hello everyone hope you're having the most  fantastic day today welcome to the film  

insight channel for today's video we're going  to discuss even more hotels featured on hotel  

hell and reveal how they're doing now so sit  back relax and without further ado let's get  

right into the content guys karen townsend i  have not given up you're just as bad as she  

is if you don't put your foot down and say no  hotel hell is a series that has attracted all  

manner of sad incompetent weak absurd and sketchy  characters running establishments that would have  

fared better without them but they sure did give  us a lot of entertainment chef gordon ramsay would  

tour the country looking for these hapless people  to try to give them a helping hand and save their  

ailing businesses sometimes it worked out but  sometimes the owner would turn out to be a nutty  

bizarre passive-aggressive soft-spoken wizard  hag we met this particular hag in season three  

and it took two whole episodes to get through her  shenanigans this episode of hotel hell was filmed  

in november 2015. for this episode ramsay traveled  to one of america's most celebrated small towns  

harper's ferry in west virginia just 60 miles from  washington dc there he would stay at townsend and  

meet karen townsend the 70 year old innkeeper and  resident hag for whom we are unlikely to have many  

nice things to say ramsay arrived at the gorgeous  hotel and was immediately greeted by karen at  

the door where they exchanged pleasantries and  appreciated the quaint little town of harpers  

little did the unsuspecting chef know that  there would be nothing more to appreciate once  

he crossed that threshold you will be astounded to  know of the goings-on inside the dreadful townsend  

in the first couple of minutes the celebrity  chef was quickly met with a hoarder's bazaar  

a strange assortment of hats that's a pretty  special one um why is it so special full of dust  

yeah century-old dolls old lady baskets little  hats and whatever doodads karen had managed to  

accumulate over time littered the parlor karen  had come to run the towns in courtesy of her  

son jason who together with his wife anna  had the brilliant idea to buy her the inn  

to keep her busy in her waning years in  other words it was karen's retirement home  

jason and anna also thought of the inn as  an investment but you wouldn't know it by  

looking inside Ramsay was not having a great first  impression his dismay at finding baskets with dead  

cockroaches was met with a quick snarky response  as karen replied that they wouldn't charge  

extra for that particular basket but there was  more strangeness waiting for him in the bedroom  

for a hundred and thirty dollars a night he would  be staying in a musty old room with a locked  

closet and no space for him to put his clothes and  you won't believe the stunt karen tried to pull  

instead of using the closet that was right there  this woman told Ramsay who was there to help her  

that he can put all his clothes on a couple of  hanging hooks on the door but Ramsay wouldn't  

have it he absolutely refused to sleep in a room  with a hag's mystery closet of unverified contents  

after much protest she opened it and he was met  not with a bubbling cauldron but with a hag's  

clothes upon looking inside disappointingly  there were no potions inside either  

inside there was only numerous dusty clothes that  she never even wore according to the staff karen  

was only ever seen in two outfits denim and beige  but it wasn't just the closet she'd invaded there  

was a battalion of shoes under the wardrobe and  dumped linen under the bed look at all this stuff

karen when confronted straight up told gordon  that he didn't need to be under the bed  

karen was strange seemingly never at a loss  for words and Ramsay was surprisingly gentle  

with this one possibly because she was mad  having had enough of this hoarder's paradise  

Ramsay went to the tiny outdoor eating area  where he sat down to the sound of a passing train  

blaring its horn in this area he would  also see something else of interest  

more hoarding at least four fridges and freezers  were lined up against the hotel's walls stocked  

with food for guests because according to karen  there was no space inside inside the fridges  

were disintegrating bits of greens too many  unnecessary frozen food items and the odd ashtray  

karen had hoarded all the space inside and was  now extending her claws to the outside of the inn  

despite the appalling fridge situation the  celebrity chef very bravely ordered some food mac  

and cheese some fiesta stew and a trout the meal  was unsurprisingly abysmal the stew was five days  

old the trout watery and the mac and cheese greasy  split in the middle microwaved and unseasoned  

ramsay met karen's friend sarah during his meal  as she busied herself sticking labels on the meat  

and produce in the freezer sarah proceeded to  hand Ramsay a card detailing her many talents  

which included wikipedia editor an inspirer  of loyalty greek teacher artist and solver of  

naughty problems dirty sarah whatever her naughty  problem-solving prowess may have constituted i  

wouldn't be surprised if sarah were to join karen  in the senile bin Ramsay's next step was to go to  

the kitchen where he found a ramshackle operation  run by jeff the cook the kitchen of the towns inn  

was a disaster jeff was found to have been making  boiled burgers and cooking in an oven that was  

last cleaned a year before you're boiling a burger  i'm just heating it back up when you say heating  

it back up why are you cooking it from fresh not  only that but nearly everything that came out  

of jeff's kitchen was reheated in a microwave  the kitchen had five microwaves and two chefs  

but the worst was yet to come you won't believe  what the microwave chefs were about to prepare  

Ramsay would be absolutely gobsmacked as he cited  a rotisserie chicken that looked like it had just  

been excavated from the arctic the mummified  prehistoric chicken was about to be reheated  

in a microwave when Ramsay intercepted  it he was incensed so incensed that he  

displayed that store-bought frozen mummy of a  chicken for all customers to see and called the  

kitchen a filthy disgusting place chock full  of malpractice right in front of the guests  

the outraged Ramsay was in honest shock as he told  guests that this outburst wasn't just for the tv  

show he was genuinely disturbed by the working  standards of the inn and there's nothing to do  

with the tv program i promise you now based on  the bad practices that's going on in that kitchen  

so my apologies but i'm not gonna allow you to  eat karen however was still in denial claiming  

that the locals liked the inn and blamed the staff  for the filth since she delegated the work to them  

jeff was not entirely without blame since he could  have at least made sure the kitchen and oven were  

clean he's the one who allegedly concocted a menu  that he couldn't handle but that's all according  

to karen who could not be trusted karen was  clearly ignorant oblivious and delusional  

and chef Ramsay had had enough he retired to  his bedroom in exasperation where he was about  

to be confronted by something vile one of karen's  accidents while upstairs Ramsay's nose twitched  

as it sent something awful leaking in the inn he  brought out his nifty little gadget that measured  

how filthy a place is this viewers was the fiesta  resistance of the town's inn you will be astounded  

and repulsed at what he found he took swabs  of the mats in the communal bathrooms and the  

carpet in his bedroom but it was the filth levels  in his bedroom carpet that would be the highlight  

the exasperated chef stuck the swab from his  bedroom carpet into the filth meter and lo  

and behold the reading on the filth meter was  astonishing anything above 30 would have been a  

hygiene hazard what do you think the reading  is 100 100 50 50. the reading wasn't 50 60  

70 or 100. it was 803. this is how an rbmk reactor  explodes sorry wrong show Ramsay was in disbelief  

and immediately yelled out for karen and the staff  and told them that it smelled like there was crap  

on the floor a server called gage replied that  it smelled like crap because it probably was crap  

you were in the bathroom and i think you had  an accident on the floor on the mat i mean  

yeah there have been times when i have had  diarrhea but it doesn't happen very often  

ramsay was stunned as brenda another server  revealed that karen had had an accident in  

the bathroom when she first started working there  karen admitted to having diarrhea on the carpet  

but not before attempting to shift the blame  onto bikers bicyclists and hikers who would stay  

at the inn she even tried dismissing the issue  entirely saying that at least the room was clean  

this woman was bananas server gage was also  at a loss and shouted that she was missing the  

point there was poop on the floor for pete's  sake perhaps karen thought she could control  

reality by denying everything ramsay could  have choked on her food and she would have  

still given herself a five-star rating at this  point was it malice delusion or mental illness  

karen further revealed that she worked 16 hours a  day 16 hours with nothing to show all this as her  

friend sarah waddled about painting childish  murals over cracks and chatting up guests  

with hack stories townsend was crumbling from the  inside and the fecal revelation had ramsay heading  

for the exits server cage ran after ramsay like a  lover begging him not to go but it was to no avail  

however as ramsay was downstairs at the door  getting his coat ready karen slithered downstairs  

and ramsay was able to see her office bedroom that  was usually locked he was surprised to find that  

she slept on a board covered in sheets and quilts  her bedroom office was the size of a cubicle and  

separated from the kitchen by a large wardrobe  ramsey was appalled this was no way for a lady to  

live let alone a grandmother her room was covered  in things she'd hoarded and the tired chef tried  

one last time to get to see her reason by having  a heart-to-heart conversation with her he would  

later talk to karen's absent son this is not  normal what's normal in what's normal seriously  

and together they would try to rehabilitate the  old woman as for the hotel's renovation the inn  

was cleaned decluttered and the rooms were given  an appropriately updated look karen was not left  

out as she received a clothing and hairstyle  makeover so she would no longer look like a hag  

how the townsend had remained open without being  shut down by the authorities all these years  

is shocking after the renovation gordon left on  a pinky swear and a promise from karen that she  

would not go back to her old haggy ways karen  if you'd like to say to the scene thank you  

and i'm looking forward to moving forward there  you go but wait this next part might surprise you  

despite townsend remaining open and doing  rather well today karen townsend was  

disappointed about the hotel hell episode in a  2017 interview karen stated that she was unhappy  

with ramsay's intervention which she  says focused more on her hag-like habits  

than the hotel according to her he was only there  for three days and only spoke to her when the  

cameras were rolling she further expressed  her displeasure that the renovations were  

not faithful to the inn's aesthetic and  probably cost less than twenty thousand dollars  

regarding the menu she added we really tried to  do the Ramsay menu that november but it wasn't  

working well he didn't train the chefs how to cook  his fancy dinners while hotel hell seems a bit  

disingenuous karen sounds like a bitter ungrateful  hag how is townsend doing today today the townsend  

is doing well shockingly enough it has 3.5 stars  on yelp 4 stars on tripadvisor and 4.2 on expedia  

it even won a 2021 trip advisor travellers choice  award guests find it to be a charming homey quaint  

little place in a picturesque location it seems  popular with hikers and bikers and the guests  

who meet karen find her friendly and welcoming  even the negative reviews which complain of dust  

cobwebs the occasional saggy bed and uneven and  underfunded renovations still say the staff are  

kind and the inn charming enough to forgive  these missteps karen and her son jason have  

really turned the place around though karen should  learn to be a bit more grateful well that will be  

all for today's video here on the channel i do  hope you enjoyed it and if you did be sure to  

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