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Still No Room at Bethlehem's Inns

Yesterday's holiday filled up more than just hotels in big cities like New York and Paris, but also guaranteed a sea of tourists to religious destinations like Bethlehem, the hub of Christmas. Since a tense peace exists in the area, Bethlehem has taken in record numbers of both pilgrims (some 1.3 million) and their cash this past week.

As a result, hotels in the town have been overflowing, forcing even those under renovation to open specifically for the holidays. While Bethlehem businesses hope that the peace holds in the name of more than just souvenir dollars, it seems like they'll be getting that wish no matter what. According to the Christian Science Monitor, hotel chains Mövenpick and Days Inn will be moving in while "in the Beit Sahour suburb of Bethlehem, hammers can be heard from hotel construction just up the road from Shepherds' Field, the hillside believed to be the site from where the biblical Star of Bethlehem was sighted."

While it's always weird to hear that your average, run-of-the-mill chain hotels are being built at exotic locations, it is an altogether different matter when you're able to Twitter about checking into the Days Inn Bethlehem. The era of sleeping in a manger is now officially over.

[Photo: oneworld.net]

Tags: Hotel Hell / → All Tags

This Dude Knows Nasty Hotels

Travel writer Tom Brosnahan has stayed in some nasty hotels.

Collateral damage when you write guide books about bargain hotels right?

He has stayed in a caravanserai in Turkey where the mattress was filled with straw, and a Guatemalan mountain hotel where one very loud rooster kept him awake, however, the worst hotel he ever laid eyes on was the good old American Hotel Bethlehem PA in the U.S.

The clerk showed me a room. It was awful! I tried to tell myself that I'd seen worse, but I hadn't. Besides being a wreck, the room's door didn't lock, and the bed was a bare, stained mattress. The temperature outside was well below freezing, and the radiator in the room wasn't even lukewarm. When I asked for blankets, the desk clerk said "Most of the guys here bring their own," which was not helpful. I badgered him into handing me a stack of 15 clean sheets.

Thankfully for all of us, the American Hotel is long since closed, but as y'all constantly tell us, there are some nasty hotels out there.

Related Stories:
·   Worst Hotel In The World [Travel Intelligence]
·   Bethlehem Hotel Reviews [TripAdvisor]