Holiday Lodge, Salem

1) In the bathtub, there was a bar of soap left over from the previous tenants. Pretty gross.

2) There were stains encrusted on one of the velour blankets on one of the bed. I won't describe them; I'm sure you can use your imagination. I had to rip the whole thing off and leave it in a corner before I'd put my child in that bed. Not pleasant.

3) I've stayed in many hotels in the last several years and this one wins the prize for Noisiest Hotel. All night, we could hear this odd vacuuming sound. It didn't make for a good night's sleep.

4) This, though, really did it... Checkout time is 11:00 am. At 10:45, the owner's wife and a cleaning woman knocked on the door. We were gathering our things and were obviously leaving. She reminded me, "Checkout is at eleven." I thanked her, said we'd just be another minute or two and that was that.

Not five minutes later, a different cleaning woman knocked on the door. I said, "We're just heading out. It'll be a few more minutes."

I had the keys in my hand and the luggage ready to go when the phone rang. It was the owner's wife again. "Checkout is eleven!" I checked my watch: 10:55! I said, "What time do you have? It's not even eleven yet." She said we had five minutes and then hung up on me!

I could *maybe* understand if we were rowdy college kids and she was suspecting we'd never leave: our party was a grandmother, a 6-year-old boy and me. We're quiet, clean, ideal visitors, believe me. That woman is unbelievably rude. I wasn't planning on staying any longer than necessary, but that room was ours until 11am.

Avoid this dump like the plague... I know I (and anyone I know) will in the future.