Tell us your hotel horror stories!

[luvflorida]

It is now midnight and everyone is sound asleep in the house, except me. I can't get enough of these hotel stories, they are hilarious!

dvcreg- A clown convention at the hotel- that is a riot! I'm glad I wasn't there- my daughter HATES clowns! She thinks they are the scariest, creepiest critters on earth!

Barry Hom- I'm still laughing about your bathroom adventure!

 

[Kimberlyfamilyfv]

I would not recommend anyone stay at the daysinn lakeside in orlando. We stayed there only because we wanted to get there a day before our package started for universal at another hotel. The embassey suites on International(the best by the way). Checking in the hotel was ok . fast and curtious people. But that was not the problem. One of the pools was full of green slime. And when we got to the room we found roaches in the rooms and the stench of pinesol. When we called up to the front desk to ask if there was anything to be done about the stench . the sent someone down with a can of cocanut spray it was worse than the pinesol. So we cranked up the airconditioning and left the door wide open to air out the room. and the beach what a joke. all i can say is yuk yuk yuk. I hope this puts everyone on notice don't stay at the daysinn lakeside in orlando(off of sandlake ).

 

[nsyncraider17]

I have one from this weekend!
My school band went to chicago this weekend and stayed in a Radisson...it was actually a pretty nice hotel, but we could tell it was old. Our room was nice, the bathroom was a decent size....but the bathtub was squishy!! We all took showers on friday night and our feet literally sunk into the floor of the bathtub...it felt like you were standing on a water bed or something. We decided that water had somehow gotten between the tub and the floor. We were scared that the tub was going to fall through the floor or something, because if water had been there long enough to make the bottom of the tub squishy, then it was probably rotting the floor underneath, too. I never thought that taking a shower could be such a scary experience!

We also couldnt sleep because it sounded like the girls in the room next to ours were jumping on the beds and throwing themselves against the wall or something...but thats what you get when you go on a trip with freshman.

 

[AspiringCindy]

A few years ago we visited Hilton Head with our 2 DD's. The hotel was on fire at 2:00 am. We were awaken by alarms, smoke and sirens. They escorted us out of the building into the pool area and had to remain there until 4:30am in pajamas. Unfortunately, the next day we were scheduled to drive 8 hours. They did give us a small discount; and later in the week, we received a certificate for a free night stay.

 

[lmhall2000]

It was spring break my junior year in college. Four girlfriends and I scrimped and saved to pay for a trip to Great Britain for 10 days (airfare was under $300 and I had $500 to take with me for the 10 days!) We had rented a flat the first week in London and split the cost- highly recommend this- but we wanted to drive to Edinburgh while we were there.
I drove (because no one else could drive a stick) and we didn't want to stop until Edinburgh. We thought Edinburgh would be a big city and have Motel 6 like places that would keep the light on for us. We drove around Edinburgh for almost an hour around midnight before we realized this ain't Atlanta. We noticed the motorways had neat pull off parking spaces and thought- "hey we can just park here and sleep." Remember there were five of us in this little car- so I had to sleep with the steering wheel between my legs. We noticed that it felt like a hurricane was around us- the car rocked all night long. And there was no traffic at all kind of spooky. When we woke up we realized we were parked at the edge of a cliff and they had had some of the worst coastal storm winds to come through that night- we were just so thankful we didn't get blown off! It was horrible cold and wet- and I had to wake up every hour to warm the car up so everyone wouldn't freeze. I love Disney beds!
Tara

 

[stevenpensacola]

This happened in the early 80's, not long after I finished high school. My family has always been big fans of the Miami Dolphins (Shula era) and we always wanted to go to a game, but could not justify the drive from Pensacola to Miami just to see a ball game.

It turned out the Dolphins were to play the Saints in New Orleans, so my mom ordered us some tickets, and made us some hotel reservations in New Orleans with a national hotel chain.

Mistake 1: this was all done over the phone.

Mistake 2: My dad was never a 4 star hotel kind of guy: "I aint payin' that kind of money just to sleep...you won't care what the room looks like when you're sleepin"

So off we go: My mom, dad, sister, and one of my aunt/uncles. We were traveling in one of my other aunt's new volkswagen vanagon, which she let us borrow.

It's dark when we arrive in New Orleans. Our hotel was located off of the first exit you come too when crossing the high rise bridge coming into east NO. Remember when the Griswolds took the wrong turn and wound up lost in the ghetto....this is now us!

We find the hotel, which is pretty much a dump. Exterior doors, bad wallpaper, paper thin carpet....with a big stain between the beds which looked a lot like blood. My uncle went to get up out of the cheesy arm chair he was sitting in when the arm pulled off in his hand.

Mom: "There ain't no way I'm staying here" (the cockroach the size of small mammal which I killed did not help).
Dad: "We're already here...I've got my gun...., we ain't going nowhere.."

Dad wins out, we lock the 3 or 4 locks on the door..and we all manage to sleep except Mom, she hears every car drive by, every car door close, convinced that someone is going to steal the tires off of our borrowed van.

Well we survived the night, nothing was stolen. Upon leaving, we noticed the hotel had a pool. Went over to see it, the water was dark green, with all sorts of drink bottles bobbing on the surface.
But.............

The Dolphins Won!

 

[stevenpensacola]

When in college, I participated in our local Baptist Campus Ministry organization. We went to a BCM retreat to a place called The Blue Horizon on Fort Walton Beach.

The retreat facilities were fairly nice. The place they had the guys sleeping was not.

We had about 7 guys in one room. Room contained two double beds. I'm about 6'4". The guy I had to bunk with was about 6'8".
The bed could not have been more than 5 1/2' Long.

The next morning, one of the guys remarked that his pillow was so flat that you could slip it out from under his head and put it back without him noticing it....

We also had the Air conditioner from heck. It was a window unit.....everytime the compressor kicked on, the vibration would cause the dark paneled walls to buzz.

This is not a motel story, but a camping story. Our family stayed in a campground within walking distance to Six Flags Over Georgia. It was really a pretty nice CG except:

The CG had a PA system throughout the park. One night we're awakened by the drunken pleading of someone over the CG PA system. "Doorrrisss coommmeee baaacckk!" Apparently he and Doris had a spat, and he was looking for her. From the way he sounded, he physically wasn't able to go look for her (he sounded really tanked), so he pleaded for her return for all to here.

Ahh....memories

 

[one_cat]

We went to a conference in Portland, OR once. The whole city was booked solid, when we got to our Hotel - you guessed it - there were only smoking rooms left. Now I hate cigarette smoke like anything. We walked into the room, the smell just about knocked us over. I expected it to smell like smoke but - OMG. I told the front desk that this was not acceptable and they better either have our room cleaned - smell free - or us changed by the time we get back from dinner or else (I'm not sure what the else was going to be at this point since the reservations were pre-paid) They put an ionizer in our room and when we got back it did smell fresh but when we went to bed the sheets/pillow etc still smelled like someones ashtray. The next day I left a note for cleaning - I want new pillows, sheets, bedspread, blanket - everything. The next night you wouldn't know a smoker had been in the room.

We were on our way to Niagara Falls and stopped at the Motel 6 in Madison, WI about 3:00 AM. It had been a hot day and it was still about 75 out. When we opened the door - Oh my it must have been 85 in there. OK turn on the AC. It didn't work. Ok open the window. The window wouldn't open. We had already undressed by that time and were exhausted so we just went to bed - well on bed. The next morning I complained and got some of my money back.

 

[vald1977]

Originally posted by stevenpensacola
The CG had a PA system throughout the park. One night we're awakened by the drunken pleading of someone over the CG PA system. "Doorrrisss coommmeee baaacckk!" Apparently he and Doris had a spat, and he was looking for her. From the way he sounded, he physically wasn't able to go look for her (he sounded really tanked), so he pleaded for her return for all to here.

Ahh....memories

ROTFLMBO!

 

[gepetto]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff
No problems what so ever with our stay until maybe a year later when watching TV we see 20/20 doing a feature on hotels secretly video taping guests. Imagine our surprise when we saw our hotel on TV. :

Yuk!

 

[FreshTressa]

Hmm, The worst for us was at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

I was 5 months pregnant and so hot from the trip from the airport. We go to check in, and it is the BEAUTIFUL atrium filled courtyard/lobby open to the sea. I was so excited.

So, we check into our hotel room, and it is supposed to be ocean front which to us meant opens to the ocean.

Well, it opened to a dirty alley that if you went all the way out on the dirty cracked cement slab outside the sliding glass door, you could maybe see a little ocean. The alley was filled with trash and overgrown weeds. And the room felt strangly hot and damp and was VERY tiny (one double bed). We turned the A/C on and hoped it would cool down

The floor was tile, which I guess was good cuz it somehow seemed cleaner than carpeting. Oh well, we aren't that picky, and we didn't plan to spend that much time in the room anyway.

So, we go and eat dinner at the hotel, swim for a while, go back to our room. Room still hot, and when we go to bed, we realize that the ceiling is so moist that droplets are collection from the humidity. We are to tired to worry about it and go to sleep.

At about 4AM we both wake up with fever, chills, diarrhea and vomitting. We are taking turns in the bathroom and have no water to drink cuz we had planned on buying it in the morning. Anyway, the next day we are too weak to move, the room is like 110 degrees inside, it reeks of sick and we are in a double bed with no TV and sweating all over each other. I'm all pregnant and crabby. I finally leave at about 6pm to go get some water and stuff, cuz I was less sick than my husband. It wasn't the greatest area of town and I am like walking all over the place with strange men and begging children staring at me trying to find bottled water. I finally found a grocery and spent like an hour in there just to cool off!!

We were too young and dumb to know you could call and complain! Anyway, luckily the flu only lasted that one day, but it was a hell of a day!!! The rest of our trip was fun, but they never did have A/C

 

[vhoffman]

My "ultimate" hotel experience happened recently at a La Quinta Inn.

I arrived at 9 pm. The room I was assigned to didn't have any working lights. I used my flashlight to find the phone and call the front desk. They just said so sorry, come to the desk and we'll give you another room key. Well, this took about 45 minutes, because the front desk was in another building and I had to reload all my bags, drive around to the front desk, get the new key, then drive around to my "new" room. Upon entering my room appeared acceptable and I left to get something to eat. By the time I returned, it was about 11 pm. It was then I began to notice the lovely extras in my room--the smoke alarm was pulled off the wall and the batteries removed. All that was left was the base plate. Probably the last guest pulled it apart when it began to sound. This probably explained the strong odor of smoke in a non-smoking room. The clock radio didn't work. It told the time, but the controls to set the alarm and change stations was broken. The light switch plate in the sink area looked like someone had tried to remove it from the wall. There were gouge marks about 1/4 in wide all around it. I was afraid the ground fault would not work and was afraid to plug in my nightlight. The hairdryer didn't work. I was afraid to plug in my own hairdryer. The light over the bed would not turn off independently--I had to turn off the master switch to the room. There went my plans to read while my children slept. The AC would only work on high, which was freezing. One of the beds was right next to the AC, so my 6 year old son slept on the floor, while my daughter slept with me and kicked all night long. The only thing that did work in the room was the wake-up call--it called right on time. Then it kept calling back about every two minutes and wouldn't stop. I couldn't call the front desk because my phone was always ringing.

I thought we could at least end our stay with the nice breakfast they advertised. Well, why should that exceed their standards? No fresh fruit or yogurt to be found, even though that's an advertised item. Terrible, luke-warm coffee and some muffins in little baggies were about all we could find to eat. There was various dry cereals, but they were in large jars you scooped from rather than individual packs. Who knows who else had put their hands in there, sneezed in them, etc. On the way out, my daughter noticed a large quantity of fresh fruit in the sewer drain!

I voiced my complaints to the front desk but was just told "so sorry", no offer of compensation. At that point, I just wanted to get the h--- out of that dump. I emailed their corporate office with my complaints and as compensation I received the gift of my dreams--a coupon for a free night's stay at a La Quinta. I can't wait to use it! Maybe I should try selling it on ebay????I don't know if my conscience would let me--but that doesn't stop La Quinta from selling the dumps. They have a 3-star rating from AAA. It might do some good to complain to AAA, but since I didn't book it using a AAA rate they're probably not interested.

I was thinking of using priceline before this experience, but now I don't think so. If this is considered a 3 star room, imagine what type of dump you could get for 2 or 1 star.

I didn't even think until after we left the hotel, but what if they didn't change the sheets from the last guest? Ugh! There's something to be said for "you get what you pay for"!