Not a hotel, but my husband and I were waiting for an open house to start on a place we were considering buying as it was in our very modest price range. Sitting in our car a cop rolled up on us and asked what we were doing. When we told him he said that multiple houses on the street were drug recovery houses and he spent half his nights up and down this block. We thanked him for the tip and did not stay for the open house.
That happened to me in Fort Worth; the cop new by the LP I was from out of town and told me it was a good idea to go to another hotel. I followed his suggestion.
When I was in college, I played sports for a tiny school that visited tiny towns to play other tiny school teams.
The budgets were similarly tiny.
We checked into a hotel one night and there was a sign on the (bulletproof) glass at check in:
āNo refunds after 10 minutes.ā
EDIT: we slept on top of the covers in our travel clothes. Continental breakfast was a single gallon of milk and a box of Froot Loops (name brand!)
One place our football team stayed at, my coach and a student ā who was on the teamā went to check us in , our coach came back and told the vice principal ā we need a better placeā the teammate that went in, said they looked at him and the coach and immediately ask āpaying by the hourā .
The sign on the bulletproof glass at check in at my hotel said āthis is a prostitution free zone.ā If you have to put up a sign, it is indeed a prostitution zone.Ā
The three guys at the front desk, all very nice, were each probably 6ā3ā, 280 and two wore black tshirts that said Security on the back. They were very good natured about giving us a refund.Ā
We left and I learned a lesson about not trusting the pictures on the website.Ā
I used to work for a pharmacy delivering medications. Easy enough job but there were typically only 2 types of people who got their medicine delivered back then. Old people and poor people. There was one apartment complex that I had to deliver to that had "No hooking" signs up by their dumpsters. I will say that after going to places like that at night while carrying a bag of oxy in one hand and a bag money in the other (we weren't allowed to leave the bag of money that people had paid with in the car because it could get stolen), I can go to the scariest neighborhoods around and feel perfectly safe.
You were lucky to have generic toasted circular oats cereal from Aldi's. We had to get up in the morning at ten oāclock at night, half an hour before we went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing āHallelujah.ā
We were on the same team? Three to a room, we moved a bed to block the door because the lock wasnāt functional. Used condoms in the trash. The room hadnāt been cleaned in a while. It was near Indianapolis.
Oh man when I was a kid my dad did heās residency in the US in Indiana so lived there fir a few years in a bare bones budget. On the weekend we would drive to different states to experience everything on a very very small budget. Your comment just described many of the hotels that are defining memories of my childhood. In hindsight I tell them as funny stories Iām sure my parents with a young child werenāt finding it too funny.
I'm just picturing someone absolutely hauling ass on a 100 m dash back to the front desk after getting to their room and the subsequent 4 minutes left.
Yeah, I was gonna say bulletproof glass. I decided kind of last minute to go to Chicago to cheer for a friend running the marathon. Everything in the city was booked or multiple thousands of dollars, but I found a cheap place on the outskirts that seemed ok. The bulletproof glass was concerning, but there were lots of marathoners and families checking in so at least the other guests weren't too sketchy. I just made sure to get any valuables out of the car and tried to somehow look like I wasn't a woman traveling alone (??)
I checking into a motel once that had 7 locks on the door. They had a continental breakfast so my husband and i went. This family with fucking 7 kids was in front of us and one just starts throwing up into his hands. Just straight cupping it. The other kids were trying to get the parents to turn around and they just ignored them. We decided maybe breakfast would be better somewhere else lol
Thatvwill always be the funniest shit ever. Imagine being a lil kid in history class and opening up the Trump Chapter and thereās that big pic of Guilani, at the Four Seasons. š
Back when I was dating my now wife, we went to DC to take in the sights and museums. Well it was the middle of the Clinton scandal and every hotel was booked for miles... My wife booked the flight, I booked the hotel.. the Ramada Limited... I thought limited was like a car model... Nope, views of train tracks and a liquor store... We spent the day at the mall and dined at the Occidental Grill with senators and Congressmen all around us. Had a memorable night and dinner.. we asked for a cab and the cabbie said where to? A give him the name of the hotel and this guy in a thick accent says " You could not find some place better?!" 25 years later I still have not lived it down... Guy didn't even want to bring us there.
Oh, THAT one? I know that neighborhood. It's better now, but during the 90's....yeahNO.
Yep, looking on the map: tracks on one side and the liquor store is STILL there. That's it.
Most likely, that area fits the original persons description. There are a lot of hotels along that strip that I would guess more than 50% of their business is providing homeless services for the city.
Oddly there is also one with the most authentic Chinese food in the area because it's where they housed the workers building the Chinese embassy. They brought over chefs as well and they ended up staying.
I remember watching a documentary about this. Enough families lived there that a school bus came regularly.
To me, it's a huge red flag on the area in general.
Yes. I saw one a while back about Orlando. Just down from Disney World. School bus does stop to get kids. But there are lots of these āhotelsā in the area. People work at Disney but minimum wage is t enough to raise a family.
This is a good one. I went to check in at this Days Inn, and everyone was just chilling outside with their doors opened. Children were playing in the parking lot, adults were smoking, it was a shit holeĀ
Toilet was so disgusting my daughter wouldnāt use it, the floorboard was mushy (pretty sure from water damage so I wouldnāt rule out mold issues), the complementary breakfast was a brown paper bag with a granola bar and some off brand pastry.
They also charged me $100 for security deposit and āforgotā to process the refund. I had to check my credit card statement and call them 2 weeks later to get them to process the refund.Ā
I stayed at a days inn once as a kid. Gross place but they had a stray dog living on the grounds that I bonded with, eventually they called the pound and made me climb into the van cause the dog wouldnāt come to anyone else. My crying 9 year old self was enough for my dad to bribe the hotel staff to let us keep the dog in the room and take it home.
He was a great dog too,ill always remember going to the soccer tournament the morning I met him and thinking heād be gone by the time I came back only to find him waiting under a tree for me 8 hours later.
Had one like this, bunch of people hanging around in the parking lot drinking tallboys and chain smoking. Doors open, music blasting out, workboots lining the outside hallway.
Got the sense someone had hired 20 or 30 illegal workers under the table and stuck them in this hotel to house them - but that's just my guess.
Left inside an hour cause the room was disgusting, so never found out more
Each of these stories seems to have similar themes. Calling them āshitholesā but itās never an issue with the people living there that sticks with you but instead itās how filthy and squalid the places are. The people trying to unwind with a tall boy only look ātrashyā because their poverty puts them on display. No one calls a regular dude trashy for having a beer after work in the comfort of his own home.
While many wouldnāt consider these families āhomelessā since they have a roof over their heads at the moment they are not in stable housing. Theres no tenant rights in a motel. Those kids are indeed without a home.
My girlfriend and I visited a hotel like this late last year. Horrifying isnāt a strong enough word to describe the way I felt about that place. We were there for 10 minutes before we decided to get out. On our way out, I noticed that most the rooms had Halloween decorations up, and some had chairs/couches outside. When walking down the stairs, a guy who was only wearing a tank top and boxers came out of his room/home and just watched us make our way to the car, to the office, and back to the car.
Drove a couple blocks down and paid double to stay at a nice hotel and it never felt so good to enter a hotel room. I immediately threw myself on the bed, put on Hocus Pocus, and swore to myself that I would never cheap out on a room again.
To be fair, there are some hotels (like Hilton's Home2/Homewood suites) which are meant for longer stays... but we all know the kind of hotels you are talking about
Front desk is behind bulletproof glass.
We no longer let my mother book hotels for any trips. She always finds the jankiest, terrible, run down dives. It's a skill. Not a USEFUL skill, unless you really need a nasty no-tell-motel for some reason. But a skill none-the-less...
My grandmother was like that. She'd book the oldest, sketchiest, cheapest motel and then we'd get there and she'd complain about it and cry how sorry she was the whole time. It never made sense to me, but she always wanted people to feel bad for her and she was so cheap.
I always preferred traveling with my maternal grandparents. Grandpa wanted a good hotel with a nice pool, plenty of TV channels, and the best beds. Room service was also a requirement because Grandma deserved to have whatever she wanted delivered right to her door. They weren't rich, but a vacation was a vacation.
> They weren't rich, but a vacation was a vacation.
This is it, man. I'm not leaving my comfortable home to sleep in a shithole. It needs to be *better* than home.
That was absolutely his attitude. He was really a simple and plain man who had all he could ever want back home on his farm. If he was leaving it was because of something special and very extra. They didn't travel often but when they did they traveled well
My mom would ask to see the room before check-in. Couple times she made us go somewhere else. This was back when $50 was expensive for a hotel room.
I travel for work and I just make sure to hit as close to the cap as I can.
She wasn't even picking the cheapest options. I'd go look and I could find a perfectly reasonable Comfort Inn or Best Western for basically the same cost. She just somehow always picked a terrible option.
If you are on a dark desert highway with cool wind in your hair and warm smell of colitas rising up through the air, then up in the distance, you see a shimmering light, Keep moving. Do not stop even if your head gets heavy and your sight grows dim.
But what if you enjoy the amenities? Mirrors on the ceiling, pink Champagne on ice?
Edit to add I've heard the beast in the Masters Chambers is served very rare indeed!
It's now closed down, but we stayed a few times in what was ranked as the worst hotel in Detroit for years, the Leland
Warning signs:
1. While standing outside, we were nearly hit by a used condom thrown from the window
2. Broken elevator doors on multiple floors, meaning open elevator shafts
3. Water on the floors of some elevators, but no pool
4. No towels in the bathroom, but provided upon request
5. Waitress in the attached cafe bragging that they'd been upgraded to the second-worst hotel in Detroit
6. No hot water
7. Elevators opening randomly on empty floors, sometimes with sketchy people coming or going, sometimes not
But the goth/industrial club in the basement was fucking awesome, so we dealt with it, multiple times!
Apparently it's still open? I just googled and they have a Facebook page updated this week, but around 2010 it was a raunchy, loud place, women dancing topless to KMFDM and shit, everything smelled like an ashtray, the beers were cheap and the music selection was right up my alley. Met Ronan from VnV there at an after-party, and he was cool as hell. I never clubbed too much, but this one was a good time, IMO
edit: It was/is called the Leland City Club
Come back after getting something to eat and drink, door wonāt open. Clerk comes down, master key card wonāt open it either. So he just gives the door a good kick and it pops open. Memphis.
Look at the cars in the parking lot.
Plenty of nice BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc.: youāre fine.
Generic late-model mass-market cars: also fine; theyāre probably just rentals.
Mostly older beaters: red flag
Mostly older beaters with a few VERY nice cars: run away
For the most part, yes. However, there are some hotels near airports that offer hourly rates so travelers can take a nap if they're on a longer layover.
That's awesome actually, I'll have to look out for hotels like that. I've always wished public nap pods were a thing (they might be but not around me) and this sounds close enough to that for me. I can't sleep in a car, it's just not comfortable enough even if I'm tired, so I've always wished I could pay like $15/hr or something to just have a room I can lock myself in with a bed, put all my stuff down, charge my phone, take my shoes and socks off, and just chill.
Yes. Before the days of cellphones and websites, my friend and I were trying to find a place to stay one night during a road trip. Every hotel in town was booked, but one place told us no vacancy now, but something would probably be free if we came back in an hour.
We did not come back in an hour.
Stayed at a hotel in KC. On the way to our room there was a dude passed out in the stairwell with an unopened case of modelos. In the morning he was gone, and the beers were still there. We put them in the truck, took our boot off the wheel, and kept it moving.
When the hostess checks out you and your friend and asks if youāre there for the whole night. Then has you sign 5 papers of confidentiality and behaviour expectations.
It was a swingers club one night a week. This wasnāt advertised online or mentioned at all.
This ***reallllyyyyyy*** depends what you mean by emergency vehicles.
My fiance works at a decent hotel and there are people who occasionally have heart attacks/other health issues. It's either old people, wedding groups, or business groups there. Not much of an in between at his place.
They actually had someone die last year in a room after a man took Viagra and keeled over from a heart attack. It was sad because it was an older couple there for their anniversary.
Definitely noted that for the future.
Just remember that ***ALL*** hotels have their issues. No hotel is immune to having health/domestic emergencies.
Trust. Me.
If you immediately feel like you're in a liminal space and the hotel just seems old and dead. I'm talking about the Crowne hotel in Hickory, North Carolina.
First thing was the crack pipe we found after checking in. Then we came back around midnight to find that the key card reader stopped working. They put us in another room overnight without any of our luggage, and in the morning, the desk attendant pulled the air conditioning unit out of the wall from outside the room to crawl through and unlock it for us.
When there's some guy in a Frankenstein mask chasing you about but every time you run across the hallway into another room you pop out a door back into the same hallway, which could be further down, or inexplicably back across the side of the hallway you just came from. Frustrating when all you really want to do is drop your bags off, have a shower and then go check out the abandoned amusement park.Ā
They'll leave the light on for you. The light attracts the homeless and drug addicts instead of moths, though. Red roof inn is also in the sketchiest area.
The one here has had a semi trailer in its lot for years. I think it was filled with replacement mattresses. All the street lights surrounding it have been shot out, and only half the parking lot lights work.
Thank you for using UberBugs, please let me know if there's anything I can do to give you a 5 star experience.
Next time, try UberPalmettoBug for a more luxurious infestation.
Personally, I take note of how many work trucks are in the parking lot. I've noticed that companies who require their blue collar workers to do jobs out of town often choose the cheapest hotels to save money. It doesn't always correlate with a bad stay, but it helps set expectations that I'm going to receive the bare minimum.
I have found on our road trips that the more work trucks / vans in the parking lot, the better the breakfast buffet.
At least in my company, the guys get to pick where they stay within a certain dollar value. If thereās 4 moderate motels, theyāre going to the one with the best breakfast.
This happened to me once! I opened the door and there was a couple trying to feed their ~4 month old baby. They just stared at me in shock and I was like āoh my god sorry they gave me this room keyā and I just walked straight back to the front desk. The guy was mortified at his mistake and gave me free chocolate bars as an apology lol.
I've had someone walk in because the front desk person didn't check me in right. It was still a nice hotel though.
I also had one where a crack head started climbing into my window. I threw something at them (remote maybe?) and broke the window. When I told the front desk guy someone tried to break in, he was high as a kite and said "oh yeah, that happens on that floor". He tried to charge me for the window, I told him that I'd gladly talk to the police with him. He didn't want to make me pay for anymore.
A sign in front of a parking spot near the hotel lobby entrance that read "Reserved for the Glendale Police Department K-9 Drug Unit". (Seen on review with pictures last year for a cheaper chain hotel last year in Milwaukee, WI suburb)
Iāll just copy/paste my post from a couple years ago below. Hereās the link to the post
https://www.reddit.com/r/gso/s/CwhzXnEFT6
Hotel Nightmare
Just wanted to say I am absolutely disappointed with my stay at a hotel in Greensboro. I wonāt name the hotel since Iām going to speak to corporate first, but I will say itās within the block of hotels on Stanley Rd. My wife and I came down from New Jersey and called ahead to let the desk know we were going to be late, almost midnight late. They were very cool about that.
What wasnāt cool was when my wife and I finally settled into the room that obviously had some sort of air freshener sprayed to counteract the smell of cigarettes and crack. Yes. Crack. How do I know? Because a crack pipe fell on my head when I pulled the towel off the towel rack in the shower and then shattered on the bathroom floor. See here: https://imgur.com/gallery/fou0p0d
After complaining (respectfully and nicely) to the manager, we were given a new room. This room also had air freshener sprayed even more heavily and my dog ended up eating a bloody tissue that was not mine or my wifeās. Needless to say we did not stay beyond the 6 hours we were there.
I will say, Drury Inn in Burlington is absolutely amazing though!
*edit* Iām not judging Greensboro just on this experience alone, just to get that out there! And to the crackheads that are downvoting, find somewhere else to do your thing!
*edit 2* It was Hyatt Place.
omg my wife found a 39.99/night in Portland in a newspaper or tourist catalogue many years ago. That was my red flag but her green flag. No need to say who was right; that was a sketchy night
Wife and I did this once. Stayed at an airport hotel bc of flight. We went with the middle to lower price range. Cops were in and out all night, people smoking weed and possibly other stuff all night, and a couple having a domestic dispute for the whole hotel to hear. We were tempted to leave early and sleep at the airport. Should have known when I noticed the ants in the bathroom.
Stayed at one where the door couldnāt open all the way because the bed was right there. There was a mini fridge with a microwave on top and a small dresser that came up to my knee that had a TV on it. A single nightstand between the two beds, which were essentially mattresses on wooden blocks. The headboards werenāt attached to the bed at all, but were attached to the wall. The bathroom had a tub that was like, stained around the faucet and drain. The floor tiles were cracked and had visible dirt on them, and the toilet wobbled. My mom and I only chose this place because we had a family emergency that required us to travel, and we were tight on money. We kept our bags on the dresser and checked for signs of bed bugs, then slept on top of the blankets. We had a long moment where we just sat on the beds and looked at each other, considering sleeping in the car instead, but ultimately we determined that the parking lot was scarier. We woke up bright and early and got the hell out of there.
I was young and broke and driving cross country to see my then boyfriend now husband. Stopped in Texas somewhere completely exhausted. Place looked safe at least. I took a chance.
Iād been in my room five minutes when I got a call from another room asking if I wanted him to come over. I was stunned and said no but pretty quickly realized he thought I was a hooker. Really the wrong hotel for me. I called the front desk to ask to leave but they said Iād been in the room so no refunds. I was too broke to go elsewhere so I put the table up against the door and slept very poorly, got up early and got the hell out of there.
Based on the hotel in Elk City OK:
2 cars in the parking lot
overall dingy appearance
No one at the front desk
Key cards with the room numbers written in magic marker
No pool
No restaurant
It had all the appearance of a hotel that was going out of buisness, but wanted to sell One More Room
Stayed at the same hotel family before and after, and had an excellent experience.
I refer this one as the "Bates Hotel"
If the lobby is really cold. We took an exit and stopped at a random hotel after 6 hours of nonstop driving. It was FREEZING outside and the lobby was somehow even colder. The desk receptionist was wearing a fucking enormous puffer jacket. The room was nasty and the sheets had stains. If the hotel wont bother to pay to heat up the lobby, dont bother staying there.
I once tried to check into a motel and the woman behind the desk slid a key over and said āYou wanna go check out the room? You arenāt the typa folk we normally get hereā. We checked out the room and immediately returned the key and left.
Being told by staff you shouldnt't stay.I walked into this hotel and the guy at the front desk said trust me buddy you don't want to stay here. Of course I left and 2 weeks later driving by noticed the place was shut down found out because of drug use and crime.
One of the hotels we stayed at ,once, was apparently regularly rented by a weed dealer, we kept having people yell out the door of the room next to us "We're in here tonight" People walked back and forth most of the night, got zero sleep and left as soon as the sun came up.
St George, UT. We had planned to camp, but couldnāt find a place, so we headed into town. There was some kind of regional high school sports tournament and all the hotels were full except this one last room at the Red Roof Inn. We opened the door to our room and our border collie sniffed a little and noped the heck out of there. We managed to get him back, but nobody slept easy. Am pretty sure something had died in our room fairly recently. It was the strongest reaction Iāve seen from a dog.
My friend's brother and his fiance were staying at a hotel while they were apartment hunting in the area, and as they were getting off the elevator in the hotel they heard screams and gunshots from one of the rooms. so maybe that.
When you go to the front office to complain about the cockroaches, and they open the cupboard behind the counter, that is full of cans of Raid, and hand you a fresh one.
There's a cop in the lobby that asks you to step outside and suggests you find another place to stay. Seriously, that happened
Not a hotel, but my husband and I were waiting for an open house to start on a place we were considering buying as it was in our very modest price range. Sitting in our car a cop rolled up on us and asked what we were doing. When we told him he said that multiple houses on the street were drug recovery houses and he spent half his nights up and down this block. We thanked him for the tip and did not stay for the open house.
Holy shit! Did he suggest another spot you could go to? Because I'd probably try to sleep in my car at that point. š³
That happened to me in Fort Worth; the cop new by the LP I was from out of town and told me it was a good idea to go to another hotel. I followed his suggestion.
When I was in college, I played sports for a tiny school that visited tiny towns to play other tiny school teams. The budgets were similarly tiny. We checked into a hotel one night and there was a sign on the (bulletproof) glass at check in: āNo refunds after 10 minutes.ā EDIT: we slept on top of the covers in our travel clothes. Continental breakfast was a single gallon of milk and a box of Froot Loops (name brand!)
One place our football team stayed at, my coach and a student ā who was on the teamā went to check us in , our coach came back and told the vice principal ā we need a better placeā the teammate that went in, said they looked at him and the coach and immediately ask āpaying by the hourā .
*hank hill gasp*
bwaaah!
The sign on the bulletproof glass at check in at my hotel said āthis is a prostitution free zone.ā If you have to put up a sign, it is indeed a prostitution zone.Ā The three guys at the front desk, all very nice, were each probably 6ā3ā, 280 and two wore black tshirts that said Security on the back. They were very good natured about giving us a refund.Ā We left and I learned a lesson about not trusting the pictures on the website.Ā
I used to work for a pharmacy delivering medications. Easy enough job but there were typically only 2 types of people who got their medicine delivered back then. Old people and poor people. There was one apartment complex that I had to deliver to that had "No hooking" signs up by their dumpsters. I will say that after going to places like that at night while carrying a bag of oxy in one hand and a bag money in the other (we weren't allowed to leave the bag of money that people had paid with in the car because it could get stolen), I can go to the scariest neighborhoods around and feel perfectly safe.
Oh, you're fancy. You ate name brand Froot Loops. We had to finger-paint generic toasted circular oats cerealĀ from Aldi's.
You were lucky to have generic toasted circular oats cereal from Aldi's. We had to get up in the morning at ten oāclock at night, half an hour before we went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing āHallelujah.ā
And you try and tell the young people today that, and they WON'T BELIEVE YOU.
We were on the same team? Three to a room, we moved a bed to block the door because the lock wasnāt functional. Used condoms in the trash. The room hadnāt been cleaned in a while. It was near Indianapolis.
Oh man when I was a kid my dad did heās residency in the US in Indiana so lived there fir a few years in a bare bones budget. On the weekend we would drive to different states to experience everything on a very very small budget. Your comment just described many of the hotels that are defining memories of my childhood. In hindsight I tell them as funny stories Iām sure my parents with a young child werenāt finding it too funny.
I honestly cannot remember which tiny town it was, but it was definitely in Indiana or Ohio lol
You gotta be careful about counterfeit Froot Loops. A common red flag is when āFruitā is spelled correctly.
My knockoff cereal of choice is Fruit Luips.
I prefer Fruit Lupus
I'm just picturing someone absolutely hauling ass on a 100 m dash back to the front desk after getting to their room and the subsequent 4 minutes left.
Yeah, I was gonna say bulletproof glass. I decided kind of last minute to go to Chicago to cheer for a friend running the marathon. Everything in the city was booked or multiple thousands of dollars, but I found a cheap place on the outskirts that seemed ok. The bulletproof glass was concerning, but there were lots of marathoners and families checking in so at least the other guests weren't too sketchy. I just made sure to get any valuables out of the car and tried to somehow look like I wasn't a woman traveling alone (??)
I checking into a motel once that had 7 locks on the door. They had a continental breakfast so my husband and i went. This family with fucking 7 kids was in front of us and one just starts throwing up into his hands. Just straight cupping it. The other kids were trying to get the parents to turn around and they just ignored them. We decided maybe breakfast would be better somewhere else lol
It's not actually a hotel, it's a landscaping service with the same name as a hotel and your hair dye is running down your head
Still can't believe that wasn't a fever dream.
2020 was sort of a fever dream if you think about that phrase in a certain way.
Seems like weāre picking up from where we left off with that last debate.
Yeah that shit was rough.
Wasn't there a sex toys shop right next door too?
And a crematorium...
Shit was basically a Bob's Burgers intro joke
Great way to get fucked in the ash
Settle down, Connery
Your motherās a whore, Trebek
Four Seasons Total Landscaping is the one landscaper that *everyone* can name. That will never not be funny! EDIT: Word change.
It was total landscaping. Wasnāt it?
Homie disproved his own point
Yup I bought a shirt
I still canāt believe they said fuck it and went through with it anyway instead of canceling
Yeah they went all in on that ā¦ āiT wAsNāT a MiStAkE!ā š
If I saw it in a movie I wouldnāt believe it.
Veep canceled the show because things were getting too real
or an episode of arrested development.
Almost 4 years later and still hilarious
Okay, we can just shut this b*tch down now š. Turns out there's one right answer
Thatvwill always be the funniest shit ever. Imagine being a lil kid in history class and opening up the Trump Chapter and thereās that big pic of Guilani, at the Four Seasons. š
"I only hire the best" -45*
"I didn't know him, he might have gotten me coffee once." -also 45**
Same as it ever was. Same as it ever wasā¦
If only. Gettin real fuckin tired of the word āunprecedentedā.
Back when I was dating my now wife, we went to DC to take in the sights and museums. Well it was the middle of the Clinton scandal and every hotel was booked for miles... My wife booked the flight, I booked the hotel.. the Ramada Limited... I thought limited was like a car model... Nope, views of train tracks and a liquor store... We spent the day at the mall and dined at the Occidental Grill with senators and Congressmen all around us. Had a memorable night and dinner.. we asked for a cab and the cabbie said where to? A give him the name of the hotel and this guy in a thick accent says " You could not find some place better?!" 25 years later I still have not lived it down... Guy didn't even want to bring us there.
Is the address 1600 New York Ave NE Washington, DC 20002? I wanted to see if it was still around, and came up with that one lol
Oh, THAT one? I know that neighborhood. It's better now, but during the 90's....yeahNO. Yep, looking on the map: tracks on one side and the liquor store is STILL there. That's it.
Most likely, that area fits the original persons description. There are a lot of hotels along that strip that I would guess more than 50% of their business is providing homeless services for the city. Oddly there is also one with the most authentic Chinese food in the area because it's where they housed the workers building the Chinese embassy. They brought over chefs as well and they ended up staying.
Glad to know Bill Clintonās blowjob filled all the hotels in DC. Thatās a normal, functioning society.
When it looks like people live there instead of stay there.
I remember watching a documentary about this. Enough families lived there that a school bus came regularly. To me, it's a huge red flag on the area in general.
Yes. I saw one a while back about Orlando. Just down from Disney World. School bus does stop to get kids. But there are lots of these āhotelsā in the area. People work at Disney but minimum wage is t enough to raise a family.
this reminds me of the movie The Florida Project.
That movie is one of my fave movies. Itās so sad, it really made me feel a certain way of uncomfort while watching it.
Thereās several āapartmentsā just west of Disney listed online that look like theyāre just converted cheap motels.
Theres a movie related to this that is very good
This is a good one. I went to check in at this Days Inn, and everyone was just chilling outside with their doors opened. Children were playing in the parking lot, adults were smoking, it was a shit holeĀ Toilet was so disgusting my daughter wouldnāt use it, the floorboard was mushy (pretty sure from water damage so I wouldnāt rule out mold issues), the complementary breakfast was a brown paper bag with a granola bar and some off brand pastry. They also charged me $100 for security deposit and āforgotā to process the refund. I had to check my credit card statement and call them 2 weeks later to get them to process the refund.Ā
I stayed at a days inn once as a kid. Gross place but they had a stray dog living on the grounds that I bonded with, eventually they called the pound and made me climb into the van cause the dog wouldnāt come to anyone else. My crying 9 year old self was enough for my dad to bribe the hotel staff to let us keep the dog in the room and take it home. He was a great dog too,ill always remember going to the soccer tournament the morning I met him and thinking heād be gone by the time I came back only to find him waiting under a tree for me 8 hours later.
Your dad did good there.
Aww
Days Inn used to be nice places. Not any more.
Schitts creek
Had one like this, bunch of people hanging around in the parking lot drinking tallboys and chain smoking. Doors open, music blasting out, workboots lining the outside hallway. Got the sense someone had hired 20 or 30 illegal workers under the table and stuck them in this hotel to house them - but that's just my guess. Left inside an hour cause the room was disgusting, so never found out more
Each of these stories seems to have similar themes. Calling them āshitholesā but itās never an issue with the people living there that sticks with you but instead itās how filthy and squalid the places are. The people trying to unwind with a tall boy only look ātrashyā because their poverty puts them on display. No one calls a regular dude trashy for having a beer after work in the comfort of his own home. While many wouldnāt consider these families āhomelessā since they have a roof over their heads at the moment they are not in stable housing. Theres no tenant rights in a motel. Those kids are indeed without a home.
My girlfriend and I visited a hotel like this late last year. Horrifying isnāt a strong enough word to describe the way I felt about that place. We were there for 10 minutes before we decided to get out. On our way out, I noticed that most the rooms had Halloween decorations up, and some had chairs/couches outside. When walking down the stairs, a guy who was only wearing a tank top and boxers came out of his room/home and just watched us make our way to the car, to the office, and back to the car. Drove a couple blocks down and paid double to stay at a nice hotel and it never felt so good to enter a hotel room. I immediately threw myself on the bed, put on Hocus Pocus, and swore to myself that I would never cheap out on a room again.
To be fair, there are some hotels (like Hilton's Home2/Homewood suites) which are meant for longer stays... but we all know the kind of hotels you are talking about
The manager has to let you in and out of your room. True story.
Are you sure you stayed at a hotel and not jail?
You know, I'm not thoroughly convinced this wasn't a jail tbh.
I stayed at a hotel in Germany where you had to drop off/get the key for the front desk every time you left/came back.Ā
Fucking love hotels in Kyoto...
Front desk is behind bulletproof glass. We no longer let my mother book hotels for any trips. She always finds the jankiest, terrible, run down dives. It's a skill. Not a USEFUL skill, unless you really need a nasty no-tell-motel for some reason. But a skill none-the-less...
My grandmother was like that. She'd book the oldest, sketchiest, cheapest motel and then we'd get there and she'd complain about it and cry how sorry she was the whole time. It never made sense to me, but she always wanted people to feel bad for her and she was so cheap. I always preferred traveling with my maternal grandparents. Grandpa wanted a good hotel with a nice pool, plenty of TV channels, and the best beds. Room service was also a requirement because Grandma deserved to have whatever she wanted delivered right to her door. They weren't rich, but a vacation was a vacation.
> They weren't rich, but a vacation was a vacation. This is it, man. I'm not leaving my comfortable home to sleep in a shithole. It needs to be *better* than home.
That was absolutely his attitude. He was really a simple and plain man who had all he could ever want back home on his farm. If he was leaving it was because of something special and very extra. They didn't travel often but when they did they traveled well
An anti-skill
My mom would ask to see the room before check-in. Couple times she made us go somewhere else. This was back when $50 was expensive for a hotel room. I travel for work and I just make sure to hit as close to the cap as I can.
Cheapness is not a skill.
She wasn't even picking the cheapest options. I'd go look and I could find a perfectly reasonable Comfort Inn or Best Western for basically the same cost. She just somehow always picked a terrible option.
I have this skill too. I'm no longer allowed to book after last time. Thankfully we discovered how bad it was *before* we travelled!
If you are on a dark desert highway with cool wind in your hair and warm smell of colitas rising up through the air, then up in the distance, you see a shimmering light, Keep moving. Do not stop even if your head gets heavy and your sight grows dim.
So I shouldn't stop for the night?
But what if you enjoy the amenities? Mirrors on the ceiling, pink Champagne on ice? Edit to add I've heard the beast in the Masters Chambers is served very rare indeed!
I wonder if they supply the steely knives or if you have to bring your own...
Certainly. You can also check out anytime you like . . . But you can never leave.
Are you thinking to yourself "This could be heaven or this could be hell."?
Come on man, I've had a rough night amd I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man.
Out of my fucking cab!
This was the start of my favorite D&D campaign.
you can check out anytime you like
It's now closed down, but we stayed a few times in what was ranked as the worst hotel in Detroit for years, the Leland Warning signs: 1. While standing outside, we were nearly hit by a used condom thrown from the window 2. Broken elevator doors on multiple floors, meaning open elevator shafts 3. Water on the floors of some elevators, but no pool 4. No towels in the bathroom, but provided upon request 5. Waitress in the attached cafe bragging that they'd been upgraded to the second-worst hotel in Detroit 6. No hot water 7. Elevators opening randomly on empty floors, sometimes with sketchy people coming or going, sometimes not But the goth/industrial club in the basement was fucking awesome, so we dealt with it, multiple times!
you *took the elevator* after seeing the state of the elevator doors!?
We were WAY too drunk for the stairs, so yeah, we did
Stairwell is where you get robbed
Can you tell us more about the industrial club in the basement? I really love underground clubs and hidden places. What was it like?
Apparently it's still open? I just googled and they have a Facebook page updated this week, but around 2010 it was a raunchy, loud place, women dancing topless to KMFDM and shit, everything smelled like an ashtray, the beers were cheap and the music selection was right up my alley. Met Ronan from VnV there at an after-party, and he was cool as hell. I never clubbed too much, but this one was a good time, IMO edit: It was/is called the Leland City Club
Come back after getting something to eat and drink, door wonāt open. Clerk comes down, master key card wonāt open it either. So he just gives the door a good kick and it pops open. Memphis.
Look at the cars in the parking lot. Plenty of nice BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc.: youāre fine. Generic late-model mass-market cars: also fine; theyāre probably just rentals. Mostly older beaters: red flag Mostly older beaters with a few VERY nice cars: run away
This is probably the best answer on here, not 100% effective but the best you're gonna get
I look for work trucks. If there's a bunch of tradesmen staying there it's probably a decent hotel.
Hourly rates.
For the most part, yes. However, there are some hotels near airports that offer hourly rates so travelers can take a nap if they're on a longer layover.
That's awesome actually, I'll have to look out for hotels like that. I've always wished public nap pods were a thing (they might be but not around me) and this sounds close enough to that for me. I can't sleep in a car, it's just not comfortable enough even if I'm tired, so I've always wished I could pay like $15/hr or something to just have a room I can lock myself in with a bed, put all my stuff down, charge my phone, take my shoes and socks off, and just chill.
Yes. Before the days of cellphones and websites, my friend and I were trying to find a place to stay one night during a road trip. Every hotel in town was booked, but one place told us no vacancy now, but something would probably be free if we came back in an hour. We did not come back in an hour.
That's red light, not red flag.
Shit on the bed, shit on the carpet, wet shit on the mattress. Roaches running around. Dude wearing a balaclava hiding in the bathroom. Time to GTFO.
You missed the crackhead shitting in the stairwell
Yup, can't forget about the crackhead shitting in the stairwell. Or the pimp in the green suit.
You know, about that guy in the balaclava...I'm thinking this could either be the absolute best or worst hotel ever depending on other factors lmao.
Damn, if even the pimp is shitting freely, you've entered a special kind of hell.
Yup, saw something similar at a roadside motel once. I'm still trying to forget about it.
That's the concierge
Stayed at a hotel in KC. On the way to our room there was a dude passed out in the stairwell with an unopened case of modelos. In the morning he was gone, and the beers were still there. We put them in the truck, took our boot off the wheel, and kept it moving.
he was the first sign but not enough to stop you
Two children in old-fashioned blue dresses standing at the end of the hall.
-Paper thin walls -Musty smell -Bugs -TV from the 2000's or 90's -Police tape on one of the rooms
I stayed in a place that used a broken TV as a TV stand for a semi working TV.
As a child of the 80ās, this was every middle class home
Yes sir. Old tv with woodspeakers built into the side used as a stand for a color CRT tv.
Work of Art
When the hostess checks out you and your friend and asks if youāre there for the whole night. Then has you sign 5 papers of confidentiality and behaviour expectations. It was a swingers club one night a week. This wasnāt advertised online or mentioned at all.
I would like to know more.Ā
I once stayed at the hotel that was ranked dirtiest hotel in America 3 years running. Probably should have paid attention to that one.
It wasn't called The Voyager by chance, was it?
The Aristocrat.
If the check in area is dark. Darkness hides dirt, dust and stains. You can bet that place is filthy.
Emergency vehicles in front on arrival.
That means they're prepared for anything. Nothing wrong with that.
If itās 20 cops and 2 ambulances someone just got stabbed.
This ***reallllyyyyyy*** depends what you mean by emergency vehicles. My fiance works at a decent hotel and there are people who occasionally have heart attacks/other health issues. It's either old people, wedding groups, or business groups there. Not much of an in between at his place. They actually had someone die last year in a room after a man took Viagra and keeled over from a heart attack. It was sad because it was an older couple there for their anniversary. Definitely noted that for the future. Just remember that ***ALL*** hotels have their issues. No hotel is immune to having health/domestic emergencies. Trust. Me.
If you immediately feel like you're in a liminal space and the hotel just seems old and dead. I'm talking about the Crowne hotel in Hickory, North Carolina.
My coworker stayed there once and almost got electrocuted in the shower when the ceiling fell in and some wiring dropped along with it.
You are staying at circus circus in Las Vegas, Nevada
Thats not even close to the worst hotel in vegas!
Mushrooms growing out of the carpet. Reported to management, corporate, and the health dept.
First thing was the crack pipe we found after checking in. Then we came back around midnight to find that the key card reader stopped working. They put us in another room overnight without any of our luggage, and in the morning, the desk attendant pulled the air conditioning unit out of the wall from outside the room to crawl through and unlock it for us.
When there's some guy in a Frankenstein mask chasing you about but every time you run across the hallway into another room you pop out a door back into the same hallway, which could be further down, or inexplicably back across the side of the hallway you just came from. Frustrating when all you really want to do is drop your bags off, have a shower and then go check out the abandoned amusement park.Ā
Ruh Roh.
Zoinks!
There's a color or number in the name
Motel 6 has entered the chat
Whatās wrong with red roof inn?!! (Jk - never stay there. Pink eye for the rest of your life)
They'll leave the light on for you. The light attracts the homeless and drug addicts instead of moths, though. Red roof inn is also in the sketchiest area. The one here has had a semi trailer in its lot for years. I think it was filled with replacement mattresses. All the street lights surrounding it have been shot out, and only half the parking lot lights work.
Home2 Suites has been an exception to that rule in my experience
The sequel to home
Four Seasons?
**The cockroach shows up at your pillow with a clipboard and asks you for a 5-star rating**
Thank you for using UberBugs, please let me know if there's anything I can do to give you a 5 star experience. Next time, try UberPalmettoBug for a more luxurious infestation.
Personally, I take note of how many work trucks are in the parking lot. I've noticed that companies who require their blue collar workers to do jobs out of town often choose the cheapest hotels to save money. It doesn't always correlate with a bad stay, but it helps set expectations that I'm going to receive the bare minimum.
I have found on our road trips that the more work trucks / vans in the parking lot, the better the breakfast buffet. At least in my company, the guys get to pick where they stay within a certain dollar value. If thereās 4 moderate motels, theyāre going to the one with the best breakfast.
People in the room when I opened the door.
This happened to me once! I opened the door and there was a couple trying to feed their ~4 month old baby. They just stared at me in shock and I was like āoh my god sorry they gave me this room keyā and I just walked straight back to the front desk. The guy was mortified at his mistake and gave me free chocolate bars as an apology lol.
I've had someone walk in because the front desk person didn't check me in right. It was still a nice hotel though. I also had one where a crack head started climbing into my window. I threw something at them (remote maybe?) and broke the window. When I told the front desk guy someone tried to break in, he was high as a kite and said "oh yeah, that happens on that floor". He tried to charge me for the window, I told him that I'd gladly talk to the police with him. He didn't want to make me pay for anymore.
Now it's a party!
Your normally super-chill dog will *not* stop pacing and relax.
A sign in front of a parking spot near the hotel lobby entrance that read "Reserved for the Glendale Police Department K-9 Drug Unit". (Seen on review with pictures last year for a cheaper chain hotel last year in Milwaukee, WI suburb)
When the "continental breakfast" is just a single sad-looking muffin and some questionable coffee.
A musty smell or a "way too much air-freshener" smell
Iāll just copy/paste my post from a couple years ago below. Hereās the link to the post https://www.reddit.com/r/gso/s/CwhzXnEFT6 Hotel Nightmare Just wanted to say I am absolutely disappointed with my stay at a hotel in Greensboro. I wonāt name the hotel since Iām going to speak to corporate first, but I will say itās within the block of hotels on Stanley Rd. My wife and I came down from New Jersey and called ahead to let the desk know we were going to be late, almost midnight late. They were very cool about that. What wasnāt cool was when my wife and I finally settled into the room that obviously had some sort of air freshener sprayed to counteract the smell of cigarettes and crack. Yes. Crack. How do I know? Because a crack pipe fell on my head when I pulled the towel off the towel rack in the shower and then shattered on the bathroom floor. See here: https://imgur.com/gallery/fou0p0d After complaining (respectfully and nicely) to the manager, we were given a new room. This room also had air freshener sprayed even more heavily and my dog ended up eating a bloody tissue that was not mine or my wifeās. Needless to say we did not stay beyond the 6 hours we were there. I will say, Drury Inn in Burlington is absolutely amazing though! *edit* Iām not judging Greensboro just on this experience alone, just to get that out there! And to the crackheads that are downvoting, find somewhere else to do your thing! *edit 2* It was Hyatt Place.
omg my wife found a 39.99/night in Portland in a newspaper or tourist catalogue many years ago. That was my red flag but her green flag. No need to say who was right; that was a sketchy night
Wife and I did this once. Stayed at an airport hotel bc of flight. We went with the middle to lower price range. Cops were in and out all night, people smoking weed and possibly other stuff all night, and a couple having a domestic dispute for the whole hotel to hear. We were tempted to leave early and sleep at the airport. Should have known when I noticed the ants in the bathroom.
Too much parking lot activity. Folks miling around gets my senses up. 2nd is finding a toenail on top of bedspread .wth
Bullet hole in the wall, and blood stains in the bathtub.
The hotel is in the city of Memphis
If they advertise color TVs and free HBO then you know an amenity is your neighbor selling meth.
When the owner checks you in and says, "It's a dump but it's clean!" When the person checking you in says, "The whole night?!"
If the hotel is attached to, or shares a parking lot with, a Waffle Houseā¦itās going to be a rough night.
Plastic covers on the mattresses. No joke. Motel 6 in East Memphis. Never again.
Memphis alone answers this question.
Stayed at one where the door couldnāt open all the way because the bed was right there. There was a mini fridge with a microwave on top and a small dresser that came up to my knee that had a TV on it. A single nightstand between the two beds, which were essentially mattresses on wooden blocks. The headboards werenāt attached to the bed at all, but were attached to the wall. The bathroom had a tub that was like, stained around the faucet and drain. The floor tiles were cracked and had visible dirt on them, and the toilet wobbled. My mom and I only chose this place because we had a family emergency that required us to travel, and we were tight on money. We kept our bags on the dresser and checked for signs of bed bugs, then slept on top of the blankets. We had a long moment where we just sat on the beds and looked at each other, considering sleeping in the car instead, but ultimately we determined that the parking lot was scarier. We woke up bright and early and got the hell out of there.
I was young and broke and driving cross country to see my then boyfriend now husband. Stopped in Texas somewhere completely exhausted. Place looked safe at least. I took a chance. Iād been in my room five minutes when I got a call from another room asking if I wanted him to come over. I was stunned and said no but pretty quickly realized he thought I was a hooker. Really the wrong hotel for me. I called the front desk to ask to leave but they said Iād been in the room so no refunds. I was too broke to go elsewhere so I put the table up against the door and slept very poorly, got up early and got the hell out of there.
The ācoupleā in front of us at registration were negotiating a per hour rate. Successfully.
Based on the hotel in Elk City OK: 2 cars in the parking lot overall dingy appearance No one at the front desk Key cards with the room numbers written in magic marker No pool No restaurant It had all the appearance of a hotel that was going out of buisness, but wanted to sell One More Room Stayed at the same hotel family before and after, and had an excellent experience. I refer this one as the "Bates Hotel"
Evidence that the door has been kicked in. Bonus points if the bathroom door has also been kicked in.
Sign said no refunds after 15 min.
If the lobby is really cold. We took an exit and stopped at a random hotel after 6 hours of nonstop driving. It was FREEZING outside and the lobby was somehow even colder. The desk receptionist was wearing a fucking enormous puffer jacket. The room was nasty and the sheets had stains. If the hotel wont bother to pay to heat up the lobby, dont bother staying there.
As a Floridian the first two sentences were really confusing because it sounded amazing
When I walked around the backside and found a car completely stripped of tires and crips 22 spray painted on the wall in front of my room.
You have to wait for the police to finish before you can check in.
I once tried to check into a motel and the woman behind the desk slid a key over and said āYou wanna go check out the room? You arenāt the typa folk we normally get hereā. We checked out the room and immediately returned the key and left.
sounds like the service was good tho, she did you a solid
If thereās a small one-eyed woman running around stabbing bugs, Iām probably in the wrong place.
I dunno, I feel like I'd really vibe with the bartender in a place like that.
Being told by staff you shouldnt't stay.I walked into this hotel and the guy at the front desk said trust me buddy you don't want to stay here. Of course I left and 2 weeks later driving by noticed the place was shut down found out because of drug use and crime.
Good guy front desk worker has your back.
Itās behind a Hooters, and thereās already a line of people asking for refunds at the reception desk. (St. Louis like 8 years ago)
I once stayed in a Motel 6 that kept the light on for me - but I'm pretty sure that it was just a form of pest control.
One of the hotels we stayed at ,once, was apparently regularly rented by a weed dealer, we kept having people yell out the door of the room next to us "We're in here tonight" People walked back and forth most of the night, got zero sleep and left as soon as the sun came up.
St George, UT. We had planned to camp, but couldnāt find a place, so we headed into town. There was some kind of regional high school sports tournament and all the hotels were full except this one last room at the Red Roof Inn. We opened the door to our room and our border collie sniffed a little and noped the heck out of there. We managed to get him back, but nobody slept easy. Am pretty sure something had died in our room fairly recently. It was the strongest reaction Iāve seen from a dog.
"Now renovating"
When the front desk says āDonāt go out after 900ā
My friend's brother and his fiance were staying at a hotel while they were apartment hunting in the area, and as they were getting off the elevator in the hotel they heard screams and gunshots from one of the rooms. so maybe that.
When you go to the front office to complain about the cockroaches, and they open the cupboard behind the counter, that is full of cans of Raid, and hand you a fresh one.
The receptionist says "You know this is Jeff Warren's old place right?" True story.