I just have to laugh reading all these comments. You people want to pay 40 or 50 bucks a night, and expect the Taj Mahal? I travel for a living, all over the US. You can never tell by a rating or a brochure what horrors you'll find at check-in. In general, hotel cleanliness today is a disgrace. Even most $200 a night hotels are disgustingly dirty, esp. the carpets. That includes all you Marriotts, Hyatts, Hiltons, Westins, etc. At an Embassy Suites in San Antonio, I left a brand new package of crackers in the "kitchenette" part before going to bed. Next morning I find about a zillion ants feasting on my crackers, and I was staying on the 10th floor! When I was growing up (60's), my parents hauled me and my siblings all over the US on driving vacations, and hotels were CLEAN. And these were Holiday Inns, Howard Johnsons, etc. My mother examined the sheets, bathroom, etc at check-in before we were allowed to unpack, and if it didn't meet her specs, we LEFT! This happened only occasionally. Today, mom would have a tough time finding A hotel to stay in. Cleanliness I can sort of get around: I call housekeeping and make them come up and clean while I stand and watch. Have them bring extra pillowcases, and each night put 2 pillowcases over the pillow you will sleep on. Don't even THINK of sitting on any of the furniture (no matter what hotel) naked, or even in your undies; your crotch will become the new home of things you don't want to know about. My two real pet peeves are: DARK ROOMS (40 watt bulbs) and LOWLOW FlOW SHOWERHEADS. My ex described the water flow in hotel showers as being like someone peeing on you, and he was right about that one thing. Remedy: I travel with my own shower head and wrench. (Makes for funny looks from airport xray techs.). The real story is what I find after I pull off the hotel shower head: dirt, algae, rocks, bug parts, unknown insect bodies, trash, metal shavings, mold, rust, pieces of plastic, balls of hair--I could go on and on. In 10 years of traveling with my own trusty "high-flow" showerhead, I've only stayed at one hotel who had engineering come up during the day and replace it with one of theirs: the Marriott Downtown in San Fran. If I have a spare minute before I leave the room, I rinse the crap out of the hotel's head--and pull the flow restrictor out too if I am able. Don't flame me about wasting water--go tell it to your local golf course. Anyone who thinks business travel is glamorous ought to be shot.
FrightNight Hotels:
Hilton Las Vegas
Greenpoint Houston
San Antonio--all except the new Westin (nice!) and the Marriott RiverCenter
New Orleans--Hyatt next to convention center
Orlando--Adam's Mark (don't get me started)
There's too many to list. All of the above were FILTHY.

Kathy, your post is a RIOT!! By the way, never had any problems with any of the Ritz-Carltons or Four Seasons I've stayed at, although the water pressure at those could be a bit better as well. The BEST water pressure so far has been at The Halekulnai in Waikiki and The Bellagio in Vegas.

Holiday Inn bayfront in San Diego. Older hotel with premium prices. Room service staff cursed me in Spanish when tip (included) was not supplemented. Too bad...I'm a gringo who knows Spanish. Checked out and headed to Doubletree Suites at half the price and much better facilities.

Motel 6, Washington, Pa. scary clientele, we checked out shortly after check-in.

Good Night Inn - Rohnert Park, CA. I found this dump on Expedia. We needed a decent place to spend the night on our way from San Francisco to Mendocino Coast in late January. Hotel was under renovation and not fit for habitation. I would have left if it was not so late in the evening and we weren't exhausted from our flight from the East Coast.

Most of the motels just off exit ramps on route 95 north south oare complete dumps.
Seriously.

topping

CircusCircus in Las Vegas. Man slapping wife in hall. 3 year olds walking around arcade while "parents" gambled.Horrible staff. Smelly room.So loud you had to put hands over ears. Food unidentifiable- honestly. Blue and orange entrees.

Just for fun if you want to read some more hotel HORROR stories (and get tips on a letter or action to complain) go to planetfeedback.com.

Days Inn in Clemson SC has to be one of the worst places I have ever stayed. The rooms are very clean and the hotel is well kept BUT they must use a ton of air freshner in the rooms. The odor was overwhelming, you could even smell it in the stairwells and my eyes literally stung from it. Never again!

I just returned from Gloucester ma and had the misfortune to book a room at the Gloucester Inn By The Sea-very disappointed-dirty, shabby, roach in tub,state of poor maintenance and disrepair-only saving grace was the view

Yep - Red Roof Inn in Baton Rouge, LA. Creepy and gross. Stayed there a few times because I had family nearby, but never again. The room smelled dirty & musty and the towels felt like burlap. One night, spouse & I came back to the room about 10:00, and were stopped outside our 2nd floor room by a guy dressed in a kind of pseudo-Texas Rangers outfit, although we could tell it wasn't a real trooper uniform. He told us he was security for the motel and that there had been some break-ins. He then offered to unlock our room for us and check it out to see if there was anyone inside. This girl wasn't born yesterday so I told him NO THANKS as coldly as possible, and actually got ready to toss my room keys from the balcony into the parking lot below in case he had any pushy ideas. This weird guy kept yacking on and on about nothing, keeping us standing there uncomfortably, but we finally got rid of him. As soon as we were inside the room I called the front desk and asked if they did in fact employ a security guard and they said they did, so I complained about his totally inappropriate behavior. Then, later that night at around 3:00 AM, someone banged LOUDLY on our door several times, waking us up and scaring us. I thought it was this creepy guy but hubby told me it was probably hookers looking for customers -- if so, where was Ranger Rick?? It was such a creepy experience we checked out the next day.

I just returned to a place where I have stayed many times before, but it is now under new ownership. I had the worst vacation/travelling experience there ever! The name of the place is The Lodge at Pine Cove (new owner-Alex Strong) and it is located in an absolutely beautiful location in Ontario, Canada on the French River near Wolsely Bay. I went there with a friend and we had our children with us-husbands at home this trip. We travelled for two days to get there and when we did get there, the owner tried to put us in a different cabin than we had reserved. This cabin had huge gaps in the screens (mosquitos everywhere) and bats all over the place. It was filthy, with disgusting mattresses-for which we had the wrong size sheets, not having reserved this particular junk hole. When I went back to the main lodge to complain that this was not acceptable, the owner, Alex Strong, rudely ignored me standing at the reception desk for at least 10 minutes. Mind you, it is now about 7pm and I have been travelling for two days with a friend, 3 kids and a dog. Needless to say, I am tired and am not happy about being so blatently ignored after being put in this horrible cabin. The man did not even hold up a finger to signal for me to wait for a minute. Finally, I interupted his chatty, relaxed phone conversation and refused to be quiet when he then became angry at my interuption. Finally, he flew out of his chair and stormed toward me with an upraised arm-I thought he might hit me! He then shrieked at me to leave. I remained calm and told him that I would not leave and that he needed to attend to my needs as I had reserved a different cabin months in advance. It turned out that he put us in a new cabin-but he continued to be a jerk for our entire stay. I will never stay at The Lodge at Pine Cove again. Does anyone know of any recourse I may take for enduring such horrible treatment?

Just stayed at a $ 1250 a week cottage at Topsail Beach, NC called the Blue Dolphin and rented out by Topsail Realty. It had two picnic tables on the back deck. One was a heap of nails and twenty year old splintery wood. The other was a half-heap which I intentionally collapsed for the safety of my kids. The deck had negligible furniture and seating. The four bedrooms was really three. What was called a bedroom was a non-private living room arrangement that stayed at 80 degrees for the week. Dealing with Topsail Realty was not fun and we won't rent with them again. On another note, a fellow we met on the beach told us that his family's room at the Jolly Roger Motel was crummy, almost filthy.

The Airport Radisson at JFK. Stayed there unexpectedly because of a delayed flight, courtesy of a United Airlines voucher. Got to the hotel at about 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday and there was some huge event/party going on with lots of rap music, heavy gold chains, etc. Kids running around screaming (at that hour!). There was a tray of half-eaten food outside a room across the hall from mine when I checked in. It was still there at noon next day when I checked out.

I think it is unfair to condemm
a whole chain of motels because one or two are not up to par.EX:. Days Inn I usually pick the ones with 4 or 5 "sunbursts" in their book. Have always been quite pleased,September Days for Seniors get 15 to 20% discount. Great ones in San Louis Obispo and Morro Bay (California) Having said that---NEVER stay at the one near Oakland Airport (I think they rent the rooms by the hour!!!
Just my opinion...

Ketchikan--the Gilman --A historic downtown hotel---ew. Do not let your feet touch the floor and plan to listen to noise from neighborhood bars.

In fact unless you are stepping off a cruise ship for 2 hours avoid Ketchikan. My mother told me it was beautiful. Of all the places in Alaska to go--this one can be skipped.

Our worst experience was in 1999 at the MT ROYAL hotel in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. We had no idea of what we were walking into. They had no website and we thought with a mane like that, it should be ok. It has orange shag carpeting left over from the 70's. You could feel it squish when you walked on it and it was so filthy it had turned to a burnt orange color and was all matted. The walls had dark paneling and ancient pictures hanging out of the frames and covered with dust. It had one of those shiny bedspreads that was so old it had all pilled up on the back side of it. The curtains on the windows had hunting scenes on them. Old Orchard Beach is not out in the boonies. It is a resort area. I kept telling my husband that I wanted to leave because all these biker guys were getting very drunk and yelling all night. I was so scared. There were some lovely hotels in this area but my husband picked THIS one because the name sounded nice. Now that's silly. The front desk manager would not ley us leave because it was a holiday weekend and we had paID in full. I remember the manager bragging because they had just gotten HBO for all the rooms. I would hope so at$150.00 per night.

Last fall we stayed at Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach. I can't give this place enough bad publicity. The "villa" where we stayed was beyond filthy...bugs, grease, lint, dust, hair, etc. We saw housekeeping only once the entire time we were there. One morning at 8:30 a.m., maintenance workers were on ladders with their faces up to the windows (of course the blinds were torn up)....I about died! They continued up to the roof and started pounding away....I believe the neighbors complained. My husband refused to complain....and justifiably so....we were there on 9/11. It seemed unconscienable to him to "whine" about our pathetic accomodations when others were really suffering. Of course, he was right. I would avoid this place at all costs. Surely there are some nice up-scale places to stay in Myrtle Beach that are well-maintained and clean!

ttt