3 strikes and they are OUT.

[Greyman50]

Been going to Savannah for many years with late wife and recently more as she is gone just to get away. Hilton hotel honors member and try to stay in one regardless of where I go. Last 3 times in different hilton owned properties have had horrible experiences. 2 times some idiot working on " remodeling" hammering on something at 2:30 AM!!!!!! One time fire alarm went off at 1:00 AM. Fire alarm had everyone in lobby as fire dept was there and had checked all floors for cause, nothing, zip, nada. I made a point to ask the ranking fireman " what happened" he said it was a Fault in hotels alarm system that THEY NEED TO FIX. Have a sleep issue so if and when I get to sleep surely don't need to get disturbed. Never any " adjustments" to my bill either…
There are many, many hotels so I'm through with Hilton.

 

[mtgianni]

Often with motels you rent the brand and own the land and building. When I was working I was in motels 3 nights a week. 40+ weeks a year. A Hampton Inn I stayed at often switched brand names. I ended up staying over 10 minutes further out to keep my points. I found calling and talking to someone at the desk, rather than booking through Corporate or on line got me answers as to construction ongoing.
I usually requested rear facing rooms to keep road noise down. I did have a motel I stayed at that the rear was too close to the railroad so I wanted a street facing room.

The point is, in this case it seems to be the owners not the brand. I would complain to Hilton about them especially if you're in the upper tier of your card. They may just comp you something.

 

[Kinman]

Often with motels you rent the brand and own the land and building. When I was working I was in motels 3 nights a week. 40+ weeks a year. A Hampton Inn I stayed at often switched brand names. I ended up staying over 10 minutes further out to keep my points. I found calling and talking to someone at the desk, rather than booking through Corporate or on line got me answers as to construction ongoing.
I usually requested rear facing rooms to keep road noise down. I did have a motel I stayed at that the rear was too close to the railroad so I wanted a street facing room.

The point is, in this case it seems to be the owners not the brand. I would complain to Hilton about them especially if you're in the upper tier of your card. They may just comp you something.

While travelling from Spokane back to Ogden in the mid 60's we left town late and planned to spend the night in Missoula. Everything was FULL, we drove on and ended up finding a VACANCY sign in Boardman I believe it was on the other side of Missoula and looked like a wide spot in the road. The motel was a collection of shacks, maybe twelve in all, we were given some firewood for the stove and shown the common toilet, it was "Rustic". There were four of us, my grandmother, mother, brother and myself. There were two double beds with the feet set in tuna fish cans that contained kerosene that according to my grandmother was to control bed bugs. We settled in, got a fire going in the pot bellied stove, it was late and we all went to sleep. In the middle of the very early morning I was woke by the sound of a train, it kept getting closer, and closer and finally passed by sounding like it was coming through the shack. In the morning I went out to use the john and found the tracks for the passing train were nearly spitting distance from the shack, there was a skim of ice on the mudpuddles and it was June.

 

[Greyman50]

Back in late 70s - 90s traveled for work usually staying a month or more to install machine tools. Traveled with an NC tech and we got a decent per diem so we looked for " cheaper places" as we kept any difference. We stayed in some dumps but do not recall having the issues as there are today. Seems a certain nationality has bought up many hotels and they just don't give a da'm. Guess I'll go back to Holiday Inn as used to be in their program.
Really wish had kept the RV….

 

[lihpster]

While travelling from Spokane back to Ogden in the mid 60's we left town late and planned to spend the night in Missoula. Everything was FULL

Me and 2 buddies were riding to Sturgis in 2006. first day had some family issues to take care of so we didn't get to our planned stopping point, Missoula, until 10PM or so. Pulled into a Super8 to see about a room. Didn't even make it inside as we ran into an employee in the parking lot who told us:
1. They were completely full.
2. Due to travelling scooter tramps like us and a large high school band competition, there were no rooms available in town.
3. There was 1 spot available at the KOA, if it hadn't been taken.
Off to the KOA. It'll do. It's got restrooms and showers. Get the last spot. It's a typical pull thru spot with a picnic table and a few square feet of grass. Only about 75 yards or so to the bathrooms/showers. Handy, really. By this time, it's dark, we're trying to be quiet and we're all tired. We don't even set up the tents, just unroll our sleeping bags on the grass and go to sleep.
What felt like a millisecond later, but was actually 5 whole hours, we're awakened by the sound of our neighbors packing up and getting ready to get on the road. We were cold, stiff and felt like we hadn't slept. On the trek to the facilities for my morning routine, I notice several people look at me and wince. Also, there's something wrong with my vision, probably contacts, I'll figure it out when I wake up enough to think. As I'm washing my hands, I look in the mirror and discover that something bit me during the night near my eye and it is nearly swollen shut.
Back at "camp", we're rolling up our bags and a guy dismantling a tent next to us says, "Too easy. That's cheating." I look at him, point to my eye and said, "You think so?" He physically recoiled. I then got to ride a bike with 1 1/4 eyes until the swelling started going down in the afternoon.
Pretty much any hotel room would have been an upgrade. I would have taken a room at a hotel with a big sign, "Welcome insomniac bagpipe players!" Still I get what the OP is saying. You're paying for a place to sleep unmolested. That's what you should get.

 

[45Smashemflat]

Got got dispatched to a plant in western Tennessee back when I was a road engineer. Arrived in town late with no reservation. Went to my normal Hampton Inn (I was at this location a lot) and was told, "snow storm coming, we are full up." I go to Best Western, the only other motel I was aware of. Same story, "snow storm, folks come into town to try and avoid power outages and getting stuck up on the mountain with the roads closed." Oh, crap. "There is an American Inn on the other side of town, they will have a room." Really? "Oh yeah."

I ride over to the other side of town, find the sign, looks like a run down old Holiday Inn or something. Go inside, "Do you have a room?" I await the expected response, and get surprised. "For all night?" Ohhhh, now I get it….

I take a room, but carry my poncho and liner into the room and sleep in the ol' Ranger Taco.

 

[ACORN]

My cousin was getting married in NJ. I had to work the day before in the other side of Pittsburgh. I finished up around 4:00 so we stopped for an early dinner and headed east. My wife had made reservations at a motel and we arrived around 11 IIRC. When we got to the desk the middle eastern clerk told us they had given away our room. My wife went off on the guy, saying she'd given our card to pay for the room whether we showed up or not. The clerk told us there were lots of motels around and we'd have no problem getting a room. After some more "discussion", we left. He was wrong! We stopped at every hotel/motel we saw. Everything was booked. When we asked what was going on we were told there was a local college graduation, an Elks Club convention an a big stock car race that weekend. We soldiered on. Around 1:00 I pulled the car into a lit parking lot reclined my seat and told my wife we were sleeping here. She was less than enthusiastic and told me to switch places and she'd drive. A few more motels with the same result. Needing gas she pulled in to station to fill up and asked the clerk if he knew of any motels. He told here he might, and called to see if they had any rooms. They did! Off we went in search of Ralph's Motel. We knew we weren't in a 1st class motel when we saw the room rates posted in fractions of an hour. Dog tired we took the room. Sleazy at best. My wife said she wasn't getting undressed. I got undressed and crashed out.

 

[TX-Dennis]

I once wound up sleeping in the back of the pickup when I couldn't find a room. Wasn't bad except for the mosquitos.

One thing I always take when staying at a hotel - ear plugs. Even nice places are relatively noisy with folks coming and going at all hours.

 

[Baxter6551]

OP I agree with others. Call Hilton Honors and complain. Loudly if necessary. I imagine you will get some sort of comp.

 

[LVSteve]

I use earplugs no matter how posh the hotel. I find the A/C units and fridges going on and off very disturbing.

Worst night I had in a cheap motel was when the guy next door clearly suffered from a major respiratory problem and had to change his O2 bottle for one in his car. The walls were paper thin and I think the window glass was the same thickness that they use for the plastic windows in business envelopes. Consequently, we heard every hack and clang as he got himself sorted at about 0300. Saw him next morning and he apologized if he had woken us.

Worst time in a posh hotel was in Carson City. Apparently there were a bunch of older gents there for golf. Seems they liked to gather in the one guy's room (next to ours) before setting off..at 0500. Only thing was they were clearly all deaf as none of them spoke at a level lower than a scream. I got us moved for the rest of our stay. The clerk moved us so quick I'm thinking a previous guest had been in that room and given the same complaint.

When working in a small NV town, I nearly always got a room on the second floor of a particular motel, at the time it was supposedly the best place. The metal doors in the whole place fitted so badly at the bottom that I'm damn sure rats or mice could get in. Oh, and this was in Hanta Virus country. I figured that upstairs the feral cats that patrolled the property would likely get the rodents before they got to me. Being upstairs with an ill fitting door came to bite me one windy winter night. Despite using towels at the bottom of the door, I had to build a windbreak in the bed using the spare pillows to get any sleep.

Then, shocker, they built a Motel 6 in that town after my time working there. Turned out I wasn't missing much. The place had a major issue with desert recluse spiders for no good reason anyone could find. One guy from another contractor got chewed on bad one night. At first it was thought he had a bad reaction to regular bedbugs, but the docs in Vegas said they were spider bites. He ended up with some nasty scars.

 

[Dermako]

Pro tip on reservations.
This is permanently in my IHG reservation log.
In your requests section: top floor, end of hall.
Almost always get top floor and last room at end of the hall across from the stairs.
Nobody above me, only one room beside me and on the third floor virtually nobody uses the stairs.

 

[Greyman50]

Pro tip on reservations.
This is permanently in my IHG reservation log.
In your requests section: top floor, end of hall.
Almost always get top floor and last room at end of the hall across from the stairs.
Nobody above me, only one room beside me and on the third floor virtually nobody uses the stairs.

So correct, I always request top floor, away from road and far from elevator.
Problem with calling hilton is usually get someone that can barely speak English and I can not hear…..

 

[TXBryan]

Hilton was the only "frequent" program that cancelled me when I was laid off from a corporate job 24 years ago. American Airlines called to see if I was okay and offered to extend my mileage program (Platinum at the time). Hyatt called and asked if they'd done anything wrong, expressed sympathy and gave me free nights. Several others were gracious as well, in my transition.

Hilton called, I explained, and they promptly cancelled me on the spot and erased all my points. Years later, as the executive V.P. of a large professional organization, we toured a Hilton as a potential convention site. Nice property. I explained my hesitation to book a Hilton and the sales agent restored, and doubled, my old points (which they amazingly still had a record of), and offered triple points on every roomed booked for the convention to my personal account. Obviously they have considerable leeway and discretion.

 

[DWalt]

Back in my Permian Basin oilfield days of 50 years ago, I got used to sleeping in every fleabag flophouse motel between Eagle Pass and Amarillo, and into Southeast New Mexico. But I never had any bad experiences, just a lot of unpleasant conditions.