Travelodge by Wyndham Manhasset

The stained sheets and carpet were enough for us to walk out as soon as we saw the rooms. We’d booked two rooms for two days, and were prepared to lose the money rather than stay. Luckily, we found space at a nearby Hilton the day before Thanksgiving, and the difference was huge. The person at the desk was behind a glass wall, which probably should have been a warning. I never thought a Wyndham hotel could be this bad. I won’t be back.

The shower was hot and the television worked. That’s about the only credit I can give this place, and I can’t vouch for how clean the shower was. I ended up sleeping on top of the bed with bath towels for covers. The bed had no comforter or fitted sheet, just a fleece throw and a flat sheet over a bare mattress protector. When I lifted the throw, it was full of other people’s body hair. The mattress was lumpy and smelled strongly of “old people,” and the pillows were yellowed and smelled even worse. There was also a strong, inescapable odor that clung to my clothes into the next day. I tried turning on the heater, but it smelled so much like burning hair that I had to shut it off. The sink and counter were visibly smeared from previous guests. Check-in was just as unwelcoming: I was handed a form without a word and told to fill in my name and reservation details. Worst hotel I’ve ever stayed at.

The room itself looked lovely, and the jacuzzi tub seemed spotless at first. But there were Bobby pins on the bathroom sink, so I wasn’t convinced it had been wiped down properly. The tub worked at first, then its jets kept switching on by themselves after it drained, making a loud noise about once an hour and waking my boyfriend and me. We went to the front desk and tried calling the number by the phone several times, but couldn’t get anyone to help. Starting at 6:00 am, people were walking up and down the stairs right outside our window, with footsteps and voices and very little privacy. Cars on the road outside were revving and backfiring from 7 am until our 11 am checkout. Then a half-naked man in the parking lot asked if we were checking out and watched us pack the car. I don’t know if he was a guest. I loved the look of the room, but all of that spoiled the stay, and I wouldn’t come back. For a $250 room, I was extremely disappointed.

We were there for a two day conference, and at least the several of us staying together got a funny story out of it. The staff were fine, but the price was way too high for what felt like a motel from a movie set, the sort where you expect a gunfight in the car park. Nothing actually unsafe happened, though there was plenty of late-night noise and the steady hum of a restaurant fan. My first room was down a creepy corridor, dark, damp, and overwhelmed by air freshener. They moved me to one that felt a little less suffocating, but the bathroom fan never turned off, the curtains left the window glowing at midnight, and the décor looked stuck in the 70s. The sheets were clean, though the extra stains kept things interesting. This place could come with free earplugs and a sense of humour.