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Hotel Horror Stories

Someone suggested a thread where we could post about a really bad or unusual hotel stay. I thought that would be fun but haven't see a new topic... so I thought I would start one.

I have two:

  1. We were in Copenhagen, searching for a hotel at the end of the day. It was pouring rain, dark, dreary. We found one and climbed three flights of stairs to our room (the rudimentary elevator wasn't working). Long, dark hall.... dimly lit. Our room was old-looking and musty. No bathroom but a common bathroom for all rooms to share down the hall. I don't think there was a lightbulb over 25 watts anywhere. Super creepy; we thought the place was haunted.

  2. We attended a wedding in Bielefeld, Germany, staying at the strange and quirky 'Egyptian Hotel'. My mom took the elevator to what she thought was our floor but instead ended up in the basement. She got out, the doors closed behind her, and she stood in pitch blackness. It seemed like an eternity before the elevator came back down again to get her. That night she hung her lovely outfit (that she was to wear to the wedding) on the shower head to air it and steam it out. The next morning it was sopping wet, as the shower head had leaked. She ended up having to wear black at her nephew's wedding. At the same hotel.... we kept thinking all night that the windows must be open, as we could hear every conversation, every raindrop, every whistle and sneeze. We finally decided the walls must be made of cardboard.

OK.... next......

Posted by
16408 posts

Most hotel managers realize that it's important for tour directors to be given good rooms because they report back to the tour companies on whether or not the passengers liked the hotels. Sometimes, however, we were given the worst rooms...

In Monterey, I was given one room that was still under renovation. The lamp attached to the headboard wasn't tightened and fell on my head in the middle of the night.

In San Francisco and New York, where thee window led to an airshaft.

In Paris, the top floor attic room was bigger than all the others and where every morning I awoke to dozens of ants crawling over my bathroom sink

In Innsbruck, where the step up from the room to the ensuite bathroom was about a foot and a half

In Rapid City, where I opened the door to my room only to find a conference room with a large table and chairs...no bed. I had to walk through the attached bathroom to find the bedroom.

To London, my favorite, the Radisson Vanderbilt....my room was right over the hotel entrance and you could walk out of my window onto the hotel marquee. I had treated myself to a cuban cigar but didn't want to smoke it in my room. So I took a chair and walked out onto the roof of the hotel entrance. It was rush hour and the hotel is situated on Cromwell Rd....a major thoroughfare. There I was sitting on top of the hotel entrance, smoking my cigar. Needless to say, I got a lot of people pointing at me from the cars passing by. It was a good cigar too.

Posted by
9371 posts

Does a B&B story count?

On our first trip to Ireland, we had booked an absolutely beautiful B&B in Killarney, where we were to spend two nights. When we got there, we found that they had given away two of our three rooms (there were seven of us traveling), but it was OK, the woman, said, because she had booked us with friends down the road. Having no other options, we went. In the room my daughter and I shared, the towels were ratty and one had the name of another hotel embroidered on it. The TV didn't work (or maybe just the remote -- couldn't check it out because the TV was high on the wall and there was nothing to stand on to try to turn it on directly). There was a hairdryer, but the only outlet was underneath the nightstand between the beds -- and nowhere near the mirror. You could only get into the narrow shower by sliding sideways. It was so small that it was difficult to even raise your arms to shower without banging into the walls. In the other two rooms, one of them had no hot water. In the other, the shower leaked through the ceiling into the front hall (which we discovered later when heading out to find something to eat). Needless to say, we moved on the next day.

Posted by
811 posts

We were recently at a hotel in Aguas Calientes, Peru, where our room had a used band-aid holding the remote together. That was actually the least distasteful thing about the room, but I'll just leave it at that.

Posted by
79 posts

Well, usually when we travel we throw the barometer out the window of acceptability because if I wanted it to be like home I would stay home...

with that said...

I have 2 that come to mind of HORRIFC HOTELS

1st was in the USA

our flight was cancelled at JFK and American Airlines put us up at the Ramada...

The hotel was revolting..cockroaches, blood stains on our linens. I wouldn't serve the food on the buffet to starving chldren anywhere in the world.

Little did we know of it's dubious distinctions on Trip Advisor...

just for some reading ..here's the link on Trip Advisor..

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g47962-d93640-Reviews-Ramada_Plaza_Hotel_JFK_International_Airport-Jamaica_New_York.html

2nd ..the Hotel Mercurio in Venice...excelletnt location to St. Marks..135 euro a night...now if you can just get over the DEAD MOSQUITOS plaster all over the walls in your hotel room you will be fine.

Posted by
12315 posts

At the Villa Francescetti hostel in Verona, my wife slept without a blanket in the dorm room because another person there took it to create a curtain for their bed. Don't ask me why she didn't take it back.

In Modena, we woke up with a room full of mosquitoes. We killed a huge amount of them before we realized the windows were wide open behind the curtains (no screens).

At Hotel Aldobrandini in Florence we could watch a cloud of smoke creep under our door from the chain-smoking hotel owners.

At the St. Goar hostel, I got up early and headed down the hall to shower. I knew the bathrooms were co-ed but was ill-prepared for a room full of 20 year old girls in towels and no men. I was ready to let the door close in front of me then go find another bathroom but one of the girls said, in German, "No, no, there's still one left." ("Nein. Nein. Es gibts jetzt noch ein mal" or something along that line). I went in and showered with no problems other than a white haired woman who kept peeking through the shower curtain.

Posted by
80 posts

I'm killin' myself here! What a great blog for a good laugh.. thanks everyone, you've got me giddy on what otherwise is a dreary day..

Joanne

Posted by
331 posts

While backpacking with my best friend in France years ago, we decided to take the teeny tiny "lift" up to our 3rd floor room. We both got in with our backpacks on (what were we thinking)and then we got stuck. Apparently one of her straps was wrapped around one of the metal bars on the gate that closed the door, and once we wedged ourselves into the elevator we couldnt even unwrap the strap. We had to wait about half an hour until the little old man who ran the hotel finally figured out why we wouldn't leave the cubicle. We took the stairs from then on.

Posted by
881 posts

Hostel Horror Story - In 1999, I was in Rotterdam and needed a room at the last minute. Being broke, I accepted a hostel for $8/nt, and went in. Turned out it was actually a college FRAT HOUSE.

The beds were on the 5th floor, no lift, they were coated in RUBBER, like a school bus seat (I've hosteled alot, but these were beyond belief). The room was disgustingly dirty - the sink/kitchen had old rotting food, and looked like it had been there since school ended, there was a barking small dog that decided it hated me, and the second floor turned into a full fledged bar/disco tech at night, and lasted well into the morning.

Finally, at around 4AM with the thump, thump, thump of techno still blaring, I walked down to the "bar", opened the door and announced in my best, big full Opera singer voice, "Alright, it's bed time!" They looked at me like deer in the head lights, turned off the radio, and I went to bed. LOL (It helps that I'm a 350lb 6'+ guy).

Finally, the festival got my housing straitened out. I stayed with a very nice women in Delft, who showed me around her home town on our day off, and even visited her again two years later.

Word of advice: avoid cheap hostels in Rotterdam... ;)

Posted by
2297 posts

20 years ago I decided kind of last minute to take a French Language Class at the Sorbonne in Paris over the summer. It was too late to get into any university housing and hostels I contacted wouldn't allow long-term stays. So I ended up in a small hotel in a fantastic location in the Quartier Latin, just a block away from Jardin du Luxembourg. The best thing about the hotel: the price of 50 Franc/night (about $10). And I got what I paid for ... a bed, a sink with running water, one toilet for the entire hotel on the level below mine. But every second day I would just get up at 6.30 am and walk over to the private Lycee Henry V because their swimming pool allowed public access before school classes started. For only $1 I got to swim and - take a shower!!!! My French class was full time so I had to leave the hotel every morning a 8 am anyways, was out the entire day, did my homework in the Jardin de Luxembourg or in the library of the Centre Pompidou. After about 2 weeks I tracked down the hotel management and asked if they could change my bed linens, please. They did so a few days later. And never again till I moved out after 6 weeks.

Posted by
356 posts

1) A hotel where sewage was backing up into the toilet in my room. The hotel manager was adamant that she couldn't smell it (and therefore would not give me a different room) despite the fact that chambermaids were virtually fainting all around her.

2) A hotel in America that looked EXACTLY like the hotel in The Shining inside. I was already feeling unnerved when I opened the wardrobe and discovered that someone had written REDRUM across the inside of the wardrobe door. I screamed and nearly had a heart attack.

Posted by
990 posts

My two: Staying at a place called the Apache Motor Inn in Prescott Arizona in February--no heat on, blankets that had been extensively used by very hirsute people, and a toilet that ran continuously. The best part was hearing the voice in the next room at 2 am, "Hey, let me in! I've called the cops!" By the time the police arrived, several other guests decided to leave without waiting to chat with the cops. (But visiting the Grand Canyon made up for it.)

The second worst hotel experience was in Athens. Filthy, smelly room, which looked like it hadn't been cleaned before I arrived. My suspicions were confirmed when I discovered a used condom under the pillow. Ewww!!!

Posted by
11507 posts

1985- Amsterdam,, dumpy little hotel ,, friend and I fought over who got to wear flip flops in shower first,, there was black fungus at least an inch thick growing in shower. No curtains, just a sloped floor with a shower head sticking out into a corner.

Same trip, Greece, Mykonos,, shared toilet in hall, you were not allowed to flush even toilet paper down toilet, instead you had to put your used tp in a see through wire basket that sat on the floor directing in front of toilet,, so you could see eveyone else used tp.. eeeww.

1990-While hubby, myself, and our 7 month old son were driving down to Lake Tahoe we had to spent a night in the worst dump ever. Potato chips IN the bed,, hairs in sink,, sheets were obviously filthy, floor filthy, bikers staying in other rooms,, , We slept in our clothes, on top of sheets, and left early,, we now never leave finding a hotel till after dinner,, by 3 we start looking!

Posted by
808 posts

Having run a Hotel Front Office earlier in my Career, I've had to deal with numerous complaints from dissatisfied guests. It was my job to make the wrongs right and ensure 100% Guest satisfaction from the moment of Guest Check-in and through out the Guests stay...No easy feat.

I think the worst case was when our Honeymoon Suite on the second from top floor leaked sewage from above and it dripped you know what from the clogged toilet and pipe through the ceiling and all over the Jaccuzzi!

The Bride and Groom returned to their room and found you know what dripping from the ceiling. No one told us that their toilet had an issue so we could not have predicted this had happened until it was too late. It was a nightmare! But they were more than pleased with the compensation they received. I just wish it never happened...Can you imagine?

Posted by
401 posts

Without a doubt the Holiday Inn near the Newark airport, I was there last August. It was so dirty and worst of all, it cost over 100 bucks a night!

Posted by
1358 posts

Now this one wasn't dirty, just a lesson in getting what you pay for. We stayed in a small "theme" hotel in NYC -- each room had a different design theme. The pictures online looked great. We got booked in the "orbit" room. Turned out the extremely tiny room had been just painted black and had glow-in-the-dark stars stuck on it. All that was in the room was a small chair, TV mounted on the wall, and a raised platform that ran the whole width of the room (remember, I said it was tiny) that a mattress was on. Plus, it had a window right over 34th street -- tons of street noise.

At least this stuff makes for great stories afterwards.

Posted by
16 posts

Milford Plaza. Times Square, NYC. Horrid, filthy, run down dump.
On advice from dear friend who stays at this place everytime he visits Big Apple, I booked it.
Never mind the construction site kitty-corner from hotel that fired up jackhammers 7:00 a.m. sharp.
How about the brown stains on bedspread, hole in sheet, black mold in bathroom, peeling wallpaper, mysterious splatters on mirror over bureau, curtains that have never been washed since hung in 1965. And the carpet! I have 2 words for Milford: CREVICE TOOL. It's a wonderful invention attached to vac hose to reach those places the vac can't. Like the inch border around every stationary object in room that hasn't been cleaned in 20 years! Old Cheerio, band-aid wrapper, hair, etc GAG!
We tried to find another room, at any cost, in any hotel to no avail. We were stuck.

Then London. Friends living in suburbs we stayed with advised we stay by Paddington Station for a night in order to catch train early in a.m. for a trip to Cotswolds. Bad idea with no reservations. Wandered streets with luggage. Every place full. One joint, the guy leads us outside hotel to a door set flush to street. Up a dark, smelly hallway. Just real bad vibe. The stained mattresses propped in hall were final straw. Never made it as far as room. Got our $ back and moved on. Must have got last room in London at next place. Not much better but not creepy.

Amsterdam: One of the Tulip hotels. It was fine. Funny thing was reek of pot in room and elevator. Could get contact high! Hubby was perusing the tourist book in room and low and behold...tucked in crack of "Red Light District" chapter was someone's stash that got left behind. We left it for next guests.

Posted by
2349 posts

JER, I'm amazed that the room with the used condom under the pillow was only second worst! You have got some low standards!!

We stayed in a motel in Wawa, Ontario. The bar was on the other side of our wall. Miners on holiday and fishermen stumbled around the hall all night long, and rattled our doorknob trying to get in. Every mobile piece of furniture was piled in front of the door to keep them out. Very scary.

Posted by
368 posts

Not in Europe, but I have a good story...

My grandfather was known to be so cheap he would drive around for hours to save $5 a night on a hotel. His story was "he just wants to stay there, not buy the place". This is now burned into my memory.

By far the WORST place I had to stay at was with him on a drive from Florida to Philadelphia. For some reason we were going through Delaware and stopped in Dover for the night. The place we stopped at was "The Dover Inn".

List of things wrong with the place:

1) Tree growing out of swimming pool.
2) Front desk person was wearing Playboy Bunny earrings.
3) Place had not been painted in years.
4) Hotel room had iron burns in the carpet.
5) Sign in bathroom said "if tap drips, turn off at wall".
6) Random placement of pictures on wall were actually covering fist and foot sized holes in wall.
7) Single bed, dirty sheets, middle of bed fell in on itself.
8) At 2 AM someone stopped by looking for the previous occupant as he was owed money by them (my grandfather OPENED the door).

Needless to say, I think the general customer to this place paid by the hour.

I never let my grandfather forget about that travesty against my youth, EVER.

Posted by
1446 posts

We stayed at a very nice B&B in Rye England. In the middle of the night, all of a sudden a very loud sound began outside our second story window - it sounded as if someone was shoveling gravel. It went on for over an hour. We thought it sounded as if someone was digging a grave (our imaginations). There was no lock on our bedroom door, so we pushed the dresser in front of it. It was not a very restful night. In the morning, the B&B owners said they had not heard anything.

Posted by
515 posts

One summer about 15 years ago, taking the family to Disney World, we stopped at a Knight's Inn about 10 or 11 pm in the Florida panhandle along IH10. Traipsed into the room with our bags, plopped everything down on the dark olive green carpet, began to settle in, just about to spread out a sleeping bag for our youngest, and in less than a minute, almost in unison, we discovered that the entire floor was C.R.A.W.L.I.N.G., completely infested, with tiny black ants! We grabbed up our things, ran outside and tried to make sure we hadn't carried any of the little critters with us. They gave us our money back and we went on down the road. Gratefully, the rest of the vacation was wonderful, but the kids still talk about all those ants.

Posted by
157 posts

Mont St. Michel B&B...

Upon arriving at this MSM B&B the male owner told us he did not have our reservation.

When he checked into it he discovered it was handled by a friend when he and his wife were on vacation in Asia and he was not responsible

He made three phone calls to friends to try and ( help ?) us out, but told us upfront if he could not find us a place we were......... "On Our Own"

Took us a whole 10 minutes to find a Great Place with people who cared.

PS>>>> This place is still in the RS Guide ???

Posted by
5678 posts

I have yet another bug story--eventually...when I was a student in the 70's on one of my breaks I went to Paris in April. By this time I'd been in Europe for over three months and felt fairly seasoned. I'd also traveled semi solo in Greece the month before. But I hadn't counted on Easter in Paris. In my compartment on the train trip from German to Paris, I'd gotten an earful about the scarcity of rooms from a couple of GI's. Another American, a hippy type guy who was probably in his early 20's also didn't have a place. We went off together to see what we could find. We found something, but when the hostess showed us the room it was a single double bed. I got very heartfelt reassurance of no hanky panky, but I spent the entire night stiff as a board not sleeping. I checked out and headed for what was known as the "WORST HOSTEL IN EUROPE" at the time. I got top of a bunk bed, had a rather watery fish soup (not stew) for supper, and woke up find bugs crawling around. I'll never forget the grafitti which compared the hostel to Gary Indiana and Gary was the much better place to be. That was when the steel mills were still going in IN.

I did check out of hotel in Kerrimuir, Scotland when I realized that my room overlooked the beer garden. ; )

Pam