wheretostay?

Ever stayed somewhere you would not wish on your worst enemy?
As someone who travels frequently It is so disapointing when you spend ages planning a trip only for the accommodation to be a real let down.
I thought it would be good to help others save valuable vacation time and money by starting a thread where fellow travellers can warn others of places where they felt let down/disapointed.

Arabella

Good topic idea!

I'd advise staying away from Marseilles Deco Beach Hotel in South Miami Beach. Maid service never vacuumed my room and I was there for a week.

Monique

Williams courtesy inn- Williams , AZ Near the Grand Canyon.
Received carbon monoxide from a wall heater. Hospitilized nearly a week.

I better not say

Any place, any time with relatives. The worst hotel is better than having to fit into someone elses family while trying to vacation. I have some family I love, but I love them more because I don't stay with them. And the family I am less fond of is more tolerable when I can return to my hotel.

Mel

The Seattle Inn in Seattle. There is a reason why the rooms are $80 a night. The only place I ever refused to stay in after I checked in.

Eddie

The Ocean View in Glouceter, Mass. The location and view of the ocean is outstanding; the inn itself, especially the motel-like wing, is simply awful. We were there for two days last June; it was 90 degrees and neither pool was open.

Yvonne

I would avoid the Comfort Inn in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I'm not a picky person and usually look for a hotel that as long it is clean I'm okay with it, doesn't have to be fancy. Well the toilet barely worked, I had a feeling there were bugs in the room, just an overall uncleanliness feeling. I have stayed at other Comfort Inn's and have been fine. Otherwise Puerto Rico is a beautiful place. I would pay more next time.

Christie

Holiday Inn North, Lexington, KY

I have the great displeasure of stying her for a week every summer because it is the host hotel for a hobby convention. The hotel itself is built on a hillside, and there is NOT an elevator on the premises. (They somehow manage to get around ADA, but I can't see how.) If you have to walk from one end of the place to another, you'll end up climbing up and down several flights of stairs. It also leaks horribly when it rains, and several other conventioneers' rooms flooded during our stay. Just this past summer, it finally got a major renovation that was overdue for several years. Still, the place does not have enough towels and the beds are about as comfortable as a rock ledge. The halls are not air conditioned, so walking around the hotel generates a sweat. And to top it all off, they charge 75 cents for outgoing AND incoming phone calls!

no

The Zion House B&B in Springdale, Utah. Our "garden suite" was a converted garage, complete with particle board walls and a mattress that was so old it bowed in the middle and touched the floor. This luxurious suite was also equipped with a "kitchenette" but no utensils or pans, so we asked the owner if we could borrow a saucepan to heat some soup.

The next morning we appeared in the owner's dining room for the breakfast portion of the stay, only to be informed that breakfast was not prepared because we had THE pot (apparently she owned only one cook pot). We were finally treated to some eggs and store mix corn muffins. Mmmmmm...

Next day, same warmed over muffins were served. Thank goodness we were also made to pay cash in advance, because I certainly would have contested any credit card bill for that stay.

joan

the Holiday Inn Express next door to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

A/C was broke for 10 hours, there was ANOTHER lady's panties in the dresser drawer, and when we returned from our concert and crawled into bed, the sheets only covered the top 50% of the mattress. YUCK!

Nancy

Just stayed at the Diamond Head Inn in San Diego. What a dive! I booked it through Expedia, which gave it a 3 star rating. The ocean view was a view of a parking lot and the furnishings were in shambles. Since we were only staying one night, we were going to grin and bear it, until we tried to sleep. There was a huge party in the room above us, with people spilling out into the hallways and balcony. When we tried to call the front desk there was no answer and when I went out to the front office it was closed. At 1 a.m. we finally decided to move to another hotel. The following morning we waited in a line of unhappy guests, and they refused to give any of us a refund. I'll never pay attention to Expedia's rating system again.

Roscoe

Places not to stay Hmm
The Latham -Philadelphia
The J.W.Mariott in D.C.
The Holiday Inn Old Town Alexandria
Excutive Suites Alexandria
The Urbana Inn,Urbana,VA
Middleburg Inn and Suites Middleburg,VA
Comfort Inn ,Tappahannock,VA
Hotel Notre Dame,Paris,France
Hilton Hotel,Charles de Galle Airport
- how many years,months etc would you like us to go back??We have stayed at plenty of wonderful places but the above list does not contain 1.

Adam

Roscoe, I think it's really rude (and probably a little libelous) to list places and not explain WHY they were bad.

Opinions

Not libelous Adam. Roscoe is entitled to his opinion and so are we. Stating "fact" you know to be false is another matter. No different than Rants and Raves.

samiam

The Allerton/Crowne Plaza in Chicago.

They've completely redecorated the lobby a couple years ago to make it beautiful, the rates are higher since Crowne Plaza took over, but the rooms are as crappy as ever. Avoid it at all cost.

Owen O'Neill

Avoid the Gershwin Hotel in NYC. Oddly enough, it remains a Fodor's "Pick" but if you check the rants and Raves section of this website you'll find a large number of concurring opinions on the shortcomings of this property (my unfortunate experience there seems to be only one of many)

Janson

Roscoe seems to have had a very bad time of it in the Washington/No.Virginia area -- all those places probably alerted each other that he was coming to make sure something went wrong.

I've had a very good time at the Middleburg Inn and found the Alex. Holiday Inn quite useful and reasonable.

I second the opinion that Roscoe should explain why he lists the places he does.

tweets

Absolutely avoid the Holiday Inn in Bar Harbor Maine. Spiders in one bed. Checked the second bed and found the sheets had not been changed since the previous customer. How did we know? There was dried blood on the rumpled sheets!!!!

Sue

Don't stay at the Holiday Inn in Dana Point, Ca. We had never stayed in Dana Point before or we would have seen and heard the train right across the street from this hotel. It was so loud and went by so often I don't know how anyone could get any sleep there. Also, the bathroom was so narrow you could hardly stand to use it. We didn't even stay there for one night. Another one of my pet peeves is when they use one of those ugly, scratchy wool blankets on the bed. They charg $129.00 a night yet!! Laguna Beach is a much better area to stay in and you can walk to everything. We've learned our lesson.

Gail

Roscoe-
Poor, poor Urbanna Inn- What a shame and horror!!! At prices that can barely be justified 2 nites of the year!