Jan. 29, 2007 - South Florida hotels get mentioned for the wrong reason in a 2006 awards derby run by the consumer travel Web site TripAdvisor.com.

The site said the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area is home to four of the 10 dirtiest hotels in the United States.

"Last year, five of the dirtiest hotels were in New York City but this year, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region leads the country in filthy hotels," said Michele Perry, communications director at TripAdviser, owned by Expedia.

The hotels in Broward County that made the "10 dirtiest" list were both in Fort Lauderdale: the Red Carpet Inn, at 2460 W. State Road 84, and the Sea Club Resort, at 619 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard.

Michael Man, general manager of the Sea Club, said TripAdvisor isn't objective because anyone can post comments on the site anonymously. "If my neighbor doesn't like me, he will write about me every day under a different e-mail address," Man said.

Bob Keller, general manager at the Red Carpet Inn, said part of his hotel is still undergoing repairs from Hurricane Wilma.

Consumer reviews at TripAdvisor slammed both hotels. "Don't do it" was the title of the latest review of Sea Club, posted Jan. 23 by lissa0702 from Minneapolis. "The bathroom was small and disgusting," she said.

"Room smelled and there was a salamander climbing the walls," said a Jan. 15 review of the Red Carpet Inn, although an even more recent review was titled "Clean, convenient."

The Days Inn Downtown/Port, at 1050 NW 14th St. in Miami, and the Ramada Inn Miami Airport North, 1950 W. 49th St., Hialeah, were the other two South Florida lodgings cited in the TripAdvisor report.

--Edward Carey has been named managing director of sales at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. He previously had been director of sales and marketing at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Resort in Fort Lauderdale.

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