Updated: September 1, 2025 By: Amy Guerich, Founder & Owner of The Palmer
In this post, Amy discusses the comparison, or lack thereof, between The Palmer and area hotel rooms.
One of the very first booking inquiries that I received for The Palmer was from a family who was attending an event in the country near St. Marys. The closest places to stay were hotels in Manhattan, Wamego, or Topeka. They wrote to me and asked if I offered discounts, because The Palmer was more expensive than the area hotels that they priced. I thought it was an interesting request. And of course, being a brand new host (this inquiry came the day that we opened The Palmer, on May 3, 2024, to an open house with more than 60 guests), I questioned myself, my pricing, would others feel the same, etc. We proceeded to be booked every week for the next 13 weeks! After a two week break, we now have bookings every week for the next 11 weeks.
The inquiry and reasoning behind asking for a discount really made me think. I never considered The Palmer to be in competition with hotels. Now, for those who know me, every now and again, I LOVE to treat myself to a luxury hotel stay. But, those five star luxury stays don’t exist near us, in Topeka or Manhattan. There are a couple that come close in Kansas City, but I digress…
First of all, if you are coming to St. Marys to visit family, to attend a wedding ceremony at the Immaculata, or a wedding reception at The Armory, or attend a class reunion at IC or St. Marys High, wouldn’t you want to stay local where you can walk or quickly drive to your destination? Why drive 20+ miles to hotels in Topeka or 25+ miles to hotels in Manhattan? You can walk across the street to the Armory, a block to Main Street, a block to Riverside Park, 2 + blocks to IC, and 2-3 minute drive to the Immaculata. There is nothing more convenient!
Secondly, with a king bedroom, a queen bedroom, and a full size pullout sofa bed in the living room, The Palmer can sleep up to six guests. After scoping out the hotel markets in Topeka, Wamego, and Manhattan, I found Spring Hill Suites in Topeka can accommodate 6 with a 414 square foot hotel room with one bathroom with two queen beds, a sofa bed, and a trundle bed. The Double Tree in Manhattan has similar accommodations with two queen beds and a pull out sofa bed. Most of the other hotels are going to require that you to get two hotel rooms to sleep six.
And speaking of size, I never considered hotels to be competition to The Palmer, because most area hotel rooms are 275-400 square feet, and the Palmer is 1,100 square feet. Six guests can spread out vs being crammed into a small hotel room.
And when it comes to spreading out, The Palmer has multiple seating areas, so everyone can have their own space, from the covered front porch with fire pit tables, to the large sectional sofa in the living room, large dining table in the dining room, ample seating at the kitchen counter, three separate sitting areas on the enclosed sun porch, large outdoor dining area and fire pit seating in the back yard, there are plenty of places to spread out, curl up with a book, people watch, enjoy a glass of wine, and enjoy the outdoors. The only way to truly spread out in a hotel is to book multiple rooms which quickly drives up the cost, or to use public/common spaces which eliminates all opportunity for privacy.
Events though The Palmer has one bathroom for six guests, there are multiple getting ready spaces with vanity mirrors, full length mirrors, table top mirrors, plenty of outlets, hot tool mats, tons of natural light, and LED lighting, so one person could be using the bathroom while five others are doing hair, makeup, and dressing in other spaces. IF hotel rooms have a space to get ready other than the bathroom, it will likely be one other space, and may or may not have lighting, outlets, mirrors, etc.
The Palmer amenities cannot be topped by a hotel or by any other Airbnb. I’ll start with the common areas. The living room has a 65 inch Roku TV where guests can log into their own television, music, and movie streaming apps. We stock umbrellas in case it is raining. Have some downtime? We stock board games for family game night!
Both bedrooms each have Roku TVs. All three TVs at The Palmer are hardwired into the internet. The rest of the house has Fiber wifi, so you can stay connected via phone, ipad, and laptops at lighting fast speed, with no extra charge. Hotels often charge for wifi that can be spotty if you are doing any streaming. And you definitely can’t have three different TVs going at once in a hotel room; although some hotel suites offer two TVs, but there aren’t many suites at Topeka and Manhattan hotels.
When I’m traveling with a group, I’m always going to pick an Airbnb over a hotel, because I want to be able to cook and share meals together. The Palmer kitchen is the best stocked kitchen of any Airbnb. It is fully stocked with diner and salad plates, drinking glasses, cereal bowls, pasta bowls, bakeware, glass baking dishes, mixing and serving bowls, serving platters, cutlery, knives, cheese knives, wine glasses, coffee mugs, toaster, Nutribullet, microwave, and every kitchen gadget known to man! We also stock outdoor dining ware including plastic plates, cups, and wine glasses. There is no need to purchase ice or bottled water as The Palmer kitchen sink is equipped with a reverse osmosis drinking water tap, and the freezer has a built in ice maker. With a gas stove top and oven, this kitchen is gourmet all the way. You definitely won’t find THAT in a hotel!
The Palmer dining room has a fully stocked coffee bar with a 10-cup drip coffee pot, a single cup Keurig, an electric tea kettle, and beverage refrigerator. We stock a variety of K-cups, decaf and regular ground coffee beans, instant coffee, and a variety of tea bags. We stock every sweetener from Equal, to Splenda, to Stevia, to good old fashioned white sugar, and honey. We keep Land o Lakes single serve half and half. If you purchase your own milk, we have a hand held battery powered milk frothier. We have chai, apple cider, and hot chocolate. There is truly something for everyone, all included, but, if you can’t find something you like, MJ’s Coffee House, our locally owned coffee shop on Main Street, is a 1.5 block walk. Many hotel rooms offer single serve coffee makers, but they weird me out because I’m never sure how often they are cleaned. Most hotels also offer if not free continental breakfast with coffee, at least coffee for purchase.
Between The Palmer kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room, we stock a variety of cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, and stain remover. We never ask that guests clean while they are guests at The Palmer, but we understand and appreciate when guests want to clean up after themselves, and we pride ourselves on having The Palmer well stocked so that you can easily do so. Obviously these amenities are not comparable to a hotel room.
Speaking of the laundry room, The Palmer laundry room is well equipped with extra large capacity LG washer and dryer, so you can do laundry as needed, at no extra cost! Good luck finding free laundry in a hotel!
The outdoor space at The Palmer is a huge differentiator when comparing the space to a hotel room (or the other local Airbnbs for that matter). The coved front porch at The Palmer has two chairs and a gas fire-pit side table and a love seat and sofa with a gas fire pit coffee table. We keep the propane stocked. In the back yard, we have a Weber gas grill stocked with propane and all of the necessary grilling tools and accessories. We also have a wood burning fire pit area that we keep stocked with firewood.
The Palmer’s unmatched standards of cleanliness have absolutely no comparison to a hotel. I’ll start with the linens. We use hotel quality linens, and make the beds with the luxury hotel style that you’ve seen in hotels or in travel magazines. But, where The Palmer sets itself apart is with cleanliness! Each of our mattresses is in a zippered waterproof encasement. How many times have you been in a hotel and you or your child has tossed and turned and the sheets come off of the bed? I don’t know about you, but the hotel mattresses gross me out! We wipe down the mattress encasements at every turnover. (Side note, when we launder the encasements, we vacuum the mattresses with a special mattress vacuum with UV sterilization.) We have a quilted mattress pad on top of every mattress encasement. This mattress pad is laundered at every turnover. Unlike most hotels that have triple sheeting, The Palmer has a fitted sheet, topped with a flat sheet, topped with a duvet insert in a duvet cover. The duvet cover is laundered after every guest. We dust, vacuum, and mop each bedroom, including ceiling fans, and we have a state of the art air purifier in each bedroom. Guests at The Palmer can relax and get restful sleep in a clean and comfortable environment.
Every nook, cranny, and surface is cleaned at every turnover, and we have regular quality control practices that involve moving furniture, wiping out drawers, cabinets, closets, cleaning the inside of the oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer lint trap, underneath the kitchen and bathroom sinks, behind the toilet, vacuuming in chair and couch cushions, and keeping outdoor furniture clean and tidy. Keeping these extreme standards of cleanliness is very time and labor intensive. But we feel strongly that it is only way that we can maintain the Professional Hospitality that The Palmer guests have come to expect, which leads to nothing but glowing 5-Star reviews.
With all of this said, The Palmer is hands down a far superior option compared to hotel rooms in Topeka, Wamego, or Manhattan, for guests who want to be local to St. Marys.
There is absolutely no comparison between The Palmer and a hotel room when it comes to sleeping 6 guests comfortably, value, amenities, and space for the price, and the convenient location – across the street from the armory, a block to Main Street, a block to Riverside park, a couple of blocks to IC, and a quick drive to the Immaculata.
Do you agree? I’d love to hear from you on this topic. Comment on this post, or message me on social media.
Email: amy@houseonpalmer.com
Instagram: @houseonpalmerstreet
Facebook: @ThePalmer
Call/Text: 913-303-8373
Airbnb: http://airbnb.com/h/houseonpalmer
The Palmer 