2008 Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels

[kurth]

TripAdvisor's 2008 Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels:

Dirtiest Hotels - U.S.

Hotel Carter, New York, NY
Ramada Niagara Falls, Niagara Falls, NY
Nashville - Days Inn Vanderbilt / Music Row, Nashville, TN
Red Carpet Inn, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Regency Inn & Suites, New York, NY
St. Augustine Beachfront Resort, Saint Augustine, FL
Travel Inn Civic/Medical Center, Miami, FL
Eden Roc Motel, Wildwood, NJ
Days Inn Lancaster, Lancaster, PA
Pacific Sands Motel, Santa Monica, CA

Dirtiest Hotels - U.K.

Nanford Guest House, Oxford, England
Manor Court Hotel, London, England
Britannia Hotel Stockport, Stockport, England
Europa Gatwick, Crawley, England
Whiteleaf Hotel, London, England
Park Hotel, London, England
County Hotel, Carlisle, England
Britannia Hotel Birmingham, Birmingham, England
Eden Plaza Hotel, London, England
Britannia Country House Hotel, Manchester, England

http://www.tripadvisor.com/dirtyhotels

[alfredo]

1. I like the smell of mildew. Finding pubic hair on the sheets

of a bed you haven't slept in yet instills confidence.

[ingac70]

4. This summer I was at a Howard Johnsons...

in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I pulled back the covers to find blood stains on the side and in between the mattress and box springs so huge that the person who did the bleeding surely needed a transfusion, if he didn't die.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. When that happens they just turn over the matress.

[ingac70]

10. That is what they did...

and my poor 10 year old nephew was convinced that if there was that much blood that room just had to have a "ghost". That is what he told the man at the front desk when I asked for another room.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. He'll still be telling that story when he's fifty.

[orleans]

26. well, as long as they don't remove the tags i guess it's okay. n/t

[CherylK]

34. Good Advice

better advice, don't read this thread before breakfast. :(

[DCKit]

8. Did you see that speck of dust move honey? n/t

[alfredo]

20. I hit a few hotels in Africa. Somewhere between Addis Abeba and Dakar

I picked up some crotch crickets.

Bed bugs, now they are horrible. The bites burn and itch like crazy. I hated to see an outbreak of insecticide resistant bed bugs in the US.


the best cure for those crotch crickets is Icy Hot. I'm not sure if it kills them, but it takes your mind off the itching for the rest of the day.

[DCKit]

22. I always heard you should shave half, set the other half on fire....

then stab them with an ice pick as they run out.

[alfredo]

33. That works too, but hard to explain in the emergency room.

[KoKo]

52. Kick! NEED MORE STORIES....THIS WAS GREAT...

:D

[CoffeeCat]

2. I feel sorry for all of the people...

...who work in housekeeping at any of the Disney resort hotels.

I don't know how they stay sane.

[flyarm]

3. thanks ..this is more interesting than who shook who's hand..lol..

thanks alot!!;) :toast: :bounce: :thumbsup: :hi:

fly

[Bicoastal]

5. A glaring omission on the list of "Dirtiest UK Hotels"...

[LiberalFighter]

6. What was the common denominator? Did Bush stay at them?

[lutefisk]

7. Reminds me of my stay at the "Chattanooga 'poo-poo'"

It's historic and has a cute name, but gross...

I'm talking about the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Too bad, because it has a lot of potential.

[ingac70]

12. That bad, huh?

I was thinking of staying there this spring. Guess I'll find somewhere else to stay.

[lutefisk]

15. Well...

I used Priceline (bidding), so I didn't pay much ($44), but it was borderline. I think if you are willing to request another room if you don't like the room you are given, you might be ok. We stayed there 1 year ago, and there was what we think was a blood stain on the sheets and I'm pretty sure we picked up bed bugs there. Otherwise it was ...um, historic?

I'd recommend a nice little pizza place called Pisa Pizza in Chattanooga, though,

http://pisapizza.com/

[kickysnana]

14. That's the roach see post #13.

[lutefisk]

16. Yep, that damn bug's been following me since Chattanooga...n/t

[ingac70]

21. About your little bug....

I had a serious case of fruit flies in the house this past summer, and when I saw your avatar I thought the little bastards were back.

You almost made me destroy my monitor... :rofl:

[allalone]

23. everytime your bug appears

I jump. eek.

[kickysnana]

13. Ah, fond memories...

1985 Traveling through Chattanooga Tennessee in the fog in the winter it became to bad to drive any further but something was going on and all the hotels were full except one on the northern edge of town which we took. It really didn't look all that bad but I pulled down the bedspread to take a pillow out to use to watch TV and the bed was full of roaches. We went back to try to get our money back but of course they wouldn't so we stood there and told people who came in not to stay there because there were huge roaches and the rooms were fifthly. They finally gave in gave us a refund. People were from India otherwise I imagine they would have just called the local police and we would have had to leave poorer.

2000 Chico CA, I was there for medical treatment that saved my life which at the time was only offered two places and everything was on my dime. I did some research and chose a cheap motel based on on-line information and bus routes as I wouldn't have a car. I get there and they take one look at me and hold a conference and decide to give me the best room in the place. I had no choice. This one didn't have bugs but it hadn't been cleaned since 1985. So I scooped up the bedding and the curtains and headed to the nearby Laundromat and across the street to the Kmart to get vinyl mattress covers, cleaning supplies, switch covers for the lights, decent TP, a washer for the sink that ran constantly plus a wrench and outlets and plastic to close off the broken bathroom window. I spend my free time cleaning.

When nobody showed up for two days to change the towels and vacuum I asked and was told that you had to turn your towels in twice a week and get new ones at the office and that their vacuum was broken and being fixed. On the day that I was supposed to get clean towels the office was locked so I ended up washing them too. On day 14 I was told that the motel was owned by someone who owned a days in further into town but calling got me nowhere so on day 21 I went in person to the Days In and they sent apologized profusely and sent somebody to vacuum. The person could not believe how good the room and bathroom looked clean. Luckily I was done by day 29 instead of another 30 days or I swear I would have called in a carpet cleaner (and sent them that bill). On day three someone warned me that the front of the hotel catered to the hourly trade on Friday and Saturday nights but after treatments I was too tired to stay up past 7:30p so it didn't bother me at all. I was also told that the two motels nearby were much, much worse.

I can clean and rought it when I have to, but I hate bugs!

PS. Except for the seeming lack of motel inspectors I really liked my stay in Chico. Medivan drivers, bus drivers, clerks, fast food workers and medical workers.

[Le Taz Hot]

28. LOL! Catering to the nightly trade.

That happened to me in Oakland once. They built a new hotel (can't remember which one - one of the cheap chains) and I decided to try it as I was always looking for affordable lodgings in and around the Bay Area. Oy vey the NOISE coming out of those rooms. And all night, open the door, close the door, walk down the hall drunk and talking loudly. Needless to say, I never stayed in that one again.

[Djinn]

17. don't put too much store in tripadvisor

large hotel chains spend quite a bit of time giving their competition shitty reviews. Then there's the reviews of people who have impossible standards or have never stayed in a hotel and seem to think they should have brand new sheets and pillowcases for every new guest.

Almost every review I've seen on TA has left me scratching my head and wondering if I stayed in the hotel in a different dimension. Eg I've stayed at the Eden PLaza in Kensington and while it is a bog standard simple hotel, it was clean and neat.

I think folks from shitty little towns skew things a bit - have seen people piss and moan about small rooms in NYC hotels even though they only paid $80 per night - what did they expect to get for that in New York? Same with the Eden P - it's in an exxy area, if you want 5 star facilities in London you pay through the nose for it.

[lutefisk]

19. TripAdvisor reviews and forums have been reliable for me

Obviously, one has to filter to some degree, but it really is "mostly" honest opinions from real people... like DU.

[Hekate]

18. Fortunately the worst I ever had was a dirty bedspread I could not get rid of

I wanted to visit San Francisco, so we drove north 350 miles and stayed in a centrally located hotel recommended by a friend. We got a room so small that the bed filled it nearly wall to wall.

Other than that it seemed okay...except the bedspread had something on it that looked like, oh I don't know, dried glue maybe. I informed the front desk and put it aside. The next day our bed was made up and the same spread was on top. I phoned the front desk again and put the bedspread outside into the hallway, thinking any idiot could read that message. The next day our bed was neatly made up again -- with the same unwashed bedspread. This time I bundled it up and took it to the front desk myself. For all I know they never did wash it, but I didn't see it again.

Ick. But that's not as bad as the post upthread with the blood-soaked mattress.

And I loved the one about standing in the doorway telling all the prospective customers that the place was filthy.

The last place I stayed in with Indian ownership was very nice -- with the glaring exception of the toiletries, which I believe were made in India. There seemed to be some kind of rationing going on with the bath soap, because I had to go downstairs to the office to get a bar of soap, every day. The paper goods were made of sandpaper, and since I spent the first night crying my eyes out (my mother died while I was on my way) my entire face felt raw. The day after my sister and her husband got there we all moved to the motel across the street, as none of us were able to cope with the stupid soap issue on top of all the emotional stuff.

Hekate

[Indenturedebtor]

25. They don't clean the bedspreads

Ever... pretty much anywhere. They also don't wash the glasses.

Everyone who's seen a cart full of dirty glasses and/or bedspreads moving down a hotel hallway speak up please? What do you see? very rarely sheets and always cleaning supplies. They spray out your water glasses with windex, fluff the towels and call it a day. How else do you suppose two minimum wage workers can clean a 400 room hotel every day? ;)

Yeah worst hotels I ever stayed in were in Fiji. Beds were often times literally moldy, the sheets were unwashed I think ever, and one morning I woke up to a spider literally as big as my forearm. No exaggeration I have a picture but too late to go through the trouble of posting it. Blech.

Best hotels for the money - Cambodia. By far. Stayed in some of the cheapest places but everything was spot on nice with elegantly hand carved furniture etc.

[Hekate]

27. Every place I've been I see the maids trundling their linen carts around...

Carts for dishes, carts for clean linen, bags for used... They're busy people, no doubt ill-paid, but I'm pretty sure they mostly get the job done.

The sheets always seem freshly clean -- that is, unwrinkled and smelling somewhat of bleach. Glasses are usually plastic now, so they get tossed. That business about wiping out dirty glasses and reusing them comes from a Ross MacDonald novel, I think -- but who knows, somewhere it might happen. The last several years I've seen notices in California indicating that in order to conserve water they're not changing your personal sheets every day, but I notice towels get replaced if you put the used ones on the floor.

There are some exceptions: I stayed two weeks in one hotel while my daughter attended classes for her job (I was babysitting her newborn) and while the restaurants seemed nice and the lobby looked attractive, the housekeeping was substandard.

Bedspreads and blankets can probably go on forever without being washed. I try to make skin contact with only the sheets.

Hekate

[originalpckelly]

46. It does happen, a few months back it seems, someone posted an expose from a local TV station...

that showed people somewhere out there in America, doing exactly that with the glasses at major hotels.

[Hekate]

48. >ack-ack!< >spit< Good thing I usually only use them to stand my toothbrush in

That's disgusting, right enough.

H

[originalpckelly]

50. Here is that video! BLYUCK!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a7f_1194813218

[yorkiemommie1]

55. re: dirty glasses

There's a video floating around online that shows maids spraying the glasses w/ glass cleaner.

[texanwitch]

24. I stayed at a beach motel where the ice was not free.

It was $2 for one 10 lb. bag.

The room was clean but very small.

The walls were so thin you could hear the neighbors next door.

We knew what they were doing.

The beds looked clean.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

29. I remember staying at a place called the Mohawk Motel

At least I THINK it was called the Mohawk Motel. Bloodstained pillows, we demanded CLEAN pillows and as soon as we were rested we left ASAP!

Now that I google Mohawk Motel... and there seems to be a LOVELY hotel approximately where we stayed. Hmm.

It's been nearly 15 years since we last stayed there...

[beltanefauve]

42. Mohawk Motel?

In Buffalo, NY? I stayed there in the late '80's! Lots of drug and prostitution trade going on in there!

[FunkyLeprechaun]

51. No wonder

It was a quickie stay for my family (my parents sis and I). We are really spoiled but when it came to road trips we had a spectrum of the worst. That's why I'm not certain that's the same Mohawk I stayed in.

[knitter4democracy]

30. Worst one I've ever stayed in: the big hotel by Izmailovo Market in Moscow.

Hands-down worst. Roaches all over the place (scared to sleep but so exhausted from time change I didn't have a choice), filthy as all get out. Ugh.

Second place: Westin O'Hare in Rosemont by Chicago O'Hare. Pubic hairs all over the bathroom, housekeeping stopping by to "check" on our room after it had been cleaned already (woke up the baby and Hubby was pretty ticked off--wonder what she was "checking" for?), the whole place reeked of smoke on a "non-smoking" floor, trash bins overflowing in the hallways, and singularly unhelpful front desk.

[Maine-ah]

31. apparently nobody went to Hillsboro New Hampshire

[davsand]

32. I used to live with a man who did "third world" vacations every year.

Don't get me wrong--I have no problem with staying someplace that is kind of "rough around the edges." I really don't want to pay for a Hilton (they usually piss me off when I do stay in one, btw,) so I am just fine with taking my own soap and shampoo if I'm staying in a "budget" place. I have stayed in some places that were in some pretty crummy neighborhoods, and I too have had the experience of finding some stranger's pubes in the dirty bed sheets. Didn't like it much, never stayed those places again--but it was STILL a step up on Jim's "Third World" vacations.

When I say he did "third world" vacations, I am talking about places where you need to shake the scorpions out of your shoes in the morning and a lizard on the wall of your room is a GOOD thing because they eat bugs. He went to places where border crossings involved rebels and guns and they have insects and rodents that are bigger than dogs. ONE trip with him and I refused to EVER vacation with him again.

The only experience I have ever had that came close to a vacation with Jim was a trip to Miami for a work related convention. That trip fell at a time when foreign consulates were issuing warnings about hazardous travel conditions in Miami because some sniper was shooting at anyone driving a rental car. That trip also came at a time when they had rioting going on because the Miami PD had shot some guy in the back while he was fleeing. There were armed troops lining the expressways, and my hotel had armed guards stationed outside it. The maids were all staying home in sympathy (or outrage) and there was not a maid to be found anyplace in the hotel for the entire time I was there. The hotel restaurant was also having issues because staff was staying home, and nobody dared go out to eat...

Travel can REALLY broaden your horizons--don't ya think?


Laura

[ncrainbowgrrl]

35. Anyone else ever stay at "South of the Border" on I-95.

Alls I'll say is i'm glad we got the upgraded room. I'd hate to have seen the waterbugs in the "regular" rooms...

Pedro say "this bed have no support."

(a friend's father fell through the bed in another room- whole frame broke apart.)

My parents and I were there 'cause they were the only place at the time that took dogs on the trip to florida from NYC around the NC/SC area...and we still talk about it years later. There's a reason why they dogs.

[Squatch]

40. No, but I've always wanted to pull a Monkey Wrench Gang attack

on their billboards.

[Sugar Smack]

44. Me too. Go at the posts with a saw and flames til you hear the *CRACK*

Of the board falling. That could take decades. I think of that book when I see those signs too.:)

[CTyankee]

36. I have never stayed in a hotel/motel as filthy as Yale New Haven Hospital.

There mercifully for only 3 nights following a fairly uncomplicated surgical procedure. My tray table was caked with food I couldn't get off with wet paper towels. The floor was spotty with stains that a simple swish of the mop couldn't get up. The bathroom floors were caked with black dirt along the baseboards. I put newspapers on top of the tray table as I feared eating on the surface. I complained loudly. Nobody did much except swish the floor with a dirty gray mop which just smeared gunk around...

[windbreeze]

37. GREAT THREAD!! ....Thank you....so different from most of them today....n/t

[ingac70]

38. WARNING: A nasty, filthy motel story...

My parents and my mother's parents once stopped at a Motel 6 where my grandmother found a fresh glob of, um... cum when she pulled back the bed spread.

They went to the front desk to ask for their money back, and the clerk wanted to know why. My grandfather told them because the room was dirty. The clerk was a total smartass and wanted to argue, so finally my grandfather shouted out "Because somebody shot their load in my bed, and there is still steam coming of off it!".

Their money was then returned and they went on their way.

[Squatch]

39. My wife is from N Wildwood, NJ

That place absolutely abounds with filthy hotels. Every weekend in the summer, Philadelphia empties onto the Wildwood strip. In the off season, Wildwood is a great place to visit. We just tended to stay away from there between Jun and Sept.

[Justpat]

41. I stayed in a real dump in Camden, SC recently.

It was a Fairfield Inn, or something like that.
The mattress was like something you would have found at a garage sale.
It was saggy, filthy, the lines were thin and worn and the "bedspread"
consisted of what looked like a narrow table runner thrown over the bed.

We had been driving since 4am from FL and were too exhausted to look for
something else, but I wrote the company and told about our stay there.
They refunded half my money. It was really like a flop house experience.
At least I got some money back. It was horrible.

[beltanefauve]

43. Stayed in a Best Western

in Fresno, CA that was really bad. The room absolutely REEKED of some disinfectant, and, regardless, had an undercoating of wet dog smell which they were trying to cover up. I had checked in in the dead of night after having driven for many, many miles, so I bore it out. Couldn't sleep, since I was getting bitten by fleas all night as well.

[originalpckelly]

47. Sometimes, you've got to wonder if sleeping in the car...

wouldn't be better! OMG! These stories people have just give me the creeps!

[originalpckelly]

45. After reading these horror stories, it makes me want to start some sort of organization...

to inspect hotels nationwide, and give them an up or down rating for health.

They may have crappy furniture, pealing paint, hell even leaks in the roof wouldn't be intolerable, but when it comes to bug infestations and other matters of public health, these establishments need to be shut down, either through government action or consumer action.

There's a limit to how much can be done, places where people congregate are bound to have problems, but there comes a point where actionable concerns are not having action taken on them, and they endanger public health.

[high density]

54. Trip Advisor...

...reviews are good at weeding out the worst of the worst.

[bbgrunt]

49. I once stayed at a place outside of Boulder that

admittedly was a bargain, but the carpet was sopping wet and you couldn't walk anywhere without practically swimming. It was an emergency situation and needless to say the next morning we were out of there.

[JerseygirlCT]

53. Good to know about Lancaster.

Though I don't think I would have stayed there except in an emergency anyway! The Marriott seemed ok, and the Best Western up the road from the Days Inn.

If you've got to travel a lot, though, I wonder how much you want to think about these things... doesn't make for a good night's sleep, does it?

[Swamp Rat]

56. The White House, Washington DC

:D