I guess it depends on what you expect. You can see that some of the members here have the kind of money to spend that allows them to have very, very high standards.
I'd love to stay at a $350 a night hotel, too, but if I waited for that, my kids would never get a chance to go to Disney. I also approach travel with the concept that I'm buying a trip, an experience, not a fantasy. Things will go wrong. If the worst that happens is that I have to try three ice machines before finding ice, I'm not going to be upset.
I paid $65 a night at HoJos. We had a room on the bottom floor of one of the two floor buildings. It was clean. I am very sensitive to smell, and I didn't detect any moldy or musty smell. The beds and linens were clean, as was the bathroom. I can't even tell you the color scheme in the bathroom. To be honest, if I were so persnickety that I wanted the bathroom decorated to my taste, I'd stay home. What mattered to me was that the bathroom was clean and that it was in good working order..and it was!
One thing that I do care about is noise. If a building is noisy, I can't sleep and that severly impacts the next day. We had a tiny bit of noise our first night...but it ended before 8. After that, I never heard anything.
I guess it all comes down to how much time you really plan to spend in your room. We went to California to visit the beach and
Disneyland. If I wanted a vacation where the accomodations were part of the attraction, I'd rent a lodge in Colorado or go to Great Wolf.
I'm relatively old and fat, and was traveling with two kids. The walk didn't hurt any of us. The ART was there when needed. The front desk help and the ladies in the gift shop were extremely friendly and helpful. I honestly don't have a single complaint about HOJO's.
From your question, it sounds as if you are looking for perfection. I don't think there's a hotel in the Los Angeles area that would have a 100% positive rating.
So, my answer is, if you're one of the lucky folk who have money to burn and your trip will be a disaster if you find your room color scheme not to your liking, book the high end hotel room. It will be an insurance policy of sorts.
If you are on a budget, or if your sense of stewardship of your money makes you reluctant to spend more on a hotel room for a night than many American earn in a week, go for HoJos.
BTW...I never even considered paying more for a fancy view. We were going there to go to Disneyland, not sit across the street and look at it. Why not just plan to be at the park for the fireworks, and ask them for a quiet room away from the freeway????
