I knew we were in for something pretty poor considering how little we paid, so my expectations were very low in the first place. It was a one night stopover, and we were simply looking for somewhere to get our heads down for the night and move on. Good lord, this place surprised us - in the worst way possible!
The inside of the room smelled overwhelmingly of cigarette smoke, the rest of the hotel smelled of weed. The metal door to our prison cell/room was peppered with what looked like pellet marks. There was exposed electrics on the radiator, there were bugs in the room, and a very suspicious looking white stain on the bedsheets. To add to the atmosphere, there were some quite obvious "dodgy" dealings going on from a nearby room, and I think the communal balcony/walkway looked more like a toilet than the toilet did.
Needless to say, we gave our key back and got a last-minute booking elsewhere.
On the plus side, the lady on reception was friendly... but didn't seem particularly surprised to get the key back!