Worst hotel you've ever stayed in?

Easy. A one star hotel (hostel?) in Amsterdam around 1999. Unlocked the door, the door fell off. The room was derelict pretty much. For some reason all three of us found it really hilarious. Must have been the coffee?
 
My ex and I stayed in a hotel on Parnell Square, Dublin and we didn't have a window, just a sky light, with a blind

The hotel we stayed on our second visit to Prague, the small window had no curtain, blind etc. Plus faced east. Stayed end of June so sunrise woke us up at 5:20am. Managed to wrap a spare towel around window to reduce the light coming in which worked.
 
I go to the Nottingham Goose Fair every year (2007-2019), except the covid years and this year as I've had eye operations.

Anyway, from 2010 to 2016, there was a hotel in a convenient spot called The Stage Hotel which was on the same road as the fairground. It was basic, but a roof over my head for £35ish a night and they served a decent cooked breakfast. This was fine for the first 5 years. Then in 2015/16, it took a weird turn in that the bar / restaurant downstairs got converted into extra bedrooms so it no longer had a bar. The normal (upstairs) rooms started to look run-down as they weren't being maintained. Windows wouldn't open or shut properly and there was damp on the walls. Plus, they stopped serving the breakfasts as that area got converted into bedrooms too.

In 2017, booking.com no longer listed The Stage Hotel as it has turned itself into an asylum centre / halfway house!

So 2017 was onto pastures new, and I now use the Premier Inn which means I have to take the tram to the fairground but at least it's still fairly cheap at £45ish a night and they do a decent breakfast too.
 
I've stayed in quite a few cheap London hotels, when I worked in the City and had an after work social, going to football etc I'd just look for cheap rooms that didn't have terrible ratings.

One got temporarily closed due to the Receptionist allegedly being a murderer (Pembury hotel in Finsbury Park). I remember staying there when they'd cordoned off a massive stretch of the street.

One near Paddington after a work Xmas party I got propositioned by a lady of the night literally yards from the entrance. The whole decor was a bit sleazy tbh.

In terms of quality relative to reputation/price, the worst was probably Reubens at the Palace, which is a 5* hotel overlooking Buckingham Palace. I actually had to contact reception to change our room it was that bad (it's extremely rare I complain), some really loud AC vent just outside the Window, bed wasn't comfortable and the TV didn't work. Decor was very dated, which I appreciate might be part of their style, but like the furniture was just old and tired, might have looked flash in the 80s or 90s but no more. Couldn't believe how poor it was for a 5* hotel and was top20 in London on TripAdvisor at the time (now 53rd of over 1200). You certainly don't get what you pay for there.

Some hotel in the docklands area that was like a converted boat, checked in and found used tissues on the shelf in the room, discarded train ticket etc. I didn't investigate too closely what the tissues had been used for but just went back to Reception to report it.


Rotty said:
any Travelodge
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I've stayed in quite a few Travelodges, I find them quite varied. For example there were at least 3 within walking distance of my old office in London, one was newly built (saw it going up) and pretty decent, clean, modern, AC etc. Then there was one of the others nearby, either Liverpool St or Tower Hill that was very run down and didn't even have AC, in the summer that had some silly desk fan trying to cool it. Premier Inn have a much more consistent standard but I find with Travelodge you need to research them a bit.
 
HangTime said:
In terms of quality relative to reputation/price, the worst was probably Reubens at the Palace, which is a 5* hotel overlooking Buckingham Palace. I actually had to contact reception to change our room it was that bad (it's extremely rare I complain), some really loud AC vent just outside the Window, bed wasn't comfortable and the TV didn't work. Decor was very dated, which I appreciate might be part of their style, but like the furniture was just old and tired, might have looked flash in the 80s or 90s but no more. Couldn't believe how poor it was for a 5* hotel and was top20 in London on TripAdvisor at the time (now 53rd of over 1200). You certainly don't get what you pay for there.
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Not totally unusual today but something I noticed a lot in the 90s - quite often with 5 star hotels the decor was dated, everything a bit tired, but usually would get a high level of service. Though interestingly looking the ones up I remember most are 4 star now.
 
Travelodge are fine if the hotel is new (less than 6-7 years old) or had extensive refurbishment.

If if staying at an old TL - the difference is staggering
 
Hilton in Lincoln was pretty dire.

Half the bulbs were gone so it was super dark in the room. Nothing opening the curtains wouldn't solve, oh wait it's all bricked up. Funny though because the window sill was still protruding from the wall and the notices of how to open it were still there :D

Oh well, lets check out the comfy bed, boom I nearly shatter my spine jumping on to discover that there's no mattress, just one of those thin bed mats over a solid frame. We started packing our stuff back up and realised that it was horrendously warm as well, with no air con or way to cool things down.

We went to reception to complain and apparently there were no other rooms available other than the super expensive ones, but they did offer us a free........cookie each :D

The whole thing was weird, one of those situations where the staff are just smiling robots and have no concept of the problems you are raising. We left and found a little place that was decent enough, took us ages to get a refund though.
 
A ‘luxury’ spa hotel in London that was full on arrival, we get put into an apartment with a loo that barely worked, a door that locked us out and a breakfast we had to get from a nearby coffee shop. The start of my hate for London.
 
Reminds me, I was in Milan once and was observing all of the horse riding photos. I then browsed the menu for ages, and almost everything was prefixed "cavallo". It was only afterwards I realised it was basically a snuff restaruant for horse meat lovers.

It is high in iron though apparently, and folk in Sicily traditionally had iron deficiencies for whatever reason.
 
dLockers said:
Reminds me, I was in Milan once and was observing all of the horse riding photos. I then browsed the menu for ages, and almost everything was prefixed "cavallo". It was only afterwards I realised it was basically a snuff restaruant for horse meat lovers.

It is high in iron though apparently, and folk in Sicily traditionally had iron deficiencies for whatever reason.
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At least you knew what you may have been eating..
 
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