Hotels..Motels..Holiday Inns...best and worst..

My brother lived in a suite at Tropicana in Atlantic for about 6 months. He was working for them and wrote that into his contract. While he enjoyed all the "fringe"benefits of being a single guy with cash in his pocket at a casino, it affected his job. The extra dry air because of the higher O2 levels was giving him sinus and throat problems. He got a humidifier for his room, but it didn't really help.

A friend shared this in an email:

Stayed Monday night at the Super 8 Motel in Stamford, CT . Pulled into the parking lot, opened my car door and almost puked when I was flooded by the overpowering stench of urine that had been baking on hot asphalt all day. Think 100X worse than the smell of the smelliest part of a downtown Boston subway station entrance on its worst day. Moved my car to the other side of the parking lot and opened the door and did puke the cud of my power-bar lunch into my mouth. Same smell. Moved the car around the motel to the far back of the rear parking lot, slowly opened the door, and involuntarily flailed at my face with my hands as if I was swatting away a swarm of tse tse flies. Same smell.

Checked in. No smell inside, but my mucous membranes were probably pretty well scorched by then.
Asked the manager “Did the circus stay here last night.” The nice middle-aged Indian man said nothing but appeared insulted.
I said. “Seriously.”
He said. “Why do you ask?”
I said. “Man, there is a god-awful ferocious stank in your parking lot.”
He said. “Really? I didn’t notice anything.”

Held my breath, went back out to my car. Got in my car. Got my stuff. Inhaled stale but relatively odor free car air, held my breath, and ran to the safety of the lobby.

Went to my room on the 4th floor, nice vinyl flooring throughout and strange white stains on the armchair’s brown fabric. No smell. Turned on the AC, smell came in. Turned off AC.

Pizza delivery guy seemed as concerned about me robbing him as I was of him me.
Watched the movie Midway on TV. Arnold from Happy Days was the Captain of the Battleship Yamamoto.
Slept, and successfully was not murdered.

Awoke, checked out, exited. No smell. Opened car door. Smell had found a new home having the entire night before it rained to permeate, what Acura had obviously not designed to be hermetically –sealed, the sanctuary of my car. (note to self, this suggests that if driven into deep water off a bridge, water will likely get into car and I will not in fact be able to enjoy the view of the undersea world until rescued). Left car doors open all day whilst working. Got into car to drive home. Smell still there. Drove home with windows open and heat on full blast to bake smell out. This seems to have worked. Left smell somewhere in CT. Beware.

Geoff said:

If I have the option and I can latch onto a cheap negotiated corporate rate, I usually try to book a Residence Inn if I'm going to be there for several days. I like the separate living area. If I've been in meetings from 8:00 to 6:00 and still have a pile of real work to plow through, I like the option of being able to eat-in instead of having to do restaurant food.

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Yep, that's why we like the Residence too even for pleasure travel for a night. It's nice to have the option of a separate sleeping room that way if one of us stays up later or gets up earlier than the other, you can move to the other room for TV and such. Unfortunately, the rooms at the Residence Inn on Tudor Wharf don't have separate rooms, just a large separate area.

I can pretty much get similar rates of about $60 plus parking at all the Marriotts in Boston. We usually pick the Residence on Tudor Wharf. I've stayed at every Marriott property within the city as well as Cambridge and that's generally where we try and book. Convenient to the Garden, North End, downtown and real easy to get north of the city.

For those going to Boston who prefer the full service experience, The Renaissance Hotel over by the Convention Center is far and away the nicest Marriott flagged property in Greater Boston. Great restaurant there as well, which is saying something as most Marriott restaurants completely suck.

deadheadskier said:

I can pretty much get similar rates of about $60 plus parking at all the Marriotts in Boston. We usually pick the Residence on Tudor Wharf.

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How do you manage to get that kind of rate?

Geoff said:

How do you manage to get that kind of rate?

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Used to be a manager at a Marriott and stayed on as a banquet bartender when I moved on to my current career. For about the first year I worked about once every three weeks. As time has marched on and other servers have been trained to do bars, I am now an emergency bartender. I essentially work about one shift every two months for typically about four hours. I'd work a bit more if they asked me to, but I'm fine with the current arrangement. For my efforts I receive full employee benefits at all of their hotels as do my family and friends. Pretty sweet deal.

Best hotel I've stayed at was the Negresco on the final leg of my honeymoon. (Incidentally the best restaurant that I have ever eaten in is at the negresco too)

Worst....The Casa Rosa Inn in Kissimmee. It's closed now.

Howards Motel in Glasgow Virginia.


I stayed here while hiking the AT. This room was the suite, the couch was a pull out that could not open fully because the other bed was in the way. The sheets were dirty and we all slept in our sleeping bags on top of the beds. The only decoration in the entire place was this:

thetrailboss said:

Worst:

Manchester, NH Econolodge. It was in an old mill building, was very sketchy, and I was attacked in the night by this huge bug. I did not sleep. It sucked. Will never stay at an Econolodge again!

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The name says it all.

I forgot to mention the two nicest hotels I stayed in were the Park Hyatt downtown Chicago and a suite at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The suite at the Taj was a free upgrade, I think because I mentioned that my wife works for a travel agency.

ERJ-145CA said:

The name says it all.

I forgot to mention the two nicest hotels I stayed in were the Park Hyatt downtown Chicago and a suite at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The suite at the Taj was a free upgrade, I think because I mentioned that my wife works for a travel agency.

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I'll be staying at the Taj Mahal for two night in September when I'm down there for the NJ state funeral directors convention..I'm hoping to get a room in the new tower!!!

That'd be a good setup for Couch Hucking- you could do a double couch to bed. GSS, get on it.

ctenidae said:

That'd be a good setup for Couch Hucking- you could do a double couch to bed. GSS, get on it.

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I'd hit dat..but I prefer a Best Western Couch..

ERJ-145CA said:

The name says it all.

I forgot to mention the two nicest hotels I stayed in were the Park Hyatt downtown Chicago and a suite at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. The suite at the Taj was a free upgrade, I think because I mentioned that my wife works for a travel agency.

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Some 5 years ago I had a room booked at the Taj for a continuing education conference. My wife and at-the-time 1 year old son went to AC with me. When I went to register, I was informed that I was upgraded to a corner suite. Cool.

We go up to the room and immediately upon entering smell what seemed like very fresh cigarette smoke. As we're checking the room out, with it's living room, bar, and jacuzzi, we notice a small bottle on the dresser in the bedroom. I walk over, pick it up and cry out, "It's f*cking 'Anal Lube'". My wife freaks, picks my son up and before I know it she's on the phone with the front desk.

Needless to say, we were moved to a different room.

Dr Skimeister said:

Some 5 years ago I had a room booked at the Taj for a continuing education conference. My wife and at-the-time 1 year old son went to AC with me. When I went to register, I was informed that I was upgraded to a corner suite. Cool.

We go up to the room and immediately upon entering smell what seemed like very fresh cigarette smoke. As we're checking the room out, with it's living room, bar, and jacuzzi, we notice a small bottle on the dresser in the bedroom. I walk over, pick it up and cry out, "It's f*cking 'Anal Lube'". My wife freaks, picks my son up and before I know it she's on the phone with the front desk.

Needless to say, we were moved to a different room.

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ahahahahahahaha

Dr Skimeister said:

Some 5 years ago I had a room booked at the Taj for a continuing education conference. My wife and at-the-time 1 year old son went to AC with me. When I went to register, I was informed that I was upgraded to a corner suite. Cool.

We go up to the room and immediately upon entering smell what seemed like very fresh cigarette smoke. As we're checking the room out, with it's living room, bar, and jacuzzi, we notice a small bottle on the dresser in the bedroom. I walk over, pick it up and cry out, "It's f*cking 'Anal Lube'". My wife freaks, picks my son up and before I know it she's on the phone with the front desk.

Needless to say, we were moved to a different room.

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That's to make it easier when you get the bill.