The night stop nobody wants: the small hotel in the small town, and why some of us love it
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#1 There are two kinds of night stops. The ones in the crew bidding wars (Rome, Lisbon, Athens) and the ones that appear on the roster and make everyone sigh: the airport hotel in a regional city, in winter, with a dinner of whatever the petrol station has. I have come to love the second kind and I want to defend it.
The case against
Nothing to do. A hotel that is fine and nothing more. A town you will never see because you arrive at 22:00 and leave at 06:00. The one restaurant that closes at 21:30. The crew in their rooms by 22:15.
The case for
Sleep. The real, uninterrupted, nothing to miss sleep that you never get in Rome because Rome is Rome and you will go out. The night stop in the regional city is a guaranteed eight hours and a bath.
The crew dinner. Because there is nothing else, the crew eat together, in the hotel, and the conversation is better than in a city where everyone splits up. My best crew conversations have been in hotel restaurants in places I could not find on a map.
The walk. Every small town has a river or a square or a park and a 6am walk in a place nobody visits has a specific loneliness that I have come to like.
The money. You spend nothing. The per diem goes home.
My favourites
A hotel by a lake in a Swiss town on the easyJet network that I will not name because the crew who know will fight me for it. An Austrian one with a mountain out of the window and a breakfast that was not a petrol station. A Scottish one with a pub that opened for the crew and only the crew.
The honest conclusion
The city night stops are for the memories. The small town night stops are for the sleep. A career needs both, and the crew who only bid the cities are the tired ones.
Defend your small town.
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#2 The Swiss lake one. I know it. I will not name it either. The breakfast is the reason I bid the route.
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#3 Wizz, and our version is a hotel by a motorway in the English midlands. There is no case for. The sleep is real though. Eight hours in Coventry is still eight hours.
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#4 Loganair, and every night stop is the small town version: Kirkwall, Lerwick, Stornoway. The pub that opens for the crew is real and it is in Kirkwall and I love it. The crew dinner in a place with one restaurant is the best part of the roster.
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#5 Ryanair Bergamo, night stops are rare, and when they come they are in a hotel by a Polish airport with a vending machine. I have made peace with the vending machine. The sleep argument wins.
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#6 @marco1990 the vending machine crew dinner is a genre of its own. Respect.
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#7 Norwegian, and the Alpine ski route night stops in winter are the small town version with snow and the crew sharing a fondue in a hotel that expected tourists. Best roster of the year. Nobody bids for it.