"Enjoy the Warm Hospitality and Service at the Hotel Carter"

Sock Monkey has a new obsession: Reading bad reviews of hotels on Trip Adviser. This website has reviews and photographs of millions of hotels from all over the world which are posted by people who have actually stayed in them. Last week they emailed me their 2009 list of The World's Dirtiest Hotels and I just can't stop reading the reviews. Whilst Sock Monkey does enjoy reading the reviews of the Cromwell Crown Hotel in London, I am particularly fascinated (it is a sort of grim fascination admittedly) by the Hotel Carter in New York which is described on one website bookings page as "Enjoy the warm hospitality and service at the Hotel Carter- a unique- inviting departure from traditional hotels in Manhattan."

It certainly is 'a unique departure from traditional hotels' as this place has been voted the Dirtiest Hotel in the whole of America the last 4 years running. Guest reviews tell us about the bedbug infested sheets, dead mice in the rooms, the never-in-this-lifetime vacuumed carpets, filthy bathrooms, crappy service, etc, etc. The evidence is here in over 260 photographs in hideous technicolor - if you dare look. Some of the reviews are entitled as follows: 'Should be Shut Down by the Health Department', 'Most disgusting Place Ever', 'Oh But Bed Bugs DO Bite!', 'Disgustingly Disgusting', 'HorrendousDisgustingYukTerrible', and the completely against the grain: 'I Always Stay at the Carter'.

One of my favourite reviews is:
"The Mouse House
What a hoot! No worry about feeling alone, as the mice running all over will keep you company. This is the kind of place where at any time a pancake makeup-encrusted octogenarian with yellowed teeth, clad in a shabby silk bedcoat and moth-eaten feather boa can be expected to be seen wandering the halls muttering, "Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" A pig pen (but I did only pay $79.00 bucks, so what could I expect?)."

Someone else said that standing at reception and watching the long line of people queuing up each morning to complain was one of the entertainment highlights of the place.

To be fair the management response to one review was: "Dec 11, 2008 Bedbugs Suck! Yes, much of it is true. We are sorry, and here is what we’re doing about it – We’re locating and aggressively treating all reported rooms. We’re using the latest state-of-the-art (and costly) services including bug sniffing dogs, cryonite (freezing with carbon dioxide) and traditional, safe and legal eradication techniques. Fact is bedbugs are as much of a problem in a 5 Star hotel in New York, and around the world for that matter, as they are at a value-priced hotel like The Carter.
With more people traveling internationally, bedbugs have been getting free trips around the world. It’s not an excuse – it’s just the way it is. Nobody likes bedbugs – I feel itchy just writing this. Please know that we are biting back and getting rid of all uninvited guests. We’re also cleaning like crazy, making repairs all over the place and are doing everything we can to make sure our guests have a safe, comfortable, clean and affordable room when visiting New York and choosing The Carter as their hotel. Bottom line: We can do better. And we will."

But I don't want to read about what they are doing to fix the problem! I want to read the utterly hideous reviews until I cry with laughter. Again. I may actually have to go to New York just to have a look at the Hotel Carter with my bare eyes.

Personally I think the place should be preserved as a sort of 'Hotel-from-Hell Theme Park'.