Real Life Seedy Hotels/Motels

Due to the lack of affordable housing, many people/families have to live in these places full time, as it's one step from homelessness. They are every where on the outskirts of cities and towns.

The weirdest seedy motel I stayed at was in Houston. I was there for a seminar, but I couldn't afford at the time to stay at the swanky hotel it was being held at, so I went looking around for something cheap. I came across this motel that was really weird and sketchy. It had a vegetarian Indian restaurant attached to it (the owners were Indian), which doubled as a Mexican nightclub at night, but all of the other guests appeared to be black.

The entire center courtyard of the motel was overrun with grass. It seemed like maybe at one time there might have been a pool there, but they covered it up and just let nature take over, so it was like a shitty, empty, grassy vacant lot, and guests were haphazardly parking their cars in there, even though there were actual parking spaces all around the outside of the building.

The whole thing just gave off this weird, creepy vibe. I'm pretty sure it's gone now...I remember when I was looking for a place, there were a whole bunch of abandoned, out-of-business motels nearby, and this one definitely seemed like it was going to be next.

I still travel to Houston every other week, and the place I go to is pretty close to that motel. I think I'll go look for it just for curiosity's sake, to see if it's still there.

Around 1980 when we were still in our teens we stayed in a homosexual hotel at the corner of Sutter and Gough in SF. We noticed that some of the guests would leave their doors open ever so slightly. We had lots of fun at that hotel!

Days Inn, Ann Arbor.

The bad reviews are absolutely true. The good reviews are unbelievable.

As I said on the other thread, I stayed in hotels in third-tier Chinese cities at $20 American a night that were nicer than this hell hole.

About a decade ago a friend of mine did a long road trip - we ultimately drove from the Midwest to Colorado.

We booked several spots along the way - we tried to keep it more budget friendly on the road so we could stay in nicer lodgings when we were at our destination.

One was a Days Inn that was the nastiest hotel I have ever seen. When we walked in, there was a small office where the owner sat. You could tell that she was a heavy smoker, and had not cleaned the windows or the office for about 20 years. The windows were stained amber and the whole place stunk.

When we got to our room, we were in for maybe thirty seconds and both of us were like, fuck no, we are NOT staying here. Everything was damp and smelly and there was mold in every crevice of the AC unit and all over that wall.

The next night we stayed in a Motel 6. THAT was clean enough, but they had no AC and no ice. In August. Still better than the Days Inn, though. We spent $15 for a fan at the Walmart so we weren't totally miserable for the night.

I'm very frugal and have often stayed at Motel 6's, some of which were less-than-great. I always resent paying a lot of money for a place I'm just going to sleep. I don't need fancy facilities or free breakfasts. But I've evolved to the point where I'll either use VRBO or AirBnB or find a more mid-scale place like a nice Best Western or a lower-tier Hilton/Marriott/Sheraton type place.

r2 Southwest Freeway or South Main?

For two weeks I worked at the front desk of the Desert Inn in Daytona Beach FL. This was in the early 00's. I was very young, had hotel & desk clerk experience, & had just moved to the area. I had NO IDEA about its reputation as one of the grossest hotels in America. The lobby & patio areas looked fine. Once you were checked in though, you got the full, nasty, smelly, disgusting experience. One of the travel sites had it listed on its "worst hotels" list a few years back. Last I heard it was finally getting a complete overhaul by a new investor.

The old Crown and Anchor in Ptown was a shithole of epic proportions. Dank, musty rooms, no a/c, stained carpets, ancient furnishings, noisy surroundings, scummy pool area.

When I heard the old place burned down, I thought that its demise could only be a plus for Ptown.

I have nothing positive to say about the Days Inn in Corpus Christi!

I can state, without question, that I will NEVER, EVER stay there again!!!

It's so awful, your head will explode. Literally!

bump for more seedines

The first trip I took as a fed, my secretary booked us into a Days Inn in Albany. I was put in a non-smoking room that reeked of stale smoke. Some group had rooms on the same hallway, were partying, going from room to room, so I didn't get much sleep. In the morning, when I pulled the shower curtain closed, I noticed it had torn around a ring and been repaired with staples.

I never let her book another trip. I had to travel a lot. We never stayed anywhere swanky, but I could often find a business-class hotel that had government-rate rooms available. I had thought it was just that particular Days Inn, but I guess it's the whole chain.

I lived in a Days Inn for a couple of weeks; it was comfortable, not bad. I had moved to a new town for work and needed a place to sleep while looking for a rental.

The Radisson in Billings, MT actually had mildew all up one wall and the stiff, smelly comforter on the bed was so worn there were spots you could see through. I called down to complain about the mildew and the clerk asked me just what she was supposed to do about that. I asked for a different room and she scoffed and said they were all booked up, which was a lie. I called my corporate travel department and got a new hotel and blacklisted them, which didn't amount to anything since I was the only one travelling to Montana anyway. Oh, and they used skeleton keys, which I can't imagine were unique for every door.

I once made the mistake of booking into an Extended Stay in the midwest for one night, not realizing that it was one step up from a homeless shelter.

When I got there was a crazy woman with meth eyes in the lobby, insisting that she had a reservation for two weeks and even if she didn't have a credit card, she had a reservation and they needed to give her the key to her room! The police were called, she was pushed out into the parking lot, where she yammered into her phone with no intention of leaving. So, I bolted up to my room and closed the door, realizing that I didn't dare leave the room now that it was getting dark... and found the room had no amenities. There were kitchen cupboards with dishes or a coffee maker, no soap and maybe even no towels, and a sign saying that if guests needed anything call the front desk, as if the front desk guy wasn't busy calling the police on crazies.

I should have left once I saw the lobby and stayed somewhere else whether I got my money back or not, I still don't know why I didn't. '

Trump National Hotel Doral

I stayed 3 months at the Hollywoodland Motel on Ventura Blvd. In 1991. It was $200 a week. I had the room closest to Ventura Blvd (parking was behind the motel). One night I fell asleep with the light and awoke to screaming and threats of violence next door. The police arrived shortly after, but the thieves had gone, taking all this woman's property. They probably would have hit me except that my light was on. There's a motel there now that charged $200 a night before the pandemic. Still it was convenient: you could actually walk to downtown Hollywood from the motel though there was no sidewalk through the pass.

I've stayed in several over the years for various reasons. Either because I was fooled by online pics, was forced to stay there because of those 3rd party apps like Priceline or simply because I wanted to save a buck.

Most recently in my hometown in IL, I stayed at a Motel 6 that was supposedly remodeled recently. I should have have turned around and hauled ass when I saw the blood splatters on the bathroom door & wall but it was late & I was tired. So I overlooked the methheads running up and down the hallway nonstop, pulled back the cigarette burned bedding (in a non-smoking room) and feel asleep. Big mistake! I woke up to blood-filled bedbugs crawling around my bed & in the bathtub.

Then there was a recent month-long trip to Vegas last Summer. To save money, I used the 3rd-party apps that didn't tell me what property I'd get until after I paid. Thankfully, I got some very nice hotels most of the time. But there were some real dumps as well. Circus Circus, Excalibur & (the anything but) Serene were all shitholes that should be shut down!

Dan Bell's "Another Dirty Room" YouTube series is great, even if that Rick Serra guy is annoying as fuck to watch

I don’t know about now, but La Quinta used to be a reliable motel chain. They allow dogs. I did a road trip with a dog and another human. We mostly stayed at La Quintas.

The Hollywood Casino Hotel in Bay St. Louis, MS is disgusting. Thin walls, cigarette smell everywhere, nasty linens, ugly room, unusable TV/wifi. You feel dirty walking in those rooms, like you need a hazmat suit. I remember when they built that hotel in 2000, it hasn't even been remodeled since then. And there was even Hurricane Katrina. Recent reviews say bedbugs. Last time I stayed was sometime in 2011.

While driving cross country as a broke Airman, I stopped at a place called the Clinton Inn in Jackson, Mississippi, because it was only $30 a night. It was so sleazy I slept on top of the covers, fully clothed. Also, the neighborhood was bad and I didn't feel safe. I ended up leaving after 5 hours and continuing my journey.

The Ritz Paris was a dump until Mohamed Al Fayed dumped half a billion into cleaning up the decay.

I've worked in hotels for over 20 years, and I can tell you that a Days Inn franchise is one of the easiest to get (besides Oyo) because the standards are so low. Even the continental breakfast could just be stale coffee, OJ served out of a jug, and prepackaged honey buns. Contrast that with Holiday Inn Express, which has mandated all properties to have interior corridors, the standard breakfast bar, etc.

I stayed in a McKnight Road motor court in PBurgh where the desk clerk was asleep in his underwear when I rang in. He rolled out of bed, scrached his crotch in full view, and then ambled up to the counter in his underwear, hair askew, and gave me the last motor court room. I went there. The door wouldn't lock and the headlights from McKnight Rd bathed the room in an accident glow. So I pushed the bed against the door. Then I saw the shadow a man, not the clerk, walk around the cabin and try to get in. I yelled at him and so on. I was too scared to fall asleep but eventually I did anyway. When I woke in the morning, the desk clerk was outside, still wearing a wife beater, but did have pants on, and he was peering in the cabin to see if I was there. The whole thing was like a horror movie.

The Super 8 in Hollywood, CA was the most disgusting and scary motel I have ever stayed at in my life. Sheets smelled like vomit (not joking), I saw a guy walking around the hall drunk in his underwear, room was disgusting, could hear both noise from the street and noise from people drunk fucking in the room nearby, and the neighborhood is seedy. It was after that I vowed never to stay in a budget motel again. Not even just for pulling over for the night.

No DL seedy motel story can ever top the poster who stayed in a room with shag carpet ... and found mushrooms growing beneath the bathroom sink.

Not exactly seedy, but about 15 years ago I stayed in La Posada in Winslow, Arizona (famous from the song) as it was making its way back from being a decrepit ruin to being restored as a show place. It was one of the great Harvey hotels on the Santa Fe rail lines. Parts of it were still abandoned and construction was going on all around it, but it had an artsy, funky feel to it and was great fun staying there.

The Miami International Airport Hotel was very seedy. It's the only hotel located inside the airport, IIRC. One reviewer on Yelp said "Great place to consider suicide or contract ebola. Truly, discovered actual feces on duvet. Prehistoric dustballs. "

We missed our connect and were forced to stay there because the flight we rebooked was leaving at 5am the next day, only giving us a few hours to sleep. I'm not sure that we did actually sleep. It was so sketchy that we went to bed fully dressed. The shag carpet was not something you would want to walk on in your bare feet. It's just as well our luggage was still checked in at the airport. So many people that review this hotel complain about bed bugs. I wouldn't have wanted our luggage anywhere near that room.

I've stayed in some dumps, being one of the poors

I spent a few days in Manhatten's only one star hotel in the early 2000's for a family wedding, as it was all I could afford. It was an old building where the rooms had been divided up with cheap wooden walls made of chipboard. The rooms were so small I could lie and bed and either stick my head out the window on one side or roll over, reach out and flush the shitter on the other side. The door to the room doubled as the door to the shitter/ bathroom (and the shitter was IN the shower if I remember rightly). Good free Wifi though, along with masses of roaches. It actually wasnt too bad though, I slept OK, and I was out practically all the time exploring NYC, so it was OK. I've stayed in worse....

Like the utter dump of a hostel I stayed in in Zurich for a few nights in the mid 90's, again due to budget and a situation that arose. It was terrifically located right in the heart of Zurich, which is where the positives ended. It was an abandoned lunatic asylum that had been made into an absolute bottom of market backpackers. It was filthy, run down, and they hadnt even painted it, it still had the cream and green institutional paint peeling off the walls. Each floor had rooms either side of a central corridor, lit by flourescent tubes, half of which were broken, and a shared sink, tap shower and shitter at the end of the corridor for the whole floor. Not even hot water, but lots of rubbish and roaches and flies. Each room had six metal sagging wire wove bunks with thin, greasy old "mattresses". The floors with even wood or patchy, peeling ancient lino. It stank of sweat, piss, smoke, boiled cabbage and desperation.

I was very glad when a friend rescued me from said "accomodation"

The Days Inn Glendale was pretty nice.

Stayed at the Southern Cross hotel in Key West during Bike Week. Nightmarish.

I don't remember the name, but in Champaign, IL there was a motel that we stayed in as we were too tired to drive any longer. We had to honk for the desk clerk who came running out of a room in his underwear (truly impressive boner, too!). The room had an ashtray that was a tuna tin nailed to the wall. The door to the bathroom wouldn't open fully as it hit the toilet. My friend (a woman) and I had to share a bed and we kept rolling into one another because of the sagging in the middle of the mattress. Truly seedy, but a great story we love to talk about all these years later.

The only time I've ever been the victim of a crime was at the Motel 6 in Raton, NM (where I was staying on a cross-country drive when I moved west in 1987.) My car was broken into in the parking lot. I had to drive all the way to Albuquerque to get the broken window repaired.

[quote] While driving cross country as a broke Airman, I stopped at a place called the Clinton Inn in Jackson, Mississippi ... It was so sleazy I slept on top of the covers, fully clothed.

Knowing what we now know about motel bedspreads / bed covers (multiple DNA sources), we should not be lying on top of these things. When in a motel / hotel, I fold back the cover or take it off completely.

R35, I'm not sure what you're suggesting? Sleeping directly on the mattress?

There should be some sheets under that bed cover, R36.

Pull cover back. Lay on every towel in the joint R36. If it's filthy I wouldn't want to lay on the sheets either.

I've seen so much disgusting porn filmed in hotel/motel rooms that now I'm almost afraid to travel. I can't believe they actually clean up or replace things as much as they should after those sessions.

Stayed in an IYH in Pireus (sp?) near Athens to catch an early ferry boat to Santorini and noticed a musty smell. Suddenly woke in the night, fully wheezing for breath (this was before I had an inhaler) and I had to just lay there and try to calm myself/breathing down, which eventually happened, luckily. I guess the musty smell was some kind of mold. It was scary.

I also had the bad fortune to stay at Circus Circus in Vegas. Went for a friend's wedding, everything we did was at the lovely Bellagio, and it was so depressing to go back to CC at night. My friend accidentally ordered Vanilla sky on the room TV and we had to pay extra for that piece of shit. Aside from the dirty, shiny rundown carpets and other dirty rundown furniture and the crappy room, at the crowded, too small pool, I watched a grown adult man pick his nose and eat it. Kids were unaccompanied in the arcades all night long, or waited in hallways for their gambling parents to come for them. What a hell hole!

I hate Vegas and have never had a good time there. After this last trip (in like, 2000, I think,) I swore I'd never go back unless I was staying at the Bellagio, which effectively means I am just never going back.

There’s a dumpy looking chain motel near my house that is pretty much mainly used as housing for addicts and homeless people by the government. This is a good idea but reading the reviews you can see that tourists book rooms there and end up having horrific experiences.

We stayed in Laughlin, NV once for a family event. The hotel was a total shithole and the online reviews I read afterwards were amazing “Smells like mace! Blood on the walls! Do not stay here!”