Most of us have caught wind of the shoddy cleaning that takes place in even the nicer hotels – the same glove that just scrubbed the toilet now scrubbing the rinse glass in the bathroom, that sort of thing.  But there are some hotels that take dirtiness to a whole new level, and TripAdvisor has just announced the winners.  Or losers, as the case may be.

Chances are that if you’re remotely interested in a decent hotel stay, none of these were on your top five anyway.  But we have to say, it’s fun to read the reviews that TripAdvisor members gave to some of these spots. When someone points out graffiti on the wall that says “If you want an STD, stay here,” well, we’ll just take our business elsewhere, thank you very much. (And of course, we should point out that TripAdvisor also has a Best Hotels list, a good antidote for the hives you’ll get after reading about these dumps…)

We’ve offered you a lot of advice on where to go for your luxury family vacations or babymoons, what deals are out there, what’s cool to travel with – all information that we hope will help you stay your sophisticated self when traveling, even if you now have – or will soon have – a mini-me or two trailing you through the airport.

Why do we do this? Because we love to travel. And after 8+ years of helping luxury travel marketers reach an upscale and affluent traveler – and enjoying the lifestyle that went with it – we had a baby. And suddenly realized that life had changed, possibly. That now some places might be off-limits, or that we’d feel different about going to some of our hotspots. How to battle this so that our screaming lovable toddler would not prevent us from living the lifestyle “to which we’d become accustomed”? Hence Child of Leisure, once we realized that we were not the only ones that didn’t want every vacation to completely revolve around our children. Of course, we want our children to be welcomed wherever we go, and for them to enjoy themselves. We just don’t think we need to avoid upscale hotels or the whole concept of a luxury vacation until our children are old enough to not want to be seen with us anyhow.

But now it’s time to turn to you, dear reader, because we’d like to know – where have you been with a child that made you feel like, gee, my child is comfortable here but I still also feel like an adult? Any specific hotel blow you away with kindness and pampering while you visited with kids? Chime in and let us know what and where your faves are…and, of course, why. No negative reviews, please! (We’re saving that for another post!)

To us, no.

But apparently to many hotel chains, it is.  That’s the only reason we can come up with that hotels would still be indulging in the ridiculously antiquated scheme of charging rates as high $15 – on top of your room rate – for internet access.  And in many cases, that access you’re paying for is in-room ethernet, meaning you’re slave to a cord.  Um, excuse us, but in 2007?  What gives?

Maybe it’s the blogging thing, but we really need like our internet access.  Yes, even on when we’re not working and indulging in family vacation with the kids.  It’s not just about work – the internet can also be a great way to find up-to-the-minute local news and events when you’re traveling, so you’re not just beholden to the usual tourist traps.  Who wants to head down to a frigid business center or the lone kiosk in the lobby?  To us, it’s like telling us we need to go downstairs to take a shower.  And at luxury hotel prices, there should be no extra fee for what has become as normal an activity as – well, taking a shower.

Over at HotelChatter, they publish a Best Wi-Fi Hotels Report.  We laughed when we read their echo of the exact same thought we’ve had about W Hotels – how can they possibly market themselves as hip and sophisticated when they’re still charging for this? Although they now offer it in the living rooms, you’ll still incur a steep fee if you want to get on the Web from the privacy of your guestroom.  This, to us, is unacceptable – especially when Four Points by Sheraton, W’s low-budget sister in the Starwood family, offers it for free.  (Not to mention Four Points has a Chief Officer of Beer, but that’s another post…)

HotelChatter does Best WiFi and Worst WiFi reports and even touches on some international hotels.  Furthermore, they encourage you to chime in with your experiences, particularly when it comes to overseas properties.  If this is important enough to you to be a main criteria for your hotel stays, check out what they have to say.