64-year-old Terry Robison is a working-class retiree trying to make his money last throughout the remainder of his life. And Holiday Inn is the clear winner.
That’s according to a Facebook post from Robison in which he evaluated the per-day cost of staying in a retirement home for seniors and the daily cost of staying at a Holiday Inn. Robison found out that when applying the senior discount he qualifies for, the Holiday Inn would cost less than $60 per day. The senior home, on the other hand, cost around $188 per day, making it more than three times more expensive than the hotel chain.
“That leaves $128.77 a day for lunch and dinner in any restaurant we want, or room service, laundry, gratuities and special TV movies. Plus, they provide a spa, swimming pool, a workout room, a lounge and washer-dryer, etc. Most have free toothpaste and razors, and all have free shampoo and soap. $5-worth of tips a day and you’ll have the entire staff scrambling to help you,” Robison wrote in a Facebook post. “They treat you like a customer, not a patient.”
“It takes months to get into decent nursing homes. Holiday Inn will take your reservation today,” he added. “And you’re not stuck in one place forever — you can move from Inn to Inn, or even from city to city.”
“The Inn has a night security person and daily room service. The maid checks to see if you are ok. If not, they’ll call an ambulance… or the undertaker,” Robison continued. “If you fall and break a hip, Medicare will pay for the hip, and Holiday Inn will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.”
Over the course of a year, Robison would pay approximately $21,900 to stay at a Holiday Inn at the senior discount rate for 365 days. The retirement home he looked at would cost $68,620. And that’s typically the price for a senior home, according to Forbes. In 2017, the outlet examined the cost of retirement homes, and found that while many senior homes weren’t transparent about pricing, the data they could find suggested a retiree could pay up to almost $100,000/year.
“Median annual cost for assisted living, according to the 2016 Genworth Cost of Care Study: $43,539; for a private room in a nursing home: $92,378,” wrote Forbes’ Richard Eisenberg.
Dan Brewer, who works for a company that invests in private-pay senior housing facilities, wrote in 2018 that senior housing can cost anywhere between $1,500 and $6,000/month, or $18,000 to $72,000 over the course of a year. With those prices, it’s no wonder Terry Robison is choosing the Holiday Inn for retirement living.
