Best Places to Stay in Wichita Falls, TX: Hotels, Motels & Airbnb Rentals Compared

Welcome to Wichita Falls, TX! You might have noticed that your lodging options look a little scarce compared to those in some other cities. Under the surface, though, there are actually tons of unique places to stay that don’t cost a fortune. Which one is right for you depends more on what you’re doing here than on simple ratings and reviews.

Hotel Chains In Wichita Falls, TX

Wichita Falls has a normal spread of the national names. You’ve got Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and a handful of Marriott and Hilton-branded properties near the interstate. You get exactly what you expect from these. Standard rooms, possibly breakfast, and some even have indoor pools. If you’re passing through for one night on a drive and you just need a bed, one of these can be an easy choice.

Local Hotels in Wichita Falls

You’ll notice that there are no luxury or 5-star hotels here in Wichita Falls. At a population of about 100,000 people, most of which have something to do with the nearby Sheppard Air Force Base, there’s not much demand for a luxury resort or spa, so these hotel chains will have to do.

Where Hotels Might Not Be The Best Choice

Where these chains fall short is if you need to stay for anything longer than a night or two, or if you’re traveling with a family or a pet. A family of five in a hotel room means someone’s probably squishing in there, or you might have to get two rooms. Traveling with a dog is very tricky when you’re trying to stay in a hotel, as most have breed or size restrictions and unreasonably high pet fees.

Amenities are also quite thin in hotels. If you’re like me, when you stay at a hotel, you’re not expecting anything crazy. Most hotels have a workout room, and several have pools (although you’ll be sharing both with every other guest). None of that is a knock on the hotels themselves; it’s just what a standard room is built to offer, and it’s not much.

Motels & Extended Stays

When we first moved to Wichita Falls in 2021, we stayed at a motel in northern Wichita Falls for one night. We were so scared. It was the stuff of nightmares. Maybe if you’re a single guy traveling alone and budget is the only thing that matters, you can make a motel work. But for families, I definitely recommend against staying in any of the local motels.

The extended stays are a similar story. There’s not much to differentiate the extended stays from the motels in this town. If you’re a traveling worker looking for a home base or a family in between moves, you’re better off with other options. Take it from a local.

Where A Short-Term Rental Fits In

Short-Term rentals (STRs, also known as vacation rentals) are the type of lodging that you’d find on Airbnb or VRBO. Airbnb gets a bad rap, but properties on Airbnb are highly regulated and can provide a better experience in ways that hotels cannot.

Most Airbnb hosts are independent hosts with 1-2 listings, usually their own house or a room in it. The rest are run by boutique property management companies or commercial/large-scale management companies.

For example, the Texas Honey Spot Retreat is a guesthouse that we offer as a short-term rental. Instead of a busy hotel shared with several other families, it’s a 1,000sqft standalone building on a quiet rural property just outside town.

Benefits of Choosing a Short-Term Rental

Short-term rentals like ours are usually equipped with their own kitchen, washer and dryer, and even a private fenced yard. Oftentimes, you can find a place to stay that is comparable in price to a hotel (and maybe even cheaper after all the resort fees). You’ll get your own space that actually works for a family, a larger group, or anyone who wants an experience that feels more like home.

Which Option Is Cheaper? Short-Term Rental vs. Hotel

A single hotel room might list for less per night on paper than a short-term rental. But when you start tacking on extra rooms required for a family of 5+, processing and resort fees, pet fees, parking fees, and eating every meal out because there’s no kitchen, the costs add up fast. A rental with a full kitchen and enough beds for everyone tends to come out cheaper per person for any group bigger than a couple, once you actually total the trip rather than just the nightly rate.

But What About Cleaning Fees?

Since over 80% of short-term rentals are host-run, a large share of their revenue goes to cleaning overhead.

It costs money to hire professional cleaners, plus the cost to replenish items used during a stay (coffee, toiletries, etc.). Guests hate seeing a cleaning fee. It’s one of the most overhyped parts of what makes short-term rentals so bad. So what about booking a place without a cleaning fee?

Are Rentals Without A Cleaning Fee Cheaper?

I’ll let you in on a trade secret: there’s always a cleaning fee, even if you can’t see it! Hosts either charge a flat cleaning fee and use it to cover the costs that we talked about above, or build it into their nightly rate. So you could pay $100/night for two nights plus a $100 cleaning fee, which comes out to $150/night, or you can book 2 nights with a host that doesn’t charge a cleaning fee and just charges $150/night. Simple, except…

What if you are staying 7 nights? All of a sudden, that $100 cleaning fee is looking more reasonable. You’ll pay $800 total for those 7 nights, whereas the host with the cleaning fee “built into their nightly rate” will be charging you $1,050. Great for the host, not the guest. This is where guests are getting tricked into spending more money just because they didn’t want to see that cleaning fee as a line item.

This is why Dream Home Design Studios is transparent with our pricing. When you book, you’ll see what goes towards cleaning and see our normal nightly rate underneath that.

What To Check Before You Book

Whichever option you’re leaning toward, a few things are worth confirming before you book a place to stay.

Check how recent the reviews actually are, not just the overall rating, since a property can change a lot over a year or two and stale reviews don’t tell you much about what to expect right now.
Look at the actual bed count and layout rather than assuming from the headline photo, since “sleeps six” can mean very different things.
It’s also worth checking cancellation policies before you book, especially if your trip depends on something that could shift, like a training schedule or a closing date.
- A flexible policy costs you nothing if your plans don’t change, and saves you a headache if they do. Consider booking travel insurance as well.
For short-term rentals, make sure you check the house rules and checkout tasks. At The Texas Honey Spot Retreat, there are some baseline rules about quiet hours and no smoking, but we don’t have any checkout tasks. Just like a hotel, you should be able to get up at 4am to catch a flight and not have to worry about doing the dishes or making beds.

Booking During Busy Times

Wichita Falls has a few predictable busy stretches. If your trip is flexible, we recommend planning around them. Sheppard AFB graduation weekends, home football weekends, the Hotter Than Hell One Hundred bike race, and the holiday season all tend to fill up lodging across the board, hotels included.

If your dates line up with any of those, booking a few weeks earlier than you normally would is worth the extra effort, since good options and best prices tend to disappear first.

Hotel, Motel, Or Short-Term Rental: Which Is Right For You?

Are you spending a quick night passing through? A hotel is probably the simplest choice. A weekend with the family, or a week visiting Sheppard AFB, or any trip where you’d rather have the comforts of home? That’s exactly the gap a short-term rental like ours is built to fill. Cheaper per person once you’ve got more than two people, more space, and a kitchen, which means you’re not eating out for every meal.

If you’re actively searching for places to stay in Wichita Falls, take a look at the Texas Honey Spot Retreat’s calendar and see if your travel dates line up, and get a price for your stay quoted instantly. And I mean instantly. No gatekeeping emails or “see price on the next screen.” Choose your dates, and an itemized price appears below the calendar.

Travel Advice For Wichita Falls

No matter how long you’re staying, I recommend checking out our Wichita Falls Travel Guide. When you’re not local to an area, it can be difficult to sort through the food and coffee options. Since we’re locals, we’ve already done that work for you. Stop and grab a bite at one of the places in our travel guide, and your stomach (and wallet!) will be happy.

Welcome to Wichita Falls, and if you’re staying at the Texas Honey Spot Retreat, we’re excited to host you soon!