WORST motels

[AMonger]

Ever stop at a motel that made you go, "Are you kidding? How are you still in business?"

I have a couple in mind. One, the Motel 6 in Terre Haute, IN. Spent a month there one week while the transmission was being rebuilt. Bugs...general filth...the steep decline in my instinct of self-preservation.

Then there's the Knight's Inn in Indianapolis by the McDonald's next to the Hook. The big bow in the bed...the smell...the filth...the jackball of a manager.

The placard on the back of the door said checkout was noon. My truck was in the shop again, so I wasn't going anywhere soon, but I was going to check out that day anyway because the place was filthy, so I was going to have a shower before leaving. Shortly before eleven, the manager calls me and says it's time to either come down and pay for another day or check out.

"Uh, checkout is noon, so I have some more time, right?"

"No, checkout is eleven."

I told him the sign on the door says checkout's noon. He got in my face--well, if it hadn't been over the phone, he'd have been in my face--and told me there's a sign in the lobby that says it's 11:00. I hadn't raised my voice to this guy at all, and he's being a complete jackball. I asked him if he wouldn't mind if I took a shower first, maybe be down there about a quarter after. Nothing doing. Checkout's 11:00, not 11:01, he tells me.

"Being that the sign on the door says noon, how about a little slack here, pal? Other places are pretty flexible."

He informed me that he had been in the motel business for 29 years, and had never heard of anyone getting an extra 15 minutes. I didn't say it, but I thought, "Yeah, well, this is a half-step up from a no-tell motel, so maybe you're not the best judge of what the rest of the industry does."

He wouldn't budge, and I was a little ****ed, so I hung up on him and started to get my things together. About two seconds later, the phone rang again. "DON'T YOU EVER HANG UP ON ME!" he roared. I slammed the phone down again immediately. I packed up my stuff, including my little dog, who was just a pup then and was in a little carrier, and trudged to the lobby. I had an overnight bag, a laptop bag, and my pup in her carrier. I was a little weighted down. Because of my load, I was going to have their shuttle driver take me over to Stoops, but now I was ****ed and didn't want anything more to do with him. I leaned halfway into the lobby and flung the keycard at him. It hit him in the chest. I suppose, technically, that he could have charged me with assault. Instead, he yelled, "You know, (profanity), you're a real (profanity)."

Haven't stayed at a Knight's Inn since.

Anybody else have motel horror stories?

 

[Scuba]

I stayed at an American Inn in Bryant AR and woke up in the middle of the night and the room was full of crickets all over the walls ceiling in the bed etc i was pizzed to say the least. I called down to the desk and the guy says well it happens sometimes because of the spotlight out side of the rooms door. I took my complaint to corp and i was refunded my money,,, oh he came to the room and sprayed bug killer which gave me one heck of a headache but there weren't any other rooms so i was screwed. I was on my motorcycle and i didn't have the truck or i would have gone to the truck.

 

[layoutshooter]

We were forced to stay at that SAME Knights Inn while our truck was at Snoops. You were kind with your description. It is a DISGUSTING place. There were viruses over 5' tall waking around the place!!

 

[moose]

Jason ,you have to stop with this line of thradings .
in recent months i stopped eating buffet ,same goes to fast food .no more public restrooms ,no more walking on the parking lots or grass .trucks stops not even shown on the gps , and the list go on and on ...
now i won't be staying in hotels ...

YOU MAKING A BUBBLE BOY OUT OF ME !!!

 

[Freightdawg]

My wife and I checked into a Holiday Inn in Memphis several years ago. As we entered the room, we noticed clothes on the bed and ths shower running. We eased out and got another room. Opening a door to an already occupied room has happened about 3 times in the last few years. I always do the chain or security lock as soon as I check in.
I have had a few problems over the years, but most have been resolved quickly. I have never had anything as bad as you have had, thankfully!
In Laredo once, I checked in at 0550. At 1100 I was awaken and told I would have to check out or pay another day. They did give me time to shower and pack though!

 

[Freightdawg]

My forced check out in Laredo was at the Holiday Inn. I moved down to the Family Garden. We quit using the Family Garden, but I really liked it. Great Happy hour with nachos hot dogs and beer! Life doesn't get much better than that! Any one stay there?

 

[bryanvolsfan]

The WORST Ive stayed in was a Days Inn in Augusta, GA. When I walked in the lobby, I waited on the clerk for 15 minutes while he used the restroom, he yelled from the restroom to tell me to "hang on he'd be back in a minute." He finally came out and gave me a room. When I walked in, there was a HUGE ****roach walking up the wall, I turned on the heat unit because the room temprature was around 55. I took a shower in a tub that probably had never been cleaned, when I got out my room was full of smoke and the smoke alarm was going off. I called the clerk at the front desk and he said "It's just blowing off dust", I looked down into the unit and you could literally see fire inside, so I turned it off and unpluged the unit. I called back and asked to be moved. I had been driving all night and I checked in at 5am, I finally went to sleep at 8am due to the "fire" in a new room. At 1pm the fire cheif knocked on my door to question me about the incident earlier that morning. I started a fire that burned up the entire unit as well as parts of the curtain and wall. Every room was filthy, I slept in my blue jeans, jacket, shoes and hat. Looking back now, it was really funny but at the time NOT SO MUCH!

The STAR Motel in Bloomington, IN is really nasty, I got ready to shower and there was a bar of soap with pubic hair on it, needless to say I asked for my 28.00 back and went somewhere else! Again looking back it is funny but wasnt at the time.

 

[Turtle]

I worked for Olan Mills for 10 years in the Church Division, and of course stayed in a motel room 5 and 6 nights a week for that. But the Church Division is a part of the Mobile Division (as opposed to the Studio Division and School Division), and part of the Mobile Division was working the Club Plans out of motel rooms in small towns, where every three months or so, at least, we'd be back in these small towns to take picture of rapidly growing kids. We'd take the beds down in one room and turn it into a photography studio, and then used one room as a waiting room and another room to show pictures in. Some of the places we worked at made the Knights Inn in Indy look like the Radisson.

There's a place in Sparta, TN where there are 13 channels on the TV, 10 of them being hard core porn. Just what you want in the waiting room with a 4-year old controlling the remote. Was given a card key at the front desk of a Days Inn in Jackson, TN and when I opened the door to the room I found that the room was already occupied, apparently by freelance bed-springs testers, because they sure were giving them a thorough testing. I've pulled back sheets to discover that the previous tenants didn't know the difference between white sheets and white porcelain. We've moved beds out of the way to find everything from used needles and condoms to money rolls (that was kewl, the money roll part, not the other stuff). In Lexington, TN I once woke in the middle of the night to some noises, reached over and turned on the light to find a raccoon on top of the TV. How he got in I have no idea, but I opened the door and he casually exited the room like it was a normal occurrence for him.

While I was doing that job I had a perpetual runny nose and every three months would come down with a fever and some kind of bacterial infection and would be on antibiotics more than I wasn't. Some of it was due to being around snot-nosed kids all day long, I'm sure, but since I've quit that job I've only had flu-like symptoms twice, both times very shorty after staying in a motel while waiting for the van to be fixed.

There is no way I'd ever get a motel room in lieu of sleeping in the van unless sleeping in the van was not an option.

 

[moose]

I've only had flu-like symptoms twice, both times very shorty after staying in a motel while waiting for the van to be fixed. .

It call sympathy pain ...

and have nothing to do with the motel ,
you grow sick every time the van is in the shop.

 

[BigRed32771]

Long ago, 1989 it was. Red Carpet Inn in Macon GA (it's no longer there, not surprisingly). Well before I traveled professionally.

After driving 13 hours from KCMO, we stopped for the night. Beautiful lobby complete with huge chandelier. Unrecognizable (at the time) accent on the desk clerk. Checked into a room, we schlepped our stuff up, opened the door to discover that it had not been cleaned. Back to the desk, got another room. Schlepped up, room looked nice and neat, but when I went into the bathroom I discovered that someone had taken a huge dump in the toilet and not flushed it, nor had housekeeping taken the initiative. Back to the desk, this time left the family while I checked out the room. Seemed to pass muster, so we moved in. When the lights got turned out, there was a bright glow coming under the a/c unit where it came through the wall. Big gap under the unit allowed the spotlights in the parking lot to illuminate the room. Turned over and went to sleep. When I stepped out of the bed in the morning the carpet was squishy wet about a third of the way across the room. The a/c was tilted the wrong way, so condensation ran into the room instead of out the drain to the outside.

I politely wave with at least one finger whenever I pass Red Carpet Inns ever since.

 

[Dakota]

I stayed in a Motel 6 up near Gary, not sure exacly where. The room was decent and had laminate floor instead of carpet. I wish all the lower level motels would go this route. It is much more sanitary. The was the only motel where I have seen laminate used.

Oh and don't stay at the motel 6 in fort wayne

I been pretty happy with Super 8's and Red Roof Inns
Motel 6's can be a crap shoot, get the catalog and stay at the newly remodeled ones

 

[usaf6186]

When I was in field service a job ran late in NJ and I didn't feel like driving home to MD. I went into a motel on US 9. I asked the clerk for a room. He asked for how long. I replied for the night. He replied. The whole night? I said yes. He said he had never rented a room for the whole night and had to call his boss to get the rate. Real high class place. Other hints you are in a real "high class" place. You pay through a window and not at a desk. All the lamps, clock, if it has one, and the TV remote are attached to the tables. There is an inventory of the room contents on the wall. Jerry Lee

 

[Pilgrim]

Moral of the story is, don't stay in CHEAP motels. You can usually tell what's up the minute you walk in the lobby.
I've had some bad experiences like the ones previously mentioned in Motel 6, Knight's Inn, Days Inn. The first two I'll never stay in again - they're always nasty; some Day Inns have been remodeled and are OK. Best deal is to go through Priceline. Also have had good luck with EconoLodge - most of them have been remodeled and upgraded, and they have a points program to get free nights at any of the Choice Hotels group. There are also some Red Roofs that have been remodeled and are OK also, like the one in Nashville near the Airport - only problem with RR is that some of them don't have free wireless internet.

 

[nightcreacher]

this was far from the worst,maybe shouldn't bring them up,buut last friday night was in Motel 6 in Lewisville Tx.Sat morning when leaving,noticed a roach also walking out the door.While checking out,mentioned this to the manager,of which he appologised and gave me a voucher for a free stay at any Motel 6 between now and end of year.
Proabably the worst Motel I've been in is the Super8 in Perrysburg Oh