#hotelhell #hotel #charlotte #dirty #dirtycarpets #sketch #review
We don’t hand out spots in our IDWFS (It Doesn’t Work For Shit) series lightly.
It takes a special kind of experience. It is the kind that leaves you questioning your decision-making. It makes you doubt your hygiene. Sometimes, it even makes you question your will to live, to make the cut. But every now and then, a product, service, or (in this case) budget motel from the underworld earns its place.
This is one of those times.
We’re talking about a literal “roach motel” — a place that somehow snagged decent reviews on Expedia.com, flaunted carefully curated photos, and convinced us we were in for a no-frills-but-clean overnight stay.
Spoiler: We were not.
The Setup: A $108 Night That Cost Us Our Peace of Mind
Online rates start as low as $67/night. This is tempting when you’re traveling on a tight budget. It’s also tempting if you need something close to transit. Our Saturday night rate? $108. Not outrageous, but trust us when we say — we overpaid.
The ONLY Pro? Location.
We’ll give credit where it’s due. This motel is a 7-minute walk to the train station. This proximity makes it marginally convenient if you’re catching an early departure or arriving late. That’s it. That’s the whole list.
The Cons? Buckle Up.
We’d love to list all the negatives here, but this blog post would turn into a novella. So instead, we invite you to check out the full video [link below], where the horrors unfold in high-definition.
But here’s a sneak peek:
- Roaches — ok, perhaps we are talking about the residents here. Post-visit searches yielded several news clips of the hotel in question literally closing down. Then, it went into lawsuit mode. Some folks decided to make it their FREE (or almost free) permanent residence. This happened during the height of the pandemic. Are some of these ‘roaches’ still residing here, or is this just the aftermath?
- Broken locks, mysterious stains, and a general air of “don’t touch anything.”
- The smell. Imagine decades of poor decisions baked into every square inch.
- Sketchy clientele, thin walls, and zero sense of security.
- A bed that made us question not just cleanliness but also the very concept of sleep. Look, we didn’t end up with bed bug bites all over our legs. The sheets seemed clean enough. However, the scene and setting were unsettling.
Final Thoughts
We’re not here to shame budget motels — we know not everyone’s rolling in five-star travel cash. But there’s a line between “affordable” and biohazardous. This place blew past that line, waved, and kept going.
Bottom line: Expedia failed us. Online reviews were wildly misleading, and the carefully cropped photos were borderline fraudulent. Which is exactly why IDWFS exists — so you don’t fall into the same trap.
If you’re considering staying here, don’t. Unless you’re filming a low-budget horror movie or researching pest resilience in urban environments.
Watch the full video for all the grimy, grim details.
And remember: If something looks too clean to be true online… it probably has roaches.
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