Planning a trip to Sault St-Marie Ont at the last minute, I needed to book a few hotel rooms for 3 nights. Having slept in a few Howard Johnson in the states before and being satisfied, I decided to give it a try in the Soo.
After reading many mixed reviews about the Howard Johnson in Sault St-Marie On, I was concerned about the room quality even before I got there, but since it was the only hotel left that could accommodate our stay at what seemed to be a reasonable rate, I decided to try it out and book two rooms to accommodate my family.
To my surprise, my son’s room was in excellent condition; the bed mattress looked and felt fairly new. Overall, a clean and comfortable room but noisy. The water pipes in the wall were banging intermittently and there was a rattling exhaust fan running somewhere that he could hear throughout the night. The wall soundproofing was next to none, we could easily hear anything going on in the hall and next door.
My room was not as nice and far from it! As I usually do, I checked the bed sheets before moving in and although the sheets looked clean, there was what looked like dryer lint in between the sheets of the second bed. There were also some redish stains on the mattress and box spring, something that I had read about in the past reviews but it seems nothing has been done about it. The beds were worthy of a hunting cabin, no plush top and lumpy, you could even feel the coil springs in some area and they had the upward curve that you only find on wornout matresses. As far as the desk and dresser, it doesn’t weigh much on the room comfort but they were worn down. The vacuuming looked like it was done half fast, only the main pathway seemed to have been done. Under the desk and near the wall you could still see dirt, contrary to the other room. The outside entrance door had been broken in the past and repainted over with blue paint. The door is still cracked and it even has an “s” shape to it due to prior damage. It doidn't seal properly, you could see daylight around when closed; beware of the rooms with blue doors.
The washroom was clean, well lit and there was plenty of hot water for our needs but something should be done about the thick dust build up around the bathroom vent and the shower curtains which contained a few questionable stains.
We took advantage of the continental breakfast in the dining room. It is to say that after three days, the breakfast supplies were whatever was left over from the day before, so much for fresh bagels. I read in the reviews that the room was cold, and talk about cold. We couldn’t eat in there without a winter coat on. The room was another testimony of the hotel desperately needing TLC. The wall base boards were actually pulled off the surface at some places and you could see the nails sticking out and the dust bunnies next to the wall, let alone the walls that looked in dire need of a fresh coat of plaster and paint.
To sum up, this reminds me of a “mom and pop shop”. It seems that some repairs are being made with little or no money and some other easy fix are simply ignored resulting in the rundown look of the place. Would I sleep here again? Only if this was the only last resort! I would sooner find a room at other independent hotels. It was rated 9 out of 9 in the reviews probably because not all the other Hotels available in the Soo were listed. I strongly advise anyone to inspect the room before renting. Definitely not romantic and not to the Canadian standard that we are use too. If I would have known that I could add pictures to this review, I would have taken some to prove my point.
- Howard Johnson Sault Ste Marie
- Howard Johnson Sault Ste. Marie
- Sault Ste. Marie Howard Johnson
