Thanks, EconoLodge, for a fabulous time! (@#%! You)

Just wait until you try getting back out of Canada!

I'm pretty sure people were loudly @!$%#ing in the room across the hall.

Well, at least it wasn't a total loss. ;)

A terrific recommendation!

Sounds like a great place.

Seriously, they should have paid you to stay in that dump.

The Econo Lodge Inn & Suites reviewed in this article is located at 335 Jarvis Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, right by the Gerrard Street hookers.

With all those amenities who needs Wifi?

Given the location, I'm not too surprised by your experience. What a horrible way to spend a night. Sorry from Canada.

It's all better now. We're in a new hotel, and the room is about 3 times the size of the room in the Econo Lodge. There's plenty of free and accessible wifi. We have a view.

We couldn't take it off the wall to plug it in elsewhere.

You have to try harder next time. Get a running start.

Here in Canada, we refer to those places under the generic title of M(H)otel Sucks.

I don't live by many rules, but one of them is:

If a motel has bars in the windows, I find somewhere else to sleep.

looked a lot like a place Buffalo Bill might secure hide for the sleeves of his ladycoat.

This is the best simile I have ever read. Ever.

And how is it that you lucked onto this disaster? Did you book online ahead of time, figuring "how bad could an Econo be?" Or did you just stop at the first lodging you found when nightfall approached? And NOTHING tipped you off that this was maybe not the kind of place you nice girls wanted to be?
First of all, I would write a sharp letter to Econo headquarters, telling them about the shabby physical plant and poor service etc. This place does not deserve to be part of a chain. It may surprise you that even Econo has some standards.
Second, I would go to Yelp and write up a review of this location (not sure if they have Canadian locations offhand, or just US locations). Yelp.com is getting very popular for brief reviews of restaurants/bars and hotel/motel accommodations.
Also next time, I would avail myself of not only Yelp but places like Travelocity. If you sign up with Travelocity, you can search all the listings of hotels in a city, check out not only price but details like online access, free parking, laundry facilities, etc. Having said all that, if driving in the states, you can possibly get away with just winging it and stopping at the visitors centers when you enter a state. They will have info on hotels in the area, give you a booklet of discount coupons, and some even have free phones to the listed lodgings so you can have them hold a room for you. This works better on the major interstate tollways, where they have put a little money into setting up a travelers area, and in the non-peak travel months where you can get better discounts.
Now can I tell my worst motel experience? And it was here in wonderful Minnesota Nice country?
I was winging it. I stopped at a visitor center near the state line. Found less in the way of helpful installations. Did find a good booklet with an exhaustive listing of lodgings for the whole state. Oops, no coupons, oops, lodgings are running more expensive out here. Even the mom and pop places have a high base price.
So anyway, I located a motel just outside the main metro, VERY conveniently located to fun events. Hill View Motel. Sucks. I slept that night OK. Spent a Sunday afternoon at the Renaissance festival down the road, and come back to find that someone had gone thru my personal effects in the container of my sundry items like brush, roll-on, etc etc. Someone had taken the earrings off the card and apparently decided that they were not worth anything at a pawn shop(?). I complained to no effect.
In the morning I realized that my portable radio and headset were gone. So then I complain to the front desk again. Call the police to make a complaint. So it is on the record anyway. And checked out.
Have complained to several places -- to the offices of the directory that listed them, to assorted consumer offices and a consumer travel writer, who told me that in such cases, the hotel is more likely to be believed. So no redress, no punishment of any kind like getting dropped from the directory or whatever.
So -- I wrote about them in Yelp. It seems that the consumer is on his or her own in this brave new world of ours. The only source of info and help are the various volunteer or non-profit groups that monitor or record reviews.
Good luck, all ye travelers on the wide open roads.

Toronto that Hotel directly in front of the railway station is on the pricy side but old school elegant.

BTW, Ryan...we never did get to finish one of our conversations on Saturday, so I wrote it up as an article...