Where's the worst place you've ever stayed?

Monsieur Nezereau's gite in SW France in 1986. He was a single gentleman of about 65 who let out the major part of his house. It had obviously not been cleaned for a quarter of a century (possibly when when his parents died) and nothing matched. The teapot had no lid, there were just about enough plates and cups for the 5 of us; cooking was done on a 1 plate 'hob', the bathroom was under the stairs which involved crouching so as not to hit your head on the stair above. Upstairs, our bed was a saggy mattress threequarter 4-poster with curtains and material which went right over the top of the bed. There was enough dust on top to fill at least 7 Hoover bags. DD1 pulled the curtains in her room which were about a 10' drop and they, plus the rail, fell to the floor. The late Mr Gally acquired some rawl plugs (try asking for rawl plugs in French ) and to reach the rail dragged a table to the window and then stood on a chair perched on 2 large encyclopaedias to fix them. We later read in the Visitors Book " this house is not called La Maison sans Rideaux for nothing" - it had obviously happened before.
Having said all that, I think it was one of the best holidays we ever had - quite wild, the sun shone every day and M. Nezereau taught DD3 aged 4 to ride a bike taken from his 'Musee' which was a barn full of the most amazing clutter/collection. Tin helmets from various wars, military memorabilia, bidets by the dozen, ladies hats from the C18/19 , bicycles, prams, top hats, berets, musical instruments, most of which were hanging from the beams, half a dozen ancient tractors and a couple of old citroen cars and everything was covered in cobwebs, reminiscent of Miss Havisham. Ah, those were the days. About 5 years later we were in the same area so called in to see Mr.N. and he proudly presented his new wife - a dumpy lady with a big smile - they looked just like the couple on the old weather house my Granny had, who used to go in and out according to the temperature! No doubt they are both pushing up the daisies now

Oh gally it sounds fascinating I would be lost forever with all memorabilia and you would never see mr g for a while if he was let loose amongest all those cars and tractors.

A holiday flat in Scarborough in October comes to mind. Husband was playing in a 2 day chess tournament there, so the 2 children & I had brisk walks in howling rainy gales along the prom to escape from the damp, dreary flat. It was so chilly & horrible we put the kids in the living room to sleep (there was heating in there) and we slept in a forbidding unheated, damp & smelly bedroom. Kitchen equiment was vile - lots of rusty cutlery which I left lined up on the table for the landlady to see. We left early, as soon as the tournament ended. I told the landlady we were off & were only paying for the days stayed, not for the week we'd booked. On the way home we all sang with joy and our son confessed that he'd written on a notice inside the toilet "This is a grubby old flat". We congratulated him!

Considering the huge amount of travelling I have done in the last thirty years I have been extraordinarily lucky. My worst holiday was camping near Plockton, which is very beautiful but the camp site was vastly over-crowded with just one unisex lavatory for about 80 tents. Fortunately, we had towed our 21' sailing boat up from the Wirral, and it had a chemical toilet on board. It rained every day and my lovely ex made friends with a couple and went to the pub in the village every night, leaving me to entertain my 10 and 8 year old girls with just a camping lantern. They, and their dad, loved the holiday, as they all enjoyed messing about in boats, but I was pretty fed up after two weeks of cooking on a two-burner camping-gaz cooker and washing up in about an inch of tepid water. We sold all the camping gear as soon as we got home.
I always post a review of my holiday accommodation on Trip Advisor and I would certainly post one telling the exact truth about some of the places that have been mentioned.
Sometimes, you just get lucky - Granjura and I had a really lovely hotel in Sharm this year - it was a pleasure to be able to give it a very good review.

Just come back from it. Early. Chalet in a beautiful setting but what is up with these owners? Mildew to every window and soaking the curtains and lining the fridge. Dim lighting-possible to read in bed but I like reading and don't want to go to bed at 8.30 (we took the GCs to the Lakes at short notice and booked through Cottages4you) so there was nothing much available tho' I'm sure we could have done better going on spek as we were told that the Lakes were 40% down on the usual occupation. The pillows were lifeless, the decor 70s the dishwasher broken the remote held together with elastoplast and the toaster dangerous. Of course we complained and the owners appeared with a new toaster and tried to mend the dishwasher and then cut the grass and tidied the outside-should have been checked by every change of customer and the people who owned it had the silly excuse that the customers didn't tell them. If I'm paying £800 per week and then they expect me to tell them if something is wrong they should n't be in this business but obviously there are idiots like us who can't book hols a year in advance.

Sorry still livid

And what's with 4 cups 4 plates 4 bowls for 4 people-don't they think some one might want soup and pudding or even a serving dish. Sorry-I'm just bitter at the little cost which would have made things better-curtains dishes-oh stop it...

An apartment in Marmaris in Turkey-1994-the mattresses were so damp that we took them off the beds and stood them on end to air on the balcony-after a couple of hours they were standing in pools of water which had drained out of them.
We gave my elderly aunt the only decent bed,my son slept on the floor and my husband and I balanced on the narrowest sofabed ever made.

You were unlucky Stansgran. We've had loads of holidays through Cottages4you and never had a bad one! What a shame!