Do not stay at this hotel in Van Nuys, CA

I originally posted this as a review for a hotel but I typed too many characters and needs to get this out of my head. I just need to talk about my experience... I know this is random and pointless. I'd e-mail the hotel itself but its such a shitty hotel that there is no public e-mail address. So I am copying and pasting my experience here. Sorry for all of this.. lol.

But here we go...

DO NOT STAY AT THE VOYAGER MOTOR INN IN VAN NUYS, CA

I have never been treated so poorly at any hotel. I stayed here in 2008 when I first moved to LA and the way I was treated haunts me still today.

I moved out west from a small town in Michigan. I was 23 at the time, almost 24 and moved out west for a job offer I took, as a DJ at a club and also electronic music parties. I moved out there early but my apartment wasn't ready for another 5 weeks. So all I could really afford was this dump, for $63 a night.

Let I inform you that I was 23, white, female and attractive by traditional standards. I guess since I fit that profile, the staff believed that I was a prostitute. I didn't realize that at first.

I remember after my first night, I took all my towels and placed them in the housekeepers bin and told her I don't need my room cleaned but would just like fresh towels. Then I took off to a nearby studio and worked on some music. When I returned, the housekeeper apparently cleaned my room but I had no towels. I called the front desk and told them that she forgot my towels. The man who worked at the front desk had an attitude with me and said that I don't get towels until I return my used ones. I explained that I was helping the housekeeper out by removing the towels and placed them in her bin. I've been a housekeeper myself in the past and I always thought this was a polite gesture from the guests. He refused to give me towels and I went a few days without towels until finally I bought some of my own. Apparently, using too many towels in a hotel room is a sign of a call girl staying in that room. That wasn't my case but I didn't even realize that at the time.

One afternoon, two weeks later, I was cooking up some ramen noodles in their public microwave. I was kinda broke that week and didn't get paid till a few days later. While I was cooking, a somewhat creepy old guy strikes up a conversation with me. He asked me what I was doing and why I was staying here... You know, just a polite conversation. I didn't realize he was testing me. So I told him what I did.. I'm a DJ and also might have an interest in looking into cosmetology schools nearby cause I also wanna do makeup. Then he asked me if I model and I thought it was just a creepy pickup line. But I have before in my past, so I said yes. He asked me if I model at the hotel. I didn't get what he was saying but my response was "not really". Anyway, I was creeped up and grabbed my food and walked back to my room.

The next day, I was sitting in the lobby at a table using my laptop (there isn't internet in the room). He comes walking through and starts talking to the front desk people. He did not know I was in the lobby and could hear everything he said since I was hidden behind a wall at the table. He starts talking about me... He said something like, "You know that white girl, kinda pretty, maybe about 20 yrs old with dark hair and she kinda just keeps to herself and is on her laptop all the time? I talked to her last night when she was cooking and asked her if she did any modeling. Then I asked her if she has been escorting out of the rooms here and she said yes. I don't know how you guys knew that but you were right." I was thinking maybe they weren't talking about me but then he asked for my name and they gave it to him. I got up, get really angry at all of them and wanted to switch hotels after that. But all the other hotels in the area seemed even shadier.

But on the 30th day of my stay, the manager told me that I had to move out of my room. I could leave my stuff in the room at no charge but I couldn't stay there for 24 hours because I'd be considered a resident and I can't legally stay there. So I stayed at a friends house and wasn't even able to get my stuff out of the room cause they put a lock on the door. I went down stairs to complain, and they said I don't get my stuff until after 24 hours, no charge. There was a cop nearby so I asked him to help me and the cop said its not his problem. So I left and came back with my friend to help me get everything out of the room the next day. This time they told me that I have to pay the full price of the night since my stuff was in the room. They wanted $63 before they gave me my stuff back. They told me that it was all free before and I tried to argue it. Then the manager told me that he won't listen to a whore. My friend got in his face and spit at him. lol But my friend paid the amount and I paid my friend back when I got to the bank.

So this is my experience staying at the voyager motor inn... DO NOT STAY HERE... Not only did this happen, but at one point I had to switch rooms because there was a black widow hanging out in my bathroom. So especially if you're a female staying alone, bring mace and be careful because you'll stand out and be labeled as a hooker.

 

oh man.. that sucks.

 

I wouldnt stay in Van Nuys to begin with, but i am from california, so i know better

 

That sucks, sorry to hear all that. Surprised you stayed a bit longer when you found out what they had been saying about you.

We all have shitty things like that. I was once mistaken for a local criminal and taken away in a cop van, when I was out with my friends. I was like 17! After much silly conversation, it was son discovered that I was in fact not the person they were looking for, because I still had a whole thumb on my right hand. Go figure...

 

so how much for a half and half?

 

lmfao

 

Wow umm that's all sorts of messed up.

I think you could sue them back to the stone age for quite a few of those.. and the cop flat out lied, if they STOLE your things and locked them in the room, then it was his buisness, that's theft. And some sort of racketeering for locking your things up and then charging you for the time you didn't have access to the room.

Not that you would want to bother with legal fees over some sleezebag's ripoff hotel, which most likely is there to cater to hookers anyway... But that's just messed up. You paid for lots of service that apparently didin't exist, and they openly told guests you where a whore, which has GOT to be some sort of slander or something.

*edit* you might consider linking to this page in reviews, or posting just that text to a geocities style page and linking to that. It does seem that you should be heard...

 

I can see how they thought you were just stealing towels.

 

My first thought (as a typical male thinking with his dick) You fit the profile of a hooker – far out


Hotwater

 

too long, didn't read

but van nuys? seriously?

fuck, shitty place to stay.

 

63 dollars for that shit hole????? Damn! I guess I have been away from America too long.

Because I just stayed at a place that was really quite nice and almost certainly much nicer than your place, for about $15, granted it was in China. In other Asian countries I found really nice places for $10 or less.

Usually, you can get the price cut, as far as daily rates, if you are staying long term.

 

i regularly see motels with signs advertising prices around $30 a night, and those aren't the complete shitholes either. but, this is california she's referring to, not america.

 

um, ok..

 

your um okay suggests that you don't understand that california has higher prices for just about everything

in fact

YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND

GOD

I'M GONNA BE IN MY ROOM

pouting about how china is WAY better!

er, um, I mean... nevada.....

yes. I am openly mocking you, in case you didn't catch that.

 

its all relative. you might pay 900 bucks a month for an efficiency apartment in new york city, but you also get paid fifteen bucks an hour for flippin burgers too. it evens out.

 

...interesting tirade....
(and never ever said China was better)

 

and I never ever said aerospace engineers are smarter than police officers, but I have implied the fuck out of it through many posts.


and, death, you are correct, certain areas of california, do offer higher salaries, but equal, or lower quality of life due to higher consumer price indexing in a localized sort of way.

as it is most places.