I had an early check-in and as I was doing so a couple were checking out and told the desk clerk that the light over their bathroom sink was burnt out. When I got to my room the light over the bed was burnt out. I thought how many other rooms had burnt bulbs. The room was an average size with okay furniture and appeared clean at first but the bathroom door was covered in fingerprints and filthy. All the chrome fixtures such as towel racks and kleenex dispenser where covered in rust. The whole bathroom area was less then pleasant. The small fridge was very old and rusting. The A/C and heating unit was also very old and very loud. There was no way a person could sleep with the A/C on. It was hard to even hear the TV when the A/C was on. The worst thing about the room was I opened the window for air as the A/C was so loud and before I went out for dinner I shut the window but could not get the latch to lock the window. As I was fiddling around with the lock a young man walked by and said something to me. I opened the window and he asked if I was having a problem with my window locking as he had the same problem in his room. I called the front desk and their response was that there was a screen on the window and the area was very safe. I left the next morning and went down the street to the Town and Country Inn to a much nicer and cleaner room for $20.00 less. Avoid this Howard Johnsons. I think it used to be called the Lewis Bay Inn as my Visa receipt showed that name.

This is a family run independent motel, within a strip of what seems like 100 others in West Yarmouth. Kind of ordinary from the outside, looking a little old with a sign that doesn't light up properly.

LBL though backs on to an inlet of Lewis Bay so if you get a bay patio room, to which were upgraded because our room hadn't yet been serviced, you get a patio window overlooking the inlet with its complement of geese and other wildfowl, rather pleasant way to wake up in the morning.

Breakfast is watery coffee and plastic wrapped mini muffin, really worth skipping or going elsewhere, there's plenty around the area.

Hotel services: limited, reception is open 8am and closes around 9.30pm. We were arriving late and they did say the door would be shut but ring the bell. Indoor pool was warm but had odd odour, outdoor pool was being filled for the summer but revealed very flaky paintwork. Games room looks little like the website - if you play ping pong in there, you're likely to be batting someone round the head, it's that small. The exercise room either we couldn't find or was the room off the games room that was filled with old chairs.

Rooms were standard motel stuff but we had a new bathroom, which was nice and good toiletries, unexpected for the price and everything was clean, though the room had clearly suffered from damp. Hairdryer broke and the owner came round and found another, got the problem solved.

It was quite cold when we were there and there's one of these vent-A/C heating boxes in the room which means it can heat the room noisily but at night the temperature dropped and we were waking up cold and shivering.

Surrounding area has loads of restaurants, Captain Parkers introduced us to clam chowder and petrol places and mini golf etc. Nearby is Cape Cod mall which was a better bet than so called factory outlets.

We were booked into LBL through one of the two major "sight unseen" websites and we paid relatively little though do be warned - they advertised the motel as equivalent to two stars, which it is not. Took this up with the website who claim their ratings are based on Zagat, AAA and Mobil, none of which call LBL 2 stars so do be warned that if like us you "guessed" which hotels would come up in Yamouth by looking at Expedia's 2 star listings, you'll not find the LBL listed, in fact it's not listed at all. The website claims also that it only books nationally recognised brands so you may be surprised to find the independent family owned LBL as being the hotel they allocate you to and as you've guessed there's no way on earth that they'll admit they got it wrong.

The family work hard to run quite a large development and can't fault them for their friendliness and willingess to help out. Unlike the "sight unseen" website, they don't claim to offer anything but a family run independent motel and for the price, they do a decent job.

Only downside with the price is that LBLs cheap prices seemed to attract a clientele who enjoyed speeding their cars around the car park in the evening and having family arguments at high volume and coluorful language outside other people's rooms, oh and the usual kids running up and down the outside corridors. Knowing the family are tucked up in bed after 9.30pm so there's no security around may make you feel nervous.

My summary - OK as a place to put your head down at night but during the daytime and evening, you'll want to be spending your time elsewhere.