Mo-Hell

When I was a child, I loved nothing more than going on vacation and staying in a motel/hotel. It's was such an exciting adventure for me! With (usually) a pool on site, an ice machine down the hall, and the anticipation of going somewhere fun (for example, Silver Dollar City or Worlds of Fun), I was incredibly happy.

Now, it's a different story.

Hotels still can be a fun escape from the ravages of everyday life, however, I've watched way too many episodes of Dateline NBC and know some of the tricks that these places pull to save time and money on cleanliness. There still are places that don't appear to be disgustingly dirty (recently stayed at the Courtyard Marriott and felt that it was very clean), but for the most part, I'm very distrusting. I refuse to drink out of glass drinking glasses and typically either fold the comforter/bedspread at the end of the bed or throw it on the floor.

Fast forward to this past Sunday. I was in Tulsa for a conference and we stayed and what's supposed to be a pretty nice little lodge. The beds were incredibly comfortable the linens were crisp. I was impressed to see that the bed was covered with a fluffy duvet. Before I went to bed, though, I folded that duvet across the end of the bed, anticipating that I wouldn't use it. I also tossed the cute little decorative roll pillow on the floor because it wasn't in a case and I didn't want to think about what all might be on it.

Apparently, in the night, I got cold and pulled the duvet up. I didn't think much about it until late last night when I returned from our awards banquet. I sat down on the edge of the bed to send some e-mail and something caught my eye. I realized that there was blood across the duvet -- right by where my face would have been the previous night. Obviously, it wasn't my blood because there was a great deal of it and I hadn't bled at all.

After flying up from the bed, washing my hands in scalding water, and managing not to vomit, I called the front desk and requested a new comforter. The woman who answered asked me why I wanted one, so I honestly told her. Her response? "Well, is it your blood? It has to be or else it's got to be a stain." Well, I didn't look at it that closely, but I've never in my life seen a blood stain that was that large and still that dark after washing. Someone brought up a new comforter, but I still had a really hard time sleeping last night. Then, add to that the fact that there were plastic tags that hold price tags on clothing strewn across my floor (and I hadn't taken any new clothing with me) and crushed crackers under the edge of the bed, and I was sufficiently disgusted.

Luckily, I'm pretty sure that I did not come into contact with that dried blood, but I don't know for sure. I'm crossing my fingers that I didn't touch it and won't wind up with some funky and nasty disease.

This was another definite wake-up call for me. I won't even go into the time that I checked into my room at a different hotel in Tulsa and walked in to find that it hadn't been cleaned. Instead, the bed had just been made up and the towels were still tossed haphazardly on the floor.

Ew. Yes, I'll stay in hotels again, but I guarantee you that I'm going to be a lot more picky and will NEVER leave a comforter on the bed again. In fact, I think I'll start taking my own pillows and maybe even my own blanket.