Construction worker Ray Rinne, superintendent for A.M. Cohron & Son Inc., rests in his extended-stay hotel room at the America's Best Value Inn.

Ray Rinne, of Lincoln, Neb., never wonders whether he has cereal in the pantry, and he never worries about making his bed.

Those perks come with the room.

Four days a week, Rinne, 46, superintendent for construction company A.M. Cohron & Son Inc., lives in Room 200 of America’s Best Value Inn, 515 McDonald Drive.

“I have no complaints,” he said. “You get used to it.”

Rinne and his crew are working on Kansas Turnpike projects in Lawrence. They’ve been here since March 2007.

He and other traveling workers tend to check in to hotels rather than try to rent apartments for longer business trips. It wasn’t until more recently that hotels began to specifically cater to the need.

A new product in the hotel industry, extended-stay hotels enjoyed a better fate than the rest of the hotel industry last year.

Overall, the U.S. hotel industry saw a 1.5 percent decline in demand through November of last year, according to a Smith Travel Research report.

The same report showed an increase in the extended-stay segment of 3.5 percent.

The Eldridge Extended, 201 W. Eighth St., is Lawrence’s only extended-stay hotel, but most other hotels in the city offer extended-stay rates and, managers said such requests have been increasing.

Jeanie Hetrick, general manager of Lawrence’s Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 3411 Iowa, said the hotel had enough extended-stay requests to require an $85,000 renovation on two rooms last January. Each room is 800 square feet. Prices range from $160 to $200 a night.

Extended-stay rates in Lawrence hotels generally range from $40 to almost $300 a night, but a growing number of these rooms throughout the country cost upward of $1,000 a night.

“People want comfort,” said Joe McInerney, president and CEO of American Hotel and Lodging Association. “If you’re staying in a hotel more than three or four days, you’re looking to have more space and the conveniences you have at home.”

The rooms usually have either a full kitchen or a microwave and a small refrigerator. However, the new rooms at the Holiday Inn Express have two plasma-screen TVs, an iHome and a full living room set, too. Most extended-stays also include a free continental breakfast.

Hetrick said the perks in the room are only part of the appeal of extended stay.

“You have other people around,” she said. “You get to know some people, and it kind of feels like you’re maybe more at home with your family and friends around.”