What was your worst hotel room? Hopefully funny in hindsight.

Diplomat Motel, Nanaimo, British Columbia, about six years back. Had been on Vancouver Island for a few days, heading back to Vancouver for the night, strong winds, ferries closed until the next morning, holiday weekend, most accommodation was booked, vacancy at the Diplomat, checked-in. Untidy room, musty, dusty, thread bare carpet, broken tiles in bathroom. And reckoned I could just see a faded CSI chalk outline of a body on the carpet. Won't stay there again.

The next weekend stayed at the best Motel at Seven Bays, best rates, best hosts, best meals, best beers. Hope to stay there again.
You are always welcome again Michael...... T
 
Really late headed home on the slab it was just too far that night to go on.
I saw one of those $29.99 room signs so I figure that would work.
What I didn't know was they also rented rooms by the hour. ;)
When I walked into the 'lobby', the desk clerk was having an argument with one of the 'ladies' who had not paid her hourly rent.
It was what it was, so I booked a room and made my way upstairs to it.
On the balcony was the ladies' 'manager' watching me closely.
I smiled to her and quickly got into my room and locked the door.
I ignored various gentle knocks on the door throughout the night.
But the strangest part was when I checked out.
I went through the whole check out process to pay for the room (you paid at check out instead of check in).
The desk clerk never once said a word at any time.
The room wasn't bad (I've stayed in some pretty rough places) but I was glad to get out there for sure! :biggrin:
 
This is not the worst hotel room I've stayed in but the most entertaining one:

After 4 months backpacking through South America we landed in Santiago, Chile, which is like arriving in Europe. After charming but very rustic accommodations in various countries running down the Andes from Colombia we headed for a B&B place we found in the "South American Handbook" ( This was long before the internet and the handbook was like a google reference of everything on the continent). We got there the day the Brits sank the Belgrano, an Argentinian battleship (cruiser, frigate, whatever). That's how long ago this was. Anyway, it was a nice enough place and they had rooms but the price was a shocker. It was a completely reasonable amount for a room in any European city but we had just spent 4 months paying the same amount for a room that you would pay for breakfast. On top of this I got sick for the first time in 4 months. So my girlfriend heads out to find us a cheaper place to stay for our last night in South America before flying home. She finds a place and we say our goodbyes and drag our backpacks and my miserable self to the new room. It's midafternoon and there is no-one on the desk but she knows which room it is and has the key. I just want to lay down so I crawl onto the bed, which is definitely well-used and sagging in the middle, but clean. I roll onto my back and gaze at the ceiling and see myself reflected in the giant mirror attached there. I glance to the right and see we have an ensuite with a bidet right next to the bed. I congratulate my girlfriend on finding a cheaper place and pass out. I didn't hear a thing all night but woke up healthy enough to get on a plane. When we left in the morning to go to the airport there was again strangely no-one on the desk.
 
Old Guy (Bob) and I were on the way to LobsterSTOC and had a reservation at a motel in New Jersey of which the pics looked fine. Upon rolling into the parking lot, we noticed what may have been several drug transactions. I asked the clerk if we could get a room where we could see our parked bikes. She answered with a question. Don’t you have chains and locks to secure your bikes to a pole? We moved on.

Greg
 
This thread has really brought back some memories. After working for our (Victorian) State Government Road Authority since 1976, travelling all over out fine State, sometimes two or three nights per week in a country hotel or motel and then the past 15 years travelling all over Australia, I have more tales to share.

Do I continue?
 
A Shilo Inn in east Boise. On my way to a Westoc in CO.
Should have been an ok motel, but it was is some sort of transition. Looked a little dirty.
Dead tired and just want to get some sleep. Something I ate was rushing thru me at about midnight..........

The dang toilet is already plugged and I need to utilize it features ...... many times during the night.
I was starting to feel sorry for the maid who had to deal with this.....
Floors were dirty and it looked like a room that didn't get cleaned when I looked around the next morning.
Took a fast shower and packed up quickly and headed out. Didn't want to think about the sheets......

Complained heavily at the front desk the next morning ...... they lowered the rate to less than half. I was still pissed the toilet was plugged .... :well1:
T

I can imagine your dilemma, especially if you had been drinking a jug or three of that lolly water you call beer over there.
 
2008 - ride mate (Martin) and I ride into Narrandera NSW after a day on the saddle, stop outside the Murrumbidgee Hotel, ask the three guys having a drink and a smoke out the front, which way to the camping ground? (We were going to pitch our tents.)

One guy points north, another points south (apparently there are two camping grounds), the middle guy says why pay $20 for a camp site, you can stay here for $20 each and get breakfast. Sounds like a good idea.

Bikes parked undercover around the back, check into our upstairs room, two single beds, showers and toilets down the corridor, I freshen up, Martin says I'll go down, set-up some beers. I join him a few minutes later, a couple of icy cold schooners of draught beer waiting on the bar. Martin says I bought $20 of tickets in the meat raffle - this is a Friday afternoon tradition in country pubs, a platter of about $200 of fresh meat. What are we gunna do with that if we win?

We win! Martin yells, re-draw, so they do. A local guys wins, and buys us beers for the rest of the night, we must've downed another $50 or $60 of schooners.

Middle guy come over to talk to us, I'm Wazza (a common Aussie nickname for guys named Wayne or Warren) I'm the goffa, barman, cook & cleaner, We're Marty and Mick, a bit of chit-chat and he comes out with are you guys gay? NO! Brothers? NO! What are you sharing a room for then? We're just mates and one of the other guys said it was cheaper if we shared. Okay then.

Next morning after we packed our bikes, just before leaving, I went back up to our room and made up one of the single beds so it looked like we had only used one. I would have liked to see the expression on Wazza's face we he went to clean the room. I also pitied the next couple of bikers who stayed at the 'Bidgee.

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$20 per head bed & breakfast.
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Pics from the internet.
 
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Wife and I stayed at the Frontier hotel on the Strip in Vegas a few years before they demolished it. We were shocked that a big hotel right on the Strip could be such an utter dumpster. Our room was so disgusting, my wife refused to stay in it and we asked to be moved to another, which was hardly better. Good times.
 
1973 Atlanta, GA. Cherokee Motor Lodge.

Our 5 piece cover band needed rooms in Atlanta and stopped at the Cherokee. We were put on 3 separate floors, with the drummer in a single room (think 8 x 10) located in the basement. We couldn’t take a shower because there was 2” of green standing water in the tub. While we were discussing the algae ridden tub, the drummer called our room and was screaming for us to come down to his room, saying someone was in his bathroom! We all ran down to the basement and heard some grunts and groans and water splashing, coming from behind his bathroom door. One of us tried the knob, which was locked, and heard a gruff voice that replied, “Wait a damn minute, I ain’t through.” The drummer finally had had enough and said screw it, I’ll just go sleep in the tub in your room, which brought a thundering round of laughter from the rest of us, who had seen the frog pond on the 2nd floor. About that time, we heard the bathroom door unlock, and we prepared to meet the intruder. We also heard the sound of another door, opening and closing. We looked in, and found it was a shared bathroom with an adjoining room. But, the stench that was released from the open door made Kyle sleep on the floor in one of the other rooms, where he had to keep brushing cockroaches off his face during the night.
 
Two come to mind. I'd been working in Finland for the summer and the international student group that found me the job sponsored a trip to Russia. I've no idea what the hotel was (in St. Petersburg back then) but very early in the morning there was a fire. Some smoke filled the hallways, students milling around, nobody had any idea what to do. Of course no fire alarm. I kept telling people to get outside and we ended up huddled in the cold morning on sidewalks watching...no response to the (small) fire at all. Btw, the room was best described as 'spare' or 'basic'. Dirt was endemic.

The second was also in the late 60's. I'd hitchhiked into Marseilles and was exhausted, having walked the last few miles into the city. I wandered around the wrong section of town (recommended by Europe on $5 a day) looking for a place to stay. The 6th Fleet was in, and the streets were crowded with sailors, and more were arriving every minute on liberty. It was early in the evening and the hotels could not have been full, yet I kept getting stares from the clerks when I said I wanted a room for the night (they were all being rented by the hour). Finally found a place, again, dirty, and your typical room with a basin in the room and toilet facilities down the hall. I fell asleep but was awakened every couple of hours by shouting in the streets, loud music, screams and the sounds of lovemaking in rooms above me, and next door.
 
With no nearby accomodation available,most out of business or booked a year in advance we stopped at a bar to relax.The area was in the Adirondacks( Canada Lake).The owner phoned a head to The Pinnacle. Said he might have a room.Many monthly renters there.Our room was the “don’t take your boots off suite”. Cold water ensuite.Two feet of pine tree needles on the rotted balcony. Bed was clean.
On site restaurant was excellent though.We had awesome prime rib,as did many,as the place was packed.
Must have been a beautiful place in the Seventies(seriously).
 
Oh hell! I just remembered The Congress Hotel in Chicago! We booked a floor for a reunion. When we arrived we found they failed to give us a floor. We were scattered all throughout the place. My room was on a floor that, in order to get to the suite where most of the things were going on, we had to take an elevator down a few floors, walk down a corridor, and take an elevator up to the floor the suite was on. It was two floors above ours...
Hot water was a gamble. it would go cold so you'd adjust it and then you were damn near scalded.
We brought some of Marti's Peanut sauce for dipping food (Veggie trays and chicken wings) and I tipped the bellhop $10.00 to warm it up. This was 2002, that was a decent tip... He comes back with it, and holds out his hand...
I had an abscessed tooth at the time and was on a nasty antibiotic (Allergic to penicillin) that allowed me to drink alcohol. One of its possible side effects was diarrhea. I was told not to take Imodium if it happened, as that could kill me...
And yeah, I got the side effect. So I called room service and asked if I could get a cheese tray sent up to my room.
They won't do that. Ok, can I get a grilled cheese sandwich. (I need something to bind me up...) and I kid you not the guy asked "What's that?" I tell him, and get put on hold; he comes back "We don't make those". ***** it.
I walk down the street and over a couple blocks to a deli, get what I need and head back, only to be stopped by the concierge "You can't bring that in here" It's a HUGE deli meat/cheese tray.
I calmly explained that he could let me by or I would drop trou right there in the lobby and paint the walls brown. I was full on raging mad (You don't want to see Da Bear angry) I had had enough of this...
A couple hours later the hotel manager stopped by my room, I invited him in and went down the list of my displeasure's.
Didn't do a damned bit of good.
I give the place 1/2 a star. That 1/2 star is only there because the museum was walking distance...
 
Not the worst, but kind of funny; rolled up to the Super 8 motel in Sicamous in a minivan with two young kids and my wife. It wasn't our first choice but we were left with no option as the ones we usually stayed in were booked. I parked right in front of the office and you could clearly see said kids bouncing off the roof/walls of the van. The guy checking me in told me "No parties!". I thought he was cracking a joke at first, but nope, he was dead serious as he told me about the penalties for doing so. Dude. Read the room. Also, clean the room.
 
In Williamsport Pa middle of the night July the fire alarm goes off and everyone is evacuated for 18 hours . All our gear was in the room and clothing was the shorts we had on since we thought we could get back in quickly .Bikes were safe but not a bit of riding gear was available . Hotel management helped us with clothes but we spent an extra day there watching all kinds of interesting things going on . One great thing was the tab at the local pub The Green Frog got picked up by the insurance company . Not funny at the time but now on reflection a funny thing happened on the way to ?
 
The late 1980's, on a bike trip, booked in at the Pier Hotel (and old dry-as-a-chip timber hotel from the 1880's) in George Town, TAS, with a mate Bob. Nice rooms (not sharing this time), on second floor.

My Mum always said if you're staying in timber hotel or on the second floor, check where the fire escape is located. We drop bags and riding gear in our rooms, let's go for a beer. Bob says, I'm grab a quick shower first, see you in the bar in 10 minutes, set up the beers.

With 10 minutes up my sleeve I decide I better follow Mum's advice, easier said than done, it's not signed, nor are many of the other doors up and down the corridor. I figure it's matter of trial and error, so I open a door and find a linen closet, move on to the the next door, a ladies bathroom, another is a storage closet, and then finally another bath room to find Bob sitting in a bath having a scrub, sorry Bob, I'm looking for the fire escape. I turn around, close the door and head for the bar. I get there, quickly followed by a naked Bob, dripping wet, covered only by a small bath towel asking, where's the effing fire?
 
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