I’ve done a fair amount of traveling in my life, not to brag or anything.
By that I mean that my trips are not brag-worthy at all. Frankly, my travels are not the same ones you’ll see strewn across instagram and other social media outlets, heralded as life changing experiences. I’m never lounging on some Italian beach or sipping cocktails on a private yacht in the Keys. Instead, my traveling normally includes 8-12 hour car rides without any breaks which ultimately culminate in staying at discount hotels for a few nights, if I’m lucky. I have stayed in so, so many terrible hotels at this point. I could practically write a book on what to expect from each roadside bargain hotel chain. Most recently, however, I stayed in a non-franchise hotel that had the worst HVAC I’ve ever seen. I was shocked to find that this historical downtown institution was poorly equipped with a heating system that had to be at least 30 years old. When we first entered the little hotel room, I first noticed that the hot, dry air inside was basically blasting at full power. As we opened the door a rush of tepid air came wooshing past, and I could hear the sound of an outdated forced air heater chugging away at level 11. I went to the thermostat and found that it consisted of two dials; an inaccurate “temperature setting” dial, and a “speed” dial to modify the rate of air exhaustion. These two controls were meant to operate the single overhead heating unit, which was basically a massive hair dryer hanging from the ceiling. I’ve stayed in a lot of bad hotels, but this was easily the worst air quality I’ve ever seen.