It made me a little nervous to reveal how gross I now find hotel rooms, after switching to vacationing in private homes. It's not like I wash my hands compulsively and wear a gas mask on the subway. Though honestly that isn't a bad idea.
Just when I was worried you were going to think I was weirder than I actually am, TripAdvisor.com came to my rescue. They just released their report entitled "2009 Dirtiest Hotels". And three of the top 10 most filthy hotels in the United States are located in my home town, New York City.
The "winner" as the dirtiest hotel in America is the Hotel Carter, just across the street from Macy's. The hundreds of unhappy TripAdvisor members who rated the Hotel Carter as meriting just a 1 out of a possible 5 cited bedbugs, roaches and lots of other grossness. They were still luckier than one of the hotel's cleaners who, according to the New York Daily News found a dead body under a bed two years ago. I can happily report that I have never discovered a corpse in any of the exchange homes I have used.
The top 10 dirty hotels were located in popular tourist areas like Miami, New York, and several major airports. They were part of national chains like Day's Inn (three of the 10. Hmmm. Note to self: avoid Day's Inn), Ramada and Travelodge. The average cost of a night in these dumps is over $100, in fact each of the New York City hotels ring in at about $150 per night.
It's enough to make you want to give home exchange a try. TripAdvisor members seem to agree with this. While only 1% of their survey respondents have done a home swap, a whopping 43% would like to try this vacation style.
TripAdvisor is a useful site even when it isn't validating my fears about skanky hotel rooms. When I was on vacation recently I consulted the TripAdvisor rankings to find the most highly-rated hotels in the cities I visited. On one occasion, I noticed that a particular hotel chain had six locations in my destination. One was rated as the third-best lodging option in that town, but the others were ranked much further down the list.
Anyway, there are gross hotels all around the world. Certainly there are swap homes inhabited by slobs as well. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself in one of these, perhaps because there were not enough interior photos of the home included with the listing, just remember that four or 5 people emit a lot fewer germs, bacteria and bodily fluids than the thousands who have passed through your hotel room before you, blowing their noses on the drapes before they checked out.
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