26 January 2010

Dirtiest hotels in US share dubious honor

Here’s an award hoteliers don’t want: grimiest.

But roll out the red carpet for TripAvisor’s smudged crown, "won" by San Francisco’s Heritage Marina Hotel which was named dirtiest in the US for 2010 by travelers.

Urine-scented mattresses and stairwells? For sure, former guests write.

Bedbugs, vomit-crusted carpets and hookers in the hallway? Yes.

"If you are filming a horror flick or a slasher movie, this is the place for you. If you are a NORMAL person, avoid it like the plague!" one traveler warned about an October stay at the Heritage Marina, which has earned negative marks from 80 percent of TripAdvisor reviewers.

Management at the Heritage Marina, located downtown about a 15-minute walk from Fisherman's Wharf, didn't reply to wire service requests for comment.

Rounding out TripAdvisor's 10 dirtiest US hotels are the Days Inn Eureka/Six Flags, Eureka, Mo.; Tropicana Resort Hotel and Super 8 Virginia Beach/At the Ocean, Virginia Beach; Quality Inn, Stroudsburg, Pa.; New York Inn, New York (down from No. 3 last year); Parisian Hotel & Suites, Miami Beach; Capistrano Seaside Inn, Capistrano Beach, Calif.; Desert Lodge, Palm Springs, Calif.; and Continental Oceanfront Hotel South Beach, Miami Beach.

So how do hoteliers avoid such a dubious honor?

Do what New York’s hotel Carter did.

A former Times Square tenement that was at the top of the list three times in four years found a simple solution.

They hired a professional bedbug exterminator.

By David Wilkening