Is it bad that the guy at the front desk gave me the master key and a list of 6 rooms, and said go find the best one then come back for my own key? I thought at the time it was a better solution than sending me off to just one room at a time, hoping I wouldn't come back for one reason or another. It worked out, the room I got didn't stink, the AC and heater worked, bed and towels were clean, nobody stole my cheap rental hoopty, etc.

Plus, earplugs. In Iraq, I had a room a mile from a heavy weapon training range for about 7 months. So yea, earplugs. Those nice soft squishy orange max protection ones.