I've been thinking so much about hotels for my upcoming trip.

I'm curious what people's regrets have been in respect to hotel rooms, apartments, or other accommodation that they have selected for their trips.

It could be because you selected too cheap a place, too expensive a place that wasn't worth it, a noisy area that ruined your sleep, an inconvenient location, and so on.

Maybe we can learn from your mistakes!

So far, two hotel regrets:
In Paris, staying at the Hotel de Septieme Arts in the Marais. It was recommended by an actor friend of ours who loved the hotel's movie theme. It was cheap enough that we reserved the suite on the top floor for a week. BUT...no elevator, which meant climbing up 5 flights of small, winding stairs a few times a day (the first time, with luggage, was the worst, although the staff helped us out and they were the best thing about the hotel). Our room wasn't too bad, but the regular rooms looked like they were furnished from garage sales. Very shabby. Also, we are not the biggest fans of the Marais, we like the 7th and 16th much better and should have followed our instincts and stayed there.
In Lugano, staying at the Pensione Albergo Pestalozzi in June 2003. I had stayed there in January 2003 and found the place delightful. Rooms spotless, price inexpensive, location perfect, staff friendly and helpful. Came back in June with my mother and while the above still held true, the hotel has no airco and the heat was BRUTAL (the summer of 2003 was the hottest on record in Europe). One day, I took 4 showers just to try and cool off. So never again will I stay in a hotel in the summer without airco. In the cooler weather, though, I recommend this particular hotel wholeheartedly for anyone looking for budget accommodations in the Ticino.

I find that even though we research extensively we still have made a few mistakes in picking hotels. These have mostly tended to be in the area of noise levels. We live in the country and are not accustomed to city noises so I try to pick hotels with rooms off-street.
Ironically the noisiest hotel (b&b actually) was located out in the country but with several nearby roads and at harvest time with farmers working into the night.
Overall we have been pleased with our experiences though.

I think I could have done better in Paris 5 months ago. I took Hotel de Nevers because of the price, 45 Eur a night. It's not that I think the hotel is bad. The stuff was very nice. But the restaurant across the street was noisy late at night, the room was a bit shabby, and I think the things that bugged me the most were the dim corridor light and the tainted corridor carpet. I kept telling myself it was not that important, but I WAS bothered by it. The area (republique) wasn't too great, although it had a lovely market twice a week. So for my next trip, I'm opting for Residence les Gobelins (it has gotten great reviews everywhere I looked), 53 a night, and although I'm constantly on a budget, I decided I'm willing to pay more for a nicer place (yes, I did find a 1 star in Let's Go 2004 that sounded fine, in the 14th, but then again, so had Nevers before I actually got there). Plus, I like the area very much.

I, too, have made regrettable decisions - - usually in the interest of booking an economical place. Mo deplorable conditions come to mind - - but "just too plain vanilla" has been maybe 1 in 20 places I have booked out of 200-300 nights in Europe in my life. Maybe only 150 that I personally planned (one 6 week stay and one 3 week stay where I did not).

Best wishes,

Rex

The only terrible place we've booked in Europe was Pension Seibel in Munich. The Royal National in London wasn't expecially great, but we know what we were getting with that one, so it didn't bother us so much.

Interesting that so far no one has posted about regretting having spent too much.

On our honeymoon we were going budget so we picked Hotel des Ecole in the 7th-what a dump! Had to leap over the bed when you got in the door, bathroom so small you had to sit sideways on the toilet or your knees hit the wall, crabby patron! 4 years later and I'm still ticked about it! The only good thing was the location.

Just thought of something when reading WillTravel's comment-though not European we were at a wedding at the Broadmore last summer and paid $250/night for an average room with a view of the parking lot-I know some people love the place but in my 4 days there I determined it is wholly overrated!

I think a major regret of people is to go to certain cities--Hong Kong, Sydney, Florence, Rio--and not get a room with a view.

Hard to classify all the mistakes, but I expect they fall into a couple of general categories:

1. NOT LOOKING AT THE ROOM FIRST. Here you are, you've traveled all day or all night or both, you want to go to bed or out onto the Piazza or Place or Ploshchad and you've credit-carded and room-keyed yourself up to the 3rd floor, you open the door or lie on the bed and.... oh, rats. Do you schlep back down (with or without bags?), only to be told sorry, m'sieur, zat's ze only dooble? Or do you say oh hell, them's the breaks and tough it out? Being assertive in a foreign hotel can be a huge pain. We stayed at "cute" hotel in Alsace that put us in a room on an upper floor (me hauling a suitcase we called "Godzilla" up ancient stairs). The bathtub was functionally disfunctional because one of the (also ancient) hand-hewn beams supporting the cuteness flew diagonally across the top of the tub, making it impossible to stand in the tub, or to wash one's hair without literally getting out of the tub and plunging one's head into the part of the tub that you could get to without bonking said head on said beam. How quaint. Back to the desk, do you have another room? Oui, but eet ees very small and old, m'sieur. Arrgh.

2. JUDGING BOOKS BY COVERS. I don't know how many times we've stayed in places that looked divine on the web site or the page in the tour book, only to find out that divinity stops cold at the front desk. You can't smell the mildew over the web. The people who award stars usually know what they're doing.

3. PENNY WISE, £ FOOLISH. Saved money by staying at the Kings Cross Holiday Inn once. Nearly got mugged on the street outside. Some savings.

4. MRS O'FLAHERTY'S B&amp;B. Well what the devil <i>else</i> is Mrs. O'Flaherty going to do with son Pat's room now that he's away living with that hoor in London? New sheets, fry an egg...bingo, she's a hotelier.

Or perhaps I protest too much...

My practice in picking a hotel is to get a friend's personal experience, more than one if possible. Lacking that, I come to Fodor's and try to get enough good recommendations to form a consensus on a hotel. I generally do not use websites as they are mostly advertisements that could or could not be valid.

BTilke's experiences above are well worth reflecting on too. Prepare a list of key things for you and youir family:

-Air conditioning (last summer was brutal all over France--a/c is needed for summer visit)
-Elevators
-Noise level in hotel; room on street or in back re sound
-Proximity to sightseeing, restaurants, transportation, etc.

to WillTravel - - we paid too much (especially for what we got) at the Grand Plaza in Rome on Via del Corso. We moved to del Senato, paid less (and I don't think we got a promo rate) and realized that the higher priced hotel - - as happens too often - - is/was resting on its laurels. One has to watch out for that all the time when you read glowing reviews from older sources - - and find nothing or overlook a warning notice from someone else in more recent info.

Gardyloo makes some interesting points especially about seeing the room first.

When travelling with friends or spouse/family its difficult to know whether making a fuss over a problem with the room is going to make you all feel better or worse.

When on business alone, I feel no compunction about marching back down to the desk and doing my &quot;Listen, Buster!&quot; routine and mostly it works to get a better room.But sometimes it doesn't...

When you know that the spouse/sister/offspring/best friend is depending on your travel savvy, you are almost better to accept what you get with a good grace and go out for a terrific meal instead of making everybody tense with your complaint about the __________ (fill in the blank with your favourite gripe).

You can always move out in the morning and then have a ball blasting the hotel in question on Fodors.

I regret a few times when I have not spoken up when I was disappointed in a room. During my first trip to Europe we were on a tight budget. Our big splurge on the trip was 2 nights in one of the German castle hotels. We were taken to a room in the new &quot;annex&quot; that looked like a Holiday Inn. A bit later we went to the front desk and told them that we were going to only stay one night - they asked why - we told them - and we ended up being moved to a totally charming room in the old castle with a view of the Rhine River!

The &quot;RV&quot; we rented for a holiday with my husband, my son and his girlfriend,my younger son and his friend, my parents, and then we drove to my in-laws! The accommodations were cramped, the people cranky and demanding, and I had to cook, clean and mediate the whole time. The only thing that made it bearable were the stiff drinks I poured at the end of each day!

Even after reading BTilke's comments, we're staying at the Hotel du 7eme Art in the Marais next month. It's an impluse (i.e., low budget ) trip for us and they had the best price for the location (many of the usual Marais suspects were booked already and those that weren't were twice the price). It can't be as bad as some of the places we've stayed, can it?

At the Hotel de Mons in Avignon, a rat ran right in front of me as I was going in the front door. The bathroom had a curious cut-out/pass-through to the &quot;kitchen&quot; area (just a breakfast bar, really) . The pass-through was right next to the toilet and lined up perfectly with an exterior window, so that if you sat on the toilet, the people in the building across the way could see you.

I may be one of the few people on this board who isn't an unabashed fan of the Hotel des Grandes Ecoles. But I think our experience was marred by the stereotypical loud Americans who arrived before we did and complained about the rooms they had been assigned to the point where we suspect that the woman at the desk gave them our more expensive room just to get rid of them. (We did love the location and the garden and Madam took a liking to my husband and gave him a back rub at breakfast).

I felt a little guilty about splurging for The Astronomer's Suite at Maison du Consuls in Mirepoix, largely because we spent so little time there.

The orange shag carpeting on the walls of the Hotel du Chateau in Tournon-sur-Rhone gave me the willies, but the view from the windows was so fabulous that I learned to ignore it.

Hotel du Parc in Levernois--my only regret is that we stayed there just one night. I loved this place and hope to return some day. . .

jlb, that sounds like a nightmare. I am assuming that was the last time you tried that!

WillTravel;
You better believe it. But guess what? Everyone else had a wonderful time!

..a cheap place in London called the Venus Hotel..I think I found it in Lets Go..anyway, I thought with such a quirky name how bad could it be?? Well it had bugs in the bathtub which still had bathtub rings from a previous &quot;guest&quot;. The toilet didnt work..As I had just had an overnight flight from hell, I lay carefully on top of the sheets...next day we checked out and for 2 or 3 pounds more found a great b and b...