This is general information about places to stay, not medical advice. Your care team, and in particular the hospital's social workers, know your situation and are the right people to ask about what you will need.
People travel to Cleveland for care from all over the country and well beyond it. Some come for a single appointment. Others come for surgery and a recovery period, a course of treatment that runs for weeks, or a child's stay in hospital with a parent who needs to be close by. Where you sleep matters more the longer that runs.
Start with the charity lodges
Before you look at anything commercial, ask whether you qualify for one of the lodges set up for exactly this situation. They are some of the best value in the city because many of them cost little or nothing, but each has its own rules about who can stay.
- Hope Lodge, run by the American Cancer Society, is free for adult cancer patients and a caregiver, and needs a referral from a doctor, nurse or social worker
- Ronald McDonald House, next to the Cleveland Clinic main campus, is for families of patients aged 21 and under
- Transplant House of Cleveland, in University Circle, is for organ transplant patients and their families
Rooms are limited and they fill up, so ask early, ideally as soon as the dates are known. Cleveland Clinic also keeps a page of lodging options for patients, and the social work team can tell you what applies to you.
When a hotel is the right answer
For an appointment and a night or two either side, a hotel close to the campus is hard to beat. You are near the door, there is no cooking to think about, and you can walk away the moment you are cleared to go home.
When a house makes more sense
The picture changes when the stay runs to weeks, or when more than one person is coming. A house starts to make sense in a few situations.
- A family is travelling together, so a single hotel room would mean everyone sleeping in the same space as the patient
- Recovery needs a kitchen, because meals have to be cooked to a diet rather than ordered from a menu
- Relatives are taking turns, so people are coming and going over several weeks and need somewhere to put their things
- There is a dog that cannot be left at home, and most hotels either refuse pets or limit them
- The patient needs quiet and room to rest during the day, not a corridor with housekeeping at ten
How far is close enough
Cleveland Clinic's main campus and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center are both on Euclid Avenue in University Circle. Our Cleveland Heights home is about ten minutes from either, and our homes in Euclid, Maple Heights and Bedford Heights are around twenty. Those are off-peak estimates, and they are longer at rush hour.
For daily appointments, ten minutes and twenty minutes feel very different by the third week. For a recovery period with a follow-up once a week, the extra room and the quieter street may be worth the longer drive.
What to ask before you book
- Can the dates move if the treatment plan changes, and what happens if you need to stay longer
- Are the bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor, or are there stairs to manage
- Is parking off the street and close to the door
- Who do you call if something goes wrong in the house, and do they answer at the weekend
Our homes are whole furnished houses with full kitchens and off-street parking, and most of them welcome pets. Tell us the dates, who is coming and which campus you need to reach, and we will be honest about whether one of them suits. Or call us on (216) 306-4821, 8am to 9pm, seven days.