I like upscale accomodations: large room, plush furniture, nice decor, beautiful grounds etc. I also hate the sight of valet, bellhops, concierge, etc. I need no help parking my car or bringing in my bags and dislike the idea of paying for these services. Just wondering if anyone else likes upscale without the "service."

No - I disagree completely.

That type of service is part of the luxury package - and I do want someone to do everything for me - I don;t want to lift a finger. When I'm working it's usually 80+ hours per week - plus commuting - so on vacation I adore all this service and pampering - and when I'm working I really need it - I don;t have time to worry about the details.

Well, hating them is a bit strong, but I'll have to agree that when it takes one guy to take your car to valet, another to give you your parking ticket, another to take bags out of the trunk, another to wheel them into the lobby, and another to deliver them to your room -- all with their hands out, it does get to be a little too much. And I really dislike that practice of the hotel giving you a claim check for your luggage then when you get to your room, you need to wait 15 minutes or longer for them to bring it up. Especially when I could have easily wheeled it up myself.

And when it's just an overnight and I have a tiny wheeled carryon as my total luggage, I really feel silly having people wheel it for me.

When there is convenient self-parking, I'd just as soon park it myself. To save money? No (and often self park is the same price as valet these days). But if I'm 10 minutes from dinner I don't like having to call to get my car 45 minutes early because it's likely to take them 30 minutes if the hotel is busy -- and most are at dinner time.

Turn down service and fresh towels an hour after check in, and before you could even be ready to go out for the evening?

No ice in the hall that would take me 30 seconds to go get, but if you call downstairs in 15 minutes or so someone will bring you some with his palm out?

I agree I like luxurious rooms, but it would be nice to get one without all the fuss. I know many like the fuss, I don't.

And while we're at it, I despise room service meals. I find it so depressing if you have to eat in your room. So people raving about the quality of room service for a particular hotel is totally lost on me.

Would it be possible to give the first guy you come in contact with a 50 and say, don't let anyone else come near me?

For me it totally depends on where I am.. sometimes I want the escort to my room and valet park... Sometimes I do not. I get a bit irritated when I have walked 1/2 mile to get to the lobby from the self park and the bellman try to wrestle my bags from me. I'm like... "Sure dude, like I am gonna give you 5.00 to carry my bags the last 25 yards!"
Generally I am a do it yourself gal.
I don't like turn down or butler services at all!

You can always politely wave off offers for assistance...

Best is a hotel where they all wave off offers of gratuities...

I am so glad someone finally brought this up. We avoid some nicer hotels because we are uncomfortable with someone else insisting on driving our car (sometimes a rental) the short distance to a garage or not being able to take our few bags to our room ourselves.

I thought we were the only people that felt this way!

By the way, here's my Bellagio, Las Vegas story. When the hotel was quite new, two of us arrived in our rental car (we were picking the other two up at the airport a few hours later). By impulse we drove into the line for valet parking. Some 20 minutes or so later we were still in line sitting in our car. We got out of the line and drove around to self park. We checked into our room, leaving our luggage in the car. Later we drove over, picked up the girls and returned doing our own luggage to the room. We found out the only way they will help with luggage is if you come in at valet parking, let them check your bags, give you a claim check, and then later bring the bags to your room.

When we got ready to check out we called to see if a bellman would come to take our luggage to the self park area where we could pick it up. NO WAY. The only thing we could do would be to have him get the luggage, check it into a storage room, wait for us to bring our car around to valet (standing in the ever present traffic jam inching up to the door) and then they would get our luggage and bring it to the car.
And people wondered why we just wheeled our own luggage to our car. It got us on the road to Zion probably an hour earlier than using their system.

I'm in agreement with those of you who really like the luxury hotels, but dislike much of the hoopla surrounding them. I don't mind parking my own car and carrying my own bags. The one exception to this is when the parking is off premises (as it is in several San Francisco hotels). Then I really appreciate the valet!

Neopolitan, I understand what you are saying about room service -- but the exception is, for me, having a late meal/snack after an evening at the theater. My husband and I love to come in, order room service, and have some wine when we come in late. It is a great way to unwind, discuss the evening, and relax. We seldom have a big meal before we go, so we're also pretty hungry!

As to the room service issue, we actually enjoy breakfast in our room. Especially if the room has a nice view we enjoy starting our morning with breakfast by ourselves, enjoying our surroundings.

I love room service. WHen I travel for work, I am around people all day long, listening to them yammer and yammer. I like being able to have a nice meal wearing just a nice, fluffy robe and not having to interact with anyone except the nice guy who brings the food.

And when they bring the bags to my room, I prefer they take their money and leave - I do not need anyone to show me where the bathroom is, how to work the window shades, how to turn the TV on - I think I can handle that myself.

It was funny to watch bellhop deal with my kids' idea of what snacks they needed in a hotel room, though. They insisted we stop at a supermarket to buy some room snacks - being teenagers, we left with multiple bags of chips, dips, sodas, etc. and watching the bellhop take these to the room with our bags as we followed along looking like the Beverly Hillbillies was a good one.

Well, more power to those of you who actually enjoy eating in your room. I too like eating after a show, nevermind, but prefer doing it in a nice quiet bistro that is winding down. Of course sometimes it's too late for them, and that's when I've been FORCED to do food in my room.
The only thing I hate more than that is to be served breakfast in bed. I can think of two major things to do in bed, and neither of them involve cereal or omelettes.

There are self park hotels with room service. Hyatt Monterey come to mind...

Do you travel alone, Neopolitan, or travel for work?

I totally agree with you. We love the upscale hotels, but we don't want anyone to help us with our luggage and we don't want them to park our car. It's not the money. I want to be in control. I don't want to wait for someone to take my car, nor do I want to wait for them to bring it to me.

Our luggage has wheels and it is no trouble at all.

We usually don't need the services of the concierge, other than directions, perhaps.

We love the luxury, but we don't require the service.

I thought we were the only ones - LOL

IMO if you are in a hotel and feel "pressured" to accept any offered service then the hotel isn't as upscale as it would like people to think it is.

I agree you should feel free to use or not use any services and not feel "intimidated" if you don't.

As a follow-on...whether you like it or not when I was hauling bags in a hotel one year we all thought the people who didn't want us to help were "cheap."

Ditto. I don't want anyone else in my car, whether at a hotel or a restaurant. And I certainly don't want to wait for it to come around. The last time I willingly used Valet, I had a broken leg. THEN it was nice.

Nor do I want to entrust my bags to someone else. It really ticks me off to have to wait for the bags to come upstairs. Normally the very first thing I want to do is get in my cosmetics case and scrub off some of the travel-ugly.

But the very worst are the hotels that keep sending people up to the room. My husband and I had a bellman breeze in with a welcoming gift while we were naked once. We were still looking around going "what's that buzzing sound?" when the door opened.

I definitely don't want anyone else driving my car, but when we are away, 9 times out of 10 we have flown so that's not an issue. Plenty of upscale hotels have both self park as well as valet, and we'll use self park with rental cars in order not to have to wait when we want it.

If we don't have much luggage, I have no qualms about saying, "no thanks, I can get it myself", but if there are several bags, as there often are, I'm glad to have them do it. I'll still take the one bag with "those items you should never pack in your luggage for a flight" with me...for the same reason I carried it on the plane! Not using bellhops isn't so much a matter of cheapness as it is just plain wanting to be by myself/ourselves, and not make small talk with anyone after an inevitably tiring day. If that's not the way they perceive it, so be it...no skin off my back.

I've never seen a concierge approach anyone, it's vice versa, so they aren't an issue. We rarely use them but they can be wonderful if you want to get into a place that is normally booked!

Bellman are supposed to show you where things are (fire exits) and offer to get ice for you by the way...that's part of AAA's rating so they had better give their spiel, lest you be the dreaded inspector!

I love them when i'm traveling for business.
I prefer not to see / use them when traveling for pleasure, as they remind me too much OF work.