First of all, I too had two of the problems that were stated in other reviews. The carpet, and a bed cover to one of the beds, smelled like urine. Though the odor was present, it could only be smelled momentarily in certain places in the room. For the price, I learned to live with it. The review about bed bugs is also true. I killed two of them during my stay. But here are some other things that you should know.

1. You have to pay extra to use the telephone in your room. This is true even if the calls are local or 1-800 calls. They make you pay $10 in order to "activate" the phone. They claim that you will be charged 50 cents per call, which will be deducted from the $10. If you make fewer than $10 worth of calls, they'll give you back the money that wasn't used. I'm one of the few people on the planet who still doesn't have a cell phone, so I ended up paying it. I also tried to keep my number of calls to a minimum. I ended up making about 5 or 6 calls. However, when it was time to check out, I quickly found that they didn't keep track of how many calls I made. When I asked for my money back on the calls that I didn't make, they gave me a hard time because I had paid the $10 in cash. Apparently, someone didn't write "cash" on my receipt, so they said that it would be a problem for me to get my money back in cash. When I requested that they just put it on my card, they said that they couldn't do it because I had reserved the room through a place like "orbitz.com" in order to get a good deal. The guy finally decided to give me back $5 in cash. This is the only place I've ever heard of that charges you to make local, or 1-800 calls.

2. Don't trust the security camera to show you what happened. When checking in, I made the foolish mistake of leaving $650 in cash in a small envelope at the front desk. I had been pulling things out of my pocket, trying to find my reservation number. Once I found the number, I was able to get my key and I went back to my room. I quickly realized that I didn't have the $650 cash on me. I rushed back to the counter, not even a minute later. I asked if I had left an envelope, and they told me "no". I was the only person checking in at the time.

At first I wanted to believe them. Maybe I had accidentally left the cash someplace else. However, after re-tracing my steps, and through deductive reasoning, I concluded that I must have left the money at the counter. It was the only time that I started digging through my pockets. The lobby has a security camera, so I was confident that it would have the whole thing on tape. However, I was also suspicious that one of the staff may have taken the money, and that they then wouldn't want to show me the tape. So I called the police and asked if they would be able to get the tape without letting the hotel know what it was for. The entire thing was a disaster. An officer came and botched the whole thing. He wouldn't talk to them without me being present. He then had me explain everything before even asking for the tape. The receptionist said that the tapes were recorded off-site, and that I would have to call a different number in order to request it. So I got the number, and the officer left. I made the call, and only got the man's voice mail. Later that day, the receptionist claimed that the camera doesn't record. She said that it only monitors the lobby.

To this day, I don't believe that the camera doesn't record. This wasn't her initial response. Also, how convenient this would be for them, considering the circumstances. I let them know that I don't believe that the camera doesn't record, and I offered them a chance to give the money back and I would say nothing else about it. They didn't give it back, so now I don't feel bad letting others now about this experience.

I realize that it was an incredibly dumb mistake to accidentally leave the cash. But you should know that if you ever need to look at their surveillance footage; don't expect to see it unless it benefits them. If you ever do need to see it during a circumstance that benefits them, and they then admit that the camera records, I sure would like to know about it. Feel free to E-mail me at evansstev@yahoo.com

I will say that, for the most part, the staff was really nice and friendly. But my overall experience with them changing stories about the camera, and them charging me to make calls, left a bad taste in my mouth. If it wasn't for these things, I would have given them a higher rating. Even though the urine and bed bug complaints are true.

There aren't many places in Pikesville (why is that?), and HO-JO's can be decent. This place is really in a reasonable location, close to all the local Kosher bakeries, and the largest Kosher market on the planet (Seven Mile Market), and there's a fabulous Uzbek restaurant right down the street. The prices were from the 1950's: $46/night, prepaid. So, all in all, not bad, right? But the odor in my daughter's room made us ask to move, and the moldy smell emanating from our shower curtain when it was wet-ooowee! The main odors are those of too much fragrance trying to overcome old smoke, or something equally awful. And then there was the pee outside on the stairs leading up to our floor. The Indian family running the place is quite response, but I don't think we can overcome the olfactory hit in the future.

My room was actually a flat (home office). Staff was very kind and helpful.
Hotel is not close to Inner Harbor but not so far from metro (Milford Mill) and bus 53 (Mondawmin) and 59 (Reisterstown Plaza) stop in front of the hotel. A Mac Donald is in front of the hotel. Good breakfast and wi-fi. Swimming pool available. My luggages were kept for free the last day.

We were on our way towards Baltimore and it was getting a bit late when we passed this motel. It advertised rooms for $55 so we thought we'd take a chance. I was a bit put off by the desk clerk's bullet proof screen but the bedroom was fine with 2 double beds, large tv and a good size en-suite. Breakfast had a choice of cereals, bagels, coffee and tea. All in all it was convenient and clean although i can understand why some people may be put off.