Motel Chains

[nbrown]

I stayed at a Fairfield Inn on the NW side of Fort Wayne a couple of years ago. It was a nonsmoking room that reeked of smoke, there was (someone else's) hair on the towels and gum stuck to the headboard.

It also took us about ten minutes to get noticed at the front desk in the middle of the afternoon. What a treat.

[barkermarker]

I stayed at a Fairfield Inn on the NW side of Fort Wayne a couple of years ago. It was a nonsmoking room that reeked of smoke, there was (someone else's) hair on the towels and gum stuck to the headboard.

It also took us about ten minutes to get noticed at the front desk in the middle of the afternoon. What a treat.

Uck, I am now officially grossed out.

The only thing that could make this worse is that you found yellowed toenail clippings in the carpet.

[oldsoprano]

The only thing that could make this worse is that you found yellowed toenail clippings in the carpet.

Oh, man, that actually happened to me once at the Vagabond Inn in Pasadena. :) :) :)

[GMichael1230]

Cheap, clean rooms, clean bathrooms, microwaves/refridgerators in every room: Econolodge.

Microtl is great for the money too. I remember in Buffalo and Madison getting a suite for $77 a night.

~G~

[Walter]

Wow! Great responses to this thread. Thank you! We were really at our wits end and figured this would be the place to pose these questions. Drum corps people being experienced travelers and all. I'm gonna go tell Roger his thread is taking off! :)

I remember in Denver at Finals we had a horrible experience with that Howard Johnsons, anyone go there? We had to switch hotels it was so awful!

Ya, I stayed at the Howard Johnson's in Denver too. There was this guy in the next room to me decided to take a shower at one o'clock in the morning. <**> <**>

By weeks end he was arrested for being on the loose after escaping police custody.

He had stolen a truck outside the hotel and led the police on a two hour chase up and down the street in front of the hotel. :sshh: :sshh:

Something about killing two people somewhere. b**bs b**bs b**bs

Remember that Lancerlady ??

[Elmo Blatch]

In 1998, we went to Ypsilanti. Against my better judgment, my buddy didn't book a hotel.

1. We stayed in Detroit for the night.

2. it wasn't a national chain

3. when checking in, the guy (and little woman on his arm) ahead of our group asked for "the hourly rate"

4. when asked what room we wanted, I said, wherever he is not (pointing to the guy in number 3)

5. there were burned iron marks on the bedspread

6. broken tile in the bathroom/kitchen (never understood that) where a stove once was

7. brown tub (not original color)

8. so many locks on the inside of the door, some were just painted over with the passing of time (memory tells me there were 9 said locks)

9. shag carpet that had been snagged in a few areas and bare in a couple others

In my 36 years of being motels/hotels, it was absoutley the worst.

Elmo Blatch

[oldsoprano]

That reminds me of the place I stayed for one night (and ONLY one night) one of the first years that finals were in Madison. I think it was called the Broadway Motel, and was at the Beltway and U.S. 51 on the southeast side of town. Talk about nasty...

[barkermarker]

Oh, man, that actually happened to me once at the Vagabond Inn in Pasadena. :) :) :)

:spit:

I may never get there. My ride from the airport is with Lindsay Lohan. :P

[That70'sLancer]

Well, lets recap that first night in Denver. First, we were booked into a non smoking room, but it became quite apparent that it was not always that way. It smelled like a cigerette butt and the walls were permanenty yellow stained. There were cigerette burns all over the place. For all we know, this room may have acheived it's non smoking status just 3 minutes before we got there.

The mattress was shaped like a bowl. Cobwebs in the corners. Tar drippings on the windows, broken toilet seat and I discovered that the smoke dectectors did not work.

Unfortunatly, due to the late hour, we had to stay there for one night before we moved across to the highway and the Motel 6.

As far as Motel 6's were concerned this one was OK. Certainly looked like the Waldorf Astoria when we first walked in from our nightmare the previous night.

Did I forget to mention that the desk people at the Howard Johnsons that following morning were the worst bunch of people ever to run a motel? A whole room of angry customers, they obviously are used to this and make their money one night stayer at a time. They refused to even talk about getting our money back, but we accomplished just that through a tough battle with the corporate offices when we got home. We also called the Denver Fire Department on the smoke detectors. they called my wife and investigated the place and we were told that they would have smoke detectors installed.

At least we got our money back and accomplished possibly saving someones life if a fire ever broke out.

A picture of the lovely sleeping arrangement..

Edited July 25, 2007 by That70'sLancer

[Senagod]

Darn right. Stay at the Comfort Suites or Hampton Inn just down the road. Much better quality. (especially the Comfort Suites)

Love the Comfort Suites. I'll miss them this November when we're not there for ACCs.

You can rarely go wrong with a Hampton Inn. I like them because there's free breakfast and every single hotel in the chain gets a 3-diamond rating from AAA.

I like Microtel. Days Inn can be very inconsistent. I've had good and bad experiences with them.

If you've got some money or somebody else is paying for it, Crown Plaza hotels are sweet! Loved the one in Rochester.

Priceline can be very good if you know what you're doing. A few years ago I got a room at a relatively high-class hotel in Morristown, New Jersey through Priceline, and I never would have been able to stay there without using that service.