What's the worst hotel you've ever seen? And why is it the worst?

[Archae]

My family and I went to see this place about 35 - some years ago.

It was called "The Gobbler," (honest!) and finally it was used for practice burning by the local fire department, and the rest torn down.

But it looks like it was designed by a rare team-up of Austin Powers and Dr Evil.

http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/index.html

If you're wondering, "Is that blue shag carpet?"
Yes it is.



On edit:

Here's how it looked after being burned and torn down in the early 2000's.

http://gobblermotel.blogspot.com/2003_10_01_archive.html

[hunter]

1. Some horrible place in Las Vegas...

A friend and I had been living out in the desert for a week with enough water to drink, but not enough to wash with. We were caked in dirt and dried sweat. As clueless young biologists-in-training maybe we thought the grime made us look sexy. To most everyone else we probably looked like dirty homeless people. The fact we were paying cash didn't improve our odds of getting a room.

Circus-Circus at the time was promising they could find a room in Las Vegas for anyone, at anytime, and they did too, a run down place used by the local prostitutes. The air conditioners in some units were broken, or maybe they left the windows open so their pimps could listen for any trouble, but the entire night was a cacophony of overly dramatic fake orgasms, doors opening and shutting, and occasionally people yelling at one another in the parking lot. The single pane window and thin walls didn't hold anything back.

My friend had never been to Las Vegas, which is why we were there, and I'll bet he never went back.

[Locut0s]

34. Eww. I'd have difficulty getting into the beds at a place like that...

Even if they looked clean. I'd be imagining what they'd look like if you look a black light to them.

[olddots]

2. A place called the Maddona Inn

Somewhere in californy -they have theme rooms they built in the early sixties like the room you posted only worse so it's famous .

I feel sorry for people who have never stayed in a wacky hotel or motel .

[hunter]

3. The Maddona Inn is awesome...

Many unique rooms...



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_Inn

http://www.madonnainn.com

Check out the Caveman room:

http://www.madonnainn.com/rooms/137.php

[pinboy3niner]

5. I had my wedding anniversary there, lol!

They were booked up, so we ended up in a Western-themed room. My wife covered the cow's head on the wall with her négligée, and we took the cowhide bedspread off the bed...

[NV Whino]

6. The Madonna Inn is just off Hwy 101 in San Luis Obispo

I've never stayed there, it i have eaten lunch there. It was built with the riches from inventing asphalt, or macadam.

[nolabear]

15. Wonder how many Immaculate Conceptions happened there.

Or is "We're Immaculate!" their motto?

[LadyHawkAZ]

8. Our 8th grade class banquet was held there

Bland food. And the school officials wouldn't let us go see the famous waterfall.

23 years living in the area and that was the only time I have ever been to Madonna Inn.

[Arugula Latte]

36. I stayed there as a kid in the mid-70s. It was awesome.

I think we were in the "Spring" room, though, with a floral theme. I was hoping for the "Cave" room.

[kwassa]

40. The Madonna Inn mens room has this waterfall urinal that is just amazing.

it flushes based on light beams, and this waterfall comes down the face of the rocks to complete this action. We made a pit stop there late at night, and the urinal was so impressive I dragged my girlfriend into the men's room to witness it, as there was no one else around.



and here is another lady in the mens room witnessing the phenomenon.

[lost-in-nj]

4. It was a motel hell in Rochester NY

My ex had to go to Kodak for a meeting so I went with him.
we check in ($25 a night-cash) but when we get to the room there were holes in the walls and things in the bathroom. we couldn't leave because it was snowing like a SOB. So we slept on top of the covers with our coats on.... next day he goes to his meeting and I was watching TV when the door opens and there are 2 men standing there. They said they didn't know the room was rented and they would only be a minute. They had to change the lock because the last person left with the key. yuck I told the ex, never again... we will find chain hotels/motels


lost

[LadyHawkAZ]

7. One of the places I stayed in Vegas...

I can't even remember the name of the place now- too many years of referring to it as the Roach Motel. It was on Paradise across from the Hard Rock. The place was filthy. The carpets were dirty and, in some rooms, moldy as well. It smelled. The beds sank (not sagged, sank) in the middle and the porcelain in the bathroom was stained in all the spots that weren't broken. And there were roaches. Lots of roaches. This was where my then- 15 month old son learned to say the word "bug".

The place was condemned and torn down in 98 or 99, and good riddance to it.

[KurtNYC]

20. my friend rented a room in one of the original hotel/casinos

Went to the room and there was blood all over the bed and floor. He went to pick up the phone to call the desk but stopped when he saw that the receiver had apparently been used to in whatever bludgeoning took place there. He called on his cell and they nonchalantly directed him to another room.

One of my candidates for worst hotel is the old Bob Stupak's Vegas World. It was done in the early 1970s in a space theme but on the cheap. Kitchy as heck. Like a cheap miniature golf course that grew into a hotel. It was redone as the Stratosphere and then, after Stupak's passing, with a Star Trek theme.

In 1973, Stupak opened the Million Dollar Historic Gambling Museum & Casino, which burned down under mysterious circumstances. Rising from those ashes, Stupak built Vegas World in 1974, an outer space-themed casino with a display of cash Stupak had won in some of his most notorious gambling bouts, including poker games and big Super Bowl bets.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/sep/25/bob-stupak-builder-stratosphere-and-vegas-world-di/#ixzz2TMQrkvSo

[NV Whino]

9. I stayed in a motel in Cripple Creek

It was about two weeks after the season closed and was the only place that would even think about renting me a room. Unfortunately it was a smoking room. Stunk to high heaven. I slept (or attempted to) with all the windows open. It was fucking freezing and snowed during the night. Had a nice meal at a local restaurant, though.

[femmocrat]

10. Some little dump in VA Beach, about 30 years ago.

This was pre-internet and I wrote to the VA Chamber of Commerce for a packet of motel brochures. This place had nice looking brochure and the prices were reasonable. There was no way of knowing what it was really like.

When we pulled in, there were people walking through the parking lot and they said to us, "Don't stay here!" We should have listened to them. It was a run-down, old-fashioned dump. Plus it had to be near an Air Force base .... there were jets flying right over us all night long. My kids still tease me about picking that place.

[libodem]

11. I was driving from Blackfoot to Boise

And had to stop for the night in Arco. Typical old motel in the 70' s. The walls were paper thin and the headboard of the bed next door was close enough to hit the wall. A drunk couple must have fought for four hours, yelling and screaming and cussing. On and on and on. Brutal, bitter abusive name calling and arguing. I was wondering if they were going to hurt each other.

But, noooooooo, they made up and were just as loud and obnoxious making love. Bang, crash, moan, groan, squeal, bang, crash, boom, and that freaking went on for the next four hours.

Gave me a story to tell, 30 years later, so whatever.

[Arugula Latte]

37. Reminds me of that Paul Simon song "Duncan"

Couple in the next room
Bound to win a prize
They've been goin' at it all night long
Well I'm tryin' to get some sleep
But these motel walls are cheap
Lincoln duncan is my name
And here's my song, here's my song

[libodem]

41. He musta been there

Exactly.

[Brigid]

12. Some dump in FL back in the early '70's.

A great big roach ran across my dad's foot.

[u4ic]

13. The Knight's Inn at Niagara Falls

Two years ago. I needed a room for one night on the cheap. It had just been bought from other owners; I couldn't find it for quite a while because it still had the old sign at the entrance.

The first room they gave me, I couldn't open the door with the key. Waited almost a half hour as they were busy helping someone else (a very small operation). When they tried it and found out that yes, it was the wrong key (their tone was I was the idiot) and finally got the correct key from them, I opened it to find that the bathroom screen window was busted. As in someone had tried to break in. The second room they gave me had half the ceiling tiles missing in the bathroom (lovely plumbing up there), a half cleaned bathroom, and a weird smell throughout the place. Another major issue but I can't recall it at the moment. As it was late and I was exhausted I just went to sleep and complained to head office when I left. No response. Never staying at one again.

While not the worst, the weirdest bathroom goes to a little motel in Clearwater BC I stayed in less than 2 yrs ago. Can't recall the name. Shag carpet and 70's fake wood siding in the bedroom, with a white and gold fake marble tile with fibre glass covering it, and a pink sink and bathtub. However, the owners were very friendly, and it had a beautiful view of the lake.

[nolabear]

14. LOL!Last place I saw one of those was Graceland. I am not kidding.

[mysuzuki2]

16. The Motel 6 in Roseville Mn

The room itself was ok, tho pretty basic. I don't need or want to pay for anything fancy. The problem was the fact that I was the only one there who wanted to sleep. Apparently this place was a hangout for people who want to do things that they wouldn't or couldn't do at home. Screaming and running all night. Someone was loudly sick outside my door at about 2 am. The room next door was occupied by a man and his girlfriend who were "active" much of the night. After they quieted down the ladys husband arrived and banged on the door and hollerd for her for an hour or so. I got very little sleep. Maybe I'm just old.

[GaYellowDawg]

17. The "It'll Do Motel" in Johnson City, TN.

Hourly rates were available.

[Locut0s]

38. Lol, hourly rates, now THAT's a red flag. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

18. There have been a few

One was near the Sea-Tac Airport. The shag carpet was so flooded, water squished between my toes when I walked across it. And the smell of mold was unbearable.

Then there was some motel in the Middle of Nowhere, Oklahoma, that had some strange "guests", to say the least. I don't think too many were actually paying guests, or at least, they weren't paying money to the *motel*.

Then there was the motel in Culver City, California, that was visited by a half dozen cops on the night I was there.

[hunter]

33. I once woke up with cops IN my room.

My girlfriend, her girlfriend (later her wife... nevermind, it's a long story) had been in San Diego doing our San Onofre anti-nuclear shtick. We were staying in a cheap motel. I was in one bed and they were in the other. I woke up to the sound of my girlfriend screaming bloody murder and attacking some strangers and demanding to see a warrant.

Her girlfriend was cowering under the covers. She and I made eye contact.



I stumbled to my feet wearing only my tighty-whities (my girlfriend and her girlfriend were equally uncovered) and this seemed to calm the situation. Crazy half naked woman is one thing, skinny nerd with a farmer's tan wearing briefs and a REM sleep erection fumbling with his glasses is another. The situation became entirely ludicrous.

I think these cops were fishing for stoned commie hippie drug dealers having a sordid threesome but all they caught was a face full of crazy.

It ended without resolution. The police went away without apology, nothing, and we decided it would be best to leave town and not to press the issue.

[Locut0s]

39. You sound like you've had a colourful life. I'm envious...

And yes I've read your posts in the mental health sub forum so I know you've had your share of problems but so have I. I'm still envious.

[hunter]

46. I have a high drama family.

On my own I'm a hermit living in a university computer lab.

My mom is high drama. My girlfriends were high drama. And my wife is high drama.

I have a mess of siblings. We were all semi-feral children. My mom is very good with babies and toddlers but once a kid can find their own lunch and do their own laundry (somewhere between the age of four and seven) they're pretty much on their own. My dad's an artist. Two of my siblings ran away from home, not because the house rules were too harsh but because there was too much chaos. We all did pretty well academically, probably because we liked the structured environment of school.

Unfortunately I was a weird kid so middle and high school were hellish. I suffered a lot of bullying so I quit early for college. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It was strange being a minor in college. They had a special class for us so we wouldn't crash and burn. It was also obvious some professors and instructors didn't like having minors in their classes. There was no formal mechanism for quitting high school at the time, no GED like there was when my younger sister quit high school, but the high school principal and college could arrange it. Oddly, me and my dropout sister are the only siblings who graduated from four year universities.

I know the exact moment I brought chaos into my own life. It was my second year of college and I was still studying to be an engineer. There were only two women in my electronics class and a bunch of immature guys who spent most of their free time talking about fast cars and tits. I don't like cars, and coming from a matriarchal family of powerful women I never talked about women like that. One day I noticed one of the women wasn't coming to class and the other woman told me she'd quit.

Shortly after I changed my major to biology, maybe for the simple reason that the women outnumbered the men in that major and they didn't spend any time talking about cars or tits. Neither did the men. If any men were thinking it they wisely kept it to themselves.

I was asked to take time off from school for the first time about a year and a half later for fighting with a teaching assistant. They were nice enough to let me finish my other classes, but I got my first "F" ever in that class. That's about the time my mind started going weird on me.

[fishwax]

19. at one cheap motel in Salt Lake, my key unlocked other rooms in the hotel

So I had to assume that other people's keys could also unlock my room. I discovered this by accident when coming back from a trip to the car and the ice machine. I was counting doors after the stairs instead of looking at numbers, and I guess I went up the wrong set of stairs. I unlocked the door, stepped inside, and the shower was on--which surprised me, because when we first got into the room my wife had commented on how disgusting the bathroom/shower were, and said she thought she'd feel dirtier after showering than she already did. Anyway, I walked towards the bed and then it dawned on me that something was amiss--and then I realized I was in the wrong room. Yikes. I fled the room and went back to my own, where we slept with one eye open (and on top of the bedspread, because the thought of getting between the sheets in that roach motel was not pleasant).

We shouldn't have bothered with a room that night. Would have been better off sleeping in the car. But we had driven all night the night before and then had our lodging plans for the first night fall through, so we were really needing sleep, and this was during the Olympics, so there weren't a lot of vacancies to choose from.

That was the worst I ever stayed in ... the worst I ever saw was a motor lodge in Bakersfield. It was another desperate situation--we'd been driving all day, and were dead tired at one in the morning, just wanting a place to stay. And this was one of only two places with an apparent vacancy. There was a window in the bathroom that wouldn't close, and a window in the bedroom with a curtain that only covered half the window. The bed wasn't made--the sheet had popped off one edge revealing a rather stained mattress. Stains also on the floor and on the half-a-curtain. The whole room reeked of turpentine. We got our money back and hit the road--wound up driving all night and most of the next day until we were home.

[Scuba]

21. ...

[CBGLuthier]

22. Well, There's a place in Eastbourne.....

[BainsBane]

45. that's where I had my honeymoon

Seriously.

[bobclark86]

23. Well, the place in the OP looks like...

a great place for some role-playing about Gil Girard and Erin Gray (second season, of course), but not particularly bad... you just aren't adventurous enough .

That said, I'll go with Molly's Stardust Motel on U.S. 15 north of Harrisburg. That place was pretty damn bad, I think. The normal "wet" feeling of a moldy place, the AC stank, the bad wood paneling...

Or I'll bring up this one Red Roof Inn I stayed in with my marching band near Syracuse. In '99 they had a fire and backed a firetruck into the pool -- thereafter a muddy mess -- and there were several bullet holes in the wall (which on its own was kinda bad, but some of the cuter girls were in the room next to us, so the holes were useful ).

[lastlib]

24. Stadium Inn, Kansas City

Got stranded in a snowstorm, had to spend a night there. The room was so small, the cockroaches were all stoop-shouldered. (And there were cockroaches galore!) Sheet-rock falling off the walls, mold in the bathroom, hot water ran out.... I would camp out before I'd stay there again.

[GaYellowDawg]

42. OMG

The room was so small, the cockroaches were all stoop-shouldered. That's an AWESOME line!!!

[lastlib]

43. (thankya! glad I could give you a chuckle!)

[davsand]

25. The Admiral Benbow Inn in Memphis.

I used to live with a man who had a fondness for third world vacations. Most years, I'd say, "You go and have a fun time, I'll see you when you get home." I skipped out on trips that involved armed Nicaraguan Rebels and scorpions in the beds. One year, he decided to do a blues tour of The Delta, and I actually was kinda excited to go. Sounded exactly like something we could do together, and I figured here in the US we probably were not gonna meet up with too much that I couldn't deal with.

The stopover involving the biker bar in southeastern Kentucky was ok. I'll grant you, the throwing of drinks and the screeching of the bartender was a bit over the top, but nobody died--so I could roll with it. I pulled up a piece of wall by the door and watched the guy named "Cooter" kick the shit outta "Jimbo." (And, no, I am NOT making up those names!)

The kids chanting "Go home, Crackers" someplace in Mississippi was a new experience for me, but, again, I was able to roll with it and nobody got arrested, so it turned out ok.

Arkansas was kind of a blur for me. I'd started to drink a bit when the AC broke in the car. I don't remember much about it other than feeling like I was in a mobile oven. I was just about ready to go home, I do remember that much about it.

Then we hit Memphis... The Admiral Benbow Inn. I peeled back the covers and found a HUGE clump of what looked like pubic hair in the middle of the bed. Somebody got scalped, is all I could think. Called the front desk and asked for some clean sheets and was told that there would be no clean sheets until the next morning when the laundry woman came in. I begged to leave and was told that I was just too picky...

Walked into the bathroom and found what looked like a huge amount of blood in the bathtub. It looked like a crime scene minus the yellow tape or chalk outline. I begged again to leave. He had to think about it, but decided I could "tough it out" for one night...

We were sleeping on top of the covers on the bed, with our own beach towel laid down on it, and somebody tries to force open the door to the room at around 4 AM. He was ready to leave at that point, I didn't have to beg.

Here's a local article about the state of the inn circa Feb of 2000:

http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/02-21-00/memphis_cvr.html




That was the LAST vacation we ever took together.


Laura

[hunter]

26. Oh goodness. My wife and I experienced third-world Memphis as newlyweds.

We were broke and none of the motels we could afford looked appealing. So we drove around until we were lost in a neighborhood that didn't look any different than poorer places we'd seen in Mexico. The houses were disintegrating, there were random deep holes in the streets and sidewalks, mangy dogs wandering about or chained up, and electricity rigged with extension cords tied to sticks and tree branches.

We stopped at a larger grocery store for something to eat. There wasn't anything in the store that couldn't be bought with food stamps. More than half the shelves were empty. The freezers and refrigerators were mostly turned off, propped open, and empty. Milk, american cheese slices, bacon, and a few eggs were kept in the cooler with the Pepsi. There was no "fresh" produce but apples, some wilted looking carrots, and sweet potatoes.

We asked a friendly looking grandmotherly type woman about places to stay and she looked us over, a white guy and a Mexican-American woman of obviously limited means, and she said, "Honey, you are better off camping."

The place she directed us to was actually pretty nice, and it felt safe. Except for the insects. As Southern California natives we were not used to that quantity or diversity of buzzing things that bite and fly into your mouth, ears, nose and eyes. Fortunately we had a small tent. It was almost too hot to sleep, even with all the tent flaps tied open, but that was better than being eaten alive by insects and spiders.

[olddots]

29. " honey you're better off camping "

that was a give away .

I had a boss who would put us up in the worst places imaginable this is why I love bad hotel room jokes so much .

Had a room so small you had to go into the hall to change your mind . The cock roaches were hunch backs
they used a postage stamp for wall to wall carpeting

sorry

[KamaAina]

27. Mar Oceanview Motel, San Francisco

SF is one of the few places where "oceanview" is not a selling point. Ocean Beach is cold, foggy, and a half-hour streetcar ride from downtown. But the price was right...

Shag carpeting? Check.

Management moving me from room to room periodically? Check.

You can imagine how Mom felt once she joined me...

[benld74]

28. Back in '85, La Quinta Inn - Brownsville, TX

Newly married the wife and I toured Texas. Austin, San Antonio(missions - thats another story!), Corpus Christi, Houston and back to Austin. While in Brownsville, she wanted to walk into Mexico, which we did. She wanted a silver chain necklace, which we bought. Overnight stay in the La Quinta, SHE DID NOT WANT. Well we got to the hotel too late to do anything BUT stay overnight. NOT before she made me call a hotel in Corpus Christi and book 3 days.
After she finally fell asleep, I was laying in bed when a semi-large night creature crawled over my head in the bed. I caught it in my hand, and threw it towards the door, where by the way you could see the halway light underneath the door.
I didnt tell her about the creepy crawler until the next day, as we overlooked the bay from our room in Corpus Christi! Oh and the silver chain she just HAD to have? Jeweler friend gave us the bad news of it being worth less than we paid.

[olddots]

30. I called room service and said "send up a room "

[csziggy]

31. It's been 20+ years and I don't remember the name of it

But it was a place outside of a small town in Georgia I picked because it was closest to the race track/horse show facility where we were showing our horses that weekend. There was just enough room to walk around the bed - if you walked sideways. The plumbing was terrible and the water came out of the tap slightly brownish. I didn't take my socks off because the carpet was nasty - and the socks ended up permanently stained. The television only got one channel - and that had a double image.

At 2 AM I checked out and went to the only other motel in the little town - sort of a bed and breakfast place that was four times the cost of the other place. The sounds from the adjoining rooms had not allowed me to sleep and from the variety of voices and types of sounds I heard, I suspect most of the rooms were being rented by the hour, if that long.

[Hayabusa]

32. A motel near the Fox Theater in St. Louis

And not a nice one, either... Heading to a concert at the Fox, my mom and I were surprised that it was cash only, which really should have been the first sign that this wasn't the kind of hotel we should be staying in. There was a gate leading to the rooms.

Needless to say, after the concert, we got home and pushed the table up against the door.

[Locut0s]

35. Seen or been in? There are some truly HORRIBLE places here, I mean horrible...

I've never been in these but...

Any of the hotels down on the lower east side of Vancouver would be candidates. The infamous east Hastings skid row district. There are at least 3 or 4 down there that are just horrendous. The one that sticks out in my mind is the well known Cobalt Moter Hotel:

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=94b65fc9-cb39-47b5-896f-3a6f6ae83b4c

........

The key given by the manager is for a room in the corner of the building on the second floor, and the door has to be shouldered hard before it opens. It's been kicked or otherwise forced in several times, then repaired with putty and pieces of scrap wood.

Once inside, you need to reach to the top of the door and pull hard to be able to get out again. It's not something anyone shorter than 51/2 feet could do.

The walls are a patchwork of repairs. Bloody spit marks the section of wall alongside the single mattress, which is covered in a sheet full of burn holes and a thin blanket marked "property of Capital Health Region." Blood spatter stains the wall alongside the sink.

A single uncovered light bulb hangs from the roof. The bin is a brown paper bag on the floor.

A dead mouse lies in plain view, frozen Pompeii-like in grim death on the carpet alongside the fridge.

A sink sits in plywood covered with torn linoleum, with a coffee cup and dirty water glass inches away on top of it.

A laundered facecloth with what appears to be blood stains on it is folded atop the linoleum. A wedge of broken mirror about a half-metre square rests next to the sink.

.........

It's worth it to read the whole thing.

Here are some google street view pics of some of them:

http://goo.gl/maps/4UEZP

http://goo.gl/maps/f1ecf

http://goo.gl/maps/XROaI

They are a LOT worse then they look there.

[BainsBane]

44. that is luxury compared

to some of the places I've stayed in Brazil. Paint peeling off the walls, no sheets on the bed, really old and decrepit buildings.