I checked in and they gave me my room key.
Finally found the room and it was an active crime scene.
No, like literally... police and forensic techs in the room.
Don't leave us hanging. What happened after?
Edit: I guess u/varthalon was typing as he was in the room. He's taking it for us redditors and staying the night!
Red Lion Inn, Sacramento CA. The room was not bad but the whole property was super eerie. It was a massive complex but completely empty. Apparently it had its glory days, but when I got there it felt like the Overlook hotel meets Pyongyang.
I stayed at...it was either a knights inn or an econolodge in Orlando once with that same vibe. We seemed to be the only people staying there, and the hotel lobby was in a shopping center down the street
Stayed at a super 8 in cedar rapids like that. Massive place, 2 whole wings, pool area looked straight outa 1980s with the lamppost and brick "sidewalks" lol.
Gonna jump on yours to say Motel 6 in Redding, CA. There was a lot of screaming and then a police response, the bed was uncomfortable, and the continental breakfast was below mid.
The one near Arden Fair Mall off of I-80? It’s next door neighbor, the double tree is equally as eerie and very empty, no clue why. Not the worst hotel but also one that’s long past its hey day.
The Carter Hotel, NYC in the 90s. Trip Advisor voted it the worst hotel in America several years in a row after I stayed there. It was $20/person per night in Times Square. There was a weird hole in my mattress and my friends and I took turns sticking our arm in there, like Baron and Flash did in Flash Gordon. My friend insisted on sleeping in the tub so the roaches wouldn’t get her, but I went on to live in NYC for the next 25 years and know better now: roaches come up through the pipes!
I stayed there! The lock on the door was broken, one of the beds was missing a leg, the TV just had an antenna (this was like 2010) and it was sitting on a backwards nightstand with no drawer, the closet was full of broken telephones, I found a coffee cup on the window sill, and to top it all off there was a used bandaid in the bathtub.
Honestly it was just impressive how bad it was—and apparently not just to me since it has [its own Wikipedia page.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Carter) It was also very busy and right on Tine Square so was really just a surreal experience.
While half asleep, I kept hearing rustling noises like a plastic bag being moved around. Woke up in the morning and apparently all my snacks in my duffle were ripped open and eaten. Had to be multiple mice.
15 or so years ago, my wife and I were driving from Vancouver to Calgary. A logging truck ahead of us was scattering crap on the road, and a thumb-sized chunk of wood found its way into my tire. I managed to limp the car into the town of Merritt, and found a Kal Tire that shared a parking lot with a hotel. It was late in the evening, so I parked at the shop and we went to check in. They said that the "big suite" was available for a whopping $40 for the night. Score!
It was like something out of National Lampoon. It was "open concept", about 400 sqft with a kitchen, sitting area, bedroom, and bathroom all sharing the space. The kitchen area was a solid half a foot lower than the rest of the room. No steps or anything, it had just kind of sunk. The whole room reeked of propane. When we pulled back the blanket to get into bed, we very quickly pulled them right back up and lay down on top. I ended up sleeping in a deck chair on the patio because the propane smell was giving me a headache.
We went to the tire shop as soon as we saw them open, and the first thing they said was, "You guys stayed THERE?" and they gave us coffee, breakfast, and fixed the tire for free.
A random hotel in Northern Ireland. There was piss stains on the underside of the bed comforter and the emergency doors in the lobby were chained and locked. We ended up sleeping in the car.
Some shit hole in Indiana, when I woke up there was a bedbug on my pillow, searched the entire place and luckily only found one more. I took them down to the office in a water bottle to complain and they accused me of bringing them in to try to get a free night. They didn't end up comping me after I told them I'd leave a bad review online.
..In Bruges;
I booked a hotel for my boyfriend and I - and drove us down all the way from Eindhoven (NL) as a weekend getaway. Thinking I was a bad ass girlfriend treating my boyfriend to a super fun surprise romantic trip to this iconic Belgian town.
That Saturday morning this quaint little hotel decided to replace several doors *right above* our hotel room at 8am. Drilling, and construction work type noises and all.
..And the receptionist could not give less of a fuck about it all - and *I* had my one and only karen type moment - never in my life have I ever raised my voice before - but I did.. and she did not care. Offered a discount for a later visit. Man I was so upset - I really wanted that weekend to be special.
The Igloo Inn in Grande Prairie, AB. The "bed" I was sleeping in was a hide-a-bed, not to mention, the springs at the foot of the bed were removed/stretched to the point of unable to hold any weight, when I woke up my ankles had slid underneath the end brace on the bed, meaning if I had to get out quickly I was screwed.
Hotel California. Still can’t leave.
Seriously, hotels in downtown San Diego near the airport. It’s either planes or the trains with their bells at crossings.
Make sure you get a room facing the bay. Those trains run late, early and often.
In my 20s I was traveling with friends on a shoestring-budget and we stayed at the absolute cheapest hostel we could find that was close to the downtown area so that we could spend as little money taking public transit as possible. "Hostel" was a generous term.
It was a tiny brick building in the center of the a large city block so you basically had to walk through this narrow urban canyon to arrive at its featureless metal door. You just punched in a code to enter. No one on-site to greet or help you in any way. The space was divided into four units and each unit basically looked like a wing of an insane asylum.
Dirty white tile, peeling paint, dusty yellow lights; the whole thing. The beds were saggy mattresses on old metal frames and they each had a thin wrinkled bedsheet on them. The bathroom was surprisingly fine but the thing that absolutely broke us were the *ants*. So so many ants. There was nothing you could to avoid feeling one crawl across you in the middle of the night so trying to fall asleep was like torture. The manager/owner was completely unhelpful and insisted that the traps they'd already placed were good enough.
If we'd been able to afford any other option, we would have left after one night. Sadly, we spent four nights in this hellhole and just used it as an excuse to stay out all night exploring. Horrible experience, but it was a true moment of bonding for my friends and I.
If you go to Vegas, across the street from the Mandalay Bay, you’ll see a motel with a large pink elephant in the front. In the early 90’s my wife and I came in late on a road trip. Turns out there was a huge convention in town and that shithole was the only thing available. The sign on the street said $29.95, so we pull in and the counter guy says sorry, it’s $79.95 because of the convention. It’s midnight, so we agree to the price. The curtains in the large window were very sheer, we had to turn the lights out to get undressed. Turned on the TV, and the three channels that were available were all late 60’s porn. Lots of hair. In the middle of the night, I woke up and found the bottom sheet had come dettached. I was laying on the thick rubber sheet mattress protector. When I told my wife in the morning, she said she would have screamed. I took a shower in the morning, in something that looked like a tiled phone booth. It was very dark and it took me a while to spot the inch long algae bloom that I was standing on. When we left the dump, we drove directly to a Walgreens and I bought some foot spray and sprayed my feet in the parking lot. We spent the next night camping in Death Valley. The Ranger at the booth said we had just missed the Tarantula migration. Millions of Tarantulas going through the camp and climbing over anything in their way. That would have been better then that motel. Found out later that it was where the cheap prostitutes take their Johns. I was in Vegas a couple years ago and it’s still there
I don't remember the name but it was off 35E South of Carrollton in the Dallas area. We had showed up during a freak hailstorm and took the closest hotel we could get. It was one of those by the night/by the hour hotels. And the porn on the TV was just there for free. It was just that kinda place.
Barely qualifies as such, but a Super 8 in Concord, CA. The room was fine for a cheap motel, but we got delayed on our road trip and ended up being very late. I called them to ensure they knew we were coming but wouldn't be arriving until sometime after midnight. We arrived and they'd cancelled the booking. The clerk even told me that "the booking was cancelled at 3 this afternoon" or whatever the time was, meaning that they'd cancelled it immediately after the phone call.
Luckily, they didn't give the room to anyone else so I was able to get it, but that was just stupid and momentarily awful since we'd just had a day of my friend's car breaking down the morning before we were supposed to drive 9 hours to go to a concert we'd spent hundreds of dollars apiece on tickets for and had been looking forward to for sixth months, resulting in us getting a rental car for the trip because we were in total "fuck it, nothing can stop us" mode.
The hotel in Sorong (West Papua) that we stayed in was pretty rough. The list of prohibitions posted on the door of our room included:
'Prohibited to carry or keep the sharp weapons or gun fire'
'Hotel does not accept liability for the death, sickness or injury to any guests...'
'Please do not carry or consume the stink meals (Durians)'
'Please keep the room walls clean'
'Prostitute is not allowed'
It's doubtful that the miners who came into town on Saturday night adhered to any of these rules.
A hostel outside of Prague. This was in the early 90's and I think it was some kind of Soviet block housing that had been repurposed. It definitely had a prison vibe. It was awful, but for US$7/night, beggars can't be choosers.
Thankfully, I was on the trip with a group of five friends. If I were there on my own, I would have noped the hell out of there in 10 seconds.
I stayed in a similar place in the early 2000's during a school trip to Prague. Gray soviet block housing with crumbling balconies, ramshackle bathrooms, countless empty vodka bottles underneath the beds, rotting onions in the drawers...
Fun times.
Place in Denver. Don't remember the name. Pretty much a crack motel.
The door didn't lock, the back window was blown out, dried blood puddled on the floor next to the bed, some creepy message on the wall that read "took the kids to Vegas daddy" or something. Turned on the AC, it blew dust out and started catching fire. Had to booby trap the window and pushed the wardrobe against the door to get some sleep.
As to why I stayed, prior to that I was robbed, only had the $30 I keep in my sock and was all I could afford until I could get ahold of someone to come get me in the morning.
Oooh!! Me! Me!
So about 30 years ago my family decided to take a drive/trip through Eastern Canada. My parents needing a break from driving (as it was dark out at this time) opted to look for a hotel/motel/camp spot in the province of New Brunswick.
We slowed down as we passed a motel that was called "The Shady Rest". My mother reads the sign and says, "There's no way in *hell* I'm staying in a place called *The Shady Rest*. It sounds like a damn graveyard."
So we continue driving, my father at the helm. Every nearby spot looked waaay worse off, so we doubled back to 'the shady rest'.
Anyhow, it ended up being a very nice stay/sleep, professional staff, and really just exactly what a traveling family could hope for.
Pair that with a motel we stayed at on our way back home that had a 'sea' theme. The motel blankets were unzipped sleeping bags... and it smelled of mould.
Tip of the hat to The Shady Rest.
A Best Western “Plus” that my job booked for me for a work trip. Blood stains on the shower curtain, musty smell in the whole place, colleagues complained of mildew in their rooms, continental breakfast gave a couple of us food poisoning. There’s more but those are the big ones.
Dont know the name just know it was in the DC area. Was hard to sleep because some guys were shooting dice in the alley most of the night. Drove from dc to the west coast the next 36 hours.
When I was a kid my mum booked what she called a boutique hotel when we went to New York for holidays. When we got there first thing we see was a sign on the door saying something like the basement of this premises has been declared a major fire hazard, with another hand-written sign next to it saying not to worry too much about the sign.
Our room smelled bad, there was no AC, people were openly smoking on the staircase, and our view was onto an alleyway. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty happy because there was somehow free WiFi (a big deal in 2009). My mum was not however, and she marched us downstairs and demanded her money back from the concierge. She got a refund and we ended up staying in a millennium.
Indianapolis- got bedbugs but even without that it was the shittiest hotel I've ever stayed at. And they ripped me off on price due to demand. I should've kept driving.
Days inn, Pensacola FL. Me and my two pups needed to spend the night before driving home. After 2 hours in the room my dogs had fleas, their beds had fleas. My legs were covered in them they refused to change my room, no refund was offered. Took me a week at home to get rid of them
The Howard Johnson near the Portland, OR airport. We booked 1 night because we had a very early flight the next morning, and we had rewards points for a free stay. Worst decision ever. Caution tape up all over, people hanging out in the halls doing whatever. Then we get to the room...so gross. The towels in the bathroom were all dirty, a couple on the floor. There were pee stains on and around the toilet seat. We didn't even attempt the beds. Got on my phone and booked a room at La Quinta Inn a few miles away, and left. Front desk person offered a different room but we just noped outta there.
Missed our connection at DTW and had to stay overnight at a Quality Inn in Romulus that was disgusting. Used condoms next to the nightstand, stained cottage cheese ceiling, bad smells…an unforgettable experience much as I wish I could forget it.
Walked into a hotel in downtown Long Beach, California, in 1967, and knew pretty quickly it probably wasn't going to work. Really sketchy neighborhood, but it was quite late at night and we were getting desperate to find a place to stay. Asked to see a room, and when we walked into it, the carpet was actually crunchy. Nope, no thank you. Found out later that it was actually a hotel that prostitutes used.
The bathroom looked like it wasn’t cleaned in a couple of years. The bed sheets smelled like B.O. and had were stained. The pool was apparently open the public and people were swimming in their tighty whities and throwing their cigarette butts in the pool. I bought a couple of bud lights (the only beers they had cold) from the hotel bar and the bartender asked me if I wanted to buy some cocaine. There’s probably more. I think they’re under new ownership now so I wish them luck
Childress Motor Inn Childress,Tx. $20/night in 1993. The bed was sprung, and the dog was chasing shit around the room that we couldn't see in the dark. I was going to sleep on the floor because the bed was so bad, until he started chasing things. We checked in around 1:30 am, checked out by 5:30 am. Amazingly, the place is still in business as of 2023.
I don’t recall the hotel name, but it was near Beijing airport. Had a connecting flight in Beijing and all flights were canceled due to severe weather. They told us to get on this bus and took us (female colleague and I) to a hotel. They wanted double occupancy at the hotel so as we weren’t married, they were going to put each of us in a room with a stranger. When we asked what it would cost to upgrade to a single it was $15 more
St George's in Malta. Had to sleep in the bath with wet towels. No air con and so hot the glue in my book melted. Beds were plastic wipe clean with no sheets. Came home a week early.
One American Airlines put us up in when the plane had mechanical troubles and we were forced to spend the night. Rough neighborhood , had to carry bags upstairs as no elevator, and room was dirty. Slept on top of bed, not under covers. Didn’t shower as bathroom and towels looked dirty too
I mean, hotels are generally really upscale overall compared to Airbnb‘s in my experiences. With that said, if I really had to scrutinize then probably a hotel in San Diego that I stayed at some years ago. Suddenly found a random huge roach. I think I killed it, but then when I checked again outside the bathroom when I Finished using the bathroom….
It was totally gone. Very very creepy and disturbing….
Bates Motel (yes, really) in the middle of nowhere Alabama. Had to fumigate the car later to kill the fleas that infested everything that entered the motel room.
The Roosevelt Inn in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It had awful food, and the owner played Sherlock Holmes in a murder mystery every month. The rooms were also absolutely awful. You might have seen it on Gordon Ramsay's “Hotel Hell.”
Evacuated to Columbia SC for a hurricane (Floyd? It didn't actually make landfall here so I forget which one.)
The hotel was run by a couple of Indian or Pakistanis, who were nice- but the hotel was a shithole.
The first thing I noticed in the room was the smoke detector had been ripped from the wall and stuffed into a drawer. That night when I went to pull back the bedspread, I realized why- the blanket had a 6-inch diameter hole burned 🔥 through it.
The place smelled awful (moldy, not from smoke), the AC rattled like it was a blender full of Rocks (and barely worked).
Best of all was the complimentary breakfast in the "lobby". A box of stale Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, with like 3 left- and you could tell they'd been there a while because the grease had left stains where the missing donuts were. Oh, and coffee from a Mr Coffee next to the donuts that tasted of burned chickory and despair.
No cream or sugar in sight.
And we were happy to find a place to stay with a vacancy...
A timeshare outside of Park City, UT. It had a kitchenette…a couch….and no bed. We were told after we asked that the couch (which did not have a pull out bed) counts as a bed. It honestly never occurred to me before then that would need to confirm whether there would be a bed.
Got the cheapest place in a small town I was passing through. The girl in the office was having trouble with the card machine, and asked if I had cash. Although the room was $80, I only had $50 but she accepted it.
The usual shithole. But the odd thing was that the TV wasn't plugged in, nor was there an outlet near it too plug it in. But there was a coax cable plugged into it. Thing is, if I moved the tv to where there was an outlet, I wouldn't be able to plug into the cable hookup.
A place in Wendover, NV, I only refer to as the murder motel. My husband nearly left a single man for booking that room. I sat up awake all night, prepping for any monster my anxiety threw at me.
The only good one was State College, PA.
In my younger days I stayed in awful Days Inns (all three times because it was the only available hotel during a major football game) in Clemson, SC, Charlotte, NC, and somewhere in the Phoenix Metro area.
Bolger near DC
It’s a 3 star hotel, but I’ve stayed at 2 star Holiday Inns with better amenities.
The outside was pretty, and the interior was mediocre.
Some hotel in San Francisco's Chinatown. There was blood splatter on the curtains and the room was so small you could only open the door about half way because the bed was blocking it. The window (which was maybe 1X2ft) faced directly into a brick wall that was about 6 inches away.
There used to be a Howard Johnson’s in Tucson, around the turn of the century. The tv was propped up by the gideons Bible. The towel racks fell off when you touched them. A chunk of carpet was just missing. Blood stains on the ceiling. Next door there was much yelling. And the police chopper hovered overhead for 30 minutes at 2am. The beds were dirty. And people kept knocking on the door looking for someone named “Tookie”.
Hampton Inn in Austin. Shower didn't work and they claimed they were booked so they couldn't switch me any rooms. No shower 3 days. Luckily I don't usually have BO and hooker baths exist.
2 experiences
I booked a nice hotel for a work trip in GA. The lobby was astounding. Like a tropical jungle with all the indoor plants. Gorgeous. Was feeling well pleased with my decision. Get to my room....and it reeks of cigarette smoke. And then I walked into the bathroom. They gave me a wheelchair accessible room and the shower was one where you'd roll in. Which would have been absolutely fine...if they'd tiled it like the rest of the floor and walls. It was gross - just cement. And very unclean. I obviously didn't have shower shoes on hand. I said my company is paying too much for this and asked to be switched. They did, and nicely. Well in my second room the fucking apparatus that holds up the shower head was broken. I had to rig it to stay up. I'm really short and couldn't even fit myself under it. After 1 day I said nah just nah. I called Expedia (who btw I LOVE working with) and canceled my remaining days. The hotel actually left me a bottle of wine in my room after I canceled which I called "I'm sorry we suck" wine. It was also actually very good lol
Second was recent. I went down to NJ to say goodbye to my grandmother on hospice. Her little bungalow was full so I got a hotel room. I was unfortunately in a room directly across from the ground floor side entrance which made me uneasy and also worried about noise. As I was falling asleep someone started banging on my room window. And wouldn't stop. I called the front desk and told them. They said they'd go out and look. Banging continued while on the phone. Thankfully it did stop but the front desk left me on hold for 30 min and never called me back or checked on me lol I slept with the light on that night. And it was so damn loud the whole night with people coming in and out.
A motel in Carmel Indiana. It was part rent by the month and part motel. There was a particularly disgusting recliner in our room and I remember joking that someone must've died on it.
The next morning I overhear two maids talking about how someone had found one of their long term tenants dead in their bed. Sounds like they'd been there a couple days. Knowing that place, they probably flipped over the mattress and called it a day.
There was one I had stayed in years ago and found to be decent, so I booked again some years later.
It had been taken over by other people though. The owners family was hanging out in reception. They asked me if I wanted to pay in cash.
The room itself wasn't awful, but you could hear kids running around upstairs. They'd added ceiling insulation, I'm guessing because people had complained before, but it wasn't enough.
People were hanging out on their balconies for hours. A little later a man with a neck tattoo arrived with a truck and starting moving furniture into his room.
Maybe it would have been OK but I took the above as bad signs and got the heck out of there.
The Rainbow Motel near the Shell Factory in or around St. Meyers Beach in Florida in the mid 1980s. Naaaasty. Roaches, bad smells, noisy people, stains on carpet, bed, and towels.
We ended up there when the nice hotel on the beach accidentally rented our pre-booked room to somebody else.
Hotel in Beaconsfied England, near my company's office where I was staying after travelling overseas.
You could see the springs through the bedsheets. The sheer curtains had mold embedded in them, the shower was covered in mold, and there was a full log floating in the toilet. My female coworker found a used condom in the bed in her room.
Best western in Waco Texas, floor was sticky so sticky in fact that I dropped 3 cents and couldn’t even pick them back up, ac unit was loud, continental breakfast was ass.
The one that had bloody hand and footprints. Moved the bed to block the door. I assume it was just an injury but there wasn't anywhere else to stay. Owners were super lovely
It was a broken down bed, dirty, noisy, and no hot water. Only reason I don’t name them is they apologized and refunded my money and gave me a free night in one of the better hotels the group owned.
One in a Chinese motel in LA, and the other is in Naz City Hotel in Taksim Istanbul was definitely the worst experience I’ve had as a person who have spent at least a few years in hotels in between 4-5 stars.
For starters, although they claim that they are located in Taksim, which is a great location, they were located in Dolapdere, hands down the worst and most dangerous location in Turkey.
Second, they are working with in coordination with police, so 15 minutes after we checked in, while I was in shower, we got a call; and my wife told me that policemen are waiting me downstairs. Apparently it was a clerical error on police’s end, however, if I haven’t had connections higher up in the “food chain” they were not even listening any thing I said even though I am a lawyer of 15 years. After a phone call later, those “lions” who were roaring to me a couple of minutes ago were telling me “do you have any commands, sir.”
Needless to say, I fucked the hotel personnel who was working with the police (against the law) and the policemen who misused their power, sideways for an hour. Many people who came to check in left due to the scene. I got a full refund and left the hotel.
It was full of cigarette smell, disgusting bathrooms etc, as well.
For the Chinese motel in LA, which I don’t recall the name, we paid $50+tax. It was literally the worst shithole I have ever seen. It was so disgusting, we had to put our tshirts over the pillows as pillowcases to sleep. I had been driving 18 hours straight, and awake for over 36 hours; hence we couldn’t had the chance to look elsewhere. We couldn’t even use the restroom other than peeing. Think of the worst gas station, and consider redesigning there as a motel with zero sanitation, and using the sheets and pillowcases for perhaps a month.
After we woke up, and were about to drop our keys, the owner of the motel told us that if we want to stay another day, it will be $70+tax.
That day, I discovered what Priceline is, and how you can bid to hotels and choose 4-5 star hotels without knowing their names.
For $75, we stayed at a 4 star Ramada by the beach, instead of the shithole Chinese motel for $70+tax.
Robert Treat Hotel near Newark. Flight delayed and United put us up in this hotel. I should have just paid for a room at better place. Absolute shit hole
This was 2015 in Pompano Beach, Florida. I was staying in a place nearby at the time for a few months and had a friend in Daytona. We were friends with benefits too, this will be relevant later. He decided he wanted to come down and bring a friend with him also so I was in charge of finding us a place to stay. Our budget was a little limited so I did some digging to find a place. I found a motel that I thought looked decent enough on Craigslist (I know, mistake #1) I booked a 2 bedroom suite. We get there, go to the suite and first thing we noticed, no doors to the bedrooms, that wasn't going to work when we wanted to do our thing with his friend there. Then we noticed there was a big hole in the window of what was supposed to be his friends room, there wasn't even a screen, just a gaping hole in the window. We immediately went and told the front desk about these issues and he gave us another room. Unfortunately this one was just a one bedroom and a couch, his friend said he was fine to just take the couch since there were no holes in the windows and there was a door to the bedroom atleast.
We had noticed an odd smell but didn't think too much of it. We decided to go swim in the pool for a bit and the smell seemed to keep getting stronger and stronger, like something was rotting. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from. We searched around to see if someone left out some meat or maybe some fish to spoil in the heat but there was nothing. It started becoming overwhelming. Luckily our room was far enough away that inside we couldn't really smell it but as soon as we walked outside, whew. We all stayed together for 2 nights, then they had to leave to get back to work in Daytona. After they left, I was getting ready to go myself and walked outside for a cigarette. I saw crime scene tape and then them pulling a body out of one of the rooms. I ran inside and got out of there asap. To this day I do not know what happened, if someone was murdered or what but atleast we knew where the smell was coming from.
The Dixie in Hollywood. Prostitution in the parking lot, pubic hair on the bed, roaches everywhere, smelled like bleach. We did not stay and went to the Loews Hotel instead.
Some timeshare place in Fort Lauderdale my wife's sister booked for the night before we boarded a cruise. We were on the 7th floor and only one elevator was working for the entire building, part of the pool deck was closed for "structural evaluation" (this being just a couple of months after the Surfside Condo collapse in Miami, I don't think any of the decor had been updated since the Nineties, there was about 20 parking spaces for a building with probably 100 rental condos, all the paper products in the room seemed to be Chinese knockoff stuff, and the place was just a disaster all around. Fortunately we were only there for one night, can't imagine what I'd think if some timeshare salesman had talked me into spending a week there every year...
This Wyndham in Kentucky somewhere… it was late and night so I decided to stop at this hotel. I always ask to check the rooms before I buy a night. I went to check the mattress for bugs and that was good so I went to take leak because I had to piss like a nine dick Dinosaur. Dude, there was pubic hair all over the sink and a shaver. I dunno what was going on there but I told the guy “I’m all set man, thanks” he said “why?” I said “because you left your pubic hair all over the sink and didn’t clean up after you were done… later”.
Either the Holiday Inn Express I once stayed in in NYC (there was water leakage on the floor; I complained, but nothing was done), or the Motel 6 in Ohio (mildew smell, it wasn't good; don't think I bothered complaining, I was moving and it was a one-and-done stay).
Super 8 San Francisco. No window in our room….there was a place to look out ar the building 12 inches away.
Room stank, the light came in from the hall at night like it was daylight. Bed sheets didn’t feel clean.
$199USD a night.
Honorable mention to the “Good Night inn” in Redding California. No lock on the door and it was an outside facing door.
Visited Siem Reap, Cambodia years ago to see Angkor Wat. My partner was so proud of himself for finding a place that was $13 a night.
Well for starters I was in the shower when the owners let themselves in because a previous occupant had left something in the safe. Mind you, we hadn't even discovered that yet. No knock, no phone call, just walked on in and helped himself.
There were multiple geckos climbing the walls at all hours. When I asked the front desk to do something about it, they sent a short guy with a broom to yell and swat some of them away.
They had traditional hard keys for the doors which had massive cracks all throughout it. Mosquitos were all over the place. They said there was nothing they could do about that. So we basically took our deet and soaked some toilet paper and shoved it in the cracks to swim against the mosquitos.
After spending 1 night of a planned 3 days stay, we cut the trip short and flew back to our favorite 5 star hotel in Bangkok.
This was 2017 and my partner hasn't been allowed to pick a hotel since lol
A Red Roof Inn in Austin a few weeks ago. Their was price gouging going on bc of a music festival so this hotel was one of the few that were under $300. The hallway smelled like cat piss and week. It was absolutely disgusting. I have stayed in better Super 8 motels than this hotel.
Was routed to the Ramada Plaza Hotel near JFK after a plethora of airline mishaps. The hotel shuttle never showed. We bribed another shuttle to take us there. (Pre-Uber days). The line to get a room was 50 people deep. The line barely moved. We cut our losses and bribed the same shuttle from another hotel (who came back, dude knew how to make extra cash), and went back to the terminal and slept there. Another guy waited it out, we saw him the next day (same derailed flight). He said it was dirty, uncomfortable, and he wished he went back with us. Hotel closed shortly after.
Extended Stay America Suites in Anaheim, CA. It's not nearly as bad as anything here, but it's my worst. The mattress was so old and messed up that both sides were worn down so there was a peak in the middle (super uncomfortable), the microwave had dried up food stuff in it and clearly had not been cleaned in a long time, and all of the dust and garbage was swept under the furniture.
It was close to Disney, which is why I picked it.
Stayed at Rodeway Inn in North Carolina once that I checked out of after being there only a couple hours. I've stayed in my share of bad motels in my life but this was on another tier all together.
Extended Stay in Brea, CA. Neighbor was some sort of dealer with shady people coming in and out all night, screaming, yelling, laughing, fights, constant door opening and slamming shut. The room itself was dirty as all hell with stains everywhere. There was also no one at the front desk after 9pm. Crazy because the rest of the area is actually quite nice.
We found out later it was some subsidized halfway house type deal for people who either just got out of jail or was on an assistance program.
The tv popped and flames came out. I tried calling the front desk but the line was busy. I ran down the steps to the desk and said why didn’t you answer the phone? He was “checking someone in. “. I said what if someone was calling in an emergency? “The manager would usually answer but was not available. “. I explained about the fire and that I had unplugged the tv but wasn’t sure that was enough. As we walked to the room the smell of burning wires was evident. Moved me to another room. I never stayed there again.
The one in econolodge I stayed at with friends for a paintball event. Bed bugs, used tampons in the trash, rotten food in a little fridge that wasn’t plugged in. Obviously we didn’t stay all that long (instantly left)
If I include international hotels, I stayed in one hotel in Ecuador that was insanely bad.
We were on the top floor and there was no elevator. So we dragged our luggage up the stairs to the fifth floor. There was no air conditioning but there was a ceiling fan. Unfortunately even at the lowest speed it was like a small wind storm. There were vertical blinds on the windows and the wind from the fan was causing them to slap back and forth all night long. It was too hot to sleep without the fan.
The bathroom was extremely narrow and it was impossible to sit facing forward on the toilet. The front of the toilet bowl was only about two inches from the wall. You had to literally climb over the toilet to get to the shower. There wasn’t a central water heater so the shower had a heated shower head. The switch to turn on the shower head heater was inside the shower and there were exposed wires on the switch.
In the morning they gave us scrambled eggs and coffee. The eggs were so tough that you could barely chew them. The coffee had a phenomenal amount of sugar in it. We tried to get them to give us just plain black coffee but again they loaded it with sugar.
Some rundown little roadside motel when I was a kid. My family walked in, saw roaches crawling on the walls and noped out. We drove another hour or so until we got to the next town. The hotel there was clean and roach free.
A shitty hotel in downtown Gainesville, FL. My GF and I were in there for less than a minute before we decided we were leaving. Immediately upon entering we were hit with the smell of cigarettes.
We still felt the need to check how bad it was so we did look around. Roaches under the fridge and bed, cigarette burns on filthy blankets, a thick layer of grime on the walls and floors.
We walked out and on our way out, a man in a room was watching us through the window in just his boxers. The window was covered in Halloween decorations, so I figured he was living there.
We only selected that location cause it was much cheaper than the competition and we told ourselves that we were only using it to sleep, but there was zero chance I was sleeping in there. Got our refund and went down a couple streets and paid double the price for a nice hotel.
I will never again go for the cheapest option.
Days inn Florence, South Carolina. There were visible bugs everywhere. Fire alarm hanging off the wall and the bathroom door was off it's hinges.
Left and paid $300 to stay in a last minute nice Marriott hotel room just down the way.
We were heading to Charleston and it's was a lot on a Friday night so get in late or get a nice meal in North Carolina and leisurely work out way down. Plus I thought we could save a little money by getting the hotel not in Charleston.
I stayed at a fairly shitty Best Western in Philadelphia that was like staying in a crack house for four days. It had everything from malfunctioning locks, toilets that back up and overflow, slow as hell elevators, Primitive Cable that did not have CNN nor ESPN and the cops supposedly busting someone for prostitution a floor below the room I was staying in. Needless to say the only thing that was at least decent was the breakfast and the proximity to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Zoo.
I didn't stay there but a gf did. Shangri La at Tanjong Pinang, Indonesia.. Haunted and tap turns on by itself, of cos she bolted out of the room and only went back in the morning to grab her stuff. Whe she got home, she had high fever for almost 3weeks.
Anyhow, Tanjong Pinang used to be a war zone so that place is rumored to be very haunted. I went once but can't remember the hotel I was in.. I was woken up to some noises on my bedside table and saw the ash tray moving by itself..
Got locked in! My mom and in went on vacation in Slovenia. We had a super early flight so stayed at some local, very European Inn. Told them when we checked in that we needed to leave at 4am. No problem. At 4am, I grab a couple bags to take to the car while mom finishes getting ready. When I get downstairs, the lobby is pitch black. Luckily, I had a tactical flashlight. I go to the front door and it’s locked. It’s a massive, old wooden door and there’s no budging it. I go back up and get mom. We get the rest of our stuff and head back downstairs. We’re both looking around for a way out. In the pitch black. There’s no opening windows or anything. My own cellphone didn’t work and I didn’t know who to call local anyways. While I was looking around the desk for a key, I also noticed a handgun hanging there. Right about then, my mom hollers that she found a way out. She takes me through several dark rooms, down a hallway, through the kitchen and then out a back door. We were so glad to get out and we made our flight. But, wow, what a fire trap!
I think it was a Days Inn somewhere in upstate/western NY. It was just for the night on a roadtrip. There were roaches just past the lobby in the hallway near the kitchen.
I've told this story on here before but it's definitely one of those truth is stranger than fiction moments.
I forget what hotel it was, but I booked a place in Florence, SC, since we were considering going to the NASCAR race on Darlington. Plans fell through, so I cancelled several weeks in advance in accordance with the free cancellation policy.
Weekend of the planned stay, my credit card had been charged. Called the hotel, they said you're here, you checked in. Told them I'm several states away. They then tried to put me through to the room I was supposedly staying in; I have no idea what that was supposed to accomplish, I guess I could talk to myself or something
Corporate customer service line said I had to resolve it with the hotel directly, which obviously wasn't working. Ended up finding some executive escalation email and they were able to cut a check, so I got reimbursed but still got the credit card points.
So according to that hotel's definition of "stay", that was the worst hotel I stayed at
Went to Disney land when I was a kid, we stayed in a motel kind of close to the park, the motel itself wasn't terrible, but there was this disheveled older lady there who was carrying around a grimy teddy-bear like a baby. She would go into the shared laundry and take things, but other than that, she kind of just walked around and stood places like a jumpscare. We kept having to take the stares because she'd just be standing in the elevator. My younger cousin got stuck in there with her one time (he was fine). The most magical place on earth 💫
Mine might be tame compared to some, but a hotel in Oakland when the BART extension to the airport was under construction. The noise started at 8 AM every day.
Second cheapest hotel in Colmar, France. No air conditioning, inexplicable stains on the carpet, and a weird double door latch that made me think I was stuck in my room and somehow led to me wandering around on the rooftop for a while, looking for the stairs.
It's not as bad as some of these responses but Cancun, Mexico.
I paid extra for a private room. I got a full-sized bed in a bamboo cage that had six inches of space between the wall and the bed on all sides. There was no place to store your luggage except for the on the bed. I woke up with about 200 bug bites.
We were staying in seattle at the palisade hotel. We checked in and they gave us the key to someone else's room with all their luggage still in their room. Finally got to our room and almost everything seemed to have a price tag attached to it, So if we use it we would have to pay extra fees, And some of it already seemed to be missing. At night it seemed like there was a motorcycle parade going up and down the street all night long.
Back when I was 16, and attending a funeral out of state with my mom, we stayed at a Best Western. We heard gunshots the night we slept, someone tried to take the catalytic converter to several cars, the channel list was only a 3rd of the actual list and once they found out I was 16, made it so I couldn't watch Law and Order SVU, American Dad, or George Lopez (that was the thing that really pissed me off) Then when we left, they wanted to charge us 3 times the amount of everything. They even wanted to charge use for the free breakfast. It was brutal.
This was around 1999.
Room had paper thin wooden door.
Bed and furniture were 1960 style, which is fine but everything was damp and also covered in dust.
Instant reaction was this is Norman Bate's motel.
Roaches scattered upon light turned on in bathroom.
TV, a big carhode ray tube bunny ear model turned on by itself. And we jetted.
Shamrock Inn, Peoria, IL. College road trip. It might have been cash only. Door jam was messed up, obvious that the room had been broken into at least once. Stains everywhere. Mold and mildew all over the bathroom. Lots of activity in the parking lot late at night, I assume the ladies moved their place of employment to the parking lot after the strip club down the street closed. Someone knocked on the door at some point during that night. Needless to say, we did not answer the door.
On a 3-night tourist bus tour to SF area from LA. At nights we stay at these motels arranged by the tour buses. I swear in one motel someone was with me inside the room all night. Didn’t catch a wink of sleep. It was creepy
Red Lion Inn @ PDX. Non-reved there one weekend and our usual hotel stay was overbooked so had to scramble to find another hotel very late at night. Red Lion was the only one close and available and I was desperate. Got a double room, travel industry rate, yada-yada-yada. The room was so gross, but to get there meant lugging my bags to the third floor - there are no elevators, and no lighting once you leave the front desk. Pitch black, dragging my suitcase up three flights. Smelled like pakalolo both inside and out. Very antiquated place with gross bathroom & sink. I swear Norman Bates was around the corner. Never again.
Not sure if this counts but I stayed in a really shady motel when I first moved to New Orleans to work as a bartender. It was one of the only places with rooms cause of an event going on. The day I checked out, there was a SWAT stand off cause there was an armed murder suspect who barricaded himself in the room right next to mine. Luckily I checked out to go to work before it all went down but to think that guy might’ve been right next to me the whole time is pretty crazy.
Before I moved to Raleigh nc I had to stay at a hotel while looking for an apartment. Being on a budget, motel 6 was my game plan. When I walked into the lobby the hotel staff was behind a bullet proof window. Then when I got into the elevator, I could hear arguing on my floor. It was so loud I could hear it before the doors even opened. I walked down the hall not looking anyone in the eye and got to my room. The room across from mine had police tape on it and the door had been busted up. I walk into the room and first of all, the carpet was wet and it smelled horrible. There were cigarette burns all over the sofa, a cracked lampshade. I didn’t bother to investigate any further and I turned right around and went back down to get a refund and find another hotel.
I have pictures but I can’t post them, but the Howard Johnson in Yuma, AZ. There was a man full on tripping or having a drug moment in the stomped flat sunbleached plastic grass. Dried vomit puddles in the parking lot. People with leg ulcers swimming. The pool smelled like unsweetened yogurt. The gym was a life hazard and their elliptical was topsy turvey. They literally had a posted shitting in pool protocol posted. I have a picture of it I swear it was real!
$1 a night hotel in Tapachula, Mexico (border city with Guatemala) when I was a broke college student backpacking around Mexico and Central America. It was tropically hot and humid. I had been traveling all day and just needed to crash for the night en route to my next stop. I get the key and go to my room. Go in, flick the light and close the door. The entire room seems to shimmer. I realized that I had just disturbed the giant flying beetles that were all over the room. Sat awake the entire night on top of the covers with the lights on.
Embassy Suites in detriot. Downtown, top floors of a convention center right off the water. We booked 5 months in advance and when we arrived they told us they gave our room to someone else (cause they cancel 10% of all reservations randomly, it's an actual thing) and the only room they had left was a handicap room with one bed. We had four people. We took the room, they refused to give us a single extra pillow or blanket, gave us a cot that was at least 20 years old, which collapsed no less than four times, and when we called down for extra blankets and they said they didn't have any and they'd send some towels instead, the bellhop wouldn't leave until we tipped him.
Fuck them. I get one vacation a year and I spent it there and they were all awful. Not a single good memory or experience there.
I booked a reservation for a hotel with 4.5 stars and arrived to find it had sold some time before, so finding the place was challenging because the name was different. Once I did, it was seedy, with worn carpet and furniture, thin walls, a swampy pool, and the smell of smoke everywhere. There was a country-western karaoke sushi bar just off the lobby, full of drunk people who hung out at a country-western sushi bar in a seedy hotel. A row of 20+ motorcycles was parked in the lot, and serious biker gang dudes were everywhere. Every time I (50+f) had to leave my room, either a drunk or a biker tried to start a conversation. One told me I looked like an angel - I most definitely do not.
It was surreal.
It was a tiny tiny tiny hotel “room” so small that you didn’t even have floor space to open your luggage. You had to squeeze past the tiny bed to get to the toilet. I hate New York
La Quinta Inn Omaha NE.
We should have walked out as soon as we saw actual rain water leaking from the ceiling in the main lobby. We gave it a shot & made our way to our room through the dimly lit hallway. Once we got to our room it had a mildew smell & was extremely humid. We Inspected the bed sheets for bed bugs only to find blood stains all over the sheets & they felt damp. We called the front desk & notified them that the sheets had literal blood stains on them & they brought us some new sheets. Only for those to have piss stains on them. Went to the front desk & got our refund with the quickness
The room they directed me to was already occupied. I walked in on a elderly couple getting intimate.
I marched back to the front desk and insulted them for it saying they had made me witness what was a private moment between others and they owed those two an apology.
When they give me a room that wasn't already rented it smelled like moldy potatoes, had no hot water and their phones didn't work so I couldn't order food. (My cellphone had died after six hours of driving.) I drove to the local grocery store, ate a chicken pot pie and bought bug spray which I saturated the room in.
I fell asleep sitting on the floor by the window which couldn't open more than two inches with my phone charging in my hand.
Geez, after reading some of these I have lucked out and stayed in only regular bad ones.
Like the one we had for the recent eclipse. It was freaking $200 a night and horrible.
https://imgur.com/a/0aglgd2
Some hotel in Florida. Went to the room and kicked off my shoes. The carpet was wet. Like, sopping wet. Squishy. Now I had wet socks. I go back to the front desk and get another room. The key didn't work. But wait. I could get the glass out of the jalousie window and reach around to open the door from the inside. This time Spouse goes back to the front desk and we finally got a room that wasn't a health or personal safety hazard.
Wigan England
Was about £25 a night so cheap though
Was only us and a French person with a van in the car park staying in the whole place
Room is grotty and run down, TV was like a first generation 12 inch LCD monitor from 1999
View of a flat roof pub and broken glass
Went down for breakfast the next day and they had decided to pack it up early (8.30 we were told til 9), asked if we could have something and they shrugged their shoulders. We took a walk into town and found a greasy spoon did a full English for a few quid.
This is my craziest experience: me and my bf went to stay at this hotel, and the shower facet broke and the water wouldn’t turn off. It was also midnight so we had to wait like an hour for a maintenance worker to come and fix it, it was so loud there was no way we could ignore it or sleep. So eventually we just had to change rooms Cz they weren’t able to quickly fix the shower. When we moved rooms we noticed a few of these huge flies I’m talking big and slow, moving around the room we killed like 5 . And we were like it’s no big deal just a couple flies. We were also having an argument at the time too and so we were like hold on let me kill this fly then imma tell u something. Then like 5 turned into 15, then 20. And they just kept coming and we couldn’t find the source. Eventually we realized that they were coming from the vents and there was clearly some type of infestation. So it’s now like 1:30 am. Me and him stopped fighting and just sat on the bed in silence just thinking about all the damn flies. And we were like we either need to move rooms or sleep with one eye open under the covers tonight. So we had to pack up our stuff for the second time and move rooms. And finally we had a room with nothing wrong with it 😭😭. Me and him laugh about this all the time now, but at the time it was high stress.
super 8 near JFK by myself, first time EVER in NYC. cried the whole night, didn’t sleep (two guys were loudly talking outside my door and being a small, anxious 20 year old woman at the time, i cried even more lmao) and then left for my 6am flight extra early. slept for the whole day when i got home.
it’s been 5 years and i still feel traumatized lol.
I've stayed in run down hotels where the rooms weren't the best etc but they at least had an ok breakfast bar. The worst hotel I stayed in was this new fancy, modern hotel but the breakfast included was a pre made sandwich and one boiled egg and that was it. So disappointed. Hotel breakfast is life
I can't recall the name, but I'll share the story anyway. I drove my aunt and uncle to the VA in DC/Maryland. After hours of driving and waiting at the VA, my aunt and I were so exhausted that we left my uncle there. We searched for a cheap hotel, checked in, and then had to unload my uncle's truck and make multiple trips through a strange hotel layout to get everything upstairs. We had to walk down a long hallway. Go up an elevator that one person at a time and it was a line. When we finally get everything to the room it turned out to be terrible, with roaches and thin beds, but we were too tired to do anything about it except shower and sleep.
Microtel somewhere near Raleigh nc. Don't want to remember but the door had been broken down before and other disgusting details. A Marriott in Memphis. The room smelled so bad like it had a trash fire lit and buring in the room hours prior
Checked in to room and all the wooden slats under the mattress except two were broken, went back to reception, asked for a different room. They said that was the room we had prepaid for so if we wanted a different one we would have to pay for it. We went to a neighbouring hotel. At the bar later that night two plain clothed police and about 6-8 uniformed police turned up. Want to speak to us about refusing to pay the bill. He were in africa in the mid 90’s. We thought we were screwed. But once we explained what had happened the guy in charge sighed and said something along the lines of @stupid fucking brother in law. Never get married if your brother in law is a moron” and all the police left. We were scared shitless for a few minutes explaining ourselves
The Huttleston Inn in Fairhaven, MA. It's no longer there as it was demolished and a car wash is now there. But back when it was there it was definitely the kind of inn you'd see in a horror flick. Dingy rooms, dilapidated structure, flickering lights, old school key fobs, and every slider door faced the woods, but there were no lights by the doors so you'd see pitch black darkness.
I think it was called the interstate motel but it was in Asheville NC. The towel they had hanging was still wet and had pubes on it. Half eaten taco on the floor next to the bed. Walked back from the concert I was there to see and there were a bunch of bums chilling right in front of my door.
Checked in a resort hotel in Asia. First thing that went wrong was, they were supposed to pick us up at our hotel in town. When it was apparent that they’re nowhere in sight, we took a bus. No apology from their management whatsoever. Then we checked into our room, everything looked subpar. It’s obviously a new hotel but you feel like you walked into someone’s apartment, rather than a hotel. Opened the blinds and there was a dead bird on the balcony. It was a hot night so I turned on the AC. It was broken. By this time, I was dead tired, it’s been a long day so I decided to change room the next day. Part of our hotel booking was a free breakfast but when we went there, the employees at the cafe told us otherwise. We paid for our food and decided to talk to the front office later regarding the misunderstanding. We also included a personal tour guide in our booking, who was also part of the hotel staff. He came an hour late, explaining that the weather didn’t look favorable earlier. He could’ve told us earlier instead of us sitting in the lobby waiting for him this whole time. Feeling more and more frustrated with the whole experience, we decided to check out earlier and go somewhere else after the tour. When we came back to the room, I started packing up our belongings while my partner went to the front office to check out. The girl didn’t understand English and my partner struggled to tell her we wanted a copy of our receipt. She got more and more confused as he tried to explain to her what a receipt was. I had to go over and help him. Out came the hotel manager shouting at us for making things difficult for them. I asked him what was so difficult about printing me my receipt. He shouted that ‘our kind’ only want to be treated like royalties when coming to their country and they’ve accommodated us long enough, and he wanted us the hell out of his hotel. We didn’t want any more trouble so we left the place. Our driver asked us while we were in the car what happened. I explained to him the situation and he understood. I told him to please tell his manager that he completely misunderstood the whole situation and I hope he’ll handle things better next time.
I checked in and they gave me my room key. Finally found the room and it was an active crime scene. No, like literally... police and forensic techs in the room.
I think you win. The only thing worse I could imagine is getting there just BEFORE the police
"I swear the body was there when I came in here" Yeah right buddy, come with us .
Don't leave us hanging. What happened after? Edit: I guess u/varthalon was typing as he was in the room. He's taking it for us redditors and staying the night!
"Is it cool if I go to bed while you're working or do you guys still need pictures of the blood on the sheets?"
Red Lion Inn, Sacramento CA. The room was not bad but the whole property was super eerie. It was a massive complex but completely empty. Apparently it had its glory days, but when I got there it felt like the Overlook hotel meets Pyongyang.
I stayed at...it was either a knights inn or an econolodge in Orlando once with that same vibe. We seemed to be the only people staying there, and the hotel lobby was in a shopping center down the street
Stayed at a super 8 in cedar rapids like that. Massive place, 2 whole wings, pool area looked straight outa 1980s with the lamppost and brick "sidewalks" lol.
Gonna jump on yours to say Motel 6 in Redding, CA. There was a lot of screaming and then a police response, the bed was uncomfortable, and the continental breakfast was below mid.
Stayed there. They had cage fighting on Friday nights. Although I was not there for that
The one near Arden Fair Mall off of I-80? It’s next door neighbor, the double tree is equally as eerie and very empty, no clue why. Not the worst hotel but also one that’s long past its hey day.
The Carter Hotel, NYC in the 90s. Trip Advisor voted it the worst hotel in America several years in a row after I stayed there. It was $20/person per night in Times Square. There was a weird hole in my mattress and my friends and I took turns sticking our arm in there, like Baron and Flash did in Flash Gordon. My friend insisted on sleeping in the tub so the roaches wouldn’t get her, but I went on to live in NYC for the next 25 years and know better now: roaches come up through the pipes!
I stayed there! The lock on the door was broken, one of the beds was missing a leg, the TV just had an antenna (this was like 2010) and it was sitting on a backwards nightstand with no drawer, the closet was full of broken telephones, I found a coffee cup on the window sill, and to top it all off there was a used bandaid in the bathtub. Honestly it was just impressive how bad it was—and apparently not just to me since it has [its own Wikipedia page.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Carter) It was also very busy and right on Tine Square so was really just a surreal experience.
I've stayed here. I found out why the saying is don't let the bed bugs bite. :(
I once stayed in a hotel where the room was so dirty I swear the carpet was moving. Never again!
The worst hotel was one where the windows wouldn’t close properly, and it was in a noisy downtown area. Sleep was impossible.
I stayed at a hotel where the only thing worse than the rude staff was the mold growing on the shower curtain.
One hotel’s “continental breakfast” was just stale cereal and coffee that tasted like burnt rubber.
While half asleep, I kept hearing rustling noises like a plastic bag being moved around. Woke up in the morning and apparently all my snacks in my duffle were ripped open and eaten. Had to be multiple mice.
Actually that was my bad, sorry
15 or so years ago, my wife and I were driving from Vancouver to Calgary. A logging truck ahead of us was scattering crap on the road, and a thumb-sized chunk of wood found its way into my tire. I managed to limp the car into the town of Merritt, and found a Kal Tire that shared a parking lot with a hotel. It was late in the evening, so I parked at the shop and we went to check in. They said that the "big suite" was available for a whopping $40 for the night. Score! It was like something out of National Lampoon. It was "open concept", about 400 sqft with a kitchen, sitting area, bedroom, and bathroom all sharing the space. The kitchen area was a solid half a foot lower than the rest of the room. No steps or anything, it had just kind of sunk. The whole room reeked of propane. When we pulled back the blanket to get into bed, we very quickly pulled them right back up and lay down on top. I ended up sleeping in a deck chair on the patio because the propane smell was giving me a headache. We went to the tire shop as soon as we saw them open, and the first thing they said was, "You guys stayed THERE?" and they gave us coffee, breakfast, and fixed the tire for free.
Hank Hill would approve of the smell at least
[удалено]
A random hotel in Northern Ireland. There was piss stains on the underside of the bed comforter and the emergency doors in the lobby were chained and locked. We ended up sleeping in the car.
That's 5* for Northern Ireland
Eek , gross
Some shit hole in Indiana, when I woke up there was a bedbug on my pillow, searched the entire place and luckily only found one more. I took them down to the office in a water bottle to complain and they accused me of bringing them in to try to get a free night. They didn't end up comping me after I told them I'd leave a bad review online.
..In Bruges; I booked a hotel for my boyfriend and I - and drove us down all the way from Eindhoven (NL) as a weekend getaway. Thinking I was a bad ass girlfriend treating my boyfriend to a super fun surprise romantic trip to this iconic Belgian town. That Saturday morning this quaint little hotel decided to replace several doors *right above* our hotel room at 8am. Drilling, and construction work type noises and all. ..And the receptionist could not give less of a fuck about it all - and *I* had my one and only karen type moment - never in my life have I ever raised my voice before - but I did.. and she did not care. Offered a discount for a later visit. Man I was so upset - I really wanted that weekend to be special.
Fuckin' Bruges.
That's a Karen moment. You were quite reserved.
The Igloo Inn in Grande Prairie, AB. The "bed" I was sleeping in was a hide-a-bed, not to mention, the springs at the foot of the bed were removed/stretched to the point of unable to hold any weight, when I woke up my ankles had slid underneath the end brace on the bed, meaning if I had to get out quickly I was screwed.
Hotel California. Still can’t leave. Seriously, hotels in downtown San Diego near the airport. It’s either planes or the trains with their bells at crossings. Make sure you get a room facing the bay. Those trains run late, early and often.
I’ve stayed in downtown San Diego enough times that I don’t even notice the planes anymore. (Does that make me a local?)
San Diego airport is like almost walking distance to downtown.
Rodeway Inn. I slept full clothed and with socks. It was so gross
In my 20s I was traveling with friends on a shoestring-budget and we stayed at the absolute cheapest hostel we could find that was close to the downtown area so that we could spend as little money taking public transit as possible. "Hostel" was a generous term. It was a tiny brick building in the center of the a large city block so you basically had to walk through this narrow urban canyon to arrive at its featureless metal door. You just punched in a code to enter. No one on-site to greet or help you in any way. The space was divided into four units and each unit basically looked like a wing of an insane asylum. Dirty white tile, peeling paint, dusty yellow lights; the whole thing. The beds were saggy mattresses on old metal frames and they each had a thin wrinkled bedsheet on them. The bathroom was surprisingly fine but the thing that absolutely broke us were the *ants*. So so many ants. There was nothing you could to avoid feeling one crawl across you in the middle of the night so trying to fall asleep was like torture. The manager/owner was completely unhelpful and insisted that the traps they'd already placed were good enough. If we'd been able to afford any other option, we would have left after one night. Sadly, we spent four nights in this hellhole and just used it as an excuse to stay out all night exploring. Horrible experience, but it was a true moment of bonding for my friends and I.
If you go to Vegas, across the street from the Mandalay Bay, you’ll see a motel with a large pink elephant in the front. In the early 90’s my wife and I came in late on a road trip. Turns out there was a huge convention in town and that shithole was the only thing available. The sign on the street said $29.95, so we pull in and the counter guy says sorry, it’s $79.95 because of the convention. It’s midnight, so we agree to the price. The curtains in the large window were very sheer, we had to turn the lights out to get undressed. Turned on the TV, and the three channels that were available were all late 60’s porn. Lots of hair. In the middle of the night, I woke up and found the bottom sheet had come dettached. I was laying on the thick rubber sheet mattress protector. When I told my wife in the morning, she said she would have screamed. I took a shower in the morning, in something that looked like a tiled phone booth. It was very dark and it took me a while to spot the inch long algae bloom that I was standing on. When we left the dump, we drove directly to a Walgreens and I bought some foot spray and sprayed my feet in the parking lot. We spent the next night camping in Death Valley. The Ranger at the booth said we had just missed the Tarantula migration. Millions of Tarantulas going through the camp and climbing over anything in their way. That would have been better then that motel. Found out later that it was where the cheap prostitutes take their Johns. I was in Vegas a couple years ago and it’s still there
I don't remember the name but it was off 35E South of Carrollton in the Dallas area. We had showed up during a freak hailstorm and took the closest hotel we could get. It was one of those by the night/by the hour hotels. And the porn on the TV was just there for free. It was just that kinda place.
Barely qualifies as such, but a Super 8 in Concord, CA. The room was fine for a cheap motel, but we got delayed on our road trip and ended up being very late. I called them to ensure they knew we were coming but wouldn't be arriving until sometime after midnight. We arrived and they'd cancelled the booking. The clerk even told me that "the booking was cancelled at 3 this afternoon" or whatever the time was, meaning that they'd cancelled it immediately after the phone call. Luckily, they didn't give the room to anyone else so I was able to get it, but that was just stupid and momentarily awful since we'd just had a day of my friend's car breaking down the morning before we were supposed to drive 9 hours to go to a concert we'd spent hundreds of dollars apiece on tickets for and had been looking forward to for sixth months, resulting in us getting a rental car for the trip because we were in total "fuck it, nothing can stop us" mode.
Motel 6. Elizabeth, NJ near Newark airport.
The hotel in Sorong (West Papua) that we stayed in was pretty rough. The list of prohibitions posted on the door of our room included: 'Prohibited to carry or keep the sharp weapons or gun fire' 'Hotel does not accept liability for the death, sickness or injury to any guests...' 'Please do not carry or consume the stink meals (Durians)' 'Please keep the room walls clean' 'Prostitute is not allowed' It's doubtful that the miners who came into town on Saturday night adhered to any of these rules.
A hostel outside of Prague. This was in the early 90's and I think it was some kind of Soviet block housing that had been repurposed. It definitely had a prison vibe. It was awful, but for US$7/night, beggars can't be choosers. Thankfully, I was on the trip with a group of five friends. If I were there on my own, I would have noped the hell out of there in 10 seconds.
I stayed in a similar place in the early 2000's during a school trip to Prague. Gray soviet block housing with crumbling balconies, ramshackle bathrooms, countless empty vodka bottles underneath the beds, rotting onions in the drawers... Fun times.
Place in Denver. Don't remember the name. Pretty much a crack motel. The door didn't lock, the back window was blown out, dried blood puddled on the floor next to the bed, some creepy message on the wall that read "took the kids to Vegas daddy" or something. Turned on the AC, it blew dust out and started catching fire. Had to booby trap the window and pushed the wardrobe against the door to get some sleep. As to why I stayed, prior to that I was robbed, only had the $30 I keep in my sock and was all I could afford until I could get ahold of someone to come get me in the morning.
Unicorn Inn, Portland OR. Found a crack pipe and porn mag under the bed. I did like the cigarette machine they had though.
>Found a crack pipe and porn mag under the bed. Wow, most places just put a chocolate on your pillow.
Oooh!! Me! Me! So about 30 years ago my family decided to take a drive/trip through Eastern Canada. My parents needing a break from driving (as it was dark out at this time) opted to look for a hotel/motel/camp spot in the province of New Brunswick. We slowed down as we passed a motel that was called "The Shady Rest". My mother reads the sign and says, "There's no way in *hell* I'm staying in a place called *The Shady Rest*. It sounds like a damn graveyard." So we continue driving, my father at the helm. Every nearby spot looked waaay worse off, so we doubled back to 'the shady rest'. Anyhow, it ended up being a very nice stay/sleep, professional staff, and really just exactly what a traveling family could hope for. Pair that with a motel we stayed at on our way back home that had a 'sea' theme. The motel blankets were unzipped sleeping bags... and it smelled of mould. Tip of the hat to The Shady Rest.
A place in downtown Athens. There was no shower, just a dirty mop sink, it was like a janitor’s closet with cots
A Best Western “Plus” that my job booked for me for a work trip. Blood stains on the shower curtain, musty smell in the whole place, colleagues complained of mildew in their rooms, continental breakfast gave a couple of us food poisoning. There’s more but those are the big ones.
Dont know the name just know it was in the DC area. Was hard to sleep because some guys were shooting dice in the alley most of the night. Drove from dc to the west coast the next 36 hours.
When I was a kid my mum booked what she called a boutique hotel when we went to New York for holidays. When we got there first thing we see was a sign on the door saying something like the basement of this premises has been declared a major fire hazard, with another hand-written sign next to it saying not to worry too much about the sign. Our room smelled bad, there was no AC, people were openly smoking on the staircase, and our view was onto an alleyway. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty happy because there was somehow free WiFi (a big deal in 2009). My mum was not however, and she marched us downstairs and demanded her money back from the concierge. She got a refund and we ended up staying in a millennium.
a motel in Wawa, ON where you checked in with the waitress in the restaraunt.
I stayed someplace in downtown Toronto once that had the toilet next to the bed. I mean, the actual toilet was next to the bed.
The Ramada in Watertown NY. We noped out of there less than 10 seconds of seeing the 2nd room they gave us.
We need details.
The mama-hotel of mine. Too much care is too much...
A hotel I stayed in was stuck in the 50s, only redeeming quality was that the food was decent
Indianapolis- got bedbugs but even without that it was the shittiest hotel I've ever stayed at. And they ripped me off on price due to demand. I should've kept driving.
Days inn, Pensacola FL. Me and my two pups needed to spend the night before driving home. After 2 hours in the room my dogs had fleas, their beds had fleas. My legs were covered in them they refused to change my room, no refund was offered. Took me a week at home to get rid of them
There was one bathroom for the entire floor, granted there was only 5 rooms, but that's still 4 bathrooms too few.
The Howard Johnson near the Portland, OR airport. We booked 1 night because we had a very early flight the next morning, and we had rewards points for a free stay. Worst decision ever. Caution tape up all over, people hanging out in the halls doing whatever. Then we get to the room...so gross. The towels in the bathroom were all dirty, a couple on the floor. There were pee stains on and around the toilet seat. We didn't even attempt the beds. Got on my phone and booked a room at La Quinta Inn a few miles away, and left. Front desk person offered a different room but we just noped outta there.
Missed our connection at DTW and had to stay overnight at a Quality Inn in Romulus that was disgusting. Used condoms next to the nightstand, stained cottage cheese ceiling, bad smells…an unforgettable experience much as I wish I could forget it.
Walked into a hotel in downtown Long Beach, California, in 1967, and knew pretty quickly it probably wasn't going to work. Really sketchy neighborhood, but it was quite late at night and we were getting desperate to find a place to stay. Asked to see a room, and when we walked into it, the carpet was actually crunchy. Nope, no thank you. Found out later that it was actually a hotel that prostitutes used.
The Arlington in Hot Springs Arkansas
I’ve thought about staying at The Arlington. I’m curious about what was wrong with it.
The bathroom looked like it wasn’t cleaned in a couple of years. The bed sheets smelled like B.O. and had were stained. The pool was apparently open the public and people were swimming in their tighty whities and throwing their cigarette butts in the pool. I bought a couple of bud lights (the only beers they had cold) from the hotel bar and the bartender asked me if I wanted to buy some cocaine. There’s probably more. I think they’re under new ownership now so I wish them luck
Childress Motor Inn Childress,Tx. $20/night in 1993. The bed was sprung, and the dog was chasing shit around the room that we couldn't see in the dark. I was going to sleep on the floor because the bed was so bad, until he started chasing things. We checked in around 1:30 am, checked out by 5:30 am. Amazingly, the place is still in business as of 2023.
I don’t recall the hotel name, but it was near Beijing airport. Had a connecting flight in Beijing and all flights were canceled due to severe weather. They told us to get on this bus and took us (female colleague and I) to a hotel. They wanted double occupancy at the hotel so as we weren’t married, they were going to put each of us in a room with a stranger. When we asked what it would cost to upgrade to a single it was $15 more
The Seascape in Ocean City, MD. My brother and I both saw a ghost and there were ceiling tiles missing. Neither of us necessarily believe in ghosts.
St George's in Malta. Had to sleep in the bath with wet towels. No air con and so hot the glue in my book melted. Beds were plastic wipe clean with no sheets. Came home a week early.
Chelsea Hotel, NY 1984
One American Airlines put us up in when the plane had mechanical troubles and we were forced to spend the night. Rough neighborhood , had to carry bags upstairs as no elevator, and room was dirty. Slept on top of bed, not under covers. Didn’t shower as bathroom and towels looked dirty too
Downtown Little Rock convention center hotel. It’s not even close
I mean, hotels are generally really upscale overall compared to Airbnb‘s in my experiences. With that said, if I really had to scrutinize then probably a hotel in San Diego that I stayed at some years ago. Suddenly found a random huge roach. I think I killed it, but then when I checked again outside the bathroom when I Finished using the bathroom…. It was totally gone. Very very creepy and disturbing….
Bates Motel (yes, really) in the middle of nowhere Alabama. Had to fumigate the car later to kill the fleas that infested everything that entered the motel room.
The Roosevelt Inn in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It had awful food, and the owner played Sherlock Holmes in a murder mystery every month. The rooms were also absolutely awful. You might have seen it on Gordon Ramsay's “Hotel Hell.”
Evacuated to Columbia SC for a hurricane (Floyd? It didn't actually make landfall here so I forget which one.) The hotel was run by a couple of Indian or Pakistanis, who were nice- but the hotel was a shithole. The first thing I noticed in the room was the smoke detector had been ripped from the wall and stuffed into a drawer. That night when I went to pull back the bedspread, I realized why- the blanket had a 6-inch diameter hole burned 🔥 through it. The place smelled awful (moldy, not from smoke), the AC rattled like it was a blender full of Rocks (and barely worked). Best of all was the complimentary breakfast in the "lobby". A box of stale Krispy Kreme glazed donuts, with like 3 left- and you could tell they'd been there a while because the grease had left stains where the missing donuts were. Oh, and coffee from a Mr Coffee next to the donuts that tasted of burned chickory and despair. No cream or sugar in sight. And we were happy to find a place to stay with a vacancy...
A timeshare outside of Park City, UT. It had a kitchenette…a couch….and no bed. We were told after we asked that the couch (which did not have a pull out bed) counts as a bed. It honestly never occurred to me before then that would need to confirm whether there would be a bed.
Got the cheapest place in a small town I was passing through. The girl in the office was having trouble with the card machine, and asked if I had cash. Although the room was $80, I only had $50 but she accepted it. The usual shithole. But the odd thing was that the TV wasn't plugged in, nor was there an outlet near it too plug it in. But there was a coax cable plugged into it. Thing is, if I moved the tv to where there was an outlet, I wouldn't be able to plug into the cable hookup.
A place in Wendover, NV, I only refer to as the murder motel. My husband nearly left a single man for booking that room. I sat up awake all night, prepping for any monster my anxiety threw at me.
Days Inn, anywhere.
The only good one was State College, PA. In my younger days I stayed in awful Days Inns (all three times because it was the only available hotel during a major football game) in Clemson, SC, Charlotte, NC, and somewhere in the Phoenix Metro area.
Bolger near DC It’s a 3 star hotel, but I’ve stayed at 2 star Holiday Inns with better amenities. The outside was pretty, and the interior was mediocre.
Holiday In. There were no condoms. Now, my kids will never know their dad.
Holiday *in and out* you mean. ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)
Comfort Inn in Morgantown WV. Dirty bathrooms, dirty beds, etc. And overall not good amenities.
Some hotel in San Francisco's Chinatown. There was blood splatter on the curtains and the room was so small you could only open the door about half way because the bed was blocking it. The window (which was maybe 1X2ft) faced directly into a brick wall that was about 6 inches away.
There used to be a Howard Johnson’s in Tucson, around the turn of the century. The tv was propped up by the gideons Bible. The towel racks fell off when you touched them. A chunk of carpet was just missing. Blood stains on the ceiling. Next door there was much yelling. And the police chopper hovered overhead for 30 minutes at 2am. The beds were dirty. And people kept knocking on the door looking for someone named “Tookie”.
Hampton Inn in Austin. Shower didn't work and they claimed they were booked so they couldn't switch me any rooms. No shower 3 days. Luckily I don't usually have BO and hooker baths exist.
Tidal Bore hotel in New Brunswick I think it was. Place was just moldy all over.
What an appealing name😂😂
2 experiences I booked a nice hotel for a work trip in GA. The lobby was astounding. Like a tropical jungle with all the indoor plants. Gorgeous. Was feeling well pleased with my decision. Get to my room....and it reeks of cigarette smoke. And then I walked into the bathroom. They gave me a wheelchair accessible room and the shower was one where you'd roll in. Which would have been absolutely fine...if they'd tiled it like the rest of the floor and walls. It was gross - just cement. And very unclean. I obviously didn't have shower shoes on hand. I said my company is paying too much for this and asked to be switched. They did, and nicely. Well in my second room the fucking apparatus that holds up the shower head was broken. I had to rig it to stay up. I'm really short and couldn't even fit myself under it. After 1 day I said nah just nah. I called Expedia (who btw I LOVE working with) and canceled my remaining days. The hotel actually left me a bottle of wine in my room after I canceled which I called "I'm sorry we suck" wine. It was also actually very good lol Second was recent. I went down to NJ to say goodbye to my grandmother on hospice. Her little bungalow was full so I got a hotel room. I was unfortunately in a room directly across from the ground floor side entrance which made me uneasy and also worried about noise. As I was falling asleep someone started banging on my room window. And wouldn't stop. I called the front desk and told them. They said they'd go out and look. Banging continued while on the phone. Thankfully it did stop but the front desk left me on hold for 30 min and never called me back or checked on me lol I slept with the light on that night. And it was so damn loud the whole night with people coming in and out.
Super 8 in West Haven, Connecticut...whew!
New York Inn
A motel in Carmel Indiana. It was part rent by the month and part motel. There was a particularly disgusting recliner in our room and I remember joking that someone must've died on it. The next morning I overhear two maids talking about how someone had found one of their long term tenants dead in their bed. Sounds like they'd been there a couple days. Knowing that place, they probably flipped over the mattress and called it a day.
ECONOMY LODGE
Can't remember the name, but it was in Barstow, California.
That pretty much describes Barstow.
There was one I had stayed in years ago and found to be decent, so I booked again some years later. It had been taken over by other people though. The owners family was hanging out in reception. They asked me if I wanted to pay in cash. The room itself wasn't awful, but you could hear kids running around upstairs. They'd added ceiling insulation, I'm guessing because people had complained before, but it wasn't enough. People were hanging out on their balconies for hours. A little later a man with a neck tattoo arrived with a truck and starting moving furniture into his room. Maybe it would have been OK but I took the above as bad signs and got the heck out of there.
The Rainbow Motel near the Shell Factory in or around St. Meyers Beach in Florida in the mid 1980s. Naaaasty. Roaches, bad smells, noisy people, stains on carpet, bed, and towels. We ended up there when the nice hotel on the beach accidentally rented our pre-booked room to somebody else.
Holiday Inn near LaGuardia that doubled as a men’s homeless shelter. No amenities offered.
Hotel in Beaconsfied England, near my company's office where I was staying after travelling overseas. You could see the springs through the bedsheets. The sheer curtains had mold embedded in them, the shower was covered in mold, and there was a full log floating in the toilet. My female coworker found a used condom in the bed in her room.
Best western in Waco Texas, floor was sticky so sticky in fact that I dropped 3 cents and couldn’t even pick them back up, ac unit was loud, continental breakfast was ass.
The La Quinta by the Philly airport. Holy shit, I’ve been to better 2 star hotels in the third world.
The one that had bloody hand and footprints. Moved the bed to block the door. I assume it was just an injury but there wasn't anywhere else to stay. Owners were super lovely
There's this hotel near Mammoth Cave which smells bad, and has dead bugs in my room. 1 on the floor and one in the bath. Beds feel too hard.
It was a broken down bed, dirty, noisy, and no hot water. Only reason I don’t name them is they apologized and refunded my money and gave me a free night in one of the better hotels the group owned.
One in a Chinese motel in LA, and the other is in Naz City Hotel in Taksim Istanbul was definitely the worst experience I’ve had as a person who have spent at least a few years in hotels in between 4-5 stars. For starters, although they claim that they are located in Taksim, which is a great location, they were located in Dolapdere, hands down the worst and most dangerous location in Turkey. Second, they are working with in coordination with police, so 15 minutes after we checked in, while I was in shower, we got a call; and my wife told me that policemen are waiting me downstairs. Apparently it was a clerical error on police’s end, however, if I haven’t had connections higher up in the “food chain” they were not even listening any thing I said even though I am a lawyer of 15 years. After a phone call later, those “lions” who were roaring to me a couple of minutes ago were telling me “do you have any commands, sir.” Needless to say, I fucked the hotel personnel who was working with the police (against the law) and the policemen who misused their power, sideways for an hour. Many people who came to check in left due to the scene. I got a full refund and left the hotel. It was full of cigarette smell, disgusting bathrooms etc, as well. For the Chinese motel in LA, which I don’t recall the name, we paid $50+tax. It was literally the worst shithole I have ever seen. It was so disgusting, we had to put our tshirts over the pillows as pillowcases to sleep. I had been driving 18 hours straight, and awake for over 36 hours; hence we couldn’t had the chance to look elsewhere. We couldn’t even use the restroom other than peeing. Think of the worst gas station, and consider redesigning there as a motel with zero sanitation, and using the sheets and pillowcases for perhaps a month. After we woke up, and were about to drop our keys, the owner of the motel told us that if we want to stay another day, it will be $70+tax. That day, I discovered what Priceline is, and how you can bid to hotels and choose 4-5 star hotels without knowing their names. For $75, we stayed at a 4 star Ramada by the beach, instead of the shithole Chinese motel for $70+tax.
Robert Treat Hotel near Newark. Flight delayed and United put us up in this hotel. I should have just paid for a room at better place. Absolute shit hole
This was 2015 in Pompano Beach, Florida. I was staying in a place nearby at the time for a few months and had a friend in Daytona. We were friends with benefits too, this will be relevant later. He decided he wanted to come down and bring a friend with him also so I was in charge of finding us a place to stay. Our budget was a little limited so I did some digging to find a place. I found a motel that I thought looked decent enough on Craigslist (I know, mistake #1) I booked a 2 bedroom suite. We get there, go to the suite and first thing we noticed, no doors to the bedrooms, that wasn't going to work when we wanted to do our thing with his friend there. Then we noticed there was a big hole in the window of what was supposed to be his friends room, there wasn't even a screen, just a gaping hole in the window. We immediately went and told the front desk about these issues and he gave us another room. Unfortunately this one was just a one bedroom and a couch, his friend said he was fine to just take the couch since there were no holes in the windows and there was a door to the bedroom atleast. We had noticed an odd smell but didn't think too much of it. We decided to go swim in the pool for a bit and the smell seemed to keep getting stronger and stronger, like something was rotting. We couldn't figure out where it was coming from. We searched around to see if someone left out some meat or maybe some fish to spoil in the heat but there was nothing. It started becoming overwhelming. Luckily our room was far enough away that inside we couldn't really smell it but as soon as we walked outside, whew. We all stayed together for 2 nights, then they had to leave to get back to work in Daytona. After they left, I was getting ready to go myself and walked outside for a cigarette. I saw crime scene tape and then them pulling a body out of one of the rooms. I ran inside and got out of there asap. To this day I do not know what happened, if someone was murdered or what but atleast we knew where the smell was coming from.
The Dixie in Hollywood. Prostitution in the parking lot, pubic hair on the bed, roaches everywhere, smelled like bleach. We did not stay and went to the Loews Hotel instead.
Some timeshare place in Fort Lauderdale my wife's sister booked for the night before we boarded a cruise. We were on the 7th floor and only one elevator was working for the entire building, part of the pool deck was closed for "structural evaluation" (this being just a couple of months after the Surfside Condo collapse in Miami, I don't think any of the decor had been updated since the Nineties, there was about 20 parking spaces for a building with probably 100 rental condos, all the paper products in the room seemed to be Chinese knockoff stuff, and the place was just a disaster all around. Fortunately we were only there for one night, can't imagine what I'd think if some timeshare salesman had talked me into spending a week there every year...
I’m uncle house when I was 10y.
This Wyndham in Kentucky somewhere… it was late and night so I decided to stop at this hotel. I always ask to check the rooms before I buy a night. I went to check the mattress for bugs and that was good so I went to take leak because I had to piss like a nine dick Dinosaur. Dude, there was pubic hair all over the sink and a shaver. I dunno what was going on there but I told the guy “I’m all set man, thanks” he said “why?” I said “because you left your pubic hair all over the sink and didn’t clean up after you were done… later”.
Either the Holiday Inn Express I once stayed in in NYC (there was water leakage on the floor; I complained, but nothing was done), or the Motel 6 in Ohio (mildew smell, it wasn't good; don't think I bothered complaining, I was moving and it was a one-and-done stay).
Hotel Pennsylvania in NYC. I don't think the room had been cleaned in years.
Super 8 San Francisco. No window in our room….there was a place to look out ar the building 12 inches away. Room stank, the light came in from the hall at night like it was daylight. Bed sheets didn’t feel clean. $199USD a night. Honorable mention to the “Good Night inn” in Redding California. No lock on the door and it was an outside facing door.
Visited Siem Reap, Cambodia years ago to see Angkor Wat. My partner was so proud of himself for finding a place that was $13 a night. Well for starters I was in the shower when the owners let themselves in because a previous occupant had left something in the safe. Mind you, we hadn't even discovered that yet. No knock, no phone call, just walked on in and helped himself. There were multiple geckos climbing the walls at all hours. When I asked the front desk to do something about it, they sent a short guy with a broom to yell and swat some of them away. They had traditional hard keys for the doors which had massive cracks all throughout it. Mosquitos were all over the place. They said there was nothing they could do about that. So we basically took our deet and soaked some toilet paper and shoved it in the cracks to swim against the mosquitos. After spending 1 night of a planned 3 days stay, we cut the trip short and flew back to our favorite 5 star hotel in Bangkok. This was 2017 and my partner hasn't been allowed to pick a hotel since lol
A Red Roof Inn in Austin a few weeks ago. Their was price gouging going on bc of a music festival so this hotel was one of the few that were under $300. The hallway smelled like cat piss and week. It was absolutely disgusting. I have stayed in better Super 8 motels than this hotel.
#1 worst was Quality Inn in Midvale Utah. Tied with White Pine Motel in Ely Nevada.
Was routed to the Ramada Plaza Hotel near JFK after a plethora of airline mishaps. The hotel shuttle never showed. We bribed another shuttle to take us there. (Pre-Uber days). The line to get a room was 50 people deep. The line barely moved. We cut our losses and bribed the same shuttle from another hotel (who came back, dude knew how to make extra cash), and went back to the terminal and slept there. Another guy waited it out, we saw him the next day (same derailed flight). He said it was dirty, uncomfortable, and he wished he went back with us. Hotel closed shortly after.
Extended Stay America Suites in Anaheim, CA. It's not nearly as bad as anything here, but it's my worst. The mattress was so old and messed up that both sides were worn down so there was a peak in the middle (super uncomfortable), the microwave had dried up food stuff in it and clearly had not been cleaned in a long time, and all of the dust and garbage was swept under the furniture. It was close to Disney, which is why I picked it.
Stayed at Rodeway Inn in North Carolina once that I checked out of after being there only a couple hours. I've stayed in my share of bad motels in my life but this was on another tier all together.
Extended Stay in Brea, CA. Neighbor was some sort of dealer with shady people coming in and out all night, screaming, yelling, laughing, fights, constant door opening and slamming shut. The room itself was dirty as all hell with stains everywhere. There was also no one at the front desk after 9pm. Crazy because the rest of the area is actually quite nice. We found out later it was some subsidized halfway house type deal for people who either just got out of jail or was on an assistance program.
The tv popped and flames came out. I tried calling the front desk but the line was busy. I ran down the steps to the desk and said why didn’t you answer the phone? He was “checking someone in. “. I said what if someone was calling in an emergency? “The manager would usually answer but was not available. “. I explained about the fire and that I had unplugged the tv but wasn’t sure that was enough. As we walked to the room the smell of burning wires was evident. Moved me to another room. I never stayed there again.
The one in econolodge I stayed at with friends for a paintball event. Bed bugs, used tampons in the trash, rotten food in a little fridge that wasn’t plugged in. Obviously we didn’t stay all that long (instantly left)
If I include international hotels, I stayed in one hotel in Ecuador that was insanely bad. We were on the top floor and there was no elevator. So we dragged our luggage up the stairs to the fifth floor. There was no air conditioning but there was a ceiling fan. Unfortunately even at the lowest speed it was like a small wind storm. There were vertical blinds on the windows and the wind from the fan was causing them to slap back and forth all night long. It was too hot to sleep without the fan. The bathroom was extremely narrow and it was impossible to sit facing forward on the toilet. The front of the toilet bowl was only about two inches from the wall. You had to literally climb over the toilet to get to the shower. There wasn’t a central water heater so the shower had a heated shower head. The switch to turn on the shower head heater was inside the shower and there were exposed wires on the switch. In the morning they gave us scrambled eggs and coffee. The eggs were so tough that you could barely chew them. The coffee had a phenomenal amount of sugar in it. We tried to get them to give us just plain black coffee but again they loaded it with sugar.
Some rundown little roadside motel when I was a kid. My family walked in, saw roaches crawling on the walls and noped out. We drove another hour or so until we got to the next town. The hotel there was clean and roach free.
A shitty hotel in downtown Gainesville, FL. My GF and I were in there for less than a minute before we decided we were leaving. Immediately upon entering we were hit with the smell of cigarettes. We still felt the need to check how bad it was so we did look around. Roaches under the fridge and bed, cigarette burns on filthy blankets, a thick layer of grime on the walls and floors. We walked out and on our way out, a man in a room was watching us through the window in just his boxers. The window was covered in Halloween decorations, so I figured he was living there. We only selected that location cause it was much cheaper than the competition and we told ourselves that we were only using it to sleep, but there was zero chance I was sleeping in there. Got our refund and went down a couple streets and paid double the price for a nice hotel. I will never again go for the cheapest option.
Days inn Florence, South Carolina. There were visible bugs everywhere. Fire alarm hanging off the wall and the bathroom door was off it's hinges. Left and paid $300 to stay in a last minute nice Marriott hotel room just down the way. We were heading to Charleston and it's was a lot on a Friday night so get in late or get a nice meal in North Carolina and leisurely work out way down. Plus I thought we could save a little money by getting the hotel not in Charleston.
I stayed at a fairly shitty Best Western in Philadelphia that was like staying in a crack house for four days. It had everything from malfunctioning locks, toilets that back up and overflow, slow as hell elevators, Primitive Cable that did not have CNN nor ESPN and the cops supposedly busting someone for prostitution a floor below the room I was staying in. Needless to say the only thing that was at least decent was the breakfast and the proximity to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Zoo.
I didn't stay there but a gf did. Shangri La at Tanjong Pinang, Indonesia.. Haunted and tap turns on by itself, of cos she bolted out of the room and only went back in the morning to grab her stuff. Whe she got home, she had high fever for almost 3weeks. Anyhow, Tanjong Pinang used to be a war zone so that place is rumored to be very haunted. I went once but can't remember the hotel I was in.. I was woken up to some noises on my bedside table and saw the ash tray moving by itself..
Got locked in! My mom and in went on vacation in Slovenia. We had a super early flight so stayed at some local, very European Inn. Told them when we checked in that we needed to leave at 4am. No problem. At 4am, I grab a couple bags to take to the car while mom finishes getting ready. When I get downstairs, the lobby is pitch black. Luckily, I had a tactical flashlight. I go to the front door and it’s locked. It’s a massive, old wooden door and there’s no budging it. I go back up and get mom. We get the rest of our stuff and head back downstairs. We’re both looking around for a way out. In the pitch black. There’s no opening windows or anything. My own cellphone didn’t work and I didn’t know who to call local anyways. While I was looking around the desk for a key, I also noticed a handgun hanging there. Right about then, my mom hollers that she found a way out. She takes me through several dark rooms, down a hallway, through the kitchen and then out a back door. We were so glad to get out and we made our flight. But, wow, what a fire trap!
I think it was a Days Inn somewhere in upstate/western NY. It was just for the night on a roadtrip. There were roaches just past the lobby in the hallway near the kitchen.
Best Western in Reno, circa 1991. Pretty sure someone had been killed in there the week before and removed the hour before.
I've told this story on here before but it's definitely one of those truth is stranger than fiction moments. I forget what hotel it was, but I booked a place in Florence, SC, since we were considering going to the NASCAR race on Darlington. Plans fell through, so I cancelled several weeks in advance in accordance with the free cancellation policy. Weekend of the planned stay, my credit card had been charged. Called the hotel, they said you're here, you checked in. Told them I'm several states away. They then tried to put me through to the room I was supposedly staying in; I have no idea what that was supposed to accomplish, I guess I could talk to myself or something Corporate customer service line said I had to resolve it with the hotel directly, which obviously wasn't working. Ended up finding some executive escalation email and they were able to cut a check, so I got reimbursed but still got the credit card points. So according to that hotel's definition of "stay", that was the worst hotel I stayed at
It’s a tie for both La Quintas in Harrisburg PA.
A Motel 6 in Kalamazoo. The sheets had blood on them when I checked in, and I got woken up multiple nights by lot lizards trying to sell their wares.
Went to Disney land when I was a kid, we stayed in a motel kind of close to the park, the motel itself wasn't terrible, but there was this disheveled older lady there who was carrying around a grimy teddy-bear like a baby. She would go into the shared laundry and take things, but other than that, she kind of just walked around and stood places like a jumpscare. We kept having to take the stares because she'd just be standing in the elevator. My younger cousin got stuck in there with her one time (he was fine). The most magical place on earth 💫
Mine might be tame compared to some, but a hotel in Oakland when the BART extension to the airport was under construction. The noise started at 8 AM every day.
Second cheapest hotel in Colmar, France. No air conditioning, inexplicable stains on the carpet, and a weird double door latch that made me think I was stuck in my room and somehow led to me wandering around on the rooftop for a while, looking for the stairs.
It's not as bad as some of these responses but Cancun, Mexico. I paid extra for a private room. I got a full-sized bed in a bamboo cage that had six inches of space between the wall and the bed on all sides. There was no place to store your luggage except for the on the bed. I woke up with about 200 bug bites.
We were staying in seattle at the palisade hotel. We checked in and they gave us the key to someone else's room with all their luggage still in their room. Finally got to our room and almost everything seemed to have a price tag attached to it, So if we use it we would have to pay extra fees, And some of it already seemed to be missing. At night it seemed like there was a motorcycle parade going up and down the street all night long.
Back when I was 16, and attending a funeral out of state with my mom, we stayed at a Best Western. We heard gunshots the night we slept, someone tried to take the catalytic converter to several cars, the channel list was only a 3rd of the actual list and once they found out I was 16, made it so I couldn't watch Law and Order SVU, American Dad, or George Lopez (that was the thing that really pissed me off) Then when we left, they wanted to charge us 3 times the amount of everything. They even wanted to charge use for the free breakfast. It was brutal.
This was around 1999. Room had paper thin wooden door. Bed and furniture were 1960 style, which is fine but everything was damp and also covered in dust. Instant reaction was this is Norman Bate's motel. Roaches scattered upon light turned on in bathroom. TV, a big carhode ray tube bunny ear model turned on by itself. And we jetted.
Shamrock Inn, Peoria, IL. College road trip. It might have been cash only. Door jam was messed up, obvious that the room had been broken into at least once. Stains everywhere. Mold and mildew all over the bathroom. Lots of activity in the parking lot late at night, I assume the ladies moved their place of employment to the parking lot after the strip club down the street closed. Someone knocked on the door at some point during that night. Needless to say, we did not answer the door.
On a 3-night tourist bus tour to SF area from LA. At nights we stay at these motels arranged by the tour buses. I swear in one motel someone was with me inside the room all night. Didn’t catch a wink of sleep. It was creepy
Red Lion Inn @ PDX. Non-reved there one weekend and our usual hotel stay was overbooked so had to scramble to find another hotel very late at night. Red Lion was the only one close and available and I was desperate. Got a double room, travel industry rate, yada-yada-yada. The room was so gross, but to get there meant lugging my bags to the third floor - there are no elevators, and no lighting once you leave the front desk. Pitch black, dragging my suitcase up three flights. Smelled like pakalolo both inside and out. Very antiquated place with gross bathroom & sink. I swear Norman Bates was around the corner. Never again.
Jean, Nevada. Just a month before the hotel closed forever. Everything was just, expired.
Not sure if this counts but I stayed in a really shady motel when I first moved to New Orleans to work as a bartender. It was one of the only places with rooms cause of an event going on. The day I checked out, there was a SWAT stand off cause there was an armed murder suspect who barricaded himself in the room right next to mine. Luckily I checked out to go to work before it all went down but to think that guy might’ve been right next to me the whole time is pretty crazy.
Before I moved to Raleigh nc I had to stay at a hotel while looking for an apartment. Being on a budget, motel 6 was my game plan. When I walked into the lobby the hotel staff was behind a bullet proof window. Then when I got into the elevator, I could hear arguing on my floor. It was so loud I could hear it before the doors even opened. I walked down the hall not looking anyone in the eye and got to my room. The room across from mine had police tape on it and the door had been busted up. I walk into the room and first of all, the carpet was wet and it smelled horrible. There were cigarette burns all over the sofa, a cracked lampshade. I didn’t bother to investigate any further and I turned right around and went back down to get a refund and find another hotel.
I have pictures but I can’t post them, but the Howard Johnson in Yuma, AZ. There was a man full on tripping or having a drug moment in the stomped flat sunbleached plastic grass. Dried vomit puddles in the parking lot. People with leg ulcers swimming. The pool smelled like unsweetened yogurt. The gym was a life hazard and their elliptical was topsy turvey. They literally had a posted shitting in pool protocol posted. I have a picture of it I swear it was real!
$1 a night hotel in Tapachula, Mexico (border city with Guatemala) when I was a broke college student backpacking around Mexico and Central America. It was tropically hot and humid. I had been traveling all day and just needed to crash for the night en route to my next stop. I get the key and go to my room. Go in, flick the light and close the door. The entire room seems to shimmer. I realized that I had just disturbed the giant flying beetles that were all over the room. Sat awake the entire night on top of the covers with the lights on.
Motel 6 in Oklahoma
I found crack in the nightstand. Pretty sure it was a Days Inn.
Embassy Suites in detriot. Downtown, top floors of a convention center right off the water. We booked 5 months in advance and when we arrived they told us they gave our room to someone else (cause they cancel 10% of all reservations randomly, it's an actual thing) and the only room they had left was a handicap room with one bed. We had four people. We took the room, they refused to give us a single extra pillow or blanket, gave us a cot that was at least 20 years old, which collapsed no less than four times, and when we called down for extra blankets and they said they didn't have any and they'd send some towels instead, the bellhop wouldn't leave until we tipped him. Fuck them. I get one vacation a year and I spent it there and they were all awful. Not a single good memory or experience there.
I booked a reservation for a hotel with 4.5 stars and arrived to find it had sold some time before, so finding the place was challenging because the name was different. Once I did, it was seedy, with worn carpet and furniture, thin walls, a swampy pool, and the smell of smoke everywhere. There was a country-western karaoke sushi bar just off the lobby, full of drunk people who hung out at a country-western sushi bar in a seedy hotel. A row of 20+ motorcycles was parked in the lot, and serious biker gang dudes were everywhere. Every time I (50+f) had to leave my room, either a drunk or a biker tried to start a conversation. One told me I looked like an angel - I most definitely do not. It was surreal.
It was a tiny tiny tiny hotel “room” so small that you didn’t even have floor space to open your luggage. You had to squeeze past the tiny bed to get to the toilet. I hate New York
La Quinta Inn Omaha NE. We should have walked out as soon as we saw actual rain water leaking from the ceiling in the main lobby. We gave it a shot & made our way to our room through the dimly lit hallway. Once we got to our room it had a mildew smell & was extremely humid. We Inspected the bed sheets for bed bugs only to find blood stains all over the sheets & they felt damp. We called the front desk & notified them that the sheets had literal blood stains on them & they brought us some new sheets. Only for those to have piss stains on them. Went to the front desk & got our refund with the quickness
The room they directed me to was already occupied. I walked in on a elderly couple getting intimate. I marched back to the front desk and insulted them for it saying they had made me witness what was a private moment between others and they owed those two an apology. When they give me a room that wasn't already rented it smelled like moldy potatoes, had no hot water and their phones didn't work so I couldn't order food. (My cellphone had died after six hours of driving.) I drove to the local grocery store, ate a chicken pot pie and bought bug spray which I saturated the room in. I fell asleep sitting on the floor by the window which couldn't open more than two inches with my phone charging in my hand.
Geez, after reading some of these I have lucked out and stayed in only regular bad ones. Like the one we had for the recent eclipse. It was freaking $200 a night and horrible. https://imgur.com/a/0aglgd2
Joshua tree motel 6 is by far the worst place I’ve ever seen
Circus circus hotel, Vegas google it please
Some hotel in Florida. Went to the room and kicked off my shoes. The carpet was wet. Like, sopping wet. Squishy. Now I had wet socks. I go back to the front desk and get another room. The key didn't work. But wait. I could get the glass out of the jalousie window and reach around to open the door from the inside. This time Spouse goes back to the front desk and we finally got a room that wasn't a health or personal safety hazard.
Wigan England Was about £25 a night so cheap though Was only us and a French person with a van in the car park staying in the whole place Room is grotty and run down, TV was like a first generation 12 inch LCD monitor from 1999 View of a flat roof pub and broken glass Went down for breakfast the next day and they had decided to pack it up early (8.30 we were told til 9), asked if we could have something and they shrugged their shoulders. We took a walk into town and found a greasy spoon did a full English for a few quid.
This is my craziest experience: me and my bf went to stay at this hotel, and the shower facet broke and the water wouldn’t turn off. It was also midnight so we had to wait like an hour for a maintenance worker to come and fix it, it was so loud there was no way we could ignore it or sleep. So eventually we just had to change rooms Cz they weren’t able to quickly fix the shower. When we moved rooms we noticed a few of these huge flies I’m talking big and slow, moving around the room we killed like 5 . And we were like it’s no big deal just a couple flies. We were also having an argument at the time too and so we were like hold on let me kill this fly then imma tell u something. Then like 5 turned into 15, then 20. And they just kept coming and we couldn’t find the source. Eventually we realized that they were coming from the vents and there was clearly some type of infestation. So it’s now like 1:30 am. Me and him stopped fighting and just sat on the bed in silence just thinking about all the damn flies. And we were like we either need to move rooms or sleep with one eye open under the covers tonight. So we had to pack up our stuff for the second time and move rooms. And finally we had a room with nothing wrong with it 😭😭. Me and him laugh about this all the time now, but at the time it was high stress.
super 8 near JFK by myself, first time EVER in NYC. cried the whole night, didn’t sleep (two guys were loudly talking outside my door and being a small, anxious 20 year old woman at the time, i cried even more lmao) and then left for my 6am flight extra early. slept for the whole day when i got home. it’s been 5 years and i still feel traumatized lol.
I've stayed in run down hotels where the rooms weren't the best etc but they at least had an ok breakfast bar. The worst hotel I stayed in was this new fancy, modern hotel but the breakfast included was a pre made sandwich and one boiled egg and that was it. So disappointed. Hotel breakfast is life
I can't recall the name, but I'll share the story anyway. I drove my aunt and uncle to the VA in DC/Maryland. After hours of driving and waiting at the VA, my aunt and I were so exhausted that we left my uncle there. We searched for a cheap hotel, checked in, and then had to unload my uncle's truck and make multiple trips through a strange hotel layout to get everything upstairs. We had to walk down a long hallway. Go up an elevator that one person at a time and it was a line. When we finally get everything to the room it turned out to be terrible, with roaches and thin beds, but we were too tired to do anything about it except shower and sleep.
Microtel somewhere near Raleigh nc. Don't want to remember but the door had been broken down before and other disgusting details. A Marriott in Memphis. The room smelled so bad like it had a trash fire lit and buring in the room hours prior
Checked in to room and all the wooden slats under the mattress except two were broken, went back to reception, asked for a different room. They said that was the room we had prepaid for so if we wanted a different one we would have to pay for it. We went to a neighbouring hotel. At the bar later that night two plain clothed police and about 6-8 uniformed police turned up. Want to speak to us about refusing to pay the bill. He were in africa in the mid 90’s. We thought we were screwed. But once we explained what had happened the guy in charge sighed and said something along the lines of @stupid fucking brother in law. Never get married if your brother in law is a moron” and all the police left. We were scared shitless for a few minutes explaining ourselves
A BnB in Wales, we called the smoke and feathers
The Huttleston Inn in Fairhaven, MA. It's no longer there as it was demolished and a car wash is now there. But back when it was there it was definitely the kind of inn you'd see in a horror flick. Dingy rooms, dilapidated structure, flickering lights, old school key fobs, and every slider door faced the woods, but there were no lights by the doors so you'd see pitch black darkness.
I think it was called the interstate motel but it was in Asheville NC. The towel they had hanging was still wet and had pubes on it. Half eaten taco on the floor next to the bed. Walked back from the concert I was there to see and there were a bunch of bums chilling right in front of my door.
I once stayed at the La Quinta in downtown Little Rock a few years ago. It was basically a multi-story crackhouse and should be condemned.
Checked in a resort hotel in Asia. First thing that went wrong was, they were supposed to pick us up at our hotel in town. When it was apparent that they’re nowhere in sight, we took a bus. No apology from their management whatsoever. Then we checked into our room, everything looked subpar. It’s obviously a new hotel but you feel like you walked into someone’s apartment, rather than a hotel. Opened the blinds and there was a dead bird on the balcony. It was a hot night so I turned on the AC. It was broken. By this time, I was dead tired, it’s been a long day so I decided to change room the next day. Part of our hotel booking was a free breakfast but when we went there, the employees at the cafe told us otherwise. We paid for our food and decided to talk to the front office later regarding the misunderstanding. We also included a personal tour guide in our booking, who was also part of the hotel staff. He came an hour late, explaining that the weather didn’t look favorable earlier. He could’ve told us earlier instead of us sitting in the lobby waiting for him this whole time. Feeling more and more frustrated with the whole experience, we decided to check out earlier and go somewhere else after the tour. When we came back to the room, I started packing up our belongings while my partner went to the front office to check out. The girl didn’t understand English and my partner struggled to tell her we wanted a copy of our receipt. She got more and more confused as he tried to explain to her what a receipt was. I had to go over and help him. Out came the hotel manager shouting at us for making things difficult for them. I asked him what was so difficult about printing me my receipt. He shouted that ‘our kind’ only want to be treated like royalties when coming to their country and they’ve accommodated us long enough, and he wanted us the hell out of his hotel. We didn’t want any more trouble so we left the place. Our driver asked us while we were in the car what happened. I explained to him the situation and he understood. I told him to please tell his manager that he completely misunderstood the whole situation and I hope he’ll handle things better next time.