I Live In Marriott Hotels for $50/Night & Eat for Free Too
- Ashley McCurdy (In Search Of Traveler)
- Dec 7, 2025
- 13 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
The Real Scoop on Digital Nomad Life
Disclosure Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. All opinions are my own, and commissions come at no extra cost to you.
Welcome to my travel blog! If you’re new here, I’m Ashley, and for the past five years I’ve been traveling, eating, exploring, and living in hotels full-time, usually at a Marriott property, on about $500 per week and sharing my travel adventures on Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, Facebook and Clubhouse. To make my tight budget work, I’ve gotten really good at finding $50/night hotel deals around the world, and I now share these deals with my community through a FREE hotel deals newsletter.
Despite the name Travel Tips for Broke People, you don’t have to be broke to enjoy this blog. I started traveling full-time when I was unemployed and on a very limited budget, so yes, I was broke, but I’ve always liked nice things. I had a hostel budget but wanted the comfort of hotels. That challenged me to get creative, and over time I figured out how to enjoy hotel living and luxury experiences without breaking the bank.
That’s exactly how this blog was born, to show you how to travel smarter, live well, and stretch your budget, no matter where you’re starting from. I created this blog for people who are curious about full-time travel on a budget that includes luxury experiences without breaking the bank. There are a lot of travel “experts” online, but I kept running into the same bad advice over and over again, either using corporate or discounted hotel rates you’re not actually entitled to (which I strongly discourage, as it violates the terms of many hotel loyalty programs and can result in accounts being audited or shut down), or saving massive amounts of points for a single bucket-list trip that lasts about a week.
While those strategies might work once, they’re difficult to repeat consistently, especially if you want to travel full-time or long-term, not just one or two trips per year. The travel strategies I teach focus on flexibility, repeatable systems, and smarter booking methods that can be used over and over again, without shortcuts, rule-breaking, or needing huge point balances.
If you’ve been following my travel adventures over the last few years, you probably already know that I’ve hit some major travel milestones I’m incredibly proud of, like earning Titanium Elite status with Marriott for only about $2000 or hitting 300 nights in 2025 with Marriott Bonvoy for less than $10K.
If you’re someone who wants to travel more but isn’t sure where to start, I’m excited to finally have a dedicated space where I can not only teach you practical strategies for booking affordable trips, but also share the reasoning behind the decisions I make while traveling full-time.
Why Flexibility Is the Key to Finding Cheap Hotel Deals
My top travel tip is always the same, be flexible. I know this can be frustrating for travelers hoping for a single “secret strategy,” but flexibility is one of the most important factors when it comes to finding cheap flights and low-cost hotel rates.
If you lock in your destination or dates before finding a deal, you’re essentially accepting whatever prices airlines and hotels have already set. Outside of price matching, there’s very little you can do to change rates for a specific place on fixed dates. When you stay flexible, whether that’s with dates, destinations, or both, there is almost always a travel deal available. The real question becomes whether you’re open to visiting that destination.
Search Experiences, Not Just Destinations
Instead of saying, “I want to go to Honolulu,” I’ll instead say, “I want to visit a beautiful beach.” That beach could be in Colombia, Thailand, Dubai, Spain, or anywhere else in the world where there are beautiful beaches I can enjoy at a time where hotels in that location have lower than expected occupancy. If I’m set on a specific destination, like Disney World, I shift my flexibility to timing instead of location, avoiding peak travel periods such as spring break, summer vacation, and Christmas when hotel rates are at their highest because kids are out of school.
How Supply and Demand Drives Hotel and Flight Prices
Hotel and flight pricing is almost always driven by supply and demand. When hotels have plenty of available rooms or airlines have empty seats, prices drop. When availability tightens, prices rise. Staying flexible allows you to travel during these low occupancy periods, where the best deals tend to pop up often in places most travelers overlook.
To find these deals, I often search:
entire countries
sometimes entire continents instead of locking into a single city.
Real Example: Finding a $48/Night Marriott in Thailand
In 2022, I wanted a resort-style beach stay in Thailand. Instead of searching only Phuket, a popular and more expensive destination, I searched all of Thailand. That’s how I found a $48/night public rate at Le Meridien Khao Lak, a destination I had never even heard of. It’s only about an hour from Phuket, close enough for excursions, but the rate was 1/3 of the price of similar properties in Phuket. If I had limited my search to one city, I would have completely missed that deal.
Using Hotel Price Matching to Find $50/Night Deals
All of the hotel deals I share in my FREE newsletter use publicly available rates. You don’t need a travel credit card, elite status, or corporate codes to book them. Most discounts come from hotel Best Rate Guarantee and price matching programs, including what I call “The Big 5”:
Hyatt matches and beats competitor prices by 20%
IHG matches competitor prices and gives you points.
How Hotel Price Matching Works (Example)
One of my community members from the Best Travel Tips course booked a Marriott property in Seattle for $150 per night directly on Marriott’s website. She later found the exact same room and dates listed for $100 per night on Expedia. She submitted a Best Rate Gurantee claim, and Marriott:
matched the $100 rate
reduced it by an additional 25% bringing the final price down to $75/night
That’s a 50% discount off the original rate and one of my most reliable strategies for consistently finding $50/night hotel deals worldwide.
Why I Don’t Recommend Using Corporate Codes
Some travel “experts” sell overpriced courses where they "teach" people to use corporate or discounted codes they’re not entitled to. I don’t recommend this. Using unauthorized corporate codes violates hotel terms and can result in loyalty account audits, point forfeitures, or account closures. Price matching programs offer a legitimate way to access similar or even better rates without risking losing your account.
If you feel like you can never find these cheap hotel rates, don’t worry, I share them for FREE in my hotel deals newsletter, Deal of the Day.
where I send real, bookable hotel deals that I personally find and would stay at myself.
What started as a personal list of hotels that I wanted to book for my own travels has turned into a free resource for budget travelers and digital nomads, where I share proven strategies for finding $50ish/night hotel deals, so you too can travel in style without overspending.
If you want to see these deals in real time and follow along as I continue finding $50ish/night Marriott hotels around the world, make sure to follow my travels on
Instagram where I share behind-the-scenes searches, real bookings, and additional tips I don’t always post on the blog. I’ll also be publishing future posts that break down even more of my best methods for consistently finding affordable hotel stays worldwide.
Why I Travel & Live In Hotels Full-time
I started my full-time hotel living journey five years ago, at age 33, after losing my internal communications job at a Fortune 50 company. With a severance package in hand, I didn’t want to rush into another job just for a paycheck. Instead, I took time in late 2019 to reset, first at a meditation retreat in San Diego, then on a self-reflection trip to Bali to figure out what I actually wanted my next chapter to look like.
I remember sitting at the Four Seasons Sayan at a Chakra Cleansing Ceremony thinking, I don’t know what’s next, but I know I don’t want to take another job I’m not passionate about. Then 2020 happened. The world paused, and suddenly my future felt very uncertain. By spring 2020, I was worried my savings wouldn’t last through the end of the year. Around that time, I watched Kara and Nate’s 100 Country Documentary where they traveled the world on about $75 a day. It inspired me to look at travel differently. Since I was already good at finding deals, I checked hotel prices worldwide and realized something surprising, hotels were cheaper than my rent.
At the time, I was paying $2,300 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in southern California. When my lease expired in July, renewing it no longer made financial sense. Instead, I made a bold decision to move out and live full-time in hotels for less than the cost of rent.
How Living in Hotels Became Cheaper Than Rent
That decision wasn’t about travel at all, it was actually about survival. My goal was to reduce expenses, stretch my savings, and buy time to rebuild my life and career. Travel was the cherry on top, getting to live in hotels around the world for less than the cost of rent.
Fast-forward five years, and my budget looks very different. I now typically spend about $50 per night on hotels, which works out to roughly $350 per week or $1,500 per month for my housing. When I redeem hotel points earned each month, that number often drops even lower. After covering hotel costs, I usually have around $150 per week for food, transportation, and entertainment.
Some people criticize my slow pace of travel or assume full-time travelers should be doing excursions every day. But I always remind them, I started traveling full-time at the lowest point of my life. My goal wasn’t to see the entire world as fast as possible, it was to stay afloat. Traveling slowly allowed me to avoid burning through money, reduce stress, and build a sustainable lifestyle. That’s why I’ve been able to live this life for over 5 years instead of burning out after 1.
Why Hotel Living Actually Works Long-Term
Over time, I realized that I genuinely love hotel living. It allows me to enjoy a “bougie on a budget” lifestyle that would cost three times as much if I lived in a traditional apartment in Los Angeles. I still experience amazing destinations, incredible food, and one in a lifetime activities and excursians but intentionally, not constantly. After 5 years, I can confidently say that fast travel leads to burnout for most people within 1 to 2 years. My goal each year is simple, I want to enjoy 10 meaningful experiences and share them with my community. Just like my favorite aviation creators Nonstop Dan and Trek Trendy who focus on flights instead of constant sightseeing, my content has naturally evolved toward sharing hotel reviews, exceptional hotel deals and of course, food (because I’m a foodie and still have to eat every day).
The Hidden Perks of Living in Hotels Full-Time
One of the biggest benefits of full-time hotel living is what I don’t pay for. There are:
no utility bills
no electricity, gas, water, trash, or internet costs
daily housekeeping
I haven’t scrubbed a toilet, washed towels, or changed my own sheets in over five years. Many hotels also include daily breakfast, often with specialty coffee, which easily saves me $200+ per month compared to buying coffee and breakfast out every day. When you add everything up, hotel living isn’t just convenient, it’s strategic.
Eating for Free Using Marriott’s Guaranteed Welcome Gift
One of the biggest perks of having top-tier Marriott status is that I rarely pay for food while living in hotels. I intentionally book Marriott rates that include free breakfast, and I prioritize properties that offer a daily food and beverage credit through Marriott's Guaranteed Welcome Gift.
The Marriott Guaranteed Welcome Gift is available to Platinum Elite members and above at check-in and allows you to choose from different benefits depending on the hotel brand. These options typically include:
bonus points
complimentary breakfast
or a daily food and beverage credit (often $10 per day, or $20 per day when booked for two guests)
Some Marriott brands and locations even offer additional welcome amenities, making this benefit especially valuable for long-term hotel stays.
How the Welcome Gift Covers My Meals
Because I spend much of my time traveling in Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East, where food prices are significantly lower than in the United States, a $10 daily food and beverage credit often covers an entire meal and sometimes even an alcoholic drink too.
At properties with executive lounges, I can often skip meals altogether thanks to:
Complimentary evening appetizers
complimentary cocktails
On days when I don’t use the food and beverage credit, I’ll save it for later and use it on items like sparkling water, room service snacks, or pitchers of alcoholic drinks I can enjoy over multiple days.
Why This Works for Full-Time Hotel Living
When combined with free breakfast, lounge access, and strategic use of food and beverage credits, Marriott’s Guaranteed Welcome Gift plays a huge role in how I’m able to eat for free or nearly free while living in hotels full-time.
It’s one of the most overlooked benefits of Marriott Bonvoy Elite status, especially for travelers who stay long-term rather than just a few nights at a time.
Handling Cell Phone Plans While Traveling Full-Time
During my first year of full-time travel, I was still using an international phone plan through Sprint (now owned by T-Mobile). Just four months into my trip, I received a warning that if I didn’t stop international roaming and return to the United States soon, my phone service would be canceled.
This is something long-term travelers and digital nomads rarely talk about, international phone plans are frustrating, expensive, and often unreliable when you’re outside the U.S. for extended periods of time. At the time, I was paying nearly $300 per month for an “unlimited” international plan, an unrealistic cost for anyone trying to travel on a budget. Even worse, the plan didn’t include calls to 1-800 numbers, which I constantly needed for hotels, banks, and customer service while abroad.
How I Call 1-800 Numbers for Free Abroad
My workaround was discovering the Skype Dial Pad which allows you to call U.S. toll-free (1-800) numbers from anywhere in the world at no cost. I still use it today whenever I need to contact:
hotel customer service
banks
airline customer service
While Skype discontinued its Skype-to-Phone landline calling subscription in May 2025, the free Dial Pad remains one of the most reliable tools for calling toll-free U.S. numbers while traveling internationally.
My Current Solution for USA Phone Calls While Abroad
For receiving and making regular U.S. phone calls while traveling, I now use TextMe which costs about $10 per month when subscribed through Apple. TextMe works similarly to Google Voice but has been far more reliable overseas in my experience. It provides a USA based virtual number that allows me to:
receive calls and texts
make outbound USA calls
stay reachable while living abroad full-time
One thing to keep in mind is that some banks and websites do not send verification codes to VOIP numbers for security reasons. That said, among all the virtual phone services I’ve tested, TextMe has been the only virtual number service that allows this.
How I Handle Mail While Traveling Full-Time
I use a virtual mailbox service to manage my mail while traveling full-time. I currently pay $14.99 per month for a virtual mailbox through US Global Mail one of the most popular mail forwarding services for travelers and digital nomads. With a virtual mailbox, all of my physical mail is sent to a secure USA mailing address, and I can manage everything online from anywhere in the world.
What I Can Do With My Mail
Whenever I receive new mail, I can choose to:
store it securely until I’m ready to take action
forward it internationally to almost any address (for an additional fee)
have it scanned and emailed, so I can read it instantly online
Why a Virtual Mailbox Is Essential for Long-Term Travel
For full-time travelers, expats, and digital nomads, a virtual mailbox makes it possible to:
maintain a U.S. address without a physical home
manage bills, bank letters, and legal documents remotely
stay organized while living or traveling abroad
It’s one of the simplest systems I use to keep my life running smoothly while traveling long-term.
How I Do Laundry While Traveling Full-Time
One of my favorite travel gadgets for long-term travel is the Scrubba Wash Bag, a portable washing machine that fits easily in a backpack or carry-on. It’s my go to solution for doing laundry while traveling, especially when I’m staying in hotels without washing machines for guests or when hotel laundry services are overpriced.
When my hotel room has a bathtub, I’ll sometimes use it to hand-wash clothes and mimic a washing machine. But when I don’t have a tub or when I want something fast, simple, and effective, the Scrubba Wash Bag makes it easy to wash clothes anywhere in the world.
Why the Scrubba Works for Full-Time Travelers
For most of my travels, the Scrubba is the most reliable and cost-effective laundry option because it:
doesn’t require access to a washing machine
saves money on hotel laundry services
allows me to wash clothes on my own schedule
works in any hotel room
Every once in a while, I’ll use a local laundromat or a fluff and fold service when it’s affordable, but for day to day travel, portable laundry is what keeps my costs low and my packing light.
Important Tip for Full-Time Travelers
No matter how much you prepare, research, or plan, there will never be a perfect time to start traveling full-time. You’ll never feel 100% ready and that’s exactly why you have to start anyway.
Here’s the part most digital nomads don’t talk about, this lifestyle is about 90% mindset and only 10% skill. You don’t learn confidence, rhythm, or budgeting from endless planning, you learn it by doing. The clarity comes after you take action. So consider this your sign. Book the ticket. Pack your bags. Your life at home will always be there if you need to return, but you don’t want to look back wondering “what if?” Starting imperfectly is how everything begins.
I am excited to use this blog to dive deeper into my nomadic lifestyle and share everything I’ve learned over the past five years. Be sure to also follow my journey on Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, Facebook and Clubhouse, where I post content about hotel deals, full-time travel, and living a luxury lifestyle on a budget.
And if you want to travel like me, don't wait on your friends, instead check out my Best Travel Tips course, where I share the my very best strategies and tools. If you want to join our community don't forget to use promo code BLOG to grab the special $97 discounted price (normally $497) for readers from the Travel Tips For Broke People blog.