Hotels give romantics a welcome respite from the tedious daily responsibilities of dirty laundry, unbalanced checkbooks, and unwalked pet giraffes. Retreat from domestic duties with today’s Groupon at The Elms Resort & Spa in Excelsior Springs (a $278 value). Choose between the following options:

• For $139, you and a guest get a two-night stay in a deluxe double guest room on Friday - Saturday night.
• For $139, you and a guest get a two-night stay in a deluxe double guest room on Sunday - Thursday night.

This Groupon also includes a $30 voucher toward a couples massage at The Spa at the Elms. This Groupon expires August 31.

For more than 120 years, The Elms has pampered guests with romantic suites, grand ballrooms, inviting verandas, and century-old charm. Cozy up with a significant other or a stranger superglued to your knee in a deluxe double guest room. These spacious accommodations preserve the inn’s time-honored charm while providing modern conveniences such as WiFi, cable television, and 3-D coffee makers. Weary limbs can be kneaded and plied with the couples-massage voucher, whose value can be used toward options such as a traditional full-body massage ($170 for 50 minutes). Outside, throw horseshoes, play volleyball and bocce, and ride borrowed bikes across the resort's 16 scenic acres, or head indoors to backstroke through pools, snorkel in hot tubs, and swelter in saunas. After a day of rest and relaxation, the hotel invites visitors to savor a sumptuous meal in the dining room (costs not included with this Groupon) or challenge a resident ghost to a pushup contest in the fitness center.