We all know gross things happen in hotels, but at least the higher quality ones do a better job covering it up.
That is, until you try to save a little bit of money and book a room at a cheap hotel off the beaten trail. Maybe there's a typo in the hotel's name, or perhaps it has a 1 star review on Yelp, or maybe it's the creepy movements of all the cockroaches scurrying under the bed as you flip on the light. Who's to say? Either way, was it really worth the money saved for such a horrific memory?
Reddit user, u/any-mystic, wanted to hear about which hotels to avoid when they asked:
What's your "staying at a cheap hotel" horror story?
These are the easy to grasp stories. The ones where you can feel how terrifying an experience it must have been to slide your credit card across the reception desk, knowing that you were not in for a good night's sleep.
Oh, Good Lord...
We found the only room in town, but the service was lousy. Maids wouldn't enter the room and just left towels outside the door.
Turns out that the last maid who entered the room was murdered there a week before we arrived.
Maybe Check The Reviews If It's A Popular Murder Spot
Was on a few week long college school trip in Northern Florida a few years back. Stayed at a very shady Roadway Inn where you had to ask for towels at the front. The key cards weren't keyed to specific rooms and there were several instances where other patrons walked in on a bunch of college students accidentally thinking it was their room. The worst part was at around 1-2 am the people I was sharing the room with and I were awoken by a women screaming bloody murder and pounding on the wall next door. She screamed "Help he's going to kill me" and "Please dear God help" before there was a wet squelching noise and she stopped. We immediately called 911 and our class instructors who were quite horrified. We fled the room to one of there's to wait it out. When the police got there the room was empty except for apparently a lot of blood and drag marks to the door. They forced the entire class to get up and we immediately left and found a different hotel for the rest of the week.
So needless to say I've never willingly stayed in a Roadway Inn again.
Edit: The police did take down our information but have yet to get back to us for follow up statements. So at this time I believe it's still ongoing or unsolved
This Is A Big, Fat, "NOPE."
There was a massive mirror that stretched the full length of the wall where the bed was, I could swear it was a two way mirror.
There was a crew on site filming a horror movie.
It had an indoor pool that had plants growing out of it and you couldn't see through the water, like something was going to come out and drag you in.
Our door wouldn't latch, so in the middle of the night when the AC kicked on the door popped open just enough to hear the chain lock snap.
We got a call at 2am from someone who kept asking how I was doing. His voice was very eerie and calm, he wouldn't change tone even after I was getting pissed asking "Who is this!" Later we thought it could have been a robo call and it just got stuck in a loop on the initial question.
We had gotten in late and thought no big deal for one night. We were supposed to be there three nights, that didn't happen.
These hotels feel like they belong in an Alfred Hitchcock film, complete with psychotic neighbor and existing in a universe where the laws of physics are operating on a different frequency.
Escaping The Infestation
Stayed a cheap hotel in London donkeys back.
Was travelling and met up with a couple of mates doing their own travels.
The room was two single beds, and being the only guy I volunteered to sleep on the floor between the beds.
I was the only one to escape the worst case of bed bugs I've ever seen, I don't know how they weren't in the carpet as well. The girls were covered head to toe.
People Break Down The Best Loophole They've Ever Exploited
You Ever Been Asleep And Dreamt, "I Need A Shower?"
One had bed bugs. Another smelled like cat piss. But the worst hotels I've ever stayed in have all been in the UK and they weren't exactly cheap. One in Belfast had a shower in the room. Not seperate. But next to the bed. It was in the photos and we were like er yeah ok we'll still book it. But came to find the shower door didn't close properly. Puddle of water next to the bed. The towels had stains on them and were tiny and didn't really soak it up.
Oh and it was next to a nightclub. Never again. The worst part was the staff were polite as hell so I felt really bad checking out two days early.
But Why Would They Rent By The Hou-Ohhhhhhhhh
Don't stay at a hotel that rents by the hour.
I live in Japan and this sounds 100% like the "Love Hotels" here! All the ones I've stayed at had a shower/big tub attached. Some even had free condoms and a room service food menu. Not a bad way to spend an evening.
You might want to keep some hand sanitizer nearby before you read about these hotels.
Just, Like, All Of The Bodily Fluids.
I'm a compulsive road tripper and I've stayed at a ton of cheap motels. By a wide margin the most disgusting one I've visited was a Motel 6 south of downtown Salt Lake City. It was clearly a meth hote. Out west this isn't that unusual for a Motel 6 in a city but trust me when I say this was by far the worst.
Our room smelled so bad of smoke that my skin felt like it was frying. It was a "non-smoking" room with ashtrays. Cigarette holes burned into the bedsheets, poop and various body fluid stains on the bathroom ceiling, walls, and floor. A used needle was still in the trash can. No towels in the room. You had to request them from the front desk and they'd give you a once over before clearing you as worthy of cotton. Pimps were out in the parking lot all night blasting music and fighting while showing girls to various rooms. The Yelp page for this place has a picture of emergency response peeps taking care of a dead body.
Thanks. We All Have New Nightmares Now.
Ants had been living in the shower head and pipe so after a long journey I was dying for a shower and jumped in and wondered why my hair felt strange and sticky and realised I had just blasted ants all over me that I could not get out of my hair.
Kill It With FIRE
Ya know how a single spider egg sack has like 1 billion babies. Yeah, motel in southern Cali had spider eggs hatch and there was a moving carpet of a billion and a half tiny baby spiders. The eggs were behind the tv.
On the plus side, they probably ate the bed bugs.
There's nothing wrong with saving a few bucks. There's also nothing wrong with wanting to rough it out for the night, grab a few hours sleep, then keep progressing with your trip.
There's something even more wrong, however, with spider eggs hatching behind your television set.
Try to find the middle ground and sleep there.