Determined Father Gets Back on His Feet While Living in Hotel

Some travelers rack up hotel stays without even physically spending the night in the room, in an effort to retain elite status in a hotel loyalty program. Some like One Mile at a Time determined that due to their constant travel, it makes more sense to live in hotels full-time.

Today there’s a story in the news about a slightly different scenario. 38-year-old Les Dent was working in a hotel but lost his job. He carefully weighed his options, and with just $300 in his pocket decided that rather than go to a homeless shelter while he got back on his feet he would simply live at the nearby Best Value Inn hotel in La Crosse as a resident.

He didn’t want to uproot his 13-year-old son from his school, and preferred to keep a permanent residence to call home to keep stability.

According to the article he finds cooking challenging with just a microwave and tiny fridge (maybe he should read about cooking in hotel rooms using coffee pots and irons), but feels he has kept his self-respect and pride by staying out of a shelter.

The arrangement seems to have worked out well, even though there are drawbacks for the family. There isn’t much of a place for Mr. Dent’s son Mikey to play outside, and he is wary of inviting friends over. This increased after a young woman was found dead after a suspected drug overdose just across the hall.

Mikey is a quarterback with his middle school’s football team and when practicing throwing the ball he just does it into a nearby dumpster rather than with buddies from his neighborhood.

Mr. Dent recently found a new job in the hotel business and he and his son are focused on saving money to someday move out to get back into a typical home life. For now though, the two of them are helping each other out the best they can.

Best of luck to the Dent family, and hopefully Mr. Dent has been able to get America’s Best Value Inn’s loyalty program’s Value Club savings for his long stay!