So I actually had another blog post in mind for today, but yesterday’s post about Vendoming seemed to have generated some buzz and a fair share of controversy, and I wanted to speak a little bit more about it. I also wanted to take a chance to clarify my own thoughts, which were perhaps not as clear as they could have been.
Also, having read some feedback from different perspectives, I’ve been able to realize that what I said earlier was not quite how I really feel.
Vendoming
Again, if you’re not familiar with the term, it was originally coined by The Deal Mommy and references the ultra-aspirational Park Hyatt Vendome hotel, which is often held up as THE place to visit. I think it does unfortunately carry a negative connotation which is too bad, because I at least truly feel that there is nothing wrong with staying there, if that’s your thing. Let me repeat that – THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH STAYING AT THE PARK HYATT VENDOME.
Anti-Vendoming
Because it’s such a newly coined term, I think that it means different things to different people. I also think that in part because of the negative connotation that it’s been given, people that have or enjoy staying at the Vendome (or other luxury hotels) have taken some offense.
There also exists the idea of “Anti-Vendoming” which I think is a poorly worded term. For me at least (and for some of the other bloggers I’ve seen that has used the term, anti-vendoming is NOT a criticism of anyone who’s ever stayed there, but more against the idea that if you don’t stay at the Vendome (or always fly first class) that you’re doing it wrong. Again, in the sage words of Mrs. PWaC, when talking about going to a $100 steakhouse –
I’d rather eat at Chipotle 20 times
Other ways to travel
I’ve said it before – the main reason I got into (the already fairly crowded world of) blogging is that most of the blogs that I saw out there were mostly written by single folks or others with no children, and focused on very aspirational stays. Again, I see nothing wrong with that, and I really do enjoy reading (most of) the trip reports, but with 6 kids, that is not how my family and I travel.
A luxury hotel would be lost and wasted value on my family – again, they only care about if there’s a waffle maker and a swimming pool. Ironically, I find the nicer the hotel is, the less odds that they will have a free breakfast, which is the #1 thing we’re looking for when we stay somewhere.
So I started blogging because I KNOW that I am not the only one that travels like that (in fact, I’d say most of the blog readers out there have a family and kids, right?), so I wanted to make sure that people saw that there were other ways to travel.
It’s okay to not listen to the conventional wisdom that says using your miles on domestic travel or for mid-range hotels is a waste. I want to talk to the average family and help them take the family vacation that they always wanted to take but thought they couldn’t afford. THAT is why I am writing.
Let’s keep it civil though
There are too many hotheads out there though (in all walks of life and the Internet, not just in the travel blogging community). I can’t speak for everyone though, but I don’t want to judge anyone else based on the kind of travel they choose to do. I CHOSE to have 6 kids, and I don’t regret it, but I do understand that the choice means that I gave up some of my other choices, particularly in travel. I’m not going to redeem first class travel for my family to go to Europe, because it would be like 500,000 miles if I could even find the availability (which I’m sure I couldn’t). But if that works for your family, GO FOR IT!
It’s too easy on the Internet to just spew stuff out without thinking that all those other bloggers are actual people too. And if you wouldn’t say it to their face, you should probably keep it to yourself. I had a funny experience the other day – as many of you probably know, PWaC recently joined Prior2Boarding / BoardingArea, and as such I got access to a forum that is used by the bloggers to communicate issues and other things. As I was reading different threads, I noticed one from a few months ago that was talking about ME! Now there wasn’t anything too bad in there, though with some of the comments I wonder if they’d have been said if the poster knew that I might be reading it one day.
Remember, if you’re writing something on the Internet / tweeting / posting to Facebook / snapchatting about someone, you might as well assume that the whole world might one day see it…..
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I have 2 kids and we took them to the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome last year and they loved it, but I get your point. Just traveling for points for a family of 4 is much hard than a couple of 2. Everywhere we went in Europe we needed 2 rooms every night so I had to try to come up with 40 free hotel nights for our three week trip. Again, my sons did love the nicer hotels and they told me that for our trip next summer they’d rather have nicer hotels than more trips.
Great posts yesterday and today on this topic – it really highlights how each and every person’s traveling preferences are different. As bloggers, we share our own personal experiences which will resonate with many people, and will directly contradict the preferences of others.
I’m not really familiar with The Deal Mommy, but to me the term isn’t so much in reference to the aspirational nature of that particular hotel, but more in reference to people who make the hotel their entire vacation as opposed to the actual city they are visiting. If you are exploring all that Paris has to offer, and happen to be sitting on a mountain of Hyatt points, then why not stay at the nicest hotel available to you?
I think it comes down to the judging you are not doing it right. Many look down on folks who don’t run thousands of dollars through their cards each month. Not my thing and I don’t feel comfortable doing that and that is my choice and you may have yours. Personally I can’t afford to sometimes get the most value out of a hotel stay. If I don’t use points I may not travel. I also don’t have a lot of status with hotels so that makes a difference in the value also. No free breakfast for me at the Hyatt.
I love to travel and one of my future trips to Asia will include $25.00 a night pensions and hopefully a suite at a Conrad if the point requirements don’t keep going up. I am part of this crazy hobby to travel more not necessarily in more luxury.
Good points but I think that can go both ways. I think there may also be some folks that are judging the people that enjoy more aspirational travel