Two positives: 1. Recreation area: I had visited someone staying at this hotel last summer and was impressed by their recreation area. They have converted the entire 5th floor into a recreation area with tables and chairs, a pool, games, shuffleboard, mini golf, etc. It is very well designed and the staff keeps it as clean as they can. My family decided to stay here for a family reunion.

2. Staff - The staff were trying so hard at this hotel. They were very friendly and remembered people during the entire stay. They also worked hard to keep the recreation area clean, and were very nice. They made us feel like we were their personal guests. The lady at the buffet was also very nice and actually remade the entire buffet for us as it had gotten a bit old.

The cons:
If it wasn't for the staff, I don't know how this hotel would survive. It has wallpaper peeling off the walls in spots, older linens, lots of dings, etc. in the walls that just let you know that the hotel hasn't had a major renovation in many years and is due. The bathroom tub looks like it had a bathmat on it for a long time that has been peeled off leaving a sticker remainder in the bath. It just has a very neglected look - but everything has been scrubbed as clean as they can get it.

Our room was on the first floor which unfortunately looked onto the parking lot that connected with their very popular lounge. The smell of smoke was huge down the hallway every night and our luggage smelled like we had been smoking ourselves when we got home, even though we had a non smoking room. The noise level from the bar was also very loud until 1am every night with Karaoke and people yelling in the parking lot. Since our family all had rooms in a row, it seemed more of a problem than it was worth to try to get a different room so I just bought some earplugs.

This is one of the rougher areas of Grand Rapids. I didn't know that until we got there and drove past the area that was right around the hotel and saw lots of people hanging around. It is not a terrible area - just not a very nice tourist area. At night, the people coming in the door to the hotel, some to stay, some to visit, were a tough looking crowd. We had no problems, but we made sure to take everything out of our cars. If we were not in such a large group, I would have been concerned.

I would recommend that the Howard Johnson company invest some money in bringing this hotel back to life. Country Inn and Suites just built a new hotel right next door to this hotel, and I would recommend that people stay there if they need to stay in the area. However, if you are looking only for a nice recreation area - especially for kids, this is a good hotel for a small sleepover party.