all hotel rooms, there was a desk, but this desk also had a very nice office chair! 

Alex did a video walk-through of his time and thoughts working his hours while we were on vacation and how that worked out. You can check out the live video on Facebook HERE. 

Finally, the internet was free, which was nice because we have stayed at other hotels where the internet was $15 or so dollars per 24-hours, but even after paying only to find out it was weak and not very helpful for actual work, more just quickly checking emails, and such. 

Honestly, the free internet at Extended Stay America was much like the internet in other hotels that you paid for.  At least you didn’t have to pay the $15 per day for slowish internet like you do at other hotels.

But this is where it gets awesome! Extended Stay America had an option for high speed internet. Alex explains it all in the videos below, but you can upgrade for $3.99 a day if you need the high speed, $14.99 per week or $19.99 per month.  

When we upgraded for the $14.99 for the week, we had no problems. It was fast, effective and super helpful. So the most we paid for nice internet access was $15 for the whole week and were very satisfied – even with Alex having the ability to connect through his work’s VPN without issue. We haven’t come across a more affordable option for high speed internet in the past. 

If you would like to get Alex’s working review of our stay and his working days at Extended Stay America, watch the video below (start at 9:54 – 11:25 for information on the internet and office away from office). 

Please note our FULL REVIEW HERE for everything you needed to know, but I wanted to talk about the office away from office benefits for those of you that are work-at-home and home business owners like us. 

In the end, if you are thinking you have to give up money, convenience, kitchen or comfort to work on the road, think again! I love the fact that the rooms are suites with kitchens and less than $100 a night (some locations and dates even in the $70’s and $80’s) when you search the discount rates and use coupon codes. They always seem to have a coupon code available like this 20% off stays of 1-6 nights. 

Also, here’s something I have never seen from other hotel rewards and discount programs. The Extended Perks program gives you additional discounts to activities, restaurants, events, places to see, etc. all over the country. It is a coupon book to use anywhere that you are visiting.  You can even use them in your local area without having to stay at Extended Stay America. 

So, check the prices in the area you wish to visit and then check for coupon codes and join the ExtendedPerks program for even greater savings! 

It is an amazing price for home away…..and office….away from home and office. 

Have you stayed at an Extended Stay America before? 

They have 700 locations across the country, so you can check for the prices HERE and be sure to join the free ExtendedPerks program HERE for additional discounts (like 20% off).