9 signs you've checked into the worst hotel in NJ

There’s something about a seedy motel that looks really cool in the movies, but not so much up close. Some of New Jersey’s dumpiest motor lodges and motels have a really cool vibe and have such character that they just draw you in. But then there are others... well I think you know where I’m going with this.

There are some motels and even hotels in New Jersey that shouldn’t even have the right to house people. But yet they do, year after year, generation after generation, they just keep spackling the walls and patching up the carpet and hanging out the vacancy sign.

But how can you know? Is there something to warn you, before you check in, that this place is going to be an actual nightmare?

Our producer, Kylie Moore, stayed at one such dump on the night of her high school prom. Of all the horrible unseemly things that I have seen in hotels, she described the worst: A shower in the middle of the hotel room. Not in the bathroom, but just a space carved out in the middle of the room on a slab of linoleum, kind of thrown down as an afterthought. That, to me, is a sure-fire sign that you picked the absolute worst motel in New Jersey.

If this is hard for you to picture, or you just don’t believe this could exist, check it out in the photo below. If that’s not enough of a dire warning, I have a little guide for you. Here are some other red flags to warn you that your New Jersey motel or hotel stay will be less than five-star. If you see any of these signs, think twice before checking in.