We stayed in one of the king suites in 2004 and again in May, 2007. Rooms are currently being renovated, new paint, some new cabinents, fixtures and carpet. Although renovation on other rooms was ongoing during our stay, we were never bothered by the construction work.

They also upgraded their internet service with both wired & wireless capability. Download speed was excellent with rates consistently over 3Mb.

The King Suite is larger than most one bedroom suites with a large bedroom with fireplace, den area with sofa bed, and full kitchen with a breakfast area. The bedroom and den have separate TVs but are only separated by a half wall.

Our room was reasonably clean but the kitchen floor and windows in the breakfast area needed cleaning. No objectionable smells, mold or meldew. The staff was courteous but they didn't know anything about local restaurants.

You don't get an ocean view but the beach is only a five minute wall thru Asilomar conference center which has a ton of deer.
IMO, it's a good value for the Pacific Grove area.

The Tinnery at Lover's Point is now Latitudes but it's still a good place for lunch or dinner.

I stayed in this hotel Christmas weekend (2006) and after reading the reviews before I went? I thought I'd share my impressions, "post-stay." First, it is not a "fancy-schmancy" property. If you are looking for luxury, I would urge you to stay somewhere else. Is it functional? Yes. Was the bed comfortable? Yes. Was property management courteous, friendly and professional? Yes. My boyfriend and I stayed in unit #101. #101 is a king suite with a full kitchen, king size bed, and fireplace. The unit had a wonderful patio deck that could be accessed from the bedroom or the kitchen. However, it was a little too cold to use in December. But in warmer weather? I could see myself sitting out there enjoying a glass of wine and pre-dinner appetizers after a long day outside riding bikes on 17 Mile Drive or playing golf at the Links, conveniently located nearby. The room had an "odd" shape, but as others on this site have commented, the hotel used to be an apartment complex. Where they had to make divisions to make larger rooms into smaller hotel units, sometimes make odd angles in the room. For instance in room #101, as soon as you enter, there are 3 little steps that go down from a sitting/TV room to the bedroom. If you don't anticipate those stairs being there? You could trip and fall. Though once you get used to them? It's no big deal. Again, while HJ Express is not the "lap of luxury," we found the room to be clean, comfortable, and quiet. It was a non-smoking unit where travellers have respected the "no smoking" policy and have NOT smoked in the room. This is very important to us. We CAN'T STAND the smell of secondhand cigarette smoke and the residual odor it leaves behind. No problem (so far) in unit #101. Traveling frequently to Pacific Grove, we enjoy doing activities outside all day and then picking up groceries and making ourselves dinner and breakfast in the morning. Normally we have rented a house there posted on Craigslist when we visit. This time the house was already booked and we had to find other options. The unit at HJ Express with its full kitchen was perfect for us. Also, there is a Safeway and Trader Joe grocery store and Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores (DVD player in the room) right up Forest Ave. It's about a 20 minute walk from the property, even less if you drive there. You can also rent DVDs at the property office from a collection they keep on site. The ocean is close, as is 17 Mile Drive. Overall, we had a great stay. I would recommend this hotel if you are looking for something basic, functional and comfortable.

We stayed for 2 nights during the week before Christmas. Since it was during the week, we got a great rate of $100/night for a suite with fireplace.

The place, as mentioned in other reviews, is a converted condominium. The floor plan is a bit odd. The room was huge, large bedroom with gas fireplace and high ceilings, small room adjacent (but without walls separating it) with sleeper sofa for our son, and full sized kitchen. The bathroom was TINY. The toilet was very small jammed into a corner and it was actually almost hard to fit. It looked like they had converted the original laundry room into the bathroom.

The room had a DVD player in it which was nice, as we went to Blockbuster and rented a DVD and they have a selection of DVD's in the lobby. The hotel is located in Pacific Grove residential area, so it is wonderfully quiet, and located close to everything we wanted to go to.

Unfortunately, it was a cold week (in the 40's). The heat was off, and it took almost 2 hours to heat up the room, probably because the room had high ceilings and was so big. The heater blew on and off all night, which kept me awake.

There was also a balcony/porch area. The table was full of bird poop and the umbrella had been left outside in the rain and was moldy. Not that we would use these in the winter, but that was a bit gross.

Rooms were neat and clean.

Pros: lots of room, DVD player, quiet location, clean
Cons: heating system, size of bathroom, a bit rundown

Would I stay there again? Maybe.

We stayed at the Howard Johnson Express on our honeymoon. We chose it because it fit our budget and had a kitchen and a fireplace. It was much larger than expected but had a rather weird layout. We had a king suite which inluded a full kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedroom. It was obvious that the bedroom had once been a living room with it's sliding glass doors, fireplace, and extra high ceilings. The suite had three sets of sliding glass doors that opened up to a very large, private deck. The kitchen had all of the essential dining and cookware. Everything was very clean and housekeeping did an excellent job.
The furniture and decor were very dated, which we expected after reading these reviews. The accomodations were comfortable and we enjoyed coming home to our spacious suite each night. The only complaint is that neither of the remote controls worked for either TV. When we notified the front desk we were given new batteries. The batteries weren't the problem and we were told that the person who could fix the remotes was out of town.