A tossup on the best...

L'Auberge des Artistes in San Francisco is a great little B&B. Jewel-colored painted lady Victorian in the Filmore area. Brick walls, huge hand-painted murals, hardwood floors, fireplaces in the rooms, working antique appliances, NO TVs!! , fresh flowers for each bedroom every morning, saunas in each bathroom. And our room had a huge picture window looking right out into the back garden. Seeing the hummingbirds float between flowers on misty Bay-area mornings was HEAVEN! (The hosts, a young Bohemian couple, can't cook, though. )

Banting House Inn in Toronto is another favorite B&B. It's an old brick Victorian home with arts and crafts decor. Breathtaking original wood molding, a monumental central staircase, oriental rugs, themed rooms (the Oriental room has brooding, but ornate, Thai furnishings; the Oscar Wilde suite is pure Victorian excess with lush ferns, overstuffed toile pillows and comforters and a heated, marble bathroom floor.) The owners are fun, too -- they're two overeducated gay guys who could chill out with you and chat about anything for hours. Their park-like backyard is beautifully landscaped, and they've got this big, huggable golden retriever that loves to cuddle. Very kid friendly place, too. (One room has a doll house theme).

Disney World's Swan Hotel is cool for a more upscale resort feel. A pastel pink and blue hotel with a big swan sculpture atop feels more like Miami Beach than Orlando. International staff and every amenity you could think of. The room I had was one of the smaller ones, but it had a quirky beach motif. FANTASTIC 24-hour outdoor pool with slides and lit caves you can go in! Also shares a riverwalk with specialty shops and restaurants and a common beach with 3 other Disney resort hotels, all located right at the gates of Epcot Center. A bit swanky for me, but very nice stuff.
[Edited 3/10/06 6:43am]

Best:



Hotel Regina in Vienna.



Cosmos Hotel in Moscow.

Worst:



Motel 6 in Bug Tussle, Arkansas.

2the9s said:

Well....you put your life in your hands staying in a place called Bug Tussle.

2the9s said:

Wow!

althom said:

It was just a hop, skip, and a chigger-scratch down the dirt road from Toad Suck.

I shit you not:

http://users.aristotle.ne...dsuck.html

2the9s said:

SHANNA said:

My reaction EXACTLY!

Stax said:

...I used to drive by that hotel regularly..

Byron said:

It's nasty.

I've stayed in hotels WAY WORSE than any Motel 6.
[Edited 3/9/06 23:31pm]

Best...



...The Bellagio in Vegas


Worst...



...any one of a number of places that look like the above.

You know, a place that looks like it'd be adjacent to that joint where "Thumper" strips.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Best:
I don't travel often and never expensively when I do, so I've never actually stayed in a truly "fancy" hotel. The nicest hotel I have stayed at is the Crowne Plaza in Minneapolis.

Worst:
Some gross fleabag motel outside Minneapolis that I now can't even remember the name of. The place smelled and had cigarette butts and trash (including a dirty diaper) littering the hallway, and what I SWEAR was a bullet hole in the wall of the motel room itself.

This next anecdote didn't happen to me -- but when I was in high school, a guy I knew from out of town and his friend came to visit in my town, and were going to stay at a local cheap motel (This place had had a reputation as a dump for a long time; in fact, a few years previously some guy had shot and killed another guy during an argument in one of the rooms). They had already checked into their room and paid and everything, however after getting to town and having checked into this motel, they were able to find better (and free) accomodations and wanted to see if they could get their money back from the motel, so they went to the front desk and claimed they'd found a dead cat under the bed in their room, and wanted their money back and would be leaving. The guy at the front desk didn't bat an eye at that story, but just said "Oh, okay" and gave them a refund. Apparantly it wasn't anything too strange around that motel to have a guest come in and announce they'd found a dead animal in their room.

I tried to stay here once, but the place sucked BIG TIME because you'd find old naked decayed ladies in your bathtub all the time, and some crazy asshole with an axe kept going around trying to kill people.

The worst hotel I ever stayed in was the Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam with Carrie. The reception looked frightening at night as it was dark and dimly lit. We then had all our phones pinched from the room. To add insult to injury, this old guy came up to us with a tray of coffee as we were waiting in the reception to report the theft. After he'd served us, he handed his hand out for payment. Blessed cheek I thought!
[Edited 3/10/06 6:09am]

JDINTERACTIVE said:

oh you're right! That really was the worst. My goodness. Remember that weird stairway that went down to nowhere and there were piles of mail and papers and things just laying there? It was creepy!

CarrieMpls said:

Im sorry.

JDINTERACTIVE said:

I still had a nice time.

Lammastide said:

theAudience said:

Yeah...the ones where you can park your car at the door to your room...and/or, the ones with the neon 'Vacancy/No Vacancy' light out front might be better left for emergency use only. And in that case sleep in the bath tub!



Not the worst, but, in beautiful Bali I had to walk an enchanting winding path with lots of greenery to reach my bungalo. I realize that I was the visiter, but the hopping little frogs and the little lizzards climbing on the walls really freaked me out!! I'm a city girl...

SHANNA said:

I know those spots...



...Like this one where the "O" is missing. I think those are rated 1/2 .


That hotel in Bali sounds nice. I'm a city-boy but i'd take a chance on that one.
The frogs make it sound like the sleep-away camp I went to as a kid.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Knew you'd get that one.

I so wanted to post a pic of that place but couldn't remember the name.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

Reply to 'Best and Worst Hotel You've ever stayed at'

Marriott Downtown Minneapolis The Best.




Los Angeles Paradise Hotel


It was okay. Not that Bad. It just was.

actionthisday said:

As we were driving towards Dawson City we actually saw several vehicles heading in the opposite direction, and the people in some of them were waving at us with serious expressions on their faces.

Eventually we reached a roadblock where a big guy who looked just like an native American chief was standing in the middle of the road. He didn't say a word but raised his hand and made us stop. After what seemed like forever a truck with flashing lights emerged from the fog. The chief waved us through - apparently it was our escort that had arrived. The next few kilometres we actually saw small fires as close as ten metres from the road and the fog was thicker than pea soup. It was an amazing experience though. Totally unreal.

Best: W Seattle

Here's another vote for the W Seattle. It's very modern and stylish, yet not snobby or pretentious. And while it's only a 4-star hotel, it's been ranked as one of the top 500 hotels in the world.

Even though I now live in Seattle, I'll still go there for the bar. You can sit wherever you like -- even in the lobby by the fireplace -- and a server will take care of your drink needs. Depending upon what you order, your tab can be quite reasonable or outrageously expensive.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably state that I own stock in W Hotels' parent company.)

Worst: Penn Motel, somewhere in Pennsylvania

One year my parents decided that we'd drive to New England for our summer vacation during Fourth of July weekend, without making a hotel reservation. (This trip involved two days of driving.) On top of that, they kept pushing back our intended stop for the night, so as to reduce the amount of driving on the second day. Well, by the time we started looking for a hotel (maybe 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.), every place was full. We kept searching, but finally gave up and slept for a few hours in the car at a rest area in Danbury, Connecticut.

You'd think they would have learned their lesson... but no. They assumed that our hotel troubles on the way there were solely because it was the holiday weekend, and they decided that we'd make the return trip without a hotel reservation. (Is it that hard to pick a city and make a phone call?)

Well, once again, we couldn't find a hotel room. Eventually I spotted an old-fashioned motel, complete with a neon sign that said "Vacancy," and I pointed it out to my parents. We pulled in and were able to rent the last vacant room.

At least we didn't have to sleep in the car that night, but there were three major problems. One was that the cold water in the bathroom didn't work; we only had hot water. Second, there was a loud party all night in the room next to ours. And finally, the telephone didn't work, so my parents weren't able to call the office and/or the police to complain about the party next door. (I think the television may have also been broken, but we weren't exactly in the mood to watch TV that night.)

Oh, and if you adjust for inflation, this room cost about $80-90.

(BTW, we never did that summer trip again by car without reserving hotel rooms in advance.)

CarrieMpls said:

You'd be surprised what you can get for relatively little money. I've stayed in upscale hotels for $40-$50 per night. And I usually fly in first class, for less than $250.

Unfortunately, to get these kind of deals on a regular basis, you have to spend a lot of time learning how "the system" works, how to take advantage of it, and doing research. It's almost like a game to me, although some would probably think it seems more like an obsession. Still, when you travel with Matt, you're not gonna stay at Motel 6.

matt said:

You could give a girl a few tips, no?

Lammastide said:

They both sound like sleeping in an art gallery. Know where I can see any pictures online?

Nothinbutjoy said:

Never knew that was a hotel
[Edited 3/12/06 8:30am]

Best: George V in Paris, France.

http://www.fourseasons.com/paris/

This was how I got my then boyfriend to fall in love with me forever and now he's my husband!!! A surprise all expense paid trip to Europe wins 'em over everytime - along with some awesome skills!

Worst - Red Roof Inn Memphis, TN. I was driving alone cross country from Austin to Philadelphia. This was the half way point for me and I needed to sleep badly. To be honest, it wasn't really a dump, but it would have to be the "worst" I've stayed in.