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  • Copied from my website (I hate companies who don't give a fuck):

    Hilton (2023): both HGI @ BWI and the Twitter representatives + upper management put money way before the safety and experiences of a disabled customer, and provided a pittance of redemption - but they are so happy that I'm a loyal diamond-level customer. Talk is cheap and Hilton loves to use it, but not much else. Hello, Marriott!

    Details: https://goo.gl/maps/G4MpAd2heMcUqa9h8 ::: spoiler Details copied here for simplicity First and foremost: if you take nothing else from this review, do not stay here. I stayed here twice for a total of 4 nights and both stays were marred by incorrect room types and poor customer service. This extends to Hilton HQ as they were insultingly uninterested in making things right.

    I'm a disabled individual who booked one king size bed with roll-in shower for both stays, and had booked several months in advance. When I arrived on day 1 of stay 1, I walked in to check-in as the mobile ability was unavailable, only to be told that check-in wouldn't be available for some time. After dragging my exhausted self back to the car and getting food, I was checked in automatically around an hour later, so I returned to the hotel, got keycards from the front desk, and headed to our room. I was greeted by an incorrect room - an accessible tub instead of a roll-in shower - but my +1 suggested that we try to make it work. Spoiler warning: when you are disabled and are given incorrect accommodations, you are going to have a bad time. It was both difficult and dangerous for me, even with assistance, to shower. But as we had dinner and decided to get some sleep, the two of us crawled into bed; and it collapsed.

    So, after being confused and colorful language was exchanged, we decided to investigate what happened and attempt to mend it. Remember now that it's almost 1am, I haven't slept in 25 hours, I'm barely capable of basic daily functions and me and my +1 are trying to, non-destructively, mend a bed. We find that the support slats are woefully inadequate and in short supply, with only 6 on each side of the bed (my cheapo frame at home has double that, and they are better secured as to avoid this problem). After a few minutes we get the bed apart, shift and adjust and reinstall the slats, and reassemble the bed. At checkout I received a survey and detailed these issues, and received an email supposedly from the management apologizing for my troubles, thanking me for being a diamond member, but offering nothing but empty words.

    On day 1 of stay 2 a week later, I was again unable to do mobile check-in and was presented with a message to 'simply come to the front desk'. Worried but with a day-long drive ahead of me, I started the road trip. When I arrived at midnight, I was told that they just needed to see my ID (why? I was just here without that requirement) and then they gave me the keycards and off we went. Except, the room I was given this time wasn't even an accessible room. It was a standard corner (read: ikea-tiny sized) and the air was ripe with weed. As a standard room used a shower-tub combo that I cannot get into, my +1 went down to the front desk while I stayed behind (as walking is difficult and slow). When they were gone I surveyed the other customers of the hotel, and while I don't want to make assumptions, I got the feeling that there was illegal adult activities occurring just two rooms away, with people coming and going and some individuals hanging around the door in the hallway.

    When my +1 returned a few minutes later they had good news, we've been moved to a different room a few doors down. When we arrived and opened the door, we saw that it was a 'suite' (read: a living room space with couch and TV, alongside the standard basic bedroom and bath). Fine by me, and this room actually has the correct accessible bathroom. Both of us noted how the air was stale and smelled 'dusty', like it hadn't been used in quite some time. As I fell in bed, well past 1 in the morning, my +1 made an announcement.

    "There's a hole in the ceiling."

    Let's recap: first stay, wrong room, bed collapsed upon sitting on it; second stay, wrong room, room not accessible, replacement room unusually stale, replacement room has hole in the ceiling. We aren't done yet, by the way. Morning came and when we checked out, we alerted the front desk clerk about the (now apparent) water damage, hole, and sagging ceiling, who acted like we were just bothering her lunch break. She also had a tone with a customer who called in.

    Never again. :::

    Resolution: I was given 10k Hilton points - a value of roughly $40 at the location this all occurred at - which is unacceptably low (I was looking for a 1-night refund) given what happened. I plan on downgrading or outright canceling my Hilton credit card with American Express, as after I use my accumulated points I will cease to be a customer due to the lack of empathy and compassion, at all levels at this property as well as HQ; not just for a loyal customer, but a disabled one.

  • Was at a suite hotel in Schaumburg, IL on a business trip.

    My glasses fell off while I was asleep and in the morning, reached behind the bed to find them and came up with used hair curlers.

    I replaced them with a dated note reading "I don't think they clean here often."

    I bet it's still there...

    Another trip, same hotel (booked by my company, I had no choice), the room smelled like something died. They did move us to a different room.

  • Some crack den in Coalinga, CA when a friend and I were trying to meet halfway between Sacramento and Los Angeles on the 5 Fwy. His car had broken down so we were forced to stay there one night; it happened to be Halloween so the town was a little wild but our hotel was full of bugs, drugs and other fun surprises.

  • I don't remember the name. My mother asked me to help her clean out the house of a deceased friends some fair distance away so we had to hotel for the night.

    The door would not lock. We shoved a desk in front of it.

    I then spent the entire night on a rock hard bed next to my mother slowly melting from the heat, staring at the ribs of the ceiling as though I was inside the great whale before passing out. I woke up slick with sweat and vomitous. The table was fine though. Held the door shut.

    Guy had already found a new woman to move in and wanted his dead wife's stuff gone. Miserable trip.

  • I cant remember the name but it was a hotel in Bruges. The lobby looked lovely, but everything else was strange or run down.

    Honestly thinking back I feel like it was a fever dream. They had a lift that was incredibly small. The stairs were steep and covered in this really cheap thin red carpet that did not muffle the sound of people walking. To get to my room I had to go up two sets of stairs, and then down a set of stairs.

    The room required me to then go down another set of stairs, open the door for it to hit the end of the bed. The mattress was all spring, uncomfortable and had me waking up with backache. The windows were on the ceiling, but difficult to open and the room was stuffy.

    The shower seemed to have been put in what used to be a closet. No proper ventilation, and a skanky shower curtain. When turning the shower on it was equivalent to someone pouring water from a watering can on me.

    I complain, but it was booked and paid for by someone else. Bruges was lovely and I was only sleeping in the room for a couple of nights.

    • Must be a Bruges thing. I stayed in the Ibis last year and while it wasn't a complete horror story it was pretty awful with 1980s decor, stains on the walls, wires hanging out of the wall. I think they must be shuttering it or something because reception and breakfast were in the attached Novotel. I'd certainly never book an Ibis again.

  • I have a long list of really bad hotels,but some weren't responsible for their own badness (if you are in an "almost warzone" area priorities shift), some were known to be bad (and didn't try to look like they weren't - and were at least priced like that...so I am okay with that).

    The worst one therefore would be one with a formerly fairly posh German chain that is now mostly run down. First they didn't have my room ready. Then when it was ready, the carpet (ugh,I hate old 80ies carpet) felt squishy...and smelled...turns out the toilet leaked into the carpet. Which housekeeping surely would have noticed if they had cleaned the toilet....which still had the shit stains of whoever was in it before me. So I've got another room. It wasn't much cleaner and had twin beds. Not what I ordered but I didn't care at this point.. extra points: There was a hole in the wall behind the closet which woul allow someone to look into the bathroom of another room. Again I didn't care,especially as the other room seemed not to be occupied. And I was dead tired. (And yes,i always look behind closets, not for holes, but for bugs and cameras...had encounters with both)

    Later the same night a hooker knocked on the door. Which is kind of strange as the elevators required key cards and the stairs were "alarm locked". So she likely worked with someone on the inside. Which is kind of a security problem.

    Now, at around 3 o'clock in the morning the door swings open and a very drunk lady walks in with her baggage. She screams I scream, she needs to puke before I can explain. At least she makes it to the toilet. So here I am, holding the hair of a total stranger puking her soul out. (Hey, as an original Oktoberfest trainer paramedic I am a professional at that!) It later turns out they simply gave her the shit stained room an hour after me, when she complained they promised to give her another room by the time she would come back from her stag night. I really would like to tell you know how this was a big love story, but it's not. After she had a few more bodily functions and I was sure she would be okay I packed my stuff, screamed at the night desk staff a bit after they accused me of bilking the bill and went to the other side of the street into another (big EU chain) hotel. .... whose night staffmember looked at me, asked me if I was also a "refugee from that other hotel" and laughed. Told me I was already the fourth one the same night.

    Funny enough they really had the audacity to charge my company for the whole stay, even for things they wouldn't be able to charge if I left after a full day. (Taxes, breakfast,etc., parking) The company lawyer had their fun with them.

    I just looked them up and while the chain still operates the hotel has been closed long ago. And funny enough I even found a newspaper article of the staff complaining that "no other hotel would employ them because they knew we were above their level". Yeah,no.

  • When I moved out west with my mom and sister, the road trip took around 5 days. Most stops were good. The Red Roof Inn in Oklahoma was a total shithole. Lock on room didn't work. Flickering broken lights in hall out of horror film. Super suss guests... Slept with a knife under my pillow.

  • The sliding closet door fell off and nearly hit me. The chair had, um, what I assume were fresh bodily fluids based on the ... glisten. The sink was clogged.

  • An old convent in Venice. It had a single exit, which we found out when the fire alarm went off. It was a very large and high spiral staircase in the middle of the building.

    It was 40C with 90 percent humidity. Of course, it did not have AC. Everyone had their window and door open at night and just hoped they wouldn't get mugged.

    Cheap, though.

  • Shittiest one on paper would be the American Inn in Denver but I actually like that place. I think the one I ended up hating was rural Nebraska for plumbing problems and you could hear a divorce going on in the next room.

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