On one particular vacation the maid stole our liquor, medical supplies and baby food. We contacted the owners of the condo we were staying at and they in turn contacted her.. she admitted she stole the items.. I asked her to return the prescription medication as it was for my children. She never returned any of it., and there was one of those digital thermometers in the tote bag. So I lost about 75.00 worth of stuff. This was at a very high priced hotel/condo. And to make this vacation really bad, my son got extremely ill and was hospitalized.

We went to Bonaire last year in May. It rained 6 nights out of ten. We had a second floor room with an incredible view of the ocean at the Plaza Resort. Morning sunrise with a cup of coffee on the balcony and it was awesome to watch the storms come in. Only problem was everytime it rained, the roof leaked and a good portion of our room suffered a minor flood. Rain would also come in the 1/4 inch crack under our front door. Basically I had 2 choices move and lose my incredible view or deal with it. So I chose option number 2. I loaded up on towels everyday in preperation for the nights rain and every morning the maid would clean things up spick and span and leave me extra towles for the next storm. We just looked at it with lots of humor and it did not even begin to hurt our incredible diving vacation on a really cool island. ( Come to find out later from boards like this that same room has leaked for years!) What a crack up.

We have bad luck in Orlando. We've gone there twice and had bad hotels both times.

At the Days Inn, I sat on the bed, and it collapsed. When the maintenance guy came, he lifted the bed and sat the bricks holding the bed back up. Fortunately, we were only there one night and went on to a condo in Tampa the next night.

On the next trip, we booked a Howard Johnson online, and the photos on the website were of a different hotel. The one we booked at was in a wild nightlife area, with police cars with sirens going up and down the street, and a sleeping security guard in the lobby. The hotel was run down, and the lock on our room didn't work. We left that night and went to another hotel.

We always end up laughing about it later.

I've stayed in many bad hotels during the past decade. Really bad hotels, in some instances. In New Orleans, for example, the carpet in my room was so filthy it turned the soles of my white socks black. A crackhead tried to invade my L.A. motel room at 4:00 am. In Portland, another guest on my floor, a runty guy dressed like a lumberjack, amused himself by tearing up his room and then wandering back and forth in the hallway, ranting about how he was going to kill a woman acquaintance. Strangely, such experiences have never ruined a trip for me. This is really odd because, when I'm at home, my mood is extremely fragile. Stopping for a red light that I usually sail through on green, for example, can ruin my whole day. Yet I'm very resilient when I'm on the road. Go figure. I don't deliberately look for bad hotels, of course. (Well, maybe I have, once or twice.) It's just that so many hotels in the budget category tend to be, well, let's say dysfunctional. (Not ALL of them, however, as some TripAdvisor posters bellieve. And paying more for a room doesn't guarantee you anything, either.) And budget hotels are all I can afford. I'm a working-class guy with limited funds, I have to economize however I can. I suppose I could stay at higher-end accomodations and then live in indentured servitude to the credit card companies, the way all good Americans are supposed to do nowdays. But I'm phobic about debt. Some might say I'm cheap, but I see it as living within my means----- a practice that used to be considered a virtue, not so long ago. Besides, to be candid, I don't care to be around some of the people that you find at up-scale hotels. I think they're arrogant and way too pretentious.

We looked at a hotel room on our previous vacation we discovered as we were walking around. It was a newly remodeled suite with an ocean view in a modestly priced Mexican hotel in a great location for us. We took note of the name of the suite. This year I called the hotel directly and asked for that specific room for 12 nights. I was given a price and confirmation number. However, they would not send me a fax or email guaranteeing the reservation although I called them three times and asked for one in Spanish. I was assured by the manager that the room would be ready even though we would be arriving late and he would not be on duty. The confirmation number was my guarantee. He promised he would leave word with the night clerk.

When we arrived at 11:30 pm, we were told the suite’s air was not working. I went to look at a different suite but it wasn’t as nice as I remembered, although the clerk claimed it was the same layout. He also wanted more money than the rate I agreed to in the three phone calls. He acted like he had never talked with the manager about the matter. My husband handled the situation firmly, but calmly. We decided since it was so late we would stay in a regular room for the night at a lesser rate.

The regular room had a window unit air conditioner built into the wall that was so loud it kept me awake all night. (Fortunately my husband can sleep through just about anything.) The only light was a single light bulb working in the two light bulb fixture in the ceiling, cigarette burns all over the furniture, holes in the bedspreads, only a simple lock in the door knob, no dead bolt. I should add that the suitcase that held my husband’s toiletries didn’t arrive with us on the plane. Instead of getting upset about it all, we changed clothes and went out to a nice restaurant with a live Cuban band. We had a nice dinner and danced and returned refreshed to face the bad room.

We checked out the next morning and went back to the hotel we had stayed at the previous year. We were able to negotiate a price of $20 less a night than we had paid them for a suite with two balconies. The nice clerk at this second hotel called the airport and arranged for the missing suitcase to be delivered there that night. In the long run, the bad experience saved us at least $250 and the rest of the vacation was wonderful. As the saying goes, “What a difference a day makes!”

I learned from this experience that I must have the confirmation of price and room description in writing or I won’t make the reservation. Also, we will no longer fly without having the necessary toiletries and change of clothing for one night in our carry on.

I think the most important thing is to make your complaints directly with the highest level of management in a very calm and professional tone. Screaming, overstating the case, or threatening only makes you look like a hothead and costs you your credibility. I usually try to think of something nice to say about the room, so that they know I am being fair-minded, but then I am firm about what I'm unwilling to tolerate. It's important to give them some kind of graceful out, if you can---people who feel attacked only go stronger on the defensive.

If they still don't take action (move you to new room, comp some portion of expenses, etc), then you begin to threaten diplomatically: I am not above telling them that I freelance travel articles for my local newspaper and would hate to have to report their shortcomings since it would hurt business. I would ask for the number to corporate headquarters if its a chain. I would also remind them of forums like this where information can be shared---widely. If they still aren't willing to make amends, write off your losses and go elsewhere. It isn't worth it to ruin your trip feeling angry, ripped off, and hostile. Then try to trip over a large lamp or urn and break it on your way out of the lobby.....

Many hotels, such as those in the Hilton chain, offer money back guarantee. I have only had to use that one time. Then, I had to contact corporate management - the local hotel did not offer it.

If a hotel has been exceptionally bad, I prefer to just check out and go somewhere else.

And, writing a review on Tripadvisor is GREAT therapy!!! LOL.

Part of "getting stuck" in a bad hotel situation is when you have too high of expectations or have not done your research....

In that case, you should just treat it as a "learning" experience and don't let it spoil your trip..

however in a few cases, it is the hotels' issue:

1) The owner took down our reservation wrong and threatened us when we showed up on the night we thought we had reserved. We high tailed it out of there and found another place. That place had ivy growing in the shower....but it was sure safer than the first place. One night and the rest of our trip was great. We always treat these events as one night (not the entire vacation) to keep it in the proper perspective. We have told stories about this event however for years! (i.e. this is the "light" version of what happened.)

2) Another the hotel fire alarm went on for 3 full hours one night. This is a big resort hotel. The night clerk could have cared less. She just told us to go back to bed. Huh - the fire alarm is going off? The next day, we complained to the day manager and they refunded all our money for the stay (along with a whole bunch of other guests getting refurnds too.) So, if the first manager does not listen to you; then wait for the next shift and try try again.

3) Another time the reservation got lost and it was a big holiday week-end. We drove and drove and not even in a camping spot. We found one where the camping spot was closed and about 15 cars were there spending the night.

We did too. It was just one night so we just enjoyed the rest of our week vacation. We've learned to always take with us a printed copy of the reservation so its harder for the hotel/motel desk to say: You did not have a reservation.

Paper proof does work wonders.

4) A friend of mine flew across country to a big hotel where she was a premier member of. They had her reservation (acknowleged it had late guarantee checkin, but they still gave away her room as she arrived at 1 a.m.) She just set up "room" in the hotel lobby and spent the night.... She got some sleep and the hotel gave her a free night for use at another time. Sure did make the rest of the hotel guests wonder....and she had no problem telling them her story.

Its now a lively topic for fun conversations...

5) We've been given smoking rooms when we asked for non-smoking. We generally handle these by first calling the front desk and most of the reasonable hotels quickly change the room (or let us know if its the last one if its late at night.)

We've had a few which said - if you don't like it, you can come back in 6 hours and check-in again. In those cases, we go straight to the front desk (by pass anyone in line) and firmly say: We want our room changed. In these cases, we have found the front desk will quickly do this if there are rooms available. (Note: We don't recommend making a scene, but sometimes being a little pushy when you've tried already helps.)

6) The key thing to remember though.....its just a room.

You probably did not come to this city or place to see a room in most cases and as long as its reasonably clean and in working order,its fine. Do some home work in advance to be sure it sounds ok and within your budget expectations.

Research it; ask friends; and also use the tools on Trip Advisor. These all will help in choosing a nice place to stay for the trip. 98% of our trips have been in this category as we know when we choose a standard motel, we expect standard motel surroundings; and when we pick a luxury resort, we expect it to to measure up. Its important to know what the "standards" are of any given place, especially when doing international travel, as they can vary.

In short...happy traveling!

I travel alone on business a lot and I'm very security conscious. I have walked out of hotels/motels that had poor room locks, poorly locked sliders, were very dirty, etc. I walk out of restaurants when service is poor too, so I'm not afraid to make a scene if I have to. For the most part, I've found front desk staff helpful, but not always. I just insist and hold fast, offer options, etc. If they see you're determined, you'll usually get what you need. I will change hotels if I have to when i'm in an area for multiple nights. If it's one night, I chalk it up to experience and don't return.

I was at the Marriott Camelback Inn for Thanksgiving one year and had made the reservations 6 months in advance for a casita requesting an area of the property we had rooms in previously. It was the kick-off for a 3 week vacation to Hawaii. A week before leaving, I called directly to the Camelback and confirmed all was in order. FYI- We were paying premium rates even though I was an elite stayer. We arrived late Thanksgiving Day to find the rooms in the area I had requested and confirmed were not just unavailable, but completely out of service for refurbishing! They were completely unapologetic about the lies. They stuck us in a little room with a view of a parking lot and did NOT adjust the rate. Went to the front desk asking for a room change twice to no avail. Called and got rooms up by the Grand Canyon and left the Marriott after just 2 nights. I then sat down and wrote a letter to the manager (got all that anger at being lied to out of my system) and within 2 hours of handing it to the desk, they were at the room offering to move me immediately to better accommodations. We were off for a late Thanksgiving dinner, so I informed them I had already booked the other place and said no. After staying there 4 times, I never went back and I've been in Scottsdale at least another 10 times. As for that trip? We had a great time seeing the Grand Canyon in the winter and had a chance to re-visit Sedona before catching our onward flight to Hawaii.

I do fill out comment cards and only a few hotels are interested enough to respond to negatives.

I originally found Trip Advisor when on a campaign to keep people FROM going to a Super 8 in Anchorage. My room was broken into while my family and I were asleep. You can read about it here. tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60880-d7370…

The staff were far from helpful and I got no replies from my calls and letters other then one saying that they were sorry the building maintenance was not up to my expectations. Yes, I expected the window locks to keep people from entering my room. Finally, with help, I got the email address to some higher ups and after about 6 months got a refund and a forced apology from the manager. All I really wanted was an apology and to make sure the window security was looked into. I would hate for other's children to be as traumatized as mine was. I was quite shaken too.