Hotel Hell

Where is Gordon Ramsay when you need him?

Since we were driving to Cleveland we decided to find a hotel a little cheaper for this Bouchercon adventure. It's a lot easier to lug books around when you stay at the conference hotel, but having a car is the next best thing.

We booked our hotel about nine months ago. And paid in advance.

It was a Days Inn, a chain we've stayed at many times without issue. (The link is for the one we stayed at, FYI. Just in case you were thinking about staying there ...)

The lobby was okay, not spectacular but seemed to be clean. When we got into the elevator we were a little surprised at how dirty is was. We looked at each other as the elevator lurched up and said this doesn't bode well.

How true.

If you have a weak stomach, don't go any further. Just saying ...

The carpeting in the hallway was so badly stained it was black in spots. The walls were filthy and badly in need of a paint job. Let's not discuss the smell.

The room was shocking. I can say without a doubt, it was the worst room I have ever stayed in my entire life. It stunk like dog pee covered up with copious amounts of carpet fresh. Turns out is was a pet-friendly hotel, so that explained the dog pee. Lucky for us they left some of the carpet fresh behind.

It was even in the bathroom.

The problem was, we were on a very tight budget and hadn't slept in 24 hours.
Yet the room was a gift that just kept on giving.

The lamp next to our bed. Front desk had no light bulbs.

 The outlet next to the bed.

One of the bonus features about the room was the extra storage space in the wall.

 

I don't typically use the word 'skanky' but in this case, there is really no other choice when describing the bathroom. See if you agree:

Our carpet wasn't as bad as the hallways, but it was trying hard.

 

I guess we weren't the only people disappointed in our stay. Too bad we didn't read the reviews before we booked. Lesson learned.

We did go to the front desk and lodge a complaint, but the desk lady (who was very nice and apologetic) said that there was only one other room left and it was worse than ours. Nice. 

So we had to stick it out. We found a local Wal-Mart and bought bedding and towels. 

We also left most of our stuff in the car, only bringing in what we needed at the time. Hubby wore a pair of my sandals in the room because the carpet was so disgusting that we were afraid to walk around in bare feet. And I always travel with a small Febreeze so the smell got some treatment.

The ironic thing about the whole adventure is what I found on the Days Inn website. It's: NEW! Ratings and Reviews 

Something tells me they may end up regretting that.