I stayed at the howard johnson inn downtown last week with my 2 kids on our night over stay in Kamloops. After driving for more than 6 hours from edmonton we decided to find a cheap place to stay but we didn't wanna spend much either. We stopped by few other properties but rate was alot more than what we wanted to pay but then we found the howard johnson downtown. The gentleman at the front desk seemed to be very quick and knowledgeable and i was impressed that he was helpful in informing somebody else in front of us about the activities in town. We wanted a room with 2 double beds but he offered us 2 queens for the same price and the rate was about 19 dollars less than what others offered. Bonus was that the rate inlcuded continental breakfast and suprisingly the free wireless internet worked well ( for some reason i never find wireless interet working at motels). we were worried about the street noise but they seemed to have good windows and we weren't bothered at all. Our room was very decent and clean and small fridge was great to have in 36 degrees.

I don't usually write comment for my hotel stays as i travel a bit for work. But i have to say that i wasn't expecting to see what others have written about this place. This place is definetly not what others have said about it. I would definetly reccommend this hotel to people looking for cheap but clean accommodation.

It is next to a XXX store. When we arrived in the middle of the night there were a bunch of kids in the back messing around with a basketball and racing around. People were coming in and out of the front door. It seemed like a lot of people lived there. It was just ghetto and gross and THERE WAS A BUG ON MY PILLOW WHEN I PULLED THE SHEETS DOWN TO SLEEP!!! Gross. The only good thing about this trip was that we pulled in at 1:30 am and were only there to sleep for a short time. I was shocked to wake up and find that our car and uhaul were not stolen.

The motel has no problem in free parking, free breakfast, free ice machine on the 2nd floor, and counter staff information service. Just one problem that I encountered is buds bite my neck and arm so that I hardly took a good sleep. In the early morning with my eyes closed, I instintively hit my left arm with my right hand, and succeeded in cracking down a bud. In the morning when I turned on the water in the bathroom, surprisingly dead buds came out of the water faucet. Even though hotel charge was cancelled, what I expected is not refund, but a good sleep.

That's what it was like for us when we pulled into the HoJo. It was pouring down rain, we'd been in the car for hours and it was getting dark. We were so looking forward to reaching our hotel and relaxing - until we got there. We pulled into the parking lot - looked at the hotel and thought, " Crap! We'd already spend the money as we booked the hotel on Priceline at a $70 rate. Typically we are able to get a 4* at that price on Priceline but for whatever reason the bidding gods weren't working for us. For a split second we thought about writing off the cash and sleeping in the car but managed to check in.

Having read many bad reviews about the hotel management we were encouraged by the treatment we received when we checked in. The man at the desk was super nice and gave me hope that the hotel room may not be that bad.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The room was old and musty with well worn furniture and a bed that makes you consider sleeping with your clothes on. The bathroom was some odd kitchen-bath combo that had cupboards and a refrigerator on one side and a bathroom sink on the other. The hotel itself is on a busy street so you have to decide between opening the window for fresh air but dealing with road noise or settling for less road noise but a musty room.

I'm not a hotel snob by any means. My travels have taken to me to every type of accomodation imaginable and the only thing that really matters at the end of the day is a clean room with a decent feel. This hotel had none of that. A little renovation would go a long way here.

The complimentary breakfast offered so few choices I almost didn't bring it up but it did provide us a place to sit, utensils and milk for the cereal we had in our car.