Worst hotel you've ever stayed in?
- Thread starter Baldbloke
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Soldato
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The one in the town entre opposite Tescos?
Stayed their in June for one night as it was the nearest sensibly priced hotel to my Mum’s.
Rocked up at 10:30 PM at the night receptionist couldn’t have been more helpful. It was all looking a little battered, but the room was spotlessly clean and odour free. The breakfast bar was equally spotless and the lady running the show dished up a full English far beyond my expectations and the equal of the Standstead Radisson Blu which was double the price.
Soldato
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I'm just on my way to a Jury's Inn in Glasgow, wish me luck
When I visited New Delhi we stayed at a hotel where the national hockey team were playing. Firstly this was unnerving as on every hallway there were police/soldiers with AK47s, then we managed to break a lift so had to pull open the doors and clamber out.
Cheating a bit, but probably two in Cuba when we were travelling around the country. Clearly as part of the 'tour' we were forced to stay in a combination of state run hotels (awful) and some private enterprises (lovely). The best was a private room in an old couple's house. They were so lovely, not a word of English but made great eggs every morning and coffee so strong it was like syrup 
This was not too bad, it was a hotel we stayed in after a 4-5hr drive up to the Sierra Mountains where we had a ludicrously early start the next morning to trek through the mountains up to Fidel Castro's hideout. (Which was awesome!). The first pic makes it look ok as they were little chalets. But when we turned up in the evening, bearing in mind we were a good few hours drive from anywhere like even a town (there's not many restaurants in rural Cuba either even if we'd gone to a town..), they were supposed to feed us but had sent all the staff home. So we hung around your cliche of an empty dilapidated pool covered in leaves/dirt, with only half a bar, no staff, until they managed to get 'someone' back to cook what was actually a god-awful meal of stringy beef strips and rice. And remind them they were feeding us breakfast at 6am the next morning
Outside not so bad, quite relaxing actually, annoyed I didn't get a pic of the pool area because that was comedy;
Each chalet had two of these tiny bedrooms (that is the whole room pictured) with a shared bathroom. The A/C worked, but was too noisy above your head to leave on. Our neighbour's next door A/C unit fell off the wall in the night
But that one was quite fun because of the adventure. Below is one of the state-run hotels we had to stay in. Fortunately we turned up late, slept, and left. The door to the room didn't shut properly and had slats you could see through, a window pane was missing (next to the A/C unit), the shower had no head and dribbled brown water, and you could hear everything going on next door either in the bathroom or bedroom. To top it off, when we were leaving they held us all in reception for about an hour because they wanted to check we hadn't stolen anything. Like the towels, which were barely bigger than a flannel
Oh, that was the only light in the room that worked too (I think including the bathroom). But they left us a nice plastic flask to use (shown in pic)
This was not too bad, it was a hotel we stayed in after a 4-5hr drive up to the Sierra Mountains where we had a ludicrously early start the next morning to trek through the mountains up to Fidel Castro's hideout. (Which was awesome!). The first pic makes it look ok as they were little chalets. But when we turned up in the evening, bearing in mind we were a good few hours drive from anywhere like even a town (there's not many restaurants in rural Cuba either even if we'd gone to a town..), they were supposed to feed us but had sent all the staff home. So we hung around your cliche of an empty dilapidated pool covered in leaves/dirt, with only half a bar, no staff, until they managed to get 'someone' back to cook what was actually a god-awful meal of stringy beef strips and rice. And remind them they were feeding us breakfast at 6am the next morning
Outside not so bad, quite relaxing actually, annoyed I didn't get a pic of the pool area because that was comedy;
Each chalet had two of these tiny bedrooms (that is the whole room pictured) with a shared bathroom. The A/C worked, but was too noisy above your head to leave on. Our neighbour's next door A/C unit fell off the wall in the night
But that one was quite fun because of the adventure. Below is one of the state-run hotels we had to stay in. Fortunately we turned up late, slept, and left. The door to the room didn't shut properly and had slats you could see through, a window pane was missing (next to the A/C unit), the shower had no head and dribbled brown water, and you could hear everything going on next door either in the bathroom or bedroom. To top it off, when we were leaving they held us all in reception for about an hour because they wanted to check we hadn't stolen anything. Like the towels, which were barely bigger than a flannel
Oh, that was the only light in the room that worked too (I think including the bathroom). But they left us a nice plastic flask to use (shown in pic)
More of a surreal experience than a bad one, but a few years ago we had a weekend at Spa in Belgium. Wife booked a small hotel that had been recommended by a friend who had been many times. When we arrived it was a nice big old style house up in the forest with not much else around. We walked into reception and there was no-one around so we waited for a bit and eventually it became more and more obvious that there was no-one there at all, we must have spent an hour waiting around, the bar/restaurant was all completely accessible to us. Eventually one of us noticed a sign on the door that they were actually closed for the off-season which was somewhat concerning as it was getting fairly late, we were tired and hungry and we were now getting a bit nervous about where we were going stay. Eventually the wife rechecked the booking information and it turned out there were two hotels in the area with the same name and we’d rocked up at the wrong one! Still to this day got no idea why it had been left unlocked.
Work trip with female colleague to Maidenhead, where choice was seriously limited by ridiculously low budget. 'Hotel' was just a big house with a reception desk jammed in the front hallway. Both rooms were normal home bedrooms with showers bodged in the corner in unfinished wood frames. Colleagues room door didn't have a lock. We both 'noped' out, rang boss and demanded they stump up for a proper hotel, which to be fair they did.
There was this hotel in Robodofo, Indonesia. There was a bullet hole in the wall. As for disgusting, there was a hotel in America. It may have been the Royal Garden Inn in Salt Lake City but I'm not sure. It was minging. A quick Google tells me it is permanently closed. If it is the hotel, I'm not surprised. Cleanliness was an afterthought. The bathroom impediments were way past needing replacement with rust stains everywhere. And then there was the smell. The less hardy of the party booked themselves into the much nicer hotel across the street.
Giggidy
(How much were you hoping the 'budget' might mean sharing a room?)
Soldato
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I went on a coach tour holiday in USA. Stayed in Holiday Inn Express in New Orleans. A couple on the holiday, went to their room, opened the curtains to find their view was……
The area with vending machines and ice machine!
Merchants Hotel in Manchester. It was pretty grim, cheap though.
Soldato
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All hotels in Corfu and other Greek islands do this.
Hotel in Costa Brava when me and missus were young and skint!
www.holidaytruths.co.uk
Lovely reception area - all marble etc - very nice.
Up to the room - view out the balcony was the bins at the back of the hotel, the extractor fan was broken / no fan in it and simple was just a hole in the wall into the bathroom next door, you could see the person having a shower.
Got moved to another room - family next to us - every night, they would put the kids on the balcony, and go at it like rabbits in the room, screaming and shouting and rattling the headboard, whilst the kids sat on the balcony. Felt so sorry for them.
Food was dreadful. One day someone ended up floating in the pool after drinking too much and collapsing. Lifeguard on duty just used a pole and dragged him to the side of the pool and pulled him out and shouted for his family to collect him.
Basically reception was simply just a line all day every day of people complaining - wanting to move hotels etc.
Was like something from Spanish faulty towers....
Osiris Hotel Holiday Reviews, Calella, Costa Brava, Spain
Osiris Hotel Reviews. 59 independent, unbiased reviews of Osiris Hotel in Calella, Spain
Lovely reception area - all marble etc - very nice.
Up to the room - view out the balcony was the bins at the back of the hotel, the extractor fan was broken / no fan in it and simple was just a hole in the wall into the bathroom next door, you could see the person having a shower.
Got moved to another room - family next to us - every night, they would put the kids on the balcony, and go at it like rabbits in the room, screaming and shouting and rattling the headboard, whilst the kids sat on the balcony. Felt so sorry for them.
Food was dreadful. One day someone ended up floating in the pool after drinking too much and collapsing. Lifeguard on duty just used a pole and dragged him to the side of the pool and pulled him out and shouted for his family to collect him.
Basically reception was simply just a line all day every day of people complaining - wanting to move hotels etc.
Was like something from Spanish faulty towers....
In Manchester, though technically we didn't stay there, we left immediately and found something else.
When we pulled up outside of the place I turned to my gf and asked "Did you check the reviews?"
Upon looking, they were far worse than I expected with comments such as "Our room had blood on the blinds and what looked like a bullet hole in the wall"
Thinking it must be hyperbole and it wouldn't be that bad, I decided we'd still go and check in (it was a very busy w/e in Manchester where everything was either sold out or £3-400 a night, hence we thought we were lucky finding this place at ~£100) . Well, standing outside the shabby litter filled locked peeling paint front door that no one answered didn't inspire confidence but thankfully a local crack addict who was staying there turned up and we were able to get in.
The lad on the front desk (feet up on his phone) obviously hadnt heard our ringing the bell but enthusiastically booked us in saying our room was ready. Upon enquiring about where the advertised car park was, I was pointed to a piece of grass opposite, in a triangular layby between the two major roads outside the "hotel" "That's where everyone parks".
As we went to the room (now just for the lols) the smell in the corridor just hit you, that clinging musty smell that just closed your throat up when you tried to breathe. It didn't improve when we entered our room, by now our eyes were starting to sting too, and yes, the walls, skirting and windows did have numerous unknown stains of various description. And when pulling the sheet back on the bed and finding numerous hairs that looked suspiciously like pubes we just left...all in all we stayed about 5 mins
When we pulled up outside of the place I turned to my gf and asked "Did you check the reviews?"
Upon looking, they were far worse than I expected with comments such as "Our room had blood on the blinds and what looked like a bullet hole in the wall"
Thinking it must be hyperbole and it wouldn't be that bad, I decided we'd still go and check in (it was a very busy w/e in Manchester where everything was either sold out or £3-400 a night, hence we thought we were lucky finding this place at ~£100) . Well, standing outside the shabby litter filled locked peeling paint front door that no one answered didn't inspire confidence but thankfully a local crack addict who was staying there turned up and we were able to get in.
The lad on the front desk (feet up on his phone) obviously hadnt heard our ringing the bell but enthusiastically booked us in saying our room was ready. Upon enquiring about where the advertised car park was, I was pointed to a piece of grass opposite, in a triangular layby between the two major roads outside the "hotel" "That's where everyone parks".
As we went to the room (now just for the lols) the smell in the corridor just hit you, that clinging musty smell that just closed your throat up when you tried to breathe. It didn't improve when we entered our room, by now our eyes were starting to sting too, and yes, the walls, skirting and windows did have numerous unknown stains of various description. And when pulling the sheet back on the bed and finding numerous hairs that looked suspiciously like pubes we just left...all in all we stayed about 5 mins
Backpacking across South America 20 years ago, most of the places we stayed in were cheap but bloody awful, about as bad as the worst stories on here.
However, two stand out. Hostel in Beunos Aries next door to a porn cinema - our room had 24x7 soundtrack from the films but was super cheap so we stayed there anyway.
The second was one in Bolivia where commonly the electric shower was a heating element on the shower head itself. This particular one clearly had a fault as I got a shock as soon as I turned it on.
However, two stand out. Hostel in Beunos Aries next door to a porn cinema - our room had 24x7 soundtrack from the films but was super cheap so we stayed there anyway.
The second was one in Bolivia where commonly the electric shower was a heating element on the shower head itself. This particular one clearly had a fault as I got a shock as soon as I turned it on.
I think it's literally called Cathedral Quarter. Used to be the old magistrates.
Soldato
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Ah right.. You are correct. That said i only went into town for the first time in about 15 years on Monday to sort something out at the bank.
Soldato
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Thats all I go to town for too. Can't stand the city centre, full of scum. Makes me nervous walking up St Peter street. I think I did take my 7 year lad old last year to town for some reason, but I felt sorry for him as he won't grow up experiencing going to town on a Saturday to buy a CD or DVD, hanging with mates, having a Mac Ds. It's nothing like what it used to be.
You must be going out on the wrong nights? Whenever I have been there it has been nothing but pleasant - even at the slightly ropier venues (Seymours, lol). The whiskey bar is amazing. The tapas placed has became a tad overpriced but still epic.
Brentwood in Rotherham.
Only redeeming feature was that it was a free night (raffle prize, work's xmas do)
Made them change my room as I was given a ground floor room with a window that didn't lock shut & a 'double' bed that was 2 singles with a double sheet holding em together.
Key had a 2ft length of 1x4" with the room number on it. Breakfast, well it's tasted better if I ate the packaging it come in.
Only redeeming feature was that it was a free night (raffle prize, work's xmas do)
Made them change my room as I was given a ground floor room with a window that didn't lock shut & a 'double' bed that was 2 singles with a double sheet holding em together.
Key had a 2ft length of 1x4" with the room number on it. Breakfast, well it's tasted better if I ate the packaging it come in.
A cheap highrise hotel in wakefield, to meet a married friend .Early morning and I was treating her to cakes and pies all of a sudden maintenance fella looked like a hells Angel charges in and says I've come to bleed the radiator. Funny afterwards but at the time I was fuming.