The Motel 6 Billings Montana Hotel Review is part of the Trip Report Athens Marathon: The Original Course which includes the following cities:
- Toronto, Canada
- Detroit, Michigan
- London, England
- Athens, Greece
- Giza, Egypt
- Cairo, Egypt
- Luxor, Egypt
- Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
- Abu Dhabi, UAE
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I thought the days of flea bag motels were over, at least in the United States. I had the displeasure of staying at the Motel 6 in Billings, Montana for a few hours prior to my flight to Minneapolis.
Before I get into how disgusting this hotel is and what a scam it is to charge more than $10 for this pile of garbage, let me share with you the arduous journey of leaving Montana to get to London. First, I had to drive four hours through all elements to Billings. Then I had to connect in Minneapolis to Detroit and spend seven hours in the D waiting for my flight to depart. (I broke up the trip with a stopover in Michigan.) In total, from leaving the house in Montana to leaving DTW takes 18 hours. It takes 7.5 hours to fly from DTW to LHR. Good grief.
To rest before this journey, I decided to find a hotel upon arriving in Billings. None went for less than $100 which is ridiculous considering the high vacancy and the fact that I was only staying for four hours. I saw the sign for Motel 6 and the rate of $55 which was only honored after I presented my newly acquired AARP membership.
The room looked like a crime scene: It had flickering lights, white pieces of powder on the floor, and those slimy covers used in rooms that charge by the hour. It reminded me of Josh Baskin’s room from the movie Big. Had I not been in Montana, I would’ve been scared that I was in the wrong part of town.
Wary of what would be found under a black light, I slept with my jeans and coat so as to prevent any creepy crawlers from becoming my new friends. It was that disgusting.
When my alarm went off, I bypassed the snooze and headed straight for the door.
Seriously, how do these hotels stay in business?
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This happened to me on a road trip a few years ago in another town in Montana. My rule since then has been no hotels with a number in them out West (no Motel 6, Super 8, etc.) They all seem to be disgusting. I slept with my clothes on too and we left at 4am since we couldn’t really sleep anyway and just wanted to get out of there.
Which town in Montana? And I agree. I think I’ll sleep in the car if I have to do this again.
Stopped using Motel 6 years ago. ‘We’ll leave the bedbugs in for you.’ It’s not only Motel 6 but other chains which do not invest money to maintain the facilities. Many of the chains use franchisees to operate them. I’ve seen some of the types who buy franchises, think third world. It’s now so endemic across the U.S. and Canada that you have to really be cautious where you stay.
lol nice one. Yeah, there’s no accountability from the head office. They didn’t even respond to my tweet, probably out of shame. Luckily for the rest of the Trip Report, I was spoiled in luxury.