The Highlander Inn

We barely slept and felt uneasy the whole time. Starting around 6 a.m., loud music came from another room, and we could hear couples shouting. The TV had only four stations. In the main office, someone had spray-painted a pentagram and the word “trap” on the blinds. Our jacuzzi suite was filthy, with black mold and cat toys in the entertainment center drawers. The door used a regular key lock, and the manager said he had no spare because a previous guest had run off with it. Knowing some stranger might still have a key was unsettling. We would tell people to stay away.

The room was filthy: grime rings in the bathtub, pubic hair in it, something smeared on the bathroom mirror, crumbs in the bed, and what looked like vomit on the bed skirt. The remote was covered in who knows what, and the headboard had what looked like at least a year of dust. The linen hadn't been changed. The blinds and screen looked as if someone had thrown a brick through them, and there was a bird living in the AC unit. The manager was incredibly rude. He hid in the bathroom, then had someone else keep telling me he'd be out in five minutes. After half an hour, I went elsewhere. He denied my refund request through hotels.com. I called the office from another number and finally got him on the phone by surprise. He said he'd approve the refund and have them call again. Three different hotel.com support agents tried to reach him, but each came back saying there was no answer or the call was immediately disconnected. The case was escalated with hotels.com. The next morning, the office was locked and nobody was available for customer service. I went back again later, with hotels.com already on the phone, and managed to catch the manager after calling from several numbers and having someone else pretend to ask about a room. I got a refund for the attempted stay in this supposed “clean room.” It was an atrocity, and I'm not sure I'll ever recover from the trauma.

It smelled of smoke, body odor, and mildew, and people were smoking just outside the windows. The AC unit had a layer of black grime. When we arrived, the front desk worker was sitting on the couch with his shoes off and wasn't paying attention to us. We couldn't get our room door open at first. We left right away, but they wouldn't offer any compensation. I wouldn't recommend it.

We lasted only two hours. Bed bugs were crawling across the bed, and they were big enough to see easily. The bedding was visibly dirty and stained too. Definitely don't recommend staying here.