Dont be fooled by the pictures they show. They are deceiving. First let me explain that we are your average working people. I had planned our weeks vacation to the Dells and made reservations back in April of 07. I saw all the pictures and thought that this looked like a decent, clean place to stay for a few nights. I reserved us a room for 2 nights. The price tag at 119.99 plus tax. Two double beds. Your standard room like in the pictures. We arrived there on July 4th. The lobby looked nice and we were excited for our stay. The girl at the front desk was not to bright. When I asked for directions to the room she wasnt sure what floor it was on. The room number was 225. Anyway, she directed us to go to the back of the building. We went around the back and entered a side door to the building. It was a dirty dark entrance. We went upstairs and were shocked to see a very dark dingey hallway. It was run down and there were food trays on the floors with half eaten food on them. We entered our room to find clothes still in it. The bed looked messed and upon inspection we found a lumpy pillow that should have been in the trash. It was a dirty room. We immediately went down stairs to ask to be moved to another room. The girl seemed to have difficulty locating another room. Which was odd because there were very few people at this hotel. We were sent to another room. It looked a bit cleaner but still was very run down. The entrance to this room was a very dark stairway with two doors that closed you in there, it made all of us very uncomfortable. You felt as if at any moment you might get mugged. Our pillows were more acceptable and so we decided to make the best of it. There was only 1 towel in the room. There were 4 of us. They had not stocked the room with the shampoos, lotion etc. We called for towels and they sent 3. Only 2 washclothes and one hand towel. The shower had mold on the curtin and there was hair in the tub. The room had the scars of years of abuse. It was frankly disguesting. Our key cards had to be replaced 3 times as we were locked out of the hotel completely when they didnt work. It was so frustrating. Not once did the hotel staff try to make up for all the problems we were encountering. The place was a dive, a whole in the wall and I will never stay there again. After meeting another couple there, they were having similar issues. Dirty dark halls with food laying for days in them. Another woman asked for a new shower curtin because hers was moldy also. For what we were charged and the lack of making things right for us. I am telling you to not waste a dime of your money at this place. It is a dump. The one thing I would like to say about the staff, there was one foreign girl, a life guard. She was so nice to us and all the other patrons. She worked very long hours and always had a smile. The front desk staff did not impress me. They were unprofessional and did not handle things in an appropriate manner. If you want to stay somewhere in the Dells, dont stay at the Howard Johnson. Big Mistake!!!

Just talked with my wife who is escorting a senior motor coach tour to the Dells using 20 rooms. They were booked several months ago. Last night on arrival, they had to go from room to room to find ones that were cleaned. There was hair in bathtubs, dirty pillow casings, absolute filth, and management wasn't apologizing. Worn rugs, chipped furniture, fit in here. Today the group left for other sights and returned tonight to find no fresh towels or wash rags, no cleaning done, .no replacement of soaps etc in the bathrooms. We have been at this hotel at least three times in the past and found it a delightful place to stay. No more.

Rube Yelvington
Sunshine Adventures of Kentucky
[--]
West Point, KY

We stayed here using the Summer Kick-Off card with discount, so we got what we payed for...We arrived early around 3:15pm, and were told that check-in wasn't until 4, and they were short-staffed so rooms weren't ready. Turns out, a majority of their cleaning staff walked out on them earlier that week. We could see why when having interactions with the female manager who was very condescending to the employees at the front desk. She also was making fun of other guests staying there in front of another patron (me) that they couldn't get into the safe in their room upon check out.

The room was incredibly dirty: carpets weren't vacuumed, bathroom was nasty (we wore our water shoes in the shower), only one or two kleenexes in the box in the bathroom and half a roll of toilet paper, melted then dried ice cream in the bottom of the mini-fridge (yuck), 2 lamps in the room didn't work upon arrival (one was actually missing a light bulb even), and the ancient alarm clock kept powering off and flashing 12:00.

We called the front desk right after we surveyed the room and demanded these things taken care of. They sent maintenance to fix the lamps in about 10 min, but said cleaning staff was still busy getting rooms ready for others. They didn't come on Friday night at all, so we mentioned to the front desk again around 9pm when we headed to the pool, but still nothing. Sat morning, we had a knock on the door about housekeeping asking if we wanted any service, and we said, heck yes! They cleaned up the dried ice cream and gave us more kleenex, TP, and fresh towels - only upon our request. We didn't bother asking to vacuum, just figured we'd make do.

The indoor pool was clean enough, and the hot tub was at least hot. We didn't use the outdoor pools but went to Noah's Ark for real waterpark fun. On Sat morning, when we got back from Noah's Ark, our electronic "key" didn't work for our room, so we had to trek to the front desk in our wet swimwear and find out what was wrong NOW. They said the key had expired, so they had to give us new ones (they only set them for a single night stay instead of 2 nights).

All in all, the experience was not our favorite part of the trip. We had enough activities planned to keep us away for most of each day, so we only were there to sleep, swim, and shower (thank goodness!). Our TV and remote worked fine, but the air conditioner was set on HIGH blasting our room with frigid air, and none of the knobs worked, so we were pretty chilled.

It wasn't worth complaining because we only paid $59/night with our discount, but they normally charge $120 - $180 for that room, and if we had paid that, we would have demanded a refund or something. I'm glad it was only for two nights, not a whole week or we would have changed hotels. Gotta say, I'm not planning to stay at another HoJo anytime soon...

The room was dirty, maid service never came during our two day stay,
we didn't have towels-had to go to the front desk to get them. Tried to call the front desk to get the towels and after three minutes of the phone ringing, just gave up and walked to the desk. The TV would not work properly-the remote was defective. We didn't have a do not disturb sign anywhere in the room. The air conditioner made a loud clanking sound and smelled musty. The sheets were on inside out and smelled. It was by far the worst hotel experience ever. We were going to complain but we tried to tough it out. I will never go to a HOJO again...NEVER.