HoJos worst?

[carebee21]

I'm not a big HOJO's fan, so here's my opinions. The rooms are typical motel rooms. The indoor corridor was dark, the carpet worn in both the room and hallway, the room furniture was dinged and scratched, you have old box tv's, the walls were thin and you could hear them vacuuming the hall at midnight and the maid cleaning the room next door bright and early the next morning. Just a typical room you would expect at a Motel 6, Days Inn, Hojo....

The pool area is really what you are paying for. And the pool area is nice and fun for younger kids. But with that said, there isn't much for adults or older kids. It's not by the regular pool and the wading pool is only a foot deep. The other problem is that the spa is by the kids play area, so if you want to sit in the spa, all the little kids jump in and splash around, thinking it's still the play area.

I have also not encountered the hospitality that people talk about. I've booked and called ahead of time to tell them we would be there early, so if there was any way to check in early, that would be appreciated. The first time they guaranteed us we would be able to. Well, that wasn't the case and on top of that, our room wasn't even ready at check-in time. When we came back to change our clothes for the evening and I asked how we were supposed to change without a room, which was supposed to be ready by now, they shrugged it off and basically said there's nothing they can do. And when I ask to leave our luggage in the luggage area, they act like it's a huge deal or inconveinance. I know it's not a big deal to some, but I travel with my laptop and/or iPad and I just don't feel comfortable leaving that in the car or in the luggage room where employees have access to that. I've never had a problem checking in early at any other hotel in the area.

In my opinion, I would NEVER pay regular price to stay there. As far as the room specials, I tend to prefer pricelining a 4 star hotel for about the same price and getting a much nicer, cleaner, modern room. However, if I know we're going to have a down day and my son will really get plenty of time to play in the water area and they have the special entertainment/ap pricing, we consider it.

 

[nana50]

I'm not a big HOJO's fan, so here's my opinions. The rooms are typical motel rooms. The indoor corridor was dark, the carpet worn in both the room and hallway, the room furniture was dinged and scratched, you have old box tv's, the walls were thin and you could hear them vacuuming the hall at midnight and the maid cleaning the room next door bright and early the next morning. Just a typical room you would expect at a Motel 6, Days Inn, Hojo....

The pool area is really what you are paying for. And the pool area is nice and fun for younger kids. But with that said, there isn't much for adults or older kids. It's not by the regular pool and the wading pool is only a foot deep. The other problem is that the spa is by the kids play area, so if you want to sit in the spa, all the little kids jump in and splash around, thinking it's still the play area.

I have also not encountered the hospitality that people talk about. I've booked and called ahead of time to tell them we would be there early, so if there was any way to check in early, that would be appreciated. The first time they guaranteed us we would be able to. Well, that wasn't the case and on top of that, our room wasn't even ready at check-in time. When we came back to change our clothes for the evening and I asked how we were supposed to change without a room, which was supposed to be ready by now, they shrugged it off and basically said there's nothing they can do. And when I ask to leave our luggage in the luggage area, they act like it's a huge deal or inconveinance. I know it's not a big deal to some, but I travel with my laptop and/or iPad and I just don't feel comfortable leaving that in the car or in the luggage room where employees have access to that. I've never had a problem checking in early at any other hotel in the area.

In my opinion, I would NEVER pay regular price to stay there. As far as the room specials, I tend to prefer pricelining a 4 star hotel for about the same price and getting a much nicer, cleaner, modern room. However, if I know we're going to have a down day and my son will really get plenty of time to play in the water area and they have the special entertainment/ap pricing, we consider it.

OMG I could have written this! My exact feelings. I prefer a newer hotel and wait until The Hilton, Sheraton or DLH are having sales.

 

[Caroline NZ]

We have just returned from 14 nights at Hojos ( and have stayed there twice previously as well). It is nothing flash, but is comfortable and clean. We had the entertainment rate for 11 of our 14 nights, and that was the reason we stayed ( along with the water playground). Next trip the children will be older, and the playground won't be a drawcard. In future we intend to go with a suite hotel ( like Residence Inn ). We have loved staying at Hojos, but now it's time to try somewhere else.
Very minor niggles from the last trip were, pool towels not always available, sliding doors difficult to lock, and wonky lightshades.

 

[HappyHaunt]

We've only stayed there once, it was okay, but we probably wouldn't stay there again. We were in building 1, and it was quite noisy. We weren't facing the freeway, but we could still hear it, and as well as noise from the street right next building 1. The A/C really didn't work too well, and we had a maid just walk in on us while we were taking a nap (after they had cleaned too). The walk wasn't too bad, but we'd rather stay closer. We do enough walking in the parks!

 

[rossip]

a year or so ago they closed the pools so an external function could use them , in other words they allowed visitors the use of the pool area rather than their paying guests - will never stay there again

OH and they did this with no notification prior to hotel guests either - total contempt

 

[ByTheHook]

We have just returned from 14 nights at Hojos ( and have stayed there twice previously as well). It is nothing flash, but is comfortable and clean. We had the entertainment rate for 11 of our 14 nights, and that was the reason we stayed ( along with the water playground). Next trip the children will be older, and the playground won't be a drawcard. In future we intend to go with a suite hotel ( like Residence Inn ). We have loved staying at Hojos, but now it's time to try somewhere else.
Very minor niggles from the last trip were, pool towels not always available, sliding doors difficult to lock, and wonky lightshades.

wonky?

 

[ByTheHook]

a year or so ago they closed the pools so an external function could use them , in other words they allowed visitors the use of the pool area rather than their paying guests - will never stay there again

OH and they did this with no notification prior to hotel guests either - total contempt

How rude!

 

[tlovesdis]

a year or so ago they closed the pools so an external function could use them , in other words they allowed visitors the use of the pool area rather than their paying guests - will never stay there again

OH and they did this with no notification prior to hotel guests either - total contempt

We were there when that happened and we were not happy! We were with a group and had made plans to use the pirate area and order pizza for dinner that night since we weren't going into the parks. The night before we received a notice under our door telling us that the pirate area would be closed the next day for a private function. When we went to talk to the manager about this (and we weren't the only ones, seemed the whole hotel was in the lobby) they weren't very apologetic about it and had a kind of shrug your shoulders atitude. Put a very sour taste in my mouth.

The motel is just ok. I can't figure out why people rave about it so much. We won't stay there again.

 

[Kittyskyfish]

HOJOs is nice in an average sort-of way. We stay there for the Ent. rate but won't pay for the AP or regular rates. At that point, we'll stay at the Fairfield or Candy Cane Inn.

I really want to impress that we found nothing "wrong" with HOJO, but as adults who don't take the time to use hotel pools, we prefer the comfort of the Fairfield Inn's room to the HOJOs. Main difference for us: the bathroom layout. HOJO has a separate full bathroom, meaning the sink, toilet and shower are together like a standard bathroom. At the Fairfield, the sink/mirror is separate and open to the room, while the toilet and shower are in a half-bath. We prefer this layout because DH can shave while I shower, and I can do my hair while he showers (or does #2). The separate layout is a timesaver.

 

[OnTheRoadAgain]

(At HoJo the Standard Double bed rooms have one sink area outside the room with the shower/toilet/another sink - also a couple of the queen styles and one of the suites has this set up too)

We're planning our first trip to HOJOs and it's all about the kids having fun in the water park. When they are older, we will probably stay at Fairfield. We've stayed there before. We are too big for one room at CCI, but I digress.

I did some searching and it looks like HOJO handled the private function better this year in May than they did on May 1, 2010. I had to check it out because like I said, it's all about the pool during breaks this trip.

 

[Caroline NZ]

wonky?

hehe- we use wonky to mean crooked. Some of the shades were loose, and you couldn't tighten them up, so they kept slipping sideways.

 

[silence]

We have stayed at HoJo in all of their room types. We really haven't had that many things to complain about, especially for the rate we usually pay.

1) Once had a park view room at the end of the hallway, closest to the freeway. That was a LOUD room. I think most of the noise was coming in from under the entry door, which was closest to the stairway door. I dislike most of the rooms in building 1 anyways, I much prefer the building 2 rooms which feel like they have so much more SPACE.

2) The walk. Now, I get that it isn't FAR, but it sure feels far when you are walking back late at night after a day in the parks, or even if it's your second trip back since you took an afternoon break. My feet suffer no matter where we stay, so the walk and those extra steps don't help.

3) Spa location. My kids are older now, and they just want to swim, so we don't use the water play area much, so we never get to soak our poor feet in the spa.

Now, we find this hotel VERY clean and all of us sleep well in their beds, which I can not say about some of the other hotels on Harbor. I like the Candy Cane Inn, mostly for the shuttle. But we find their pool too warm, the rooms much smaller than HoJo and the breakfast area is always so packed we can't even get in. I mostly can't even stomach the food the other hotels provide, so having breakfast as an option isn't a deal breaker for us.

Since our stay at GCH, nothing seems to compare. If only we could afford to stay onsite.......but that would mean a lot less trips. I personally wouldn't pay for DLH again if the monorail isn't running and not until the pool area is finished.

 

[MerryFlora]

For years I was the biggest Hojo fan, I had my specific room that I requested for our annual trip. It felt like home to me and I never understood how anyone could not like it.

But I have discovered Priceline and haven't been back since. I can get the same or better rate at a 4 star hotel as the Hojo Entertainment rate.

I didn't mind the walk but Harbor Blvd is SO unmagical. I will gladly hop on a shuttle instead. And I dont miss the yellow and orange decor. Ick!

 

[BELLEDOZER]

The only thing I don't like about HOJO's is that you are either stuck attempting to race to cross the street at Manchester and walk past the bus stops, or walk hotel row and get hounded by the time share people. Don't know which is worse. Otherwise have nothing bad to say about the hotel itself. We actually stayed in one of the corner suites in building 2 in Feb, and the only time we noticed the noise was in the bathroom, which if we kept the door closed was not a problem for us. Othewise the noise from the highway never bothered us.

 

[shamrockshake]

a year or so ago they closed the pools so an external function could use them , in other words they allowed visitors the use of the pool area rather than their paying guests - will never stay there again

OH and they did this with no notification prior to hotel guests either - total contempt .

Happened to us as well. rooms are OK, We are PAYING for the pirates Cove area. Managements response was, " Well there is the other pool" We could get a pool like that at one of the places charging 1/2 the prince.

 

[bumbershoot]

a year or so ago they closed the pools so an external function could use them , in other words they allowed visitors the use of the pool area rather than their paying guests - will never stay there again

OH and they did this with no notification prior to hotel guests either - total contempt

Wasn't that for the micechat.com Gumball Rally? If so, the people involved were very likely staying there at hojo, and had paid to use the space. (just like the Diva trips here, when they stayed at HoJo, got to use the group meeting room)

 

[lulubelle]

We have stayed there several times and never had any problems. I would say they have 2 downfalls, no breakfast and a bit further than some hotels. Neither of those things is really a problem though, )

I agree with this assessment completely. And the staff has always been outstanding. I appreciate that immensely. But agree with those who say they would never pay full price.

As a side note, I am not familiar with the terms niggle or wonky. Must be a New Zealand thing. Cool!

 

[Caroline NZ]

Hi again, so getting off track here, but I have looked up in my little Oxford dictionary (British) and "wonky" is defined as shaky,unsteady,unreliable. And "niggle" as fuss over details, find fault in a petty way. Isn't it interesting how we can all speak the same language, but not commonly use the same words.

Anyhow, what I was meaning to say was that the "worst" things that we found about Hojos, were so little, as to not be worth worrying about. In other words, we had a really good stay.

 

[rossip]

Wasn't that for the micechat.com Gumball Rally? If so, the people involved were very likely staying there at hojo, and had paid to use the space. (just like the Diva trips here, when they stayed at HoJo, got to use the group meeting room)

Doesn't really matter who it was , the fact that they denied their paying guests use of a hotels facility without any prior knowledge is very poor and for the record I dont think they were staying at the Hotel judging by the number of complaints

 

[Kittyskyfish]

Hi again, so getting off track here, but I have looked up in my little Oxford dictionary (British) and "wonky" is defined as shaky,unsteady,unreliable. And "niggle" as fuss over details, find fault in a petty way. Isn't it interesting how we can all speak the same language, but not commonly use the same words.

Dem wurds ain't so furrin' teh me! (as I'm Texan...insert the ubiquitous 'yee haw' here)