Help me manage staying in a hotel in between current house and new house

[Anonymous]

The back story is that we are purchasing a new construction house. When we sold our current house, we built a rent-back into the contract so that, if construction finished on time, we would have 3 1/2 weeks of overlap between the two houses. We figured that would allow enough time for construction delays, as the house was fairly far along when we did these contracts. Construction was supposed to be done 2 weeks ago and, every time that we try to set closing, the builder says he needs a few more days. At this point, we have had 4 tentative closing dates, including the LAST day that we have our current house (plan was to have a family member supervise the movers at our current house while we went to closing, then have movers deliver everything to new house). Now, the builder isn't sure he can be done by that date and told us to start to make contingency plans.

Our mover can store our belongings, we can pay a daily rate to extend our mortgage lock, and (once we get closer to the date) we'll schedule boarding for the dog and book an extended stay hotel (since hopefully it won't be more than a week or two). Here are my questions for anyone who has done this before:

1. Can you recommend a hotel in the lower Montgomery County area? We are two parents with a toddler and infant, so really need to have kitchen space and a separate bedroom so the kids can go to bed with some semblance of a routine.

2. Any suggestions on how to make this managable in terms of meals, assuming we at least have a small fridge and microwave in the room?

3. Any suggestions on what to take to a hotel for an indefinite period of time with 2 little kids?

4. Ideas on outings the nanny can go on with the kids, since I can't imagine being stuck in a hotel suite with 2 little kids for more than a day or two, especially in the winter?

5. Our contract provides for an "estimated closing date" without any penalties for the builder to delay closing. Our agent advised that this is standard with new construction. Do we have any grounds to ask our builder to offset some of these costs? (Other than using my time machine to go back and insist that this be included or doing a longer rent back period for our current house.)

As you can tell, I'm freaking out at the prospect of managing this in the midst of our move. The buyers for our house already extended our rent back by a few days (at double the cost...), so I know they don't have any more flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Have beed doing something similar (mid move - stayed with relatives a few days, then moved into a (small) rental with a trailer of 'short term' items and the rest of our stuff arrives in 2 weeks. Anyway, thoughts for the hotel portion:
-plan a 'short term' packig list in advance
-in additon to clothes, plan to bring some boxes of kids toys. assuming you're in toy overload like us, pack these NOW. they'll be ready to go when you need them, and will seem fresh/fun again when the kids open the boxes. our kids are a bit older (2.5 & 5) but I packed some books, puzzles, magnatiles, and art supplies. And I got a couple inexpensive new toys to pull out.
-Plan to bring some items (bedding, stuffed animals, etc.) from the kids rooms to make it feel more familiar
- For meals, most extended stay hotels have the basic supplies. so you should be good with pasta level meals. just keep it simple and you'll be fine.
-for activities, would your nanny be comfortable taking kids to a pool if the hotel has one? If you don't already have one, the puddle jumper is GREAT to let a toddler be able to play in he pool (it's a USCG approve floatation device.) obviously need to still very closelt monitor kids, but I did find it made it manageable for me to bring both an infant and toddler to the pool at the same time.
-For other activities - what does your nanny do with kids now/what are the indoor options? I'm not familar with MoCo, bu maybe you can find a hotel with close proximity to a Little Gym or other indoor facility. Walking distance to library would be good to, and some kind of playground for nice days.

Good luck! And I totally get he frustration, but I bet the hotel part will be less painful than you think.

[Anonymous]

The residence inn in downtown Bethesda is reasonable prices, has 1 bedroom suites with kitchens, allows dogs and is close to Barnes and Nobles and kidville.

[Anonymous]

If you can find a Residence Inn, they always take dogs also. Most Starwood hotels also do but they do not advertise that.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the quick responses! I will check the Residence Inn in Bethesda. Does anyone know if it has separate rooms (with a door)? (I've stayed in some that were two levels, so the bedroom was more of a loft than a separate room and noise would travel.) I'm not going to try to take the dog-- she is about 90 pounds and we would need to take her big crate (otherwise she'll try to sleep with the 2 year old and wake him up). Plus, I think it would just be a pain to deal with letting her out during the day (easy for my nanny now to just let her in the backyard). I don't need the added stress of walking her every time she goes out and getting her enough exercise during all of this!

[Anonymous]

residence inn is one of the only hotels with a separate door on the bedroom. Also embassy suites has rooms like this as well.

Also look into executive apartments --really what you're looking for is an extended stay hotel. I would also check anything with suites in the title. Towneplace suites, springhill suites, etc. Call the hotel and ask about rooms if you want to make sure the room has a door.

you might want to try hotwire for deals but I don't think you can guarantee room types if you go through Expedia, hotwire, etc.

[Anonymous]

Who is your builder, OP? We are in the same situation and trying to figure out when to put our house on the market. We did negotiate a penalty for delivery after the estimated closing date, but with a built in one-month grace period. In your situation - 3.5 weeks late - it wouldn't have kicked in yet. I've been told by friends who have done this that you never actually get any money from them when you have one of these clauses; you just use it for leverage to get more stuff out of the builder without being charged for it. Without such a clause, it would be difficult, I would think, unless you can try to guilt them into giving you something for it (that isn't cash) - like that extra molding you passed on or something.

Good luck, OP.

[Anonymous]

Sign up for a rewards program.
Call hotels directly, ask to speak to the GM
Negotiate a month-long prepaid rate
Use the points to offset your expenses
Consider opening a credit card with SPG to go this or Hilton. Done right you might get about $5,000 worth of free hotel nights just by spending $6,000 or $7,000 for a month. I converted approx $7,500 worth of hotel stays at Hilton last year into about $4,000 at an all inclusive at super peak season, and had more left over. Last year SPG had a promotion that got me a week in Greece at a 600 euro a night room for the cost of about $2,000 worth of hotel stays.
You won't make money but it'll take some of the bite out.