Hotel Hell

[honeychile]

For those who like to travel, but don't subscribe to TripAdvisor, this is a list of 2008's Dirtiest Hotels.

Does anyone else have a nomination for "Hotel Hell"?

[cheerfulgreek]

Personally, I think they're all pretty disgusting.

It's lists like these that make me so thankful mom's a Hilton Hotels employee. I can get discounted rates at any Hilton Hotel worldwide!

I know there was a thread here earlier about Hilton Hotels horror stories, but thanks to mom and her previous housekeeping experience, I know how to do the "acceptable room" test and know crap when I see it.

Last year when DolphinChicaDDD and I had our road trip adventure, we stayed at Holiday Inn/Express hotels. They're actually pretty nice, and perfect for the business traveler.

I will never, ever stay at a Super 8 or Travelodge or Days Inn based on all the stuff I've read online.

[AKA_Monet]

It was "Motel Hell" that was a splatter movie in the 70's or 80's?



Anyhow, ever hear of Legioneer's Disease? I thought that Public Health folks let folks know that clean hotel rooms is key...

Ramada is just nasty...

[jwright25]

Originally Posted by OTW

thanks to mom and her previous housekeeping experience, I know how to do the "acceptable room" test and know crap when I see it.

Ooooo. Is this something you have posted before? I'd love to know what to look for....

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by OTW

It's lists like these that make me so thankful mom's a Hilton Hotels employee. I can get discounted rates at any Hilton Hotel worldwide!

I miss my discounts from when I worked for hotels. I got my parents at a wonderful Jackyl Island resort for $30 a night.

I was amazed when I read the comments from the hotel in Santa Monica. The management had the nerve to make a joke out of bed bugs.

[ZTAngel]

I get an awesome discount for the Ritz Carlton through my work. Now those are some clean hotel rooms! In the cities that do not have a Ritz, I try to find a Hilton Hotel whether it be the Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, etc. I find that Hilton tends to be the cleanest. And I've traveled a lot so I know a lot about the different hotel chains!

[honeychile]

In the past couple years, I've had to stay in Holiday Inn Expresses, too - mostly because they were in towns too small for anything else! Only one bad experience in the lot.

I'd be interested in knowing how to check for cleanliness, too. I know to look for tiny blood marks on the sheets (bed bugs), but I'm sure there's more.

[justabeachbrat]

Jamaica, it was a few years after one of the hurricanes....this was late 90s.
Think name of the place Cariblue beach, Montigo (sp) Bay.
Welll....it sounded nice in the auto club guide...a case of creative writing.
The listing said "beachfront." We get there, it was "on" the ocean. The sand from the beach had been washed away by the storm a few years before. The nearest decent beach was half mile away, Holiday Inn.
Lack of hot water in the room. Half the time, there was no hot water. Jumped into the shower after a day of beaching it....the water, cold, cold, cold.
Sparse furnishings. Ya get what ya pay for. It was a "budget" hotel...no rug, old flooring, thin bedspreads. We kept our shoes on, indoors.
Swimsuits, towels left outside to dry were stolen.
---the clerk. When we went to desk to complain about stuff, the clerk just smiled, and said the island's saying: "no problem." Then it dawned on me....of course if it isn't a problem.....it just happens.
Good though, crashing a party at Rose Hall plantation and Blue Mountain coffee.

[jubilance1922]

Luckily I've never stayed in a hotel that I thought was just gross. Generally I stick with the Marriott and Hilton chains when I travel. I Priceline rooms a lot so I can get rooms at 3 and 4 star hotels for cheap.

[ThetaPrincess24]

We had a patient come in last week that had gotten bed bugs from a motel in gatlinburg,Tn. Their bites make for a nasty rash on the skin!

Always check beds for bed bugs!!

[barbino]

There was a Days Inn in Milwaukee a few years ago that we refused to stay in even though we had reservations. I always thought that if a hotel/motel was part of a national chain, you were safe. Not so! After checking the picture guide of properties, I learned that there was a category for "unrated properties." These were recently acquired by a major chain and they don't even have to have stars at all, because they have a certain amount of time before they have to reach a chain's "minimum standards." There is also alot of variance between minimum standards, acceptable standards, and nice/comfortable standards. Now I always review the properties personally before I let my husband just go and make the reservations.

[summer_gphib]

OMG, we stayed in a hotel in Macon, Georgia that was AWFUL. I had injured my knee on the trip and torn the muscles in the bottom of my foot. Then my dad had backed into my (new at the time!) car and the passenger door was really screwy. We get to this hotel, and it was a DUMP. Hubby later told me when he checked us in that there was a note that said *NO refunds after 15 minutes* There was no hot water, and the next morning when hubby said he wanted a refund, the lady at the front desk handed him a $5 bill and told him "This will have to do!"

*LMAO* Good thing the whole trip was a bust. (We did have a good time though!) When we got home, the airconditioner had died. Not fun for July in Florida!

[KatieKate1244]

There was a motel I once stayed at right outside of Green Bank, WV, that was disgusting. The bedspreads have cigarette burns in them, and the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while. It seriously looked like something out of a horror movie, right down to the bad 70's decor. However, it did have the best little restaurant at it, best damn eggs and bacon I've ever had.

There was also a Days Inn around Cincinnati that was disgusting. It actually had gang graffiti in the stairwells.

[Scully]

Originally Posted by barbino

There was a Days Inn in Milwaukee a few years ago that we refused to stay in even though we had reservations. I always thought that if a hotel/motel was part of a national chain, you were safe. Not so! After checking the picture guide of properties, I learned that there was a category for "unrated properties." These were recently acquired by a major chain and they don't even have to have stars at all, because they have a certain amount of time before they have to reach a chain's "minimum standards." There is also alot of variance between minimum standards, acceptable standards, and nice/comfortable standards. Now I always review the properties personally before I let my husband just go and make the reservations.

Ditto on the Days Inn. DH and I stayed at their location in Orlando for our one-year anniversary and visitied the theme parks. It was disgusting. The only bonus was that the staff was nice and accomodating. First off, there were no elevators. All of the doors opened to the outside. So we had to lug two huge suitcases up two flights of stairs. We then used the card key to get into the room and the door wouldn't budge. Maintainace had to come up and grease our door. There was the smell of something awful penetrating the entire room. The wallpaper was peeling, everything was dingy and I would not step on the carpet without flip-flops - I showered with them, too. The tub wouldn't drain. The toilet paper holder fell out of the wall. There was mold on the headboard. I slept on top of the sheets the first night. And then 5am the next morning, we hear a crash. The light fixture had fallen off the bathroom ceiling and broken on the floor. We turned on the TV to watch the news and found out that someone had been stabbed just a block away the night before.

We then asked to switch rooms! The second one was relatively nicer. At least it didn't smell!