Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Worst Hotels To Stay At

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-27-2002, 03:17 PM:

At the top of the list should be Extended Stayamerica!! They have places all over the country. I was stuck at their place here in Bosie for a week. Worst beds, clean towels only twice a week, no pool or ot tub, cranky employees. All in all its a great place to stay away from. Seemed like a good deal at first but time told the truth. It should be called Extended Backpainamerica.
Mark @ GTS

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 07-27-2002, 04:02 PM:

Travel lodge has to be the worst for me. Beds made of rocks, poor cleaning of the rooms.

Best I have stayed in have to be Holiday ins.

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-27-2002, 04:18 PM:

When I was a roving video whore, I tried to economize for the sake of my company. What is true of most of these chains is that local management has as much to do with the comfort of the place as does the chain. That said I have also found that in most places, newer is better.

I hate the Best Western chain as a whole. They never seem to update the rooms and they always smell like a mixture of old cigarettes and multiple cleaning chemicals.

But worse than Best Western is Travelodge. They stink! I once checked in to a Travelodge, checked out the room, went to dinner, checked in to another hotel and went back to the Travelodge to check out and they told me I couldn't so I said to hell with it. I told my boss about it and he said "Don't worry about it, it happens to the best of us."

I have been too afraid to stay at any Econolodge.

I have had good luck with Days Inn. They've got great ones and they have stinkers. The key is to pay attention to their ratings in their guidebook. They tend to tell the truth. I stayed in one Days Inn in El Paso, TX that was so nice and had a pool that I wanted to move in. I've stayed at the Days Inn near Chicago's O'Hare with flight crews, that was so bad you couldn't wait to make that 6 am flight the next morning.

Why is it that all Holiday Inn Express hotels have been better than Holiday Inn? I mean really, Holiday Inn Express is a great chain.

Airport Hiltons should be avoided unless the airline is paying. They charge $150-$300 for an $80 room. That said, most other Hiltons are nice if a bit expensive.

In Santa Rosa I spent 7 months living in the Redwood Inn and Trailer Park. The room was $41 per night and had a kitchenette. The place was worn down but kept spotless. They painted while I was there. The parking lot was swept daily. They changed my bedspread every couple of weeks. And they only presented me with a bill once per month. I had my father stay there and I had my technician stay there twice. The place was run by Apu.

I have had decent luck with Motel 6 and Motel 8, you generally get what you pay for.

Microtel is alright if you just need to sleep one night somewhere. The rooms are tiny, spartan and lit with florescent tubes. But they are all of a uniform quality. They are cheap but not any cheaper than the other low-priced chains.

Posted by Richard Fowler (Member # 893) on 07-27-2002, 06:29 PM:

I spent an average of four to five months a year in many different countries. The two worst where located in St. Thomas, Virgin Island and in the Dominican Republic. The St Thomas location had hundreds of roachy friends that on two future visits I brought bug bombs and pre-sprayed the room before checking in and kept all suitcases closed....the hotel has since been torn down and there is more places to stay. The Dominican one had paper thin walls ( my hand on the wall would make it flex ) they would lock you in at 10 p.m.....but for some reason someone must of paid the guard since there would be people knocking on your door with women or cocaine for sale at 3 a.m. in the morning.
When I was a University student ( 1971 ) while driving from Los Angeles to Florida, I stayed at a hotel in New Mexico with a room that was 3+ feet ( 1 meter ) wider than the bed and found a scorpion in the shower the next morning...the hotel had a huge sign on the highway and you drove 5 minutes off a side road to reach this beauty. I have my black book of hotels and restaurants so every trip for me is like going from one home or another.
Richard Fowler
TVP-Theatre & Video Products Inc. www.tvpmiami.com

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 07-27-2002, 07:43 PM:

In traveling the world the last 15 years, the absolute worst hotel I stayed in was in Taichung Taiwan. The lobby had a caved-in ceiling with debris and a huge steel beam lying on the floor from a recent earthquake. My room was dismal with a hole in the wall by the light switch. Several times a night a large mouse or rat would peek out of the hole and then scamper back into the wall. We got to be great friends as I would feed him crackers and he'd leave me alone. Yeah, I really liked that place.

The worse U.S. place 4me was motel 6...they never seem to turn on the heat or A/C until *absolutely* necessary. I have froze my balls many times in those places.

>>> Phil

Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 07-27-2002, 07:49 PM:

>>I hate the Best Western chain as a whole. They never seem to update the rooms and they always smell like a mixture of old cigarettes and multiple cleaning chemicals.<<

Expect to get a severe reaming by Kat Baggett and Eli Blasingame shortly.

-Aaron

Posted by Ian Price (Member # 14) on 07-27-2002, 09:41 PM:

quote:
What is true of most of these chains is that local management has as much to do with the comfort of the place as does the chain. That said I have also found that in most places, newer is better.

Aaron,

That should have covered it.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-27-2002, 09:47 PM:

The worst hotel/motel I ever stayed in was a Motel 6 in Reno. Not because there was anything wrong with the room, but because the room was right next to the Interstate, facing it, and the noise from traffic was deafening, all night long. Many Motel 6s are built on Interstate frontage roads. ACK!

Best is Embassy Suites in Bellevue WA (my employer at the time was paying for it). Great room, free happy-hour drinks every day, and free breakfast made to order. I could get used to that.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-27-2002, 11:06 PM:

I agree Travelodge sux!

Went to a Travelodge in South Carolina. The phone lines were messed up. I HAD to get on line to e-mail in a report and an order part so that they could get ordered first thing in the morning.

I went down to the lobby and asked them to use their FAX line in the office. It took me 10 minutes to convince them to let me do it. I had all the messages composed off-line. It would only take me three minutes for crikey sake! (Longer than it actually took to make the call!) The old bitty stood there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot on the ground the whole time.

I asked her to put in a work order to have the line fixed ASAP. HECK! I used my phone line tester to tell them exactly what the problem was! She promised me that it would be done first thing in the morning. I came back later on, tested the line and it hadn't been fixed. Not only that, nobody had been into the room... not even houskeeping! (I always "fix" the door.) When I asked the woman at the desk she swore the guy had been there and fixed it.

I just packed up my shit, checked out and went across the street to the Sleep Inn. It was $10 more expensive. That's why I didn't go there in the first place. Never went back. From that day on, the boss didn't complain about me going to the Sleep Inn. It was a MUCH nicer place, anyway.

What's more, after staying at the Sleep Inn a few times the manager got to know me and would hook me up with better rates.

I wouldn't be afraid to stay in (almost) any Sleep Inn.

Posted by Don Sneed (Member # 955) on 07-27-2002, 11:09 PM:

My worst...any hotel in Japan....the rooms are just a wee bit larger than your bathroom at home...no kidding !!! Plus no English TV or Americam food !!

Posted by Kat Baggett (Member # 1154) on 07-28-2002, 03:35 AM:

ok...now to play referee....betweeen Aaron and Ian..
Best Western's are independantly owned...and it does really depend on the management and the owners aw to what you will find at each one...I believe I work at one of the better ones...and if you would like to come down and take a ture just let me know and I can set it up...but you might want to wait until I get back to work..and at this point in time I am not sure when that will be....hopefully the doc can get my surgery scheduled for the next couple of weeks and get me back there soon...

Kat

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 07-28-2002, 06:14 AM:

I don't look for much in the way of a hotel room...just a reasonably comfy bed, a way to patch my laptop into the phone and quiet. Since I prefer to start work in the afternoon and work very late into the night, a late check out time is also preferred. Any place that you must check out of at 10:00 AM to me is a bad place. Noon is reasonable.

With that in mind, I haven't had too many complaints with various places I have stayed. However there is one chain I do not patronize just by the name alone. Ever hear of "Budgetell motels"? Something about that name just doesn't strike me right. Don't get it? Say it out loud.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 07-28-2002, 12:22 PM:

There are some real hotel horror stories at www.gripenet.com and search the past gripes.

Motel 6 is just so-so for me, but the I have been very happy with SUPER 8 MOTELS, Holiday Inn Express, and Howard Johnsons.

Posted by John Scott (Member # 520) on 07-28-2002, 03:07 PM:

Budgetels were owned and franchised by the Marcus Corporation. About 5 years ago, Marcus decided to move from the limited service lodging to a mid-level lodging chain and remodeled all of the old locations (and contstructed many new ones) and renamed the chain Baymont Inns. The quality is actually quite good and very reasonable. Each location has free lobby breakfasts, and most rooms now have data ports in the desk lamps and complementary bottled water in the rooms.

You can check them out online at www.baymontinns.com .

As for Budgetel, there is 1 Budgetel in name only still in existance (in order to keep the trademark on the name) in Appleton, WI. It has all of the Baymont amenities (and was remodeled in the conversion), but just has the other name.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-28-2002, 04:09 PM:

The present heatwave currently settled over London (where I am temporarily house-sitting and cat-sitting whilst rellies are on hols) reminds me of a horrid experience of a B & B in Oxford where I stayed once or twice when, as a postgrad student based in Exeter, I did relief shifts for City Screen.

Like Brad, I didn't really care about the facilities: I was only going to be there for about eight hours. The evening I arrived was one of the hottest of the year, yet the radiators were full on and the valves seemed to be jammed open. The windows would not open. A couple in the next room were having an almighty row: the woman was explaining in gruesome detail what she would do to her husband if he didn't accede to a list of demands. Six sweaty and sleepness hours later I was seated over breakfast (barely eatable) with a fat South African who decided to lecture me about how the 'bliks' were ruining Africa and that 'we should have hanged that shit Mandela when we had the chance.'

And then followed 12 hours showing Evita and a four-hour drive home. Those were the days...

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-28-2002, 08:28 PM:

Well SUper 8 is usually okay with no major complaints and the phone lines are usually good for dialup connections at reasonable speeds
But I was a little upset with Motel6 as when in Sandiego no calls could be charged to my room and there was no local dialup for my IP provide and the combo lan modem in my laptop then did not support more than12 digit dialing
Spent a lot of time in a internet cafe
I personally think a lan connection in every room should be manditory under hotel/motel licensing

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-28-2002, 11:01 PM:

Could be done for maybe $500 per floor if they put in wireless.

Posted by Joshua Lott (Member # 240) on 07-29-2002, 02:42 PM:

One of the better places I have stayed is at Double Tree in Portland. That place was really comfortable and nice... The cookies there are great too.

I agree that Extended Stays SUCK!!!

Posted by Rick Long (Member # 213) on 07-29-2002, 10:20 PM:

Okay, I guess I take a different attitude to service than many of you, at least as far as accomodations go. I was taught by an old-fart (and since I am now an old-fart myself) you can imagine how far back HIS experiences must go - perhaps as far back the days of the depression).

I was constantly reminded that routine service is on the loss side of the theatre's ledger, thus less expensive motels are my first choice. Make no mistake, one bug or rodent and I am out of there like a shot!

If I am on holiday with my wife, Holiday Inns and Howard Johnsons present no problem.

If I am on the road by myself, doing service, however, it is another story. I am there to work, not to party. Many of the theatres I service run continuously from noon (some from as early as 10 A.M.). Thus, if I am to do a decent routine service, I find it more convenient to start my day at 10:30 P.M. (in order to give me a chance to chat with the projectionist-usher, view the operation during the show, looking for focus problems or possible worn stator contacts in the platter, for example) and work till show-time the next day.

I need no swimming pool or internet access. I do, however need a fridge and relative quiet during the day (in order to sleep). Beleive me, it can be a real bitch changing your sleeping routine for only one week.

Because I service pretty much the same routes year after year (basically, the province of Ontario), and because I have found which out-of-the-way motels serve my needs best, I have become friends with most of the motel owners (who, by and large, are mom & pop operations) and have no objection to changing the bed linen at odd hours in which I am not in the room (and yes, I always leave the chambermaid a tip).

So if I wish to make myslef a Dagwood sandwhich ( the ingredients of which are charged to the company) and have a couple of beers after work (even tho after work is as early 11 A.M.), I am not looked upon as a hopeless alcoholic, but merley a technician.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 07-30-2002, 08:35 AM:

All I really need is a clean room, a warm bed and good cable TV that gets HBO & CNN. When traveling, keeping up on the news is important.

Internet service is really getting to be a necessity, though...
Most of my service calls would come in via e-mail because calling the cellular is reserved for "house-down" emergencies. If somebody was having trouble but was still on-screen they would have to e-mail. I was required to check e-mail at least 2 or 3 times a day. Also, at the end of each day I would type up a report and save it until the end of the visit. At that point, all the reports would be sent to the boss.

Also, most of our parts orders were done via e-mail. In emergencies we had a "hotline" number we could call and get parts shipped overnight but, again, that was reserved for "house-down" emergencies.

If there was any time when we needed advice we could aways e-mail one of the other techs in the company and ask them. Having 10 other guys who know the job as well as (or better than) you at your fingertips is always a plus. On top of that, there is always Film-Tech! The great thing about FT is that it's virtually 24/7 operation. It may take a few hours to get a good answer but at least it's available.

Because of this, the first thing I would do when checking into a room would be to try to download my e-mail. If I couldn't get a connection I would go back and ask for another room. If that didn't work I would decide whether or not I wanted to stay in that motel. Sometimes, if the theatre was close by and the room was otherwise good I would stay.
Having to get into the mgr's office to do business is a pain, though. There were a few managers I didn't care to be around. Sitting in the office with them was not one of my favorite things to do. So if the motel didn't have good phone lines... "Check out please!"

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 07-30-2002, 01:19 PM:

"All I really need is a clean room, a warm bed and good cable TV that gets HBO & CNN."

Good call ... but I prefer Fox News Channel to CNN (gotta get my daily dose of O'Reilly)