Hotel Carter - the most disgusting, repulsive and depressing hotel
Hotel Carter in New York is hands-down the most disgusting, repulsive and depressing hotel I have ever had the misfortune of staying in. Our room on the fourth floor was the sort of place you'd want to over dose in. If we'd have been slightly higher up, I might have considered jumping out of the window, rather than doing it from the fourth floor, and living to remember my time at Hotel Carter. 
The staff are incredibly rude, starting with the egotistical, sarcastic chinese-american on the counter, and a russian who can barely speak English working the 'Shuttle Bus' counter. The pair were extremely unhelpful regarding all aspects of my stay. Before visiting our room, I visited the toilets in the lobby. Ah, no toilet roll.. that's a shame. Oh but hang on.. that was the least of my worries - one toilet was covered in urine - and I mean COVERED. All over the floor, the walls, the entire toilet.. drenched. Next cubicle.. it's even worse. faeces on the seat. HUMAN FAECES.. on the toilet seat. Smeared. That's the first impressions out of the way.. now onto the room.
I took the elevator up to the fourth floor.. everyone in the elevator had the same 'oh, that doesn't sound good' expression on their face as crunching and scraping metal sounds emitted from outside the doors. As I left the elevator, I realised I had become slightly lost after stepping out into the Overlook Hotel from The Shining. I mean, this place is a spitting image for it. The mangy old carpets in bright colours - long, white-washed bleak hallways with these duller-than-dull grey 'prison' doors. 
The room was pretty disgusting. Hair, mould and white stains in the carpet. Blood all over the mattresses - these must've been at least 30-40 years old. The sheets and towels wreaked of bleach - proper industrial strength stuff. The bathroom was by far the best feature in the room - taking approximately 5 solid minutes for the water to run from ice cold to luke warm. We were one of the 'fortunate' ones to have a room facing outwards (to the street) - I can't imagine how bad the ones on the other side of the hall must be. Jeez. The walls were covered in mould and rust had dripped down from the leaky radiator. Not only that, I realised someone had graffitied 'Andy <3' in massive letters on one of the walls. It had been covered with a very thin wash of emulsion so it was still very visible. At least he had a good time, right?
Last but not least, the russian on the 'Shuttle bus' desk told us it would cost $45 to the airport using their service, and a private hire would be $70 plus tolls - the bus would take approximately 1 hour, so we got the Shuttle at 3.20pm to JFK for our flight at 7.20pm. What she forgot to tell us is, the shuttle bus actually makes several stops to other hotels, meaning it took OVER AN HOUR for us to leave Manhattan, let alone get to JFK. We then hit rush hour traffic, meaning our 'one hour express shuttle' took 2.5 hours. The drivers were absolutely useless, incompetent morons whom you'd think would have a better idea of how long the journey would take.. seeing as that's THEIR DAY JOB?
To sum up: The Hotel Carter is probably New York's biggest dump. Hell, it's probably America's biggest dump. I'd personally love to boycott this hotel. How it is actually open, and passing health inspections, with paying guests staying there in 2012 is beyond me. Avoid at ALL COSTS.