Camino1

Okay, now we're speaking the same language!

cbellero

I did this for several years in Germany. I always had a problem with the residency registration. In Germany you have to have a Meldeadresse (official address) registered with the government. It was always extremely difficult to convince them that my residency was in a hotel.

Beyond that one of the funniest experiences in my life was the day I moved out. The other guests looked at me very strangely as I carried out a tv, mini-fridge, about 150 DVD's, two lamps, a rolled-up carpet, etc. Perhaps even funnier was when someone from the hotel wanted to check that I was taking out only things that didn't belong to the hotel. The manager came over and said, loosely translated, "mr. cbellero has spent enough at this hotel that he can take anything from the room that he wants".

Single Malt

My folks just got back from an "around the world cruise" and met several people who had been with the ship for several years. They would have to stay in a hotel for the few weeks when the ship was getting refitted for the next cruise at her home port. They considered the ship their home.

JAT74L

Wow, you could avoid paying council tax in the UK - or could you?

JAT

ldsant

When I moved to NC a few years ago I stayed in a hotel for the first 4 months (year contract) - it was heaven! Maid service every day, free cable, no electric bills to pay, could walk to work, call down for food to be brought to my room. . . *happy sigh*

Then I realized I needed to "get a life!" and found an apartment.

Camino1

Could you imagine having a stay like that in a place like, say, Bali, or Cozumel? Now that's "getting a life!"

rgdave

BostonJim, I did it for about a year a few years ago. I was working for a company that moved me around to integrate new acquisitions into the parent company, usually a month or two in a city and then on to a new city. After the first few months I gave up my apartment in our headquarters city. The biggest challenge was figuring out where to establish residency and have my drivers' license. Then a friend said I'm kind of like those folks who retire and go around the country in an RV, and I bought a couple of books on full-time RVing. There's lot of tips about things like drivers licenses, car registrations and how to handle your mail. I ended up using a mailing service in Seattle that had a lot of clients who were expats, full-time RVers and oil/fishing crews in Alaska, as my 'permanent' address.

holtju2

I have been living out of Marriott's, Hyatt's, IC's, and Hilton's for the past two years or so. It felt stupid for paying for an apartment when I wasn't there half of the time. It is not for everybody and I couldn't imagine doing this for rest of my life. I just need to find out to which continent, country, and city to settle down.

Writing this from Grand Hyatt in Tokyo. Tomorrow moving to Park Hyatt Tokyo and will spend the next week in both Grand and Park Hyatt's in Melbourne.

Max Power

I lived in the Hilton Zurich for a few years - it was very pleasant, someone changed my linens, cleaned up my room, and made my bed every day... I had a hard time going back to 'normal' living after that.

I never had any problem with the address - just wrote my name, "Hilton Hotel", and the hotel's address - that was accepted everywhere, even when I had to renew my passport.

I still spend about 100 days a year in that hotel - they always give me my 'old room' when I make a reservation.

stimpy

If you search on Flyertalk you will see that someone starts a thread like this every year or two. Most people can't get it, but a few of us do.

As to the question about where do you store your stuff...to me that is the best part. You get rid of all that junk that your life has been piling up. It's quite liberating to separate yourself from everything material. The only important material items I own are some clothes and shoes. And I have enough friends around the world to store such things at. I have yet to find a city in the world that doesn't sell clothes. So I really have no worries about being "homeless".

GK

I had a job a few years ago where I was a 100% traveller. This meant the company paid for my hotel rooms and food every single night of the year.

It's easy. Just pack one (max two) suitcases, and then wash everything every week. Everything else went into storage. I knew I wasn't going to be doing it forever, and thus it was not so hard to manage.

If I had the option now.. I'd probably just buy a small holiday home, and shift my things into that, and enjoy spending sometime there inbetween.

Living in hotels is very easy.. no insurance or utility bills to pay, no maintenance issues. For credit/banking natters.. I just 'moved' back to my parent's address.

Through clever use of netflicks/Ipod/amazon, you'll never have to carry any entertainment media with you.. in my day I had to cart around a selection of CDs and Books, which when I went back to HQ Office, got dumped in a filing cabinet.

Then for those nights when your employer/client isn't paying.. well you can use points or maybe it's time to go spend the odd weekend with long lost friends or relatives in the right location..

Enjoy.

Ms. HDPlayer

Regarding mail - the US Postal Service now has the forwarding service mentioned earlier. Don't know how it compares to a service - go to usps.com & click on premium forwarding service.

BostonJim

I thank you all for the info and suggestion's
Jim

FlyingOnceMore

Got to be a candidate for 'Post of the Month'

xinerevelle

PLEASE--- read that book that was recommended to you by Macspreader. It will REALLY help you.

And enjoy your newfound freedom!