This was the most tense, uncomfortable, and nerve-wracking night I've ever spent in a motel or hotel. It's also the first time I've stayed in a motel/hotel and was not able to get to sleep at all; not even for a minute.
We checked into the Quality Inn, Pt. Pleasant, NJ on 12/25, on a chilly, rainy Christmas Day. The room was small but clean and nicely furnished. It was very cold inside, however, and took several hours to warm up to a comfortable temperature. The bathroom remained uncomfortably cold during our entire stay. The heater in the room was noisy and kept kicking on/off frequently, and alternated between blowing warm air followed by blowing cold air each time the thermostat cycled off.
But enough about the room.
We left in mid-afternoon to go spend the holiday with family. We returned to the room about 11:30 p.m. and shortly after that heard loud banging/thumping/crashing noises from the room next door. This continued for about 20 minutes and was followed by loud and repeated pounding at the door of that room. When I looked out to see what was going on, the police were there and said they were trying to get the occupant to open the door, and get the situation resolved. I am not sure if they ever got the person to open the door, but my husband looked out shortly after that and the police were going into the lobby toward the front desk.
After the police left, the noises continued all night -- constant crashing and banging of items against the wall, the sound of someone repeatedly rummaging through their personal items, and repeated opening and loud slamming of the door. The occupant seemed to keep leaving the room about every 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, and then would return shortly afterwards and start tossing things around again. At one point in the wee hours, a car arrived. I heard a female voice in the parking lot and then in the room. After about 30 minutes she left. The noise kept up until about 6:00 a.m., when I finally gave up trying to sleep and got up to get ready to leave.
I considered calling the police again myself, or the front desk, but the neighbor had already been reported by someone else and nothing had been done. Whatever this person was up to, the management didn't seem to care, and I didn't want to draw attention to us and have to spend the night there with a neighbor who was angry with us.
I spoke with the man at the front desk before leaving, and he said we should have called to request a new room. Let's see... get out of bed in the middle of the night, get my husband out of bed, arrange for a new room, get dressed, gather our belongings from various places around the room/bathroom, repack them, move (in the middle of the night, in winter and the pouring rain) to a new room that was probably just as cold as the first one, then try to warm that room up and get settled again so we could go back to bed. I would not have gotten to sleep in time to get any rest, even if we had moved.
Don't bother with this place unless your plans include staying awake all night.
Pros: Clean, nicely furnished.
Cons: Cold room, questionable guest behavior, noise all night.
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