On my last trip to Los Angeles, I decided to investigate the Howard Johnson chain of hotels. I decided to book into their Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles.
From their internet website, I had a choice of 2 double beds, 1 queen bed or a king bed. They also provided both smoking and non-smoking rooms. I decided to book myself the non-smoking room with the king bed (I always wanted to know the difference between a king and a queen bed!).
[Check-in] Arriving at the hotel, the checkin was relatively simple. A proof of identification with the passport, confirming my reservation, I was soon handed a keycard and off I went to investigate my room in the hotel.
[Room] The room was large and spacious. On entering the room, there was a mushy scent because the aircon was not switched on. A contraption attached to the window was a combined air-con, heater and fan. A few minutes with the air-con on removed the smell.
The bed was huge! The room felt like 3 rooms connected into a studio. The king bed was in the main area, complete with a comfy chair and coffee table. The television was discretely set on the furthest corner of the room with several cable channels. There was also a built-in wall closet containing several hangers, iron and ironing board.
A small area was set away like an office, complete with a desk, table lamp and stationary set. How often do you get letterpad, envelops in a paper stationary folder?
Attached to the room is the dressing room, which is of course connected to the bathroom. The dressing room comes with the coffee maker, cups, sugar etc, but no teabags.
The bathroom was clean, had a bathroom with a showerhead, complete with the usual amenities. One thing the room was not lacking was mirrors. Full lenght mirror on the built-in closet, mirrors on the doors to the dressing area and bathroom, as well as a wall mounted mirror inthe dressing room!
One downside of the room is its thin wall. I could hear my neighbour chatting away half the night. No problem. I switched on the tv!
[Location] The hotel is centrally located, close to downtown LA. In its vicinity, there's Chinatown, Koreantown, the famous Hollywood Blvd as well as the Universal Studio. It is also about 15 minutes drive away from Venice Beach. I don't know how far it is from the airport since I drove from Northern California but it was relatively easy to find using Yahoo map directions.
The hotel seems to be located in a safe part of town. I could only hear the sirens of police and fire engines about 3 times in the night.
[Parking] Parking cost $5 per night per car. I wasn't expecting this because I thought it would have been free. This wasn't stated on their webpage. But I was glad to see that there was a security guard in the open-air parking attached to the hotel round the clock. The downside was the layer of dust that coated our vehicle the next morning. Never knew how polluted LA was until then!
[Breakfast] Didn't try their buffet breakfast. It cost $6.95 for hotel guest.
[Price] I booked online through their website. At the moment, they have a deal where you can stay in their chains of hotel for between $39 to $69 depending on location. For this hotel, I paid $59 + tax. In total, a one-night stay came up to about $72 (this included tax and $5 for parking). I felt it was value for money.
[Other plus points] The hotel has deals with Universal studio. Down in reception, they would be able to sell entrance tickets to the studio, thus avoiding the queues. They also provided package deals that include accommodation, universal studio tickets, breakfast but at a higher cost. They also seems to be family oriented. They have rooms called the croyola suite for families with little children. I think it comes complete with crayons, thus the name!
My stay was comfortable and I thorougly enjoyed it. The deal I had was either the internet special or the Spirit of America deal they have on currently. For $72 it was worth it but not if they charged full price (which was over $110).
The website is www.hojo.com or www.howardjohnson.com If you are in the US, you can call their free phone number 1800-446-4656
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