Does your dream hotel experience include an on site spa and 800 thread count sheets?
How about dirty condoms on the floor?
If you’re leaning towards spa and away from used contraceptives, don’t stay at any of these 10 hotels on your next trip. Do, however, spend a few minutes giggling over the hilarious reviews from ticked off guests.
10 Worst Hotels in the United States
(based heavily on TripAdvisor reviews)
1. Hotel Carter – New York, NY
I can only imagine that Hotel Carter remains open because it offers $107 rooms a block from Times Square. But what they make up for in location and price, they lack in basic housekeeping. The Hotel Carter has been rated one of the dirtiest hotels in the United States 3 years in a row.
Previous guests at the Hotel Carter said:
- “The lobby smells like something dead, and the people there are fairly sketchy.”
- “We go into the rooms right we open the door a A VERMIN across the floor. In the bath tub we found 4 INSECTS actual THINGS in the sheets”
- “Avoid. Sleep in the subway or join the homeless fellow on the sidewalk just outside the Carter.”
The first time I see a rat run across the floor, I’m out of there!
2. The Plaza Hotel & Casino – Las Vegas, Nevada
Again, a great location and a low price leads to disaster. The Plazz Hotel & Casino is located across the street from the Freemont Experience and offers rooms for less than $50 a night. You get what you pay for, and apparently what you’re paying for is bloody sheets.
Previous guests at The Plaza Hotel & Casino said:
- “There is one way for the Plaza to improve and its called implosion followed by sterilization.”
- “It’s old and the carpet is starting to peel off the wall. The bathroom ceiling was sagging and the tub was stained.” (I’m sorry – carpet on the WALL???)
- “The first night we were so tired we didnt even bother to notice when we went to bed that there was BLOOD on the flip side of the pillow.”
- “the bathrooms are worse than gas station bathroom”
- “If there was a drive by here I would not be surprised.”
3. Continental Bayside Hotel – Miami Beach, FL
Continental Bayside Hotel one of the Worst Hotels in the US
Do we have to have the talk about location and price again? It seems a great room in Miami for less than $100 per night really is too good to be true.
Previous guests of the Continental Bayside Hotel said:
- “we had to go and buy sheets and towels because the room was soo filthy”
- “I had bed bug bites all over me!!”
- “Our room had wallpaper pealing from the walls and there were black dirty smears on the painted areas of the walls.”
- “… the cabby laughed when we asked him to take us there!”
4. New York Inn – New York, New York
The bathroom door at the New York Inn, one of the worst hotels in US
Of the 140 reviews of the New York Inn hotel on TripAdvisor, 110 gave the hotel the lowest rating of “Terrible”. Complaints covered service and cleanliness… and rodents.
Previous guests of the New York Inn said:
- “The place was absolutely CRAWLING WITH MICE – you could literally watch them scurrying around the hallways and i woke to found one chewing on our (threadbare) carpet.”
- “Receptionist had to be called from Subway next door for checking in”
- “we had to buy a mouse trap at 2′ in the morning”
- “As soon as they took us up to our room I burst out in tears.”
5. Eden Roc Motel – Wildwood, New Jersey
I’m not sure why people are taking family vacations to New Jersey in the first place, but surely even New Jersey offers better than the Eden Roc Motel. $135 a night should buy you clean linens at the very least.
Previous guests of Eden Roc Motel said:
- “The rooms were dirty. The bathrooms were atrocious. The lady managing the place fought with most of the guests.”
- “Don’t even think about it, if I had to do it again, I would pick sleeping on the beach instead.”
- “The pillows had stains on them and the blankets on the bed were damp and smelled. we used our beach towels to cover the beds to sleep on them.”
6. Airport Plaza – Brook Park, Ohio
While the Airport Plaza is near the Cleveland Airport, you’ll need to consider how you’re going to get the required can of RAID through airport security if you stay here. It seems to be located next door to a topless bar – whether that’s a plus or minus, of course, is a matter of perspective.
Previous guests of Airport Plaza said:
- “the chairs had spiderwebs and spiders all over underneath them, as well as on the wall”
- “the sheets had some red spots on them and I found out it was blood droplets from the Bed bugs that were taking over the place..when my bags started to move around, I thought it was time to leave.”
- “One of the beds was broken and propped up with a stack of Bibles.”
- “Once you get past the prostitutes and drug deals going on in the parking lot, the hotel itself is a run-down, falling-apart dump.”
7. Travelodge – Bangor, Maine
I like the idea of staying in chain hotels, because I assume there is a parent company making sure some basic standards are maintained. Unfortunately for the Travelodge family, their Bangor property is falling down on the job, and dragging the Travelodge name down with them.
Previous guests of the Travelodge Bangor said:
- “the toilet was stained with brown; not to mention it was cracked”
- “The bathroom had silverfish on the floor, looked like human feces smeared on the back of the bathroom door, and they left their pet spider in the corner(maybe it was there to catch the siverfish (sic)).”
- “the only thing keeping the ceiling up in the bathroom was the green and black mold”
8. Velda Rose Resort Hotel – Hot Springs, Arkansas
Um. Ew. Dirty feet from the dirty floors at Velda Rose Resort.
This hotel is one of the highest rated hotels on the list. The average “star” rating is about a 3 – which should suggest a bug free zone. And yet, 80% of the hotel reviews were squarely in the negative column.
Previous guests of the Velda Rose Resort Hotel said:
- “The ceiling leaked, ants every where”
- “Dark, dirty, abundance of mildew, old furnishings, musty odors abounding. The town itself is shabby enough; this hotel seemed to be the crown jewel of the rather sad, got-passed-by town.”
- “I think Velda died in our room.”
9. Ramada Plaza Hotel JFK Airport – Jamaica, New York
Another hotel with location, name brand recognition, and a modest star rating on its side. However, the Ramada Plaza Hotel near JFK Airport charges full price for dirty sheets.
Previous guests of the Ramada Plaza Hotel JFK Airport said:
- “The hotel is dirty and smelly, I didn’t even turned down the bedding, afraid of what be under it! The front desk staff were unfriendly.”
- “The problem with this hotel is that 90% of the people that stay there are from cancelled (sic) airline flights. You have to deal with bus loads of people coming in all at once from cancelled (sic) flights. Everyone, especially the hotel personnel, is pissed off.”
- “We stayed here because our American Airlines flight had been canceled and the airline gave us a voucher. We had stayed here about nine years ago–same reason, delayed flight. The place apparently had not been cleaned between these two stays.”
10. Beaches Oceanfront Resort – Daytona Beach, FL
The word “resort” brings to mind luxury and relaxation. Everyone knows that. Sadly, the people at Beaches Oceanfront Resort in Daytona Beach didn’t get the memo.
Past guests of Beaches Oceanfront Resort said:
- “If you consider Hell a resort, then this is a resort”
- “The carpet was so dirty and wet we had to ware socks all the time. There were wall plates missing, elect outlets lose, wall broken away from the A/C, wallpaper peeling with mold behind it, the bath tub was not clean, paint peeling from the celling (sic).”
- “if you like a hotel with filthy carpets, stained and dirty bed linen, smoke detectors hanging from the ceiling, exposed wiring, paper thin walls and roaches then this is the place for you.
Is there anything better than a bitter hotel reviewer with a healthy sense of sarcasm?
Photo Credits (in order of appearance): Fantaz on FlickR, laffy4k on Flickr, TripAdvisor, TripAdvisor, Eden Rock Motel, TripAdvisor reviews, Travelodge-Bangor, TripAdvisor reviews, TripAdvisor reviews, Daytona Beach Hotels
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35 Responses
I have NEVER seen a hotel this bad, and I’ve paid less than $100 a night for a room before. Holy smokes!
Stayed at a place down by what was the old Foxboro Stadium outside of Boston…..didn’t notice the sign that said, “Cannot cancel room after 5 minutes from checking in!!”…..until our 5 minutes had past!! Bummer…..
We used to stay at the Eden Roc in Wildwood when I was 12 or 13, late 60′s. At the time, it was very nice I spent hours in the pool. Sorry to hear it’s become a dump.
Oh. Holy. Hell! ***shudders***
I would like to point out one of the BEST place I’ve been to in a while. Ashland Motel in Ashland, OR (if you’re going in that direction). The place is older than Gahd, but the people were in the middle of fixing it up and we stayed there for two weeks…VERY clean and nice! About $50 a night before they gave us a discount because of AAA or UBI…I forget…but it has been a while and they might have dropped the discount option…still a good deal no matter what. We took one room with a full kitchen, and even though the appliances were old, they were in pretty decent shape, and we kept having to configure the fridge temp (stuff kept getting too cold, LOL). Their laundromat is just one coin washer and coin dryer, but they’re both front loading energy savers! Great family run…that’s about all I can think of for now!
Awesome list… Only suggestion is to try expanding the list to 50 and I’m sure there will be more seedy hotels worthy of note. I’m happy to contribute some.
OMG–i stayed at the Wildwood, NJ Eden Rock for senior week in 1975!! it was a bit skeezy then!
Cancelled (canceled) can be spelled either way. Look it up.
I agree about the Travel Lodge in Bangor Maine. Stayed there for a few hours once – just long enough to find another pet friendly hotel in Bangor. We need more pet friendly chains so those traveling with pets can avoid dumps like these
JoanE – I did an image search on the Eden Roc motel and found all kinds of pictures from the 60′s. Looks exactly as you described. Here’s a postcard!
http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=4416284
I can confirm the Beaches Oceanfront Resort – Daytona Beach, FL review . My wife had discovered a lump on her breast so we had to travel a bit to get this thing looked at .Looks like somebody had damaged the outlets they were loose and looked unsafe , the room smelled like boose and god only knows what kind of smoke . Food and all kinds of flies / bugs under the bed . We made tracks out of that place real quick .
Liz made a good point after we got back she said we should have reported the room , so nobody else ended up with that train wreck of a room ,
Who is the editor of this column? Don’t use the word “(sic)” intermittently, and for sure don’t use it when the spelling is correct (see person who used “ceiling” twice in their comment). There are always gobs of misspellings on the ‘net- rather than being a smart-@$$ editor why don’t you clean up their spelling? This article, like the layout and information presented on this website, were depressing. I’m out of here.
Paul -
That would be me.
And, uh, really?
That’s what you got from this?
The use of (sic) actually took away a lot from the article for me. I was thinking hotels when I got done reading, but I remember being pissed off by it before losing it from my short term memory.
Wow, great article Miss Britt . I don’t understand the comments about how you didn’t change the grammar/spellings. Its YOUR article. Sure it gets edited, but all in all its your choice since you wrote it.
It didn’t harm the article unless you’ve never been to a forum or chat room before.
that was a great article. Congratulations on your recent win. You deserve it!
nice post. I was staying in this Bay View Hotel in Miami and was given a room with an excellent view of elevator shaft with someone’s shoe and leftover McDonalds food on the bottom of it. Took 3 hours to change the room and the next one was not of the best quality.
Britt,
You need to cross link to my Circus Circus review, it’s right up there for the top ten list,
http://lodging.uptake.com/blog/budget-lodging-gone-bad-circus-circus-las-vegas-nv.html
I stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel in Chicago, IL across from Grant Park and it should also be on a “Worst Hotel” list. It was terrible, besides the room looking nothing like the pictures, the TV was so old it did not have a remote, it had a turn dial. Some people were outside protesting about “crabs being in the sheets”. It was extremely dirty and very OLD. I was very upset when I stayed there because it was during the Taste Of Chicago and there were no other rooms available near Grant Park. WORST HOTEL EVER!!!!!!!!
I have stayed at 2=3 hotels in the Times Square area for $90-100 a night and they were clean, nicely appointed, busy with foreign tourists, and one even had an excellent diner. I booked through some Australian agency popular with Europeans. Can’t remember, but something to do with last minute reservations.
[...] Ok, we all have our lists. Hopefully no one has experience with all these properties, to be able to make an informed comparison. But here’s a fun list of places to avoid. [...]
The pictures says everything. There are some hotel owners who don’t care as long as they get their money. But the reviews from Tripadvisor will take some hotels out of business. Just check some reviews on the internet before book a hotel.
that best western in deerfield beach florida a roach motel and not to mention the fact that when you call down to house keeping and ask for extra blankets, wascloths or towels forget it as they will tell you they do not have any, so bring your own if you plan to stay in deerfield beach, florida.
No one has yet commented on the lovely velda rose of hot springs, ar. I stayed there less than three months ago due to the city being booked to near capacity. The elevator refuses to go to any floor that you push, it simply chooses one at random it seems. The dirty SYRINGES found underneath one of the tables in the room shocked me beyond belief, so the old damp hustler magazines in the bottom drawer of the dresser really didn’t bother me as much as they normally would. A long since used femanine hygeine product was found underneath the rubber non slip mat in the shower. To complete my stay, a hole was found in the bathroom wall that connected to the next room. I nearly lost it after this discovery and demanded to see the other side of the wall, which the manager on duty refused to do until two hours after my initial pleading. I am deadly serious when I tell you that the hole was connected to the bathroom next door, where there were SEVERAL empty film cannisters and a camera tripod next to the hole. We had most likely been filmed our entire stay. Luckily we did not use this bathroom.
This is such a great resource that you are providing.
I stayed LAST WEEK in number 7. The travel lodge in Bangor Maine. We were there for 9 days. Locked into it and could not change without losing all our money. It was WORSE then this review! They only things we ever saw go to the wash were the sheets and towels, never the blankets or bedspreads. Our Non-smoking room reaked of smoke and when we bought fabric refresher and deodorizer it got worse. I think they were smoking in the room when they cleaned it. There were hairs behind the bathroom door when we got there and they were there when we left even though I complained twice. This could be a decient place to stay IF they fired everyone who works there and hired all new staff!
La Quinta Inn by Tampa Airport is perfect for bug lovers!
I checked in and was exhausted. Took short nap to awaken with 20 bed bugs getting ready to feast on my arm. All sizes. I’ve never seen a bed bug before. I would had been eaten alive if I had fallen asleep all night.
I checkout immediately and went to the Extended Stay Deluxe for the same price. La Quinta, say it ain’t so!
Susan
let me add palmgrove in virginia beach, they even changed their name due to bad reviews . one elevetor no AC dirty. sfaff that doesnt speak an ounce of english and the american staff are rude beyond belief. I can also vouche for credit card fraud involved at this hotel.
You should add the Kikar Zion hotel right now!!!!
It had rats all along the corridor, and the corridor was long and dark, it had no lights!!!!!!
It was like from a horror movie, all the staff were arabs and they were creepy
Carpet smelled to dead body and in my room, there were almost, 999999 cocroaches…
PS. This was hilarious! I laughed so hard with this ahahaha!
Stayed at the Julia Motel on W Flager in Miami after arriving from Ohio with a couple of friends. Seemed clean enough to crash for one night. Woke up two hours later. Turned the lights on and found the place literally carpeted with roaches of all shapes and sizes including Palmetto bugs! I swear a couple of hundred were trying to carry our luggage out the door. Pandemonium broke loose as my shouts woke my friends and the bugs ran for their lives! Kept the lights and TV on the rest of the night to stay awake. Left at sunrise, never looked back!
I stayed at the Royal Century Hotel located in Inglewood, CA, close to LAX airport.
That hotel should be on this list of 10 worst.
Even though room rates are only $49 per night, it’s still not worth it…Not even close.
Sleeping on a street bench would be a better option.
Wow, turns out I have stayed at two of these. The NY Inn and the Airport Plaza Brook Park, OH. This was years ago but I do recall they were crap holes.
Missing from this list is the Thayer Hotel in West Point, New York. From bloody sheets and bed bugs to roaches and waterbugs at $300.00 per night. Brown water from the sink too. I was there for a wedding recently and it was awful. The food was terrible. I had to eat at a local bar in the middle of the night to keep from starving. The wait staff were very apologetic, but the Restaurant Manager Gino was the most bizarre aspect of the stay. He spent the weekend screaming at his subordinates one second and then grinning to the guests a moment later. One waitress was so upset, she ran away crying. He also told one of the men working there that he looked pregnant and should wear a bra under his polo shirt. Later, he sat in the upstairs bar drinking wine and having the wait staff service him. This man clearly needs professional counceling.
Okay. I was in Ocean City Maryland for the \Sunfest\ with my friend and her mom. Her mom booked us a room at \The Princess Bayside INN\. Let me tell you. The room we had reeked of must and smoke. My friend almost had a asthma attack. And the balcony we had didn’t even look out to the bay, it looked out to another building. Also the indoor pool was dusty and yellow, the pool depth read to only go to 5ft. The actual depth was more like 9ft. The Fire Alarms go off very easily and there is a bar that stay open all night long and the music is very loud. We could here drunk people yelling and music all night. This hotel is not worth anyone’s time.
People seem to forget the worst motel chain in the world, bar none. Motel 6 is the resort spot for Hookers, Drug dealers and everyone who has been evicted. After working on 16 Motel 6 locations across Illinois and Wisconsin I have seen it all. People Vomiting at several locations. Dead people hauled out and drug raids are among the attractions awaiting you. Stay anywhere but Motel 6. A cardboard box beneath a viaduct would be an improvement.
if you want to a peace of s**t hotel. you can go to the daysinn in lordsburg,mn were you can find wet and unstucked carpet if you like the smell of greasy hair then find it in pillow. and oniy thing they at breakfast is cereal w/milk ,yogurt and breads the juicer sound like a mexican martial arts yell.if you like these hotelsand your in lordsburg i recordmened the daysinn if not then go to the hamptoninn or comfortinn( im the people who hates wet carpet and very littie breakfast) luckly the next night i slept in a brand new hoilday inn express in colorado springs which was much better next was my house in northfield ,mn