as an artist you can be able to have people let you stay in their rooms if you draw for them. or offer other things.
I never ever purchased a room. I rant about this every year, but the AC hotel rooms can fit more than just 4, but they ought to be Octo-occupancy. i've seen up to 25 to a room before.

I've done floor space for exchange for art before

and I've done art in exchange for getting a discount

and I've done art with the understanding it'd be discounted and then realized they were still charging me an even split, but because it was multiple pieces I was to be working on I didn't finish the rest because fuck that noise if they think they should get all that art and still make me pay equal share for a room I didn't use as much as them and only had a small floor space for 2/3rds of the nights because they had control of the room and wouldn't get back to me on the first night in a timely fashion.