Worst hotel experience on I-95

[disdadathome]

I originally asked about good hotels for a stop over in the Florence SC area for our Dec '05 WDW trip. A reply to that got me thinking...

What is the worst hotel experience you have ever had? Tied to that, any hotels you would stay away while driving to Disney.

As for me, my worst experience was probably 15 years ago somewhere in NC off 95. The hotel shall remain nameless. Actually, I'm not sure it even had a name come to think of it.

A friend and I went to watch an equestrian event in NC and had planned to camp out at the event site. It was surprisingly cold for spring in NC, so at the last minute we went in search of a cheap hotel. We found this dive which met our criteria--it cost next to nothing. The first warning sign should have been when the guy at the desk asked if we wanted it for the whole night.

I am sure the room had never been cleaned, I mean ever. There was profanity painted on the lights in the bathroom. The bed was disgusting, and the thoughts of what may be found in it, prompted us to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. The only saving grace was that the heat worked.

After getting over the shock, we went next door to the gas station/mini-mart to get some snacks. We pass this scummy looking dude on our way in to the mini-mart. When we enter the store the kid behind the register looks ill. I ask him if he is alright and he says that the guy who just left robbed him.

Needless to say the next night we camped in the barn at the event site.

 

[The4OfUs]

For us, it was South of the Border. We checked in at like 2pm on a Sunday with our kids, 1 and 3 at the time. The room was disgusting, and we felt terribly unsafe. We found something to eat, played some minigolf, tried to swim but the pool was green and smelled horrible, yet it was PACKED...and finally went to bed at 6pm just because we didn't want to touch anything else, see anything else, and we wanted out as quick as possible. We checked out at 2am. I'll not stop there again - it was a completely different experience than when I stayed there with my parents back in the 70s.

 

[JudithM]

A few years ago we didn't have reservations on our drive down I95 - heck, we rarely make reservations. We usually stop in the Richmond Hills, GA area, but due to military orders all the hotels were full. We kept driving south & finally found a "Best Inn" around Darien, GA. It was the WORST Inn - no heat, no a/c, no hot water. When we left about 7 a.m. the couple parked next to us did not have hot water either. We went back to the front desk & ended up getting our money back. Then we drove back to the other couple & told them - I hope they got their money back, too.

 

[C.Ann]

Emporia, VA - and you don't even want to know!!

 

[stevepete]

Somewhere in NJ (I can't remember where because of the post traumatic stress). We were driving home last year, it was late, I was sick...we just had to stop for the night. For whatever reason, the 3 hotels we had stopped at before were full. Finally we found one with openings. Let me just tell you, the room was dirty and smelly. I actually wanted to sleep in the car with 2 DSs but DH wouldn't let me. Well, at 3:00 AM, I hear a noise and the next thing I know, someone is coming into our room!! I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. The man looked in, said "Oh, ...." and walked out. Then, the phone starts ringing, it's the front desk checking to see who we were. They had no idea we had checked into that room (or checked in at all) and gave our room to somone else We're lucky we're alive!!!!