I used to be a travelling musician. I've stayed in a lot of cheap motels and hotels over the years.
Hotel Magnuson in Dixon was the worst - by a lot. Most places, even the cheap dives, at least make an effort - not here.
There were no working lights in the parking lot, or by the entrance doors. Pitch dark. Fortunately, the entry door was broken, and stuck open, so I didn't need to see the lock to get in... The hallway lights were dim or burnt out, giving the entire hallway the feel of a dungeon. The only bit of "cheer" visible in the hallway was a container of dusty plastic ferns left from the early eighties.
Friends, I'm 54 years old. This is the first hotel room I've ever been in where I felt dirtier for walking through the door.
There was a dirty hand towel on the floor behind the nightstand. The toilet wasn't cleaned. The clock radio was broken. The light fixture had bare, exposed wires. Several bulbs in the room were missing or burnt out. The ones that did work were yellow. The "clean" towels looked like they had been waiting there for a very long time. The room smelled slightly of mildew, but only slightly.. (more on that later)
I was in the Executive King room... A king bed, a sofa, a table, chairs..
I went to the front desk and asked for a replacement clock radio, and mentioned the bare wiring. After nearly an hour, checking several locations, I was finally awarded a different clock radio, and the maintenance guy fixed the wires on the light fixture. He also bent the plug a little, so it would stay in the broken outlet. I asked for replacement light bulbs, but there weren't any available. In a hotel. No spare light bulbs IN A HOTEL.
I was exhausted, so I stopped thinking about it and went to sleep.
The next morning, I asked the hotel manager about housekeeping service, and if I could get some clean towels. I was told that, because of Covid 19, they don't ever enter the rooms until after a guest leaves. They also don't serve breakfast, or coffee.. but no one is concerned enough to wear a mask. I was told if I wanted clean towels, I had to put my dirty ones in a bag and leave them in the hallway, and they would replace them later. So, I went back to my room, bagged up all the crunchy towels, and put them in the hallway, and left for the day.
After conducting my business in town, I went back that evening (I stopped to buy my own lightbulbs on the way. I had to buy my own lightbulbs. In a hotel.) Pulled into the pitch black parking lot, with no lights, and found my way back to my dimly lit room. I changed the lightbulbs. I realized why it had been left so dimly lit...
So remember the slight mildew smell? As it turns out, the sofa was a hide a bed. I opened it up, and it had sheets on it. I think they may have been clean when they were put on... But there's no telling how long ago that might have been. I also think they may have been damp. The hide a bed smelled of mildew and.. pee? Mice? Not quite sure. I stripped off those sheets, opened the window, and aired out the room for a while - and put the sheets in the hall. I looked around more. Wallpaper held up with staples. Curtain rod held up by wallpaper. Stains on everything. Mold on the bathroom door. Heavily corroded shower head. Mold around the base of the toilet. Mildew on the shower curtain. Then I looked at my bed.. You know those tags on mattresses? My mattress and box springs were dated 1998. My mattress was 22 ½ years old. Older than my two children combined. The mattress predated cell phones, wifi, and cable internet access. Cassette tapes were still popular. Almost a quarter of a century. The mattress was old enough to legally go out and buy it's own beer.
I looked under the bed. I think I was the first one to do that in a very very long time. Certainly no vacuum cleaner had seen that space in years... The dust probably started gathering there when the mattress was still only an adolescent.
There was a food wrapper, a plastic army guy, and a couple dead bugs.
I shoved the hide a bed closer to the window, covered over the mattress again, and rolled the bed away from the wall. There was plaster chunks from some long ago damage and repair, dust, a couple of dead bugs, dust, tags from someone else's new Harley Davidson outfit, and dust.
Oh - I forgot to mention that I had to fix one of the bathroom light fixtures when I replaced the bulbs... It was hanging from the wires.
I finally had to give up and go to sleep.
When I showered the next day, (I had to ask for more soap. And Kleenex. And toilet paper.) I laid towels on the floor and dressed in the bathroom rather than actually walk through the room to get dressed. I stripped off all of the sheets, blanket, pillow covers, mattress pad, everything, and tossed it in the hall. I had gotten mold and grime and mildew on a couple of the towels, and left those visible in the (now well lit) bathroom, and went to check out - no one at the front desk, so I left my key card the bag of empty light bulb boxes on the front counter and got out of there.
The management at this hotel should be ashamed of the condition. Several people in town told me it used to be a nice place - but the complete lack of care or effort by the management has left this place a horror. I understand not having a big budget, but failing to vacuum under the bed isn't a budget problem. Lightbulbs just aren't that expensive. In the end, the Management's laziness and apathy has cost them far, far more.
US