One-Upsmanship

My mum, my sisters and I thought this hotel in Pilsn, Czech Republic was frightening, with its exposed wiring and unisex shower room that not only hadn't any locks, but didn't even have any doors. (Also it looked to be the perfect place for ghosts- one half expected some Habsburg belle of the nineteenth century to sweep around the corner in crinoline and side-curls).
Apparently we were let off lightly, however, as this account by Robert Byron of a hotel stay in Mazar-i-Sherif in 1934 demonstrates:
"Where is the guest-house?" we asked, using the ordinary Persian word.
"It is not a guest-house. It is an 'hotel'. This way."
It is indeed. Every bedroom has bedstead with a spring mattress, and a tiled bathroom
attached, in which we sluice ourselves with water from a pail and dry our feet on a mat
labelled BATH MAT.... The lavatory doors lock on the outside only. I was about to point
this out to the manager, but Christopher said he liked it and wouldn't have them touched.