My nightmare hotel stays

After writing the bedbug article, a reader commented to ask about my worst hotel stay. I've had several icky experiences. However; there are two stays that make the top of the list. This doesn't count the hotel that the other article is about. (We left after we pulled the mattress.)

My daughters and I were going to the Grand Canyon in Arizona with my grandmother and then on to Phoenix a few days later. The kids traveled great! My grandmother tended to get cranky when she got tired. Such was the case when we found this hotel.

She was in “stop the car five minutes ago” a when she spotted the nationally recognized name brand hotel and insisted we rent a room. Everything was okay until evening. That's when the little bugs came out. We noticed them at the pool but then again around the door of the room. We checked out the next morning instead of staying two nights. I hope the hotel called a mesa pest control to fix the problem.

Our other bad stay was in East Tennessee several years ago. Thankfully the hotel changed hands. Work was being done on our home and we needed a place for a few days. I bought some bread for sandwiches and some fruit. We hit the pool after checking in. By the time we got back to the room our food was crawling with ants.

The front desk was less than sympathetic. They allegedly called an exterminator to come while we went to dinner. Staff said he had come but we saw no evidence of that. My family packed up and we left. The hotel refused to reimburse us for the food that was lost. They also didn't reimburse for the two nights that we didn't use.

I travel frequently. These are the worst experiences of my travels that the average traveler is likely to face. Two other stays come close but were not quite this bad. I didn't include the brand names of the hotels because both changed names not long after we stayed. Knowing that brought me some comfort. No one should stay in hotels that are managed like these were.