What Is The Difference Between A Deluxe Room And Double Room?

The classification of modern hotel rooms isn’t that simple for understanding. They keep inventing new names with new types of accommodation just to get more money out of our pockets. At least, it seems like that.

So you will want to keep updated on all new ideas they have just to know what to expect when you are booking a room.

Today we are going to tell you more about double rooms and deluxe doubles. A lot of people keep asking us whether there is a difference between a deluxe room and a double room in a hotel, but the answer is not that simple, so we decided to publish this article to give you all the answers.

Here are some things we’ll be talking about today:

What are double rooms, deluxe rooms, and deluxe double rooms?
Will all hotels offer the same under the name “Deluxe Room”?
Should you update to deluxe if you have the choice?
When is a standard room enough for you?
What’s the price difference between double and deluxe rooms?

Let’s get started!

Double? Deluxe? Deluxe Double? What should I choose?

Hotels all around the world use basically the same types of names for their rooms. But if you start investigating deeper, you will find literally hundreds of names for hotel accommodation types.

All those words are quite confusing for a person who doesn’t travel on a regular basis, so they can lead to misunderstandings at times when these people try to book a room. In the end, they will book some room and will get to know what they rented only after arrival.

Today we’ll try to draw a clear line between such types of rooms as Double, Deluxe, Deluxe Double:

Double room. These may be any rooms that host two people and can even have additional place for a third person. These rooms may be both standard and superior. Most of the hotel rooms are double rooms. Suites can also be double, triple, or quadruple. So, double doesn’t mean anything about the quality of service, it means that two people can accommodate in this room.
Deluxe room. A Deluxe room can be a single, a double, or a triple room that is a little better than a standard room in terms of decoration. View from the windows, size, bathroom, other facilities. So deluxe doesn’t mean the number of people, deluxe means that this room is better than a standard room.
Deluxe double room. There is no distinct way to describe this type of room, but in most hotels, they would call a room with two different rooms connected with a door between each other a deluxe double room. But this is not the definition for this term, it may be just a simple double room with superior quality of service.

So why can’t we explain in detail and give certain definitions? The answer is simple – there are no definitions in this sphere. Especially if we talk about global tourism. A deluxe room in Spain will not be the same as a deluxe room in India or in Kenya, for example.

Why do hotels call their rooms “deluxe”?

If you travel much to developing countries, you may have seen a lot of expensive “deluxe” rooms that looked much worse than a budget room in a motel near your city in the US. The problem is that this term, “deluxe”, is very controversial. Hotel rules and laws don’t limit any hotels to provide some special service with their deluxe rooms.

In most cases, you will see such improvements in a deluxe room:

more space, maybe even additional areas and rooms to hang out;
cool bathroom with a hot bathtub and shower, maybe even two bathrooms;
big and comfortable bed of king size offering great sleeping comfort;
the wonderful view that helps you relax and have fun when you are in your hotel;
better service – for example, they can offer breakfast, everyday cleaning, etc.;
best room decoration, at least much better than the decoration in a standard room.

And now you should have noticed that we’ve been comparing the deluxe room with a standard room. So the facilities and services you get in a deluxe room will depend much on the facilities and services this hotel offers in standard rooms.

A Four Seasons hotel will offer great standard rooms and its deluxe rooms will be even better. But if you are in a cheap hotel in, say, Thailand or Tanzania, you are likely to have very poor service in standard rooms and only slightly better options in your deluxe room.

Now you should understand that calling a room “deluxe” doesn’t make it luxurious, it all depends on the hotel.

Should you ever update to a deluxe room?

Updating always sounds good. We love getting much more services and paying only a little more money. But will it be the same when you update to a deluxe room in your hotel? Most hotels will offer you such an option when you try to book via phone. They may even tell you that all standard rooms are booked out, and you have the only option – to agree with a deluxe room.

We recommend you check the online booking services first. If they have standard rooms, you will see them available in these services.

Updating makes sense in the following situations:

if you are going to stay in a very good hotel by the famous brand;
if you are going to stay for a long time and want some comfort;
if you want to accommodate the third person in your room (it just has more space);
if you already know that deluxe rooms are really good in this hotel;
if the price difference is not that big, and you can easily afford it;
if you want to get a room on a certain floor and with a certain view.

When a guest rents one of the deluxe rooms, the hotel staff tries to be more loyal to this client. It means you can have better room service, more attention from hotel staff, and more pleasure when staying in the hotel. It also means that you will be able to use some facilities that standard room guests don’t use.

For example, some hotels will allow guests from deluxe rooms to use their swimming pool or SPA zone. If it’s important for you, then why not update to deluxe?

In what cases is standard double the best option?

Basically, in all other cases renting a standard room is better. If you are on a business trip, you naturally won’t have time to have some pleasure in the SPA zone or order some drinks in your room. You will only sleep in the hotel.

Also, if you are on a city tour, you will spend all your time outside, looking at the city sights and going to restaurants and cafes. You won’t have time to use the facilities you get with your deluxe room.

People who travel really often, don’t care much about the type and class of room they get. They care more about clean bedsheets and pillows, a good shower, and friendly people. And these factors depend much on the hotel class rather than on the room class.

So in most cases, we would recommend you rent a standard double room which is the golden middle for all kinds of travelers. But if you have some money to spare and want to get a slightly better experience in your hotel, then you could update to deluxe.

What should be the price difference between standard and deluxe?

We couldn’t find any pattern in the prices for hotel rooms around the world. Before writing this article, we analyzed dozens of hotels all around the globe to find out how much more you should pay for a deluxe room if you update from a standard room, and we couldn’t see any common features.

In one hotel the difference may be 10% while in another one it will be around 100% of the standard room price.

To our mind, it depends on such factors:

the hotel chain and brand – this will decide the price range for sure;
the country and city – touristy locations tend to be more expensive and show the bigger difference between room types;
local laws – the laws determine special taxes and this can also decide the price;
season – while it’s the hottest time in one part of the world, hotels in other countries may offer huge discounts because of low season;
personal luck – if you are lucky enough, you may get a discount.

Sometimes, you may get a promotion of your room type just because the hotel did something wrong and you wrote a letter to support service. Of course, in this case, you shouldn’t refuse to stay in a deluxe room or in a suite.

Final words

Hotels all over the world work with different rules and offer different types of services. If you still have any questions about the difference between a double room and a deluxe room, you should read this article again. We did our best and explained everything we know about how the hotels work.

If you want to share your experience, write a comment below and tell us about your attitude to deluxe rooms in hotels.