Ruined holidays

Burst into tears.

It was very late though and I'd not slept for 36 hours due to working a night shift before we headed off.

Didn't like the hotel at all. Went to bed planning to just go to another hotel the next day but upon wakening decided it was OK so we stayed!

I think if a hotel was dirty or noisy I'd just find another hotel

Yes! Too many times to recount.

To the point where I now prefer NOT to away on holiday. It's so hit and miss whether the hotel / area / weather / other holiday makers are ok.

I remember one awful year when our 2 week annual holiday was horrible. With only 4 weeks annual holiday allocation from work, 2 terrible weeks AND a lot of money was wasted.

Only one. We booked a gite in France many years ago. It was a dirty, filthy, slum. There were fly papers hanging from the ceiling, covered with flies, house bricks in the shower, a hole in the kitchen floor which had been covered with lino. The sheets on the beds were wet with damp. There were cow pats and beer cans in the garden. It was described as having a barbecue which was three house bricks one side, three the other with a rack from an oven placed across them. We couldn't stay there it was disgusting. When I tried to get my money back, the owner said 'No one else has complained, you must have high standards'!!!!

It was pitch black when we arrived late in the evening at our apartment in Rhodes. After the long journey with two cranky babies we just went straight to bed.
In the morning we were horrified - it was absolutely filthy, right next to an extremely busy main road and in the middle of nowhere - not at all as described!
We immediately contacted the rep but she was totally disinterested and refused to do anything as it was late in the season and she said all other accommodation was closed for the winter. She was going home et the end of our visit so couldn't have cared less!
As my daughter was still at the crawling stage her clothes were filthy every time she moved, the dirt was then transferred to the furniture which doubled as the childrens beds. I had to rip up the murky grey towels and scrub the floors on my hands and knees.
My husband fell ill on the third day and couldn't even get out of bed, I had to look after him, do the shopping and cooking, entertain the children, clean everywhere etc etc.
Just as my OH was staring to feel better I fell ill - it was so bad I wanted to die!
There was an elderly Greek couple who lived close by and they were absolutely marvellous to us. I really don't know how we would have managed without them.

It was over twenty years before we dared to revisit Rhodes, we went 5* all inclusive and it was fabulous.

I now check dozens of review sites before I book anything and so far that has served us well!

No, never. I ring up the local tourist office and ask for their opinion and look at live webcam footage in the area via Google.
Also use Trustpilot and ring my choice of hotel to ask to ask them to record and send me a short video on their mobile of bath/bedroom and public areas.
The receptionists are usually very helpful as I let them know they'll be 'looked after'.

Oh yes my DH and I took a weeks honeymoon in Tenerife . It was March . Arrived at hotel in the dead of night . Found 2 plaster of Paris type beds built into the walls of the room and at opposite sides . The remains of what had been a ceiling was scattered around the floor . We shook out a few blankets , crept out of the room and spent the night huddled up freezing on sun-beds beside the pool .

Not exactly ruined, but saved by our sense of humour.

Friend and myself had embarked on our first caravan holiday in Spain and friend had booked it, site, area etc. It all looked great and just what we wanted. Arrived at the site and there was a mixture of log cabins and various types and sizes of caravans. We were quite excited.

Armed with the address/number we walked along the path trailing our suitcases and were looking at every number but couldn't find it so we stopped an old gardener and he pointed towards ours. My friend nearly had a fit and immediately said we're not staying in that, we'll look for a hotel.

I was trying to keep a straight face as I looked at this " doll's house " in front of us which was tucked away near a tree out of sight from the others----as though it had just been towed there and left as an afterthought. I thought it was cute.

Friend was bursting for the loo so she had no choice but to use it, but nearly fell off it because it was wonky/lop-sided so that called for more laughing.
Sleeping accommodation proved no better as they were bunkbeds so I offered to scramble on the top one as she was older than me---but being tall and the caravan only fit for midgets, I had to stand on the stove to get into the bunk ( no ladders )and sleep with my knees up to my chin.

Next evening we were telling nearby neighbours of our plight and they happened to say that the table when pulled out served as a bed too, so things were looking up. We managed toast and honey via the grill but ate out every day.

We had a fantastic 10 days full of laughs though initially my friend took photographs to complain to the holiday firm that they'd reneged on the description so we were partially reimbursed and added it towards our next holiday.
It was like a comedy film.

Just once in Corfu. Room was filthy and damp. Mould all over the bathroom and in the wardrobe. Swimming pool covered in algae and the restaurant closed. Dare not repeat on here W what was said.

When our kids were young we went to France all the time. One year we were down in Saint-Jean de Luz in South Western France, the gite we were staying in was quite damp, which affected one of my son's asthma, so wasn't really happy with that one.

Also many years ago, in Devon, rented a house through a well recognised holiday let firm. When we arrived the house hadn't been cleaned. Also owners left all their food stuff in the cupboards, which are supposed to be empty. To add insult to injury they left a note saying "Don't touch our food" I wrote a strong letter to the agents, saying either these people should let their property to friends/acquaintances and charge "mates rates" but if they want a commercial rent, they need to clear their personal effects and clean it.

We once went to a holiday cottage in N Wales. Beautiful old cottage in a lovely area. But the bathroom was dirty, the toilet seat hanging off. The soft furnishings in the living room filthy. We complained to the company we had rented from. They contacted the owner and we had an abusive phone call from him.Nothing was changed but we got a rebate. The owner had several other properties. Needless to say we never rented any of his again

In our twenties, pre-booked an en-suite double room in Athens and paid a deposit. When we arrived they had lost our booking and the hotel was full. We spent the first night in a corrugated tin hut on the roof!

We had a bad experience in Wales as well. Many years ago when the children were young, we arrived at the cottage we had rented and it was disgusting. Floors and furniture really dirty and as for the kitchen words fail me. I refused to stay and it cost us a small fortune staying in hotels on the coast.

I went, with my husband, to Prague (we hadn't been before), and the "hotel" was terrible. The doors to the rooms were metal, so closed with a loud clanging noise all throughout the place. The people in the next room were shouting and rowing until the early hours. The continental breakfast was dire - stale, hardly anything to choose from. I marched straight to reception, asked to use their 'phone, rang the holiday rep, and demanded that we be moved elsewhere. Within 3 hours, we were given a room at a lovely little hotel across town.

About 15 years ago we booked a room in a small hotel in Naples. When we were shown our room it was just thoroughly grubby. After a quick look round we said we were leaving and the manager produced another room for us which was fairly basic but was at least clean! The hotel didn't do meals so we were in and out for food. During our comings and goings we often saw the manager with very "interesting" looking gentlemen and money being handed over. Seemed best not to ask about it.

Last year we celebrated our golden wedding anniversary. The celebrations were some months later but as the anniversary was on a Saturday we decided to go away for the weekend.

We booked a 4 star hotel in Harrogate, but it had been a late booking because I was waiting for a date for minor surgery and we hadn't consulted trip advisor or anything similar before booking.

My heart sank, when we couldn't find the very big hotel because all the lights to the roadside signs were not working, when we got up to our shabby, rundown room, we knew we had got it wrong.

In fact the hotel had much going for it. The beds were comfortable, the rooms warm and there was plenty of hot water. It was everything you would expect in a good 3 star hotel. The food was acceptable, But we had booked a 4 star hotel for a weekend of luxury and pampering, I was convalescent and it was not what we thought we had booked.

When we got home I contacted Visit England about the star rating and they had no records of ever assessing the hotel. The 4 stars must have dated back decades. I tried to complain to Trading Standards without success. Then I checked Tripadvisor. If I had done that before booking we never would have gone there.

We had a 'modern chalet' booked one year in Devon when our children were small. The floor beneath the loo was so rotten it was no longer bolted to the floor so you used it very carefully! Worse was a huge bulge in the ceiling directly above the only space available to place a cot.

Also stayed in a city centre hotel in York some years ago and the room had not been cleaned properly. Part of the bed headboard fell off. Bits of rubbish left in a drawer and a used, unflushed loo! Heating in the room didn't work properly so the radiator in the hall was burning hot to compensate. It didn't! We were given a reduction.

Back in the early 70's my parents also booked a 'chalet' from a newspaper ad. It turned out to be a series of homemade huts fashioned from bits of old air raid shelters and furnished with junk. None of the other huts were occupied. They didn't stay more than two nights but as the owner/ builder was such a nice man they didn't say anything to him!

EllanVannin 's holiday 'post' is reminiscent of a caravan weekend my parents booked in Blackpool to see the illuminations.
We, my brothers and I, were really excited as our beds were made up at night from the banquettes in the dining area. Our parents slept in a double bed which was really a dividing 'wall' which was pulled down between the cooking and sitting areas. The pull handle (in essence one of two legs on the bed was no more than an ornamental bit of filigree metal.
It was memorable for all the wrong reasons, as the bed started to rise in the night as they slept and believe me, dad was 5-11 and about 12 stone so not small.
Mum recalled that she felt something move and asked dad if he felt it.
As she was reminiscing, adult to adult in later years, I burst out laughing but mum, still the prim convent educated 'girl' of her younger years, missed the meaning.
She said that, as dad rolled onto his back (from, I assume the spoon position) when she asked if he felt movement the bed righted itself but when he moved to sleep on his side the bed started to close upward.
It was all lost on me, a then 8 yr old but as an adult it was funny.
They were grand times...many of them too.

I'm pretty careful about checking reviews for hotel bookings, and will even go on google maps and 'look' around the neighbourhood, especially if we are in that location for more than a few days.

However, we have stayed in some very dicey hotel/motels while travelling. Living in northern BC involves travelling for up to 16 hours to reach a destination. We will usually overnight in a hotel with a reservation made ahead of time, but there have been times when we have had to just pull into town and look for accommodations.

One particular hotel comes to mind. We were originally camping with our young children; after 3 days of downpour rain we decided to break camp and head south to warmer, dryer weather. We stayed in a town called Lilloett after a long day of driving along windy mountainous roads and pulled into the first available hotel.
Oh Lordy, it was awful! Dirty, mattress with springs bulging, linoleum rolling in waves on the floor. The bar attached to the hotel attracted the worst of the inhabitants of the town. We wedged a chair under the door handle, poured ourselves a drink and didn't chastise the children for jumping on the pull out sofa-bed! They were still young enough that any sort of hotel stay was exciting.

We’ve had several from when the children were small so before internet or trip adviser. Our first ever without children was one of those hotels allocated on arrival in Tenerife. It turned out to be right in the Veronica’s, the roof had fallen in over reception which meant they had no running water. It was about 3 am when we went to our room, the beds were a piece of foam with a triangular piece of foam for a pillow, the cutlery was rusty, it was hell! My H was so tired he went to sleep but I lay there, listening to the discos reverberating around the empty pool (cracked or something) just waiting for the morning. The second my H opened one eye I said I’m not staying here, don’t care, I’ll go home instead. We went downstairs to find a huge crowd of people all complaining so we waited an hour for the poor rep. She said I’ll come up in the lift with you to have a look. She took one look and immediately said don’t tell anyone but get a taxi to this hotel (on a note) and they’ll give you a room. We crept out past all these people and went to the most gorgeous hotel, got a beautiful room and had a really enjoyable time. We met someone one night from the original hotel and they said no one had any water still, it was dreadful. I complained to the company who didn’t want to know.

Yes, went to a well known holiday chain here in the UK and had to wait for 2 hours for the keys as they were 'cleaning' the room, but when we got in it was filthy, we could not even use the drawers to unpack, so I demanded another room and got a luxury one which was just decorated. When you pay £800 for a weeks stay you expect something decent.

Oh yes! We booked a hotel ourselves on Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles. Well....we certainly picked the wrong side of town - awake all night hearing lots of stilleto heels clicking down the corridors! We checked out next morning early and continued to Disney which was more my style!! ???

Always book through reputable and well know sites like HomeAway and check Trip advisor.

Years ago we had saved up tokens from a national newspaper and booked a room at a village pub in Devon at a very reduced rate. Turned up, nobody about, waited and eventually the landlady in slippers and pinnie appeared and took us to our room explaining they had only just taken over the place. Room had broken mirror, broken wash basin and a loo that flushed when it felt like it. We debated whether to stay but had an evening meal which was superb. Survived our 3 day break. Some years earlier we had taken a bite in France and had the pleasure of watching the mice run up and down the walls in the evening.

"bite" surely gite.