I am shocked the Stratford Inn in Fenton didn’t make the list!

If I had to nominate a single city for unclean and overpriced rooms, it would be our own Kansas City, MO.

I often drive back and forth from St. Louis rather than pay $20 a night just in room taxes as well as staying in such unclean rooms. But then, most hotels in America have aged badly and been poorly maintained over the last 30 years.

This is a national epidemic as our hotels are owned now, and ran, by those who care only about a dollar. From old televisions to only basic cable: from old sheets and comforters to poor heat and cooling. Showers with no pressure and old nasty towels. Travel in America is now at your own risk. Make sure your shots are current.

More interesting would be to conduct the slimiest hotels survey here in St. Louis. Some of the hotel rooms I service I would not let my dog stay Inn (ha)
I will submit the waste of land in Bridgeton called the Motel 6. Treat your olfactory sense to the aroma of ciggy smoke, bar rag, feet, and dirty laundry. What is that stuck to the wall?

I am surprised the Days Inn in Williamsburg, Iowa is not on this list! My b/f goes pheasant hunting there and the last time we stayed at this hotel but never again. There is a brand new hotel right across the interstate that costs the same amount.

vincenzo- The motels in that specific area are more residences than motels. A large number of aliens(?) are inhabiting that area as they work for businesses in the vicinity. You should check out that QuikTrip on a late weekend night.

Most of the time, these Days Inns are franchise operations owned by immigrants. Nothing against immigrants owning hotels, but their standards for sanitation are not the same as what we westerners are used to.

Are there hotels/motels out there that are so dirty I wouldn’t let my dog sleep in them? Of course. Are the majority of hotels this way? Not by a long shot. I’ve been a hotel employee off and of for 10 years and i assure you that unless you are an OCD clean-freak, the majority of hotel rooms out there are cleaner than your own homes. Sure mistakes get made and sure there are housekeepers and hotel managers out there that don’t care, but we live in a modern era of cleanliness where in the majority of hotels, rural or urban, bathrooms and linens and surfaces in all rooms are cleaned daily. Be happy we live in the future, and stay out of the cheap hotels.

I have stayed in Hotel Carter and let me tell you, if you think you have stayed in bad hotel, you have not! Not until you have spent a week (yes a week) in the Hotel Carter, could you possibly imagine the filth in every single part of this hotel. Bed bugs… check. Water bugs (basically a monster cockroach)… check. Attached to deli and strip club… check. electricity (just barely)… check. What more could you ask for? And no, I’m not still bitter.

I must travel about 100 days a year and have some helpful tips.

Join a hotel frequent hotel stay club and then drive up to 40 miles out of your way to keep gathering points with that club. As far as I can tell
Holiday Inn and their family of hotels are the biggest nationally. But
you may find more hotels of another chain where you travel.

Even then, check the chain of your choice for the best rates around where you are. I’d rather stay at a Holiday Inn property 20 miles away from where I’m working if the room rate is a lot cheaper there. Sometimes I save $60.00 a night or so that way.

If you are staying a week or so in a certain area, you have a lot of power
to negotiate your rate with the manager of the hotel. I like to stay my first night of a long stay on frequent hotel points. If I like the cleanliness and service I then negotiate my rate for staying there the rest of my trip. You’d be surprised the deals a hotel might offer you
to keep that room filled! If they don’t offer a deal it’s your decision
what to do. Except in very rare cases, I go to another Holiday Inn property around there and try again.

Don’t be tempted to leave your hotel chain of choice (and their club) because you will not gather enough points being a member of two clubs
unless you actually almost live on the road!

Take advantage of your hotel club status by asking if you can use the guest wi-fi or computer at hotels along your travel route! If the computer is not currently being used by a guest, I am almost never turned
down. Free wi-fi is even easier, and if a certain hotel refuses
to let me have the needed password, I tell them I will absolutely call the corporate office on them. If they still refuse I call corporate immeadiately!

I could give you a lot of tips, but let me just end by telling you to go directly to the next “Dollar General” store that you see and pick up a
spray bottle of their “Wrinkle Releaser” in the detergent section. It’s
$1.75 for a huge amount and it’s works like magic on many fabrics.
A true road warrier’s dream!

We live in the future?