A story by the NYT’s business traveler columnist, Joe Sharkey, today, got me thinking. It was about TripAdvisor.com’s lists of the world’s dirtiest hotels.

The NYT story is here. The list of dirtiest U.S. hotels is here.

I checked to make sure Phoenix didn’t have an entry, which it doesn’t.

But it did get me curious. Poking around on the TripAdvisor site, I actually couldn’t find the worst of the worst in Phoenix. The lowest ranking I could pull up was a list that began with “157 out of 175 hotels in Phoenix,” but then went up in ranking [i.e., in quality] from there. (It could be the site requires a minimum number of reviews.)

The worst hotels in town—according to the site’s users—are:

The Ramada Limited Airport North (“I see that many of these reviews are a few years old. Let me advise – this hotel is still awful.”)

Extended StayAmerica Phoenix Deer Valley (“If you’re looking for a hotel with a warm, friendly atmosphere, do not stay here.”).

and …

Traveler’s Inn on Latham on the west side (“On walking into my ‘non-smoking’ room, I was nearly blown back by the stink of smoke.”)

It should be noted that the prices on these places are correspondingly low, and that the ratings are the product in one case of as few as a half-dozen reviews. (I took out one of the lowest ones because the reviews were several years old.)

There were few venues downtown. One I noticed, the Artisan Hotel, but it had been taken over by an established chain. Embarrassingly, the San Carlos comes in at no. 114. Some of the reviews aren’t nice:

“The furniture looked like early pioneer meets the ’70’s and the bathroom was more than hideous”

“This place should be condemned!”

“The shower’s water pressure was equivalent to holding a small bottle of water and gently pouring it onto your head”