Would you ever stay in a dirty cheap motel while traveling?

Smell her!

Awwww. OP thinks Hilton is glamorous and likely has never been in one.

No dirty, but definitely cheap.

If I can travel for twice as long by spending less on a place to sleep, I'll do it.

Only if the male employees are also cheap and dirty.

I'd go cheap, but would first read reviews before booking.

Once I stayed at a hostel in NYC ........sheesh, never again.

A friend stayed at a B&B in Fort Lauderdale once ......even though one of the reviewers said they'd found a dead body wrapped in a sheet under their bed !! He was like "eh, the review was nearly five years old ..."

Shivers .....

A few years ago I watched a crime documentary. In it, the forensics people admitted that in one case there were unwashed semen stains from over two dozen "donors" on one motel comforter they tested, plus god knows how much female fluid, urine, tiny smears of crap, etc. And it wasn't even a cheap sleazy motel, from what I recall---it was a good/average one that just happened to be the scene of a murder.

No doubt it was just an exceptionally gross establishment, but ever since hearing that the idea of sleeping in any motel bed makes my skin crawl.

R6, you must ALWAYS remove the decorative bed spread immediately upon entering, along with all decorative pillows. You must also NEVER walk in bare feet or drink from the glasses in the bathroom.

R7 is right. I have on occasion taken the largest bath sheet and laid it on the bed to sleep on. I know a few germs won't kill me but it still makes my skin crawl.

Cheap, OF COURSE. Filthy, not so much.

I used to slum on road trips until I was late 30's. Best are long road trips with a new lover fucking dirty in cheap motels. But I've pull into some to pull right back out again, if too filthy. I AM THE ONLY DOWN AND DIRTY thing in the room, please.

While temping, I lived in a series of dirty cheap motels. The crack users were quieter than the heroin users.

I kept a set of 'hotel' clothing in the car trunk and changed at the gym.

What's wrong with the glasses?

sleazy whores love staying there

They are wiped out with the dirty cleaning clothes of the dirty illiterate housekeeper.

I'm feeling a little ill reading all of this.

A few years ago I made a last minute trip to a small beach resort in Thailand for New Years. Just about every hotel in town was sold out and those that weren't were $600 a night. I started asking and researching and finally wound up at an ocean front "Love" motel. It wasn't dirty, but it was sleazy. I paid $40 a night and even had a balcony overlooking the ocean. But it wasn't a Hilton by a longshot.

Two summers ago, during a bad nicotine relapse, I was invited to a wedding in a smaller city in Ontario. I took a motel because it would be easier to go outside to smoke. It wasn't a chain, and the decor was dated, but it was cheap and clean, and well maintained. One of my smoker relatives laughed at me for taking some mom and pop place, sight unseen. She was staying at a chain with a smoking room much closer to the wedding reception.

Her room was awful!

Only the ones that have hourly rates.

I was 25 and was picked up by a tall blond german businessman who was about 40 in a peep show in times square and he took me to a bona fide hooker hotel with hourly rates. When I got home my roommates laughed at me for not charging for the fuck.

[quote]When I got home my roommates laughed at me for not charging for the fuck.

Well...you should have.

Cheap hotels all the way. When I travel it is because I want to explore a new place, I don't spend much time in the hotel at all, screw spending an unreasonable amount of money for one.

Dirty sleazy sluts sleep in hotels like that, I know, because I do

Cheap yes, dirty no.

Priceline app has given me some of the 4 stars for the same price as the Motel 6, more than once.

I've stayed in many, many cheap motels travelling in small towns. The common thread is the carpet. I walk in socks most of the time. They are filthy by the end of the day in both cheap and expensive rooms. I just accept the dirty carpets and outdated, well-worn décor if the place is safe. If it has a nasty toilet, counters, sheets, etc., I'm out of there.

I've cut back to only the ones I've stayed out before and trust due to the bed bug danger. Bring those damned things in your house, it's like moving heaven and earth to get rid of them. But, they're popping up in nice places now, too. And then there are the scabies. My brother in law got a batch of them on him staying at a cheap place traveling on his job last year.

How dirty?

After working for Hilton for too many years, I prefer not to stay in them now. Of course, now that they aren't "Hiltons" anymore, who knows.

In the olden days, it was great fun to travel for days and look for just the right motel around twilight each evening. I remember on back-to-college trips, 5 days on the road, my car was packed with clothes hanging all the way across in back. Never lost anything. Imagine that.

I used to stay in the ultra-cheap places like Motel 6 (even though I could have afforded better) because, as someone mentioned above, all I ever did was sleep there, so I didn't need luxury accommodations. However, I started to go more upscale to a least a Best Western/La Quinta level because of two factors-- first, often the location of the ultra-cheap places was less than safe, and second, the clientele at those places was often of the "undesirable" persuasion. And they tend to be loud, inconsiderate, and sometimes scary.

I'm more likely to be found in a boutique hotel in Berlin or maybe the Tokyo Ritz Carlton these days, but there's certainly something exciting and hot about staying in a cheap motel. I would totally do it if I wanted to live out a fantasy about being a bohemian free spirit on the road, or Dusty Springfield when she was down on her luck in the early 80s, or just a slutty Craigslist cocksucker. Safe in the knowledge that I could leave anytime, of course.

When I was younger I did, all the time. No problem. Once in Barcelona I felt, enough, from now own I want bigger room, bed, toilet, including great breakfast, center location. From then I have paid more. Not luxury but very good hotels.

When I was younger and poorer, maybe.

One thing that made me change was the reintroduction of BEDBUGS. I know that staying at a better hotel is no guarantee but I believe that you do cut your chances down significantly.

One may stay in a cheap motel while journeying to one's destination; however, one must stay in a classy joint when one arrives.

We have been staying at Hamptons on our road trips because we find that the nearby restaurants tend to be better than the average roadside are. After 10 hours driving we don't want to get back in the car to eat.

are = fare^ Damn keyboard.

I used to love staying at cheap motels and driving across the USA. Ever since bedbugs came back, no more cheap motels, and if there's any way I can drive back the same day instead, I do.

Did hotels and motels just give up on keeping out the bedbugs, roaches, lice or whatever? I've gone into chain hotels In nice areas catering to business people, the lobby and rooms are modern, but there's roach poop all over the floor. Just wipe a piece of wet paper towel on the floor and watch the black spots come up. I keep my bags off the bed and zipped up. My dirty clothes go in a plastic bag and are washed immediately upon returning. I automatically check for bedbugs now no matter how nice the room or how many times I've stayed there. Traveling in California is now like traveling in a third world country unless you're staying at a business hotel or better.

Between the low standards of cleanliness for hotels and motels and the miserable airlines, traveling for fun, for people who aren't able to spend a large amount at every point in the trip, seems to be over.

When did the American travel industry lose its self respect?

I don't mind Motel 6, especially if it's one of the ones with the updated rooms. It's a bed, and they're pretty clean. The biggest problem with Motel 6 is that they're usually filled with truckers and guys working construction jobs, so the noise level gets pretty high when they're all up and moving about at 5:30am.

The one I try to avoid are the old motels that obviously started life as Holiday Inns or Ramada Inns and are now independent. You're practically guaranteed a dirty room in one of them.

I'm trying to think when this bedbug problem re emerged. I never gave it a second thought 20 years ago. And then about 15 years ago, in Scotland, I had bites all up and down my calves. The hotel staff blamed it on midges.

Now the first thing I do is check the usual trouble spots and remove the bedspread. R33 is right for the most part but I've had bedbugs in a room in a hotel in Boston on Copely Square, and no problems in much more rustic places next to the expressway.

I thought I could be all edgy and down home and go the rat motel route on a trip down to Atlantic City but the one time I rented a true dive, I couldn't even sleep in the room that night because it looked like something out of a David lynch movie and smelled like decay, mothballs and ashtray.

There was brown shag carpet, an amber glass card table light, orange wallpaper and this weird, brown, green and yellow floral bedspread that looked like something they dumped a body out of, hosed down and threw back on the bed to dry. If you took the 1970's, made it look dirtier and spilled it all over that room after an hour hooker had used it and remade the bed, you'd get some idea of what it looked like. And it was smack in the middle of masses of farmland. Creepy.

One of the motels that went broke in Baker was described as having roaches floating in the toilet and bloodstains all over the arms of the chair in the room. It sounded like something out of David Lynch.

R35 that most likely would be midges - they don't really have a bedbug problem there but the midges are ferocious.

You are all such frail and delicate creatures! I am imagining your rooms in your own houses, and I keep seeing something that looks like it was co-decorated by Sue Ann Nivens and Holly Hobbie.

No. I'm one of those people who would rather stay 1 night in a great hotel rather than 3 nights in a dump. I feel the same way about restaurants. So I don't travel as frequently as some, but when I do I have a truly memorable experience. I will gladly stay in a "cheap" place if t has character. But cheap as in fleabag...never.

Bedbugs are on the rise in movie theatres too...

I read virtually all the reviews which were posted online today, and they weren't terribly positive. But they weren't disastrous either. Most critics are taking a "I'm going to give it a few more episodes before making any rash judgments" attitude. That's pretty much how I feel as well.

I'm not so sure about Taylor Kitsch being gay. I think he is suffering from PTSD following his stint with a firm which is a thinly veiled reference to Blackwater. He was involved in some extremely shady, perhaps illegal and unethical tactics in the Middle East/Iraq during the War. That's just my own thought, as the critics seem confused by his brief explanation of having worked with "Black Something" and justifying it as being for the good of this country. Remember when they strung all those Blackwater contractors up on the bridge in Fallujah? Something like that. Colin's character is so beyond being a loose cannon I don't know what he is NOT capable of. I am really interested in his character and Ani's the most of the cast thus far.

Rather than laying blame on the who & why regarding the reemergence of bedbugs, how do we get rid of this problem once and for all ?

I don't know how my post at R42 ended up in this thread, but I apologize for screwing up.

Say that all you like from your cozy perch but roughing it is not a problem for me. I don't mind hiking for days and hosing down in a box after mucking through wetlands.

But this room...if Holly Hobbie developed a crack problem and let her quilts get dingy between tricks, it would be about halfway to where this room was. I seriously wondered if a body was just moved off the bed. It smelled like it hadn't been cleaned since 1972.

No. I'd sooner sleep in a car, mine or a rental.

Get ready to have to make a huge investment to get rid of bedbugs after you get home.

I travel for work a lot and pack a travel bed bag - it's like a sleeping bag made out of sheets to protect you from bedbugs which are a threat even at 5-star hotels.

The last cheap motel I stayed at was about 5 years ago in Rhode Island at the beach. It was next to a biker bar and I am pretty sure I heard gunshots. When I was a kid on family roadtrips my mother would go in and inspect the motel room before my Dad would pay for it. If it wasn't clean, we wouldn't stay. All I cared about was if it had a pool and cable TV.

I cleaned a lot of hotel rooms when I worked in hotels - mainly late at night when we were short and needed to turn some around fast. Funny, it never occurred to me as I changed beds just like at home, throwing spread on the floor then putting it back on the bed, how utterly filthy that was. Especially in those days when the spreads were NEVER cleaned.

Thinking back .. phone rings as you get out of the shower. You sit on the side of the bed, wet bare butt, in exactly the same spot where 21,858 bare butts have sat before you. And you don't want even to imagine what else has happened on that spread.

Absolutely not, especially when I can afford better.

My rule is that the room(s) I stay in must be as comfortable or better yet, more luxurious than the place I live in. I live in a condo in a relatively new building with some amenities.

I don't mind them, but they're usually a false economy. Last week my choice was a Motel 6 level hotel for $79 or a Hyatt for $118. Just the free wi-fi and the in-room coffee at the Hyatt closed the price gap to the point where it was a no-brainer.

R50 Motel 6 has free wi-fi.

How did bedbugs come back? They were practically nonexistent for decades and then all of a sudden about 10 years ago they were suddenly back again. Are there any theories?

Actually cheap motels are safer from bed bugs because everyone knows it's New Yorkers who have them and spread them and they would rather die than be caught in a Knight's Inn.

I rairly stay at hotels anymore, mostly vrbo apartments. I always go by the reviews, and most will have a washer and dryer so I can launder bedding before i sleep. I've stayed at some pretty great places, all a far better value than hotel rooms.

Once stayed in an unbelievable place in the outback in Australia, no air con, bed on the verge of collapsing, floor caving in, frogs in the bathroom and wallabies would come in the kitchen at night and steal food from the fridge. Couldn't bring myself to use the bathroom at all and bathed in a spring. Lovely people though.

Since people are bringing up city hotels....

In the 80s I happily stayed in crappy hotels on many trips to Paris and Barcelona. Paris was dirt cheap in the 80s. Then in the 90s I switched to Lisbon. God that city was a steal for cheap hotels, and plenty of hot men to fuck for free.

Won't go cheap, and definitely won't go dirty in lodgings. I'll look for value, but within within the 4- or 5-star range, occasionally a 3-star if that's the best an off-track location has on offer.

I'm more interested in location and the architecture of the hotel and the quality of the rooms than in spa packages and complimentary champagne and pillow concierges and bath butlers. Room service and valet parking and good desk staff are great, but I don't need other people tripping over themselves to attend to me to feel better about myself.

A few of my richest friends make it something of a sport to pick the cheapest, dodgiest, most disreputable hotel. They delight in telling tales of how cheap and horrible the place was. I can't travel with them anymore, not when hotels are involved; it's too exhausting and I would rather stay home than stay in some place that's too steep a step down from how I live, let alone some shithole.

[quote]I was 25 and was picked up by a tall blond german businessman who was about 40 in a peep show in times square and he took me to a bona fide hooker hotel with hourly rates. When I got home my roommates laughed at me for not charging for the fuck.

R18 And you're proud of this story?

No, can't do it. I am not above saving some money, but rather than go cheap and dirty it would be better to stay home. Traveling a lot, part of the pleasure is in having a nice place to call "home" for a few days, even if the hours spent in the hotel end up being few.

I'll devote way too much time to making the perfect shortlist of hotels or AirBnB-type rentals and watch the prices, and sometimes make cancellable bookings while still actively looking, but in the end cheap for me is deciding to save some money on this trip and taking a place that's a little less nice for, say, 175 a night for five nights instead of the place that's 300 a night for five nights. I learned to round up into broad price tiers and not pick the cheaper place just because it saves, say, 40 a night.

My richest friend (with whom I used to travel) loves slumming it in cheap and dirty motels, some shitty bare lightbulb meth deal looking place on the edge of a town, or a hotel like that in "My Own Private Idaho" or "Taxi Driver." He howls in delight at the sordidness of the place and the ridiculous low cost because he is accustomed to finery and to staying with a network of rich friends throughout the Western world. He thinks it very bourgeois of me, who has so much less than him, to spend money on hotels.

I've stayed in some pretty dire places.

But the nadir was the hostel I stayed in in Zurich for a few days, many years ago. It was the cheapest in Zurich, and the location was great, right in the city centre. That was the upside.

The downside was that it was an abandoned lunatic asylum, and still bore the institutional green and cream paint on the walls, peeling , filthy and moldy and damp. It had several floors, with "rooms", actually cells, lined either side of a central hallway lit with mostly broken flourescent strips, and a bare bulb in each room. The rooms each had six bunks with wirewoven "mattresses". At eh end of the hallway was the toilet, tap and sink plus a shower, shared with the entire floor.

On the ground floor was a "kitchen. I went and checked it out, looked, smelt, and turned and ran for Maccas. I avoided it as much as possible, returning only to sleep at night after shaking rat droppings off the bedding. It was a little slice of the Third World in the middle of Zurich. It smelt of seat, stale urine and despair.

Grim

Nope! Never! If it doesn’t have 5 stars and awesome reviews I’m not going. Hilton is crap btw OP.

Yes, ass up and the door cracked open!

My partner and I trade sex for accomodations when we travel, via hookup apps. It's also a great way to absorb 'local colour'.

At this point in my eldergay life, if I can't afford at least Hampton Inn level of comfort and cleanliness, I'd rather stay home. Checking into some drug/cockroach infested fleabag just to save a few bucks is not my idea of a good time or what I would call an adventure.