Comments on: “Worst hotel room I’ve ever seen”

By: Fernandes

Fernandes — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:31:53 +0000

Well friends, what you experianced wasnt so bad, lately been to Armenia visited a city called Dilijan. Stayed together with my family in Dili Villa B&B (www.dilitours.de) Beware! This hotel has got no service to speak of. Appalling cleanliness, horrific service in, broken TV, nasty bathrooms await you here. carpets was soiled beyond cleaning needs replaced, nasty order in hall and rooms,linin dirty on beds,towels horrible, had strange fealings after I had their breakfast, I wish I could post pictures here to warn you all.

By: Tips on How to Never Get the Worst Room in a Hotel – Talking News on the Patio

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 23:37:44 +0000

[...] and that one room was probably given to travelers when there are none left. And Christopher Elliott shared a similar story on his blog from a reader who had stayed in [...]

By: Paul Vanzyl

Paul Vanzyl — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 19:12:00 +0000

Worst hotel in the world? Try Hosteria Pehoe in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. We stayed there for three nights. The room was very basic without even a wardrobe for clothes, only a few shelves. No reading lights. Day 1: No hot water. Menu has two (2!) main course items items and 2 beers, one of which was out of stock. We managed to get a warm shower at a campsite a few kilometers away. Day 2: No water! Not even cold, and that in a hotle on an island in the middle of a pristine lake. When they eventually managed to get water, the hand basin leaked and so did the toilet. The solution to these (not effective) was to apply more silicone gunk to the silicone already there. When the manager was confronted with these problems he was totally dismissive – how dare we complain! So what? Well, at US$220 per night I think this place must qaulify for a place on the 10 worst hotels in the world list!

By: Hotels

Hotels — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:50:43 +0000

I travel a lot for business internationally, I read online reviews of hotels I have visited and often find these right though evidently there are plenty of false reviews by hotels’ friends or fake visitors.
I like to visit the hotel website as well and to speak directly with hotel by e-mail to ask for clarifications and description of the rooms, etc. so they offer the best room they have and sometimes I get it….

By: Juanita

Juanita — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:49:25 +0000

I work in the hospitality/lodging industry and I have for many years. I have managed apartment buildings and several small hotels. I know quite a bit about customer service on a small level. I LOVE going to these sites and reading some peoples horror stories and your attempts at getting freebies. I have some advice and my own horror story. If you want a good rate and good treatment at a hotel, be respectful and nice to the staff, thats all. Treat the staff like they are human beings and for the most part we will do anything to make you happy within reason. We are not stupid, I am working on my PhD but yet every day I get treated like I am some sort of country bumpkin fresh off the farm that dosent know the value of a dollar…good one buddy. So of course not people do not get free rooms out of me when they treat me like that. Legitimate complaints merit free rooms not a spotty coffee pot that you made coffee in anyway. If you make a reservation and forget to cancel it we hold that room for you, we do not rent it to someone else so we are going to charge you for that room because you didn’t cancel it before 6pm that night, most national chains have that same policy.

So I go into it knowing all of this and we go to Las Vegas NV. I book a room at the Stratoshphere with my husband and several of his friends from Desert Strom, for a reunion. I did the usual thing and booked a room in the premier tower through the hotels website about 6 months in advance, a deposit was taken out and all was happy. We go and check into the hotel and get room keys get to the room through some back elevator and get some crappy room in the world tower that is nothing that we booked. So I called down stairs and asked if there was an error with out reservation. The person I spoke to said no since we were a late check in 7pm our room was no longer held we got whatever they had. I said excuse me, we had reservations, and reservations are made to be honored. Then this person said, WE HAVE 2900 ROOM WE CAN DO WHAT EVER WE WANT. I got her name her managers name and started speaking to him immediately, he said that he would require proof that we reserved what we said we reserved because their system only showed names…yeah right. So I took my whole laptop down stairs and showed him and his bright purple red face what we booked. He then offered to move us to our room that we had reserved (one just suddenly opened up) and I told him no thanks we were fine where we were at, but when we got home the travel agency that the people I worked for owned would here about this and they would lose about 300 to 450 rooms a year because of this and now they did because they no lonnger book rooms at the Stratohphere. They have 2900 rooms they can do what ever they want!!!!

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:29:31 +0000

We had the opposite experience at Residenza del Duca in Amalfi, Italy. We booked directly with the hotel as they told us they saved the best rooms for those customers. Our room was as pictured online but others in the hotel got vastly superior larger rooms for less money than ours by booking through “booking.com”.
But through priceline.com we got rooms at the 4 Points Sheraton in San Rafael, CA with dirty sheets! We settled on the third room given us which had no hairs on the sheets or suspicious stains . We were thankful we didn’t get exposed to “crabs”.

By: Dick

Dick — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:21:42 +0000

While I am sympathetic to Scott Hall’s ordeal, isn’t the old adage of getting what you pay for true? By booking through one of the cheap deal Internet site you shouldn’t expect 5-star rooms. Anything much beyond clean and safe should be considered a bonus. If you want a top flight room, book directly with the hotel and expect to pay the going rate.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:29:50 +0000

Years ago, I booked a room at a Best Western in St. Paul, MN. Right away, nothing the hotel looked like its photo – it was dingier and more worn. I asked to see my room before paying, and I was appalled. It was dusty, obviously a smoker room, even though the hotel claimed it wasn’t, and even the towels were grey. The deciding factor not to stay was when, standing in the bathroom, the guest upstairs dropped something large on the floor, causing the vent grating in the ceiling to pop out. It barely missed my head as the metal crashed to the floor.

I got out of there and never looked back.

By: jlawrence01

jlawrence01 — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:10:01 +0000

I am very familiar with the Courtyard rooms at the John Ascuaga’s Nugget. Originally, they were small (10×12) rooms that were used to house gamblers. They represent one of the best values in Reno when the city is sold out. The rooms are small, generally lack windows and the like. They are very similar to the rooms at the Microtel.

One of the difficulties in both Reno and Las Vegas is that in most casino properties, there are several classes of rooms available. However, very few disclose exactly which rooms you are getting until you show up. And that can create a lot of confusion for all concerned.

By: Sheri

Sheri — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:14:29 +0000

Not the worst, should try the Artisan in Phoenix … what a nightmare. Booked it on Skyauction and found that most of what they said the hotel featured they didn’t have … no wine tasting, no restaurant, no in room refrig or microwave … they didn’t even have a soda or snack machine anywhere in the hotel … had to take a 1 mile hike to get a soda. Maid service was none existent … even set the glasses and ice bucket in a particular formation to see if they were changed .. .nada. Then to top it all off when I checked out they charged a resort fee along with a peak rate. When I protested neither Skyauction or Artisian would respond.

By: Chicky

Chicky — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:19:11 +0000

I have to question Orbitz’ hotel ratings anyway. My husband and I booked a room at a Days Inn in Morganton, N.C., through Orbitz. (This was in 2004). The site said the hotel rated three stars. Generally, this means clean rooms, basic amenities, etc. The place was NOT three stars. Hardly. The best one could say is the bathrooms were clean and so were the sheets. Otherwise, it looked like the furniture hadn’t been replaced in 20 years and the carpet was very worn. I wasn’t as travel savvy then as I am now, and just chalked it up to poor hotel choice. Nowadays, I’d have done what Mr. Hall did.

I usually research hotels at places like Orbitz for deals and then go to the hotel’s Web site to see if I can beat the price there. This has worked pretty well for me. Also, on other sites, the reviews are usually candid and I’m able to get a better idea of what the hotel is really like.

I’ve stayed at the Nugget in the towers and the rooms are pretty nice and service is good, too. The Courtyard is what USED to be the Nugget years ago, and is now the “budget” property. I knew it was a little “less than” when a friend stayed there about 4 years ago. Apparently, it has gone way downhill since then.

By: Brian Prince

Brian Prince — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:13:41 +0000

I see this all the time. If I make a reservation through a deep discounter, then when I check in I get gruff service, definitely not what you would normally expect at Hilton’s and Marriot’s. I usually get what I perceive to be one of the ‘lesser’ rooms. You can see their attitude change as soon as they look up your reservation in the system.

If I book through a normal channel, lets say directly with Hilton, I get great service, and a completely different experience.

Once in Orlando, I booked a discount room at a very nice hotel. I got all the five star treatment you would expect, until they pulled up my details. Then her face literally went into a frown, and she said “Oh, an internet rate.” She proceeded to readjust which room I was assigned to their other tower. Not as bad, but a similar experience to the traveller above. They even asked if I wanted to ‘upgrade’ to the better tower. If I did, the price would have been the same if I booked normally and not through a discounter.

I have learned that what you pay for a room affects how you are serviced. This may or may not matter to you. If you just want a nice room, and don’t care about the other stuff, a discount like this can work. If you really want the star treatment, you are going to have to pay for it, even at the same property as that discounted traveller.