Howard Johnson Hotel Vancouver

Very bad service. Check-​in took 55 min. @ 11:00pm, after driving in from the states. We got 1-​rooms on Priceline, when we checked in the wanted to charge us $ 20.00 addition person because Priceline said (1), it’s 2-​double beds but they charge extra per adult. We had to call Priceline the honored the price, then we checked out & had an ordeal all over again over the price! Very legalistic, and embarrassing the way the argue and buckle and dime you. We just wanted to check in! Next to a load night club, if you plan on sleeping this is not the place for you!

The staff at the Howard Johnson, were far from pleasant to deal with. They made checking in impossible and after 45 minutes of debating the reservation that
I booked with
I was allowed to check into my room. They tried to charge me an additional $ 40 per room because there were 4 adults versus 2 adults and 2 children, which wasn’t stated anywhere on
. Overall, wasn’t pleased with our stay here, I don’t think I would come back after the ordeal I was put through. I would not recommend it, in the center of the clubbing district so if you plan on sleeping don’t stay here. And not a family environment for sure.

I stayed at the Vancouver Downtown Howard Johnson with my family in September 2015, and found our stay to be adequate.
The hotel is located in the «Entertainment District» which translates to; marijuana shops, late night clubs, bars, transients, and homeless addicts. All of which are located across the street or next to the hotel.
There is a very busy dance club directly next door to the hotel. When we checked in at around 11pm, the lobby had numerous young people waiting in the hotel until they could get into the club.
Wings Bar and grill is next door to the hotel and you can enter from the lobby. Where you can have breakfast, lunch or dinner. There is also a Subway restaurant and McDonald’s a short walk from the hotel.
The hotel is actually fine, but you will not like the area if you have children. For younger people without children, the area will probably be acceptable. There is not much to do in the area for families with children.
The hotel is a basic hotel with very little amenities. They do have a security elevator; you have to use your room key to activate. The hotel is older, but it is very clean, and very well maintained.
They have very limited parking on the side of the building, or you have to pay to park elsewhere.
The have a laundry room, which is $ 1.50 to wash, and $ 2.00 to dry. They also have ice and vending machines on opposite floors.
If you need stamps for postcards, make sure to get them at the post office, they do not have any at the front desk.
The room is extremely small, but it’s very clean and well maintained. The room comes with free WIFI, a desk and chair, coffee maker, and a medium flat screen television with cable channels. There is no closet, but there is hanging rack. The bed and pillows were comfortable.
When I checked in I asked about the loud music coming from the club next door. The receptionist told me that I’m on the top/​5^th floor, and I wouldn’t hear any noise. He was wrong, you could hear a little street/​club noise, but nothing major. If you are noise sensitive, you may have a problem.
There is a single high window in the room for letting the sunlight in, but it’s difficult to look out of.
Top floor (5^th), could still hear music from clubs. We are not noise sensitive, but may be a problem if you are hyper-​sensitive to noise.
The bathroom was also extremely small, but very clean and well maintained.
Overall the hotel was an adequate, clean and well maintained basic lodging. The area is not the best for families with children. I would not stay in the location/​area again when visiting Vancouver.

After the horrible realization that our card wasn’t going to work, the friendly reception staff did everything in their power to ensure we would be provided with a hotel room for the night. Staying here was definitely an experience!

Stayed here during my 5 night trip to Vancouver and I’m very happy I chose the howard johnson on granville st… Perfect location (i saved so much $ because taxi was not needed). Right in the middle of downtown Vancouver with a lot of great restaurants, bars and shops all around. I walked to gas town, granville island and yaletown. There’s a sports bar downstairs with delicious wings and drinks @ a reasonable price… Also, another thing i loved about it is that it’s clean (housekeeping is amazing, as our room was done with fresh towels & linen on a daily basis)!

I tried to stay here and they wanted $ 800 for two night. No parking and it is opposite a weed spot. Hookers in the lobby. Rooms by the hour I reckon. Avoid this. Read all the other reviews. My review on trip advisor was blocked by them. Roach driven and in need of a good fire and refurb in my opinion. Plain awful. Stay at your own peril. If you have kids they will be sold drugs by the time you leave, honest.

Cleaning lady was in my room the same time I was. She took the glass that’s in the bathroom that I now regretfully used and washed it out with sink water and tried it with the towel that was jammed under the door propping it open. DISGUSTING!!! Don’t stay here.

This is on Vancouver’s so called Entertainment strip, an embarrassment for a beautiful city. When I arrived and saw where I was I was dismayed, but the staff were professional, courteous and helpful and the room was quiet and comfortable. Fine for a cheap nights sleep.

A budget choice with issues. They make a big deal of putting a hold on your credit card. They make you initial by the rate you reserved in at check in but at check out showed a higher rate. The refund to my credit card cost me a 3% Visa fee. I had two separate reservations ffor two nights (since the rate was less the seond night) but insisted I could not stay in the same room both nights since the first night was a king bed and the second night was for two double beds unless I paid more. Then they gave me a king bed the second night in a different room. Beware of the noise from the Aura night club which is in the building and ask for a room far away from it. (They are closed Sundays.) Rate was great. Did not include breakfast. Room was clean. Close to Davie Street and Yaletown. Canada Line to airport just a few blocks away in Yaletown.

I mean, price is one thing, but this place is such a pain in the butt that if you’re over 25, this is definitely not worth it. Crap parking, internet that doesn’t work, cigarette burns on the furniture in my non-​smoking room… Plus due to the price point the hotel fills up with a bunch of loud party kids … which is fine, if that’s your thing. If you want an actual night’s sleep, this is not the hotel for you.
All this would be putting the hotel in the 2 star range for me, except for my interaction with the staff. First, they took a 320 dollar deposit for my stay which was MORE than the actual cost of the room plus parking for the 2 nights I had planned to stay. Second, I got some serious attitude from the woman working the desk because I laughed when she told me initially that they would take a 100 dollar deposit, and then swiped my card and told me it would be 300 dollars. Worth a laugh I think, but then she got very snotty with me.
But the most egregious offense was that when I tried to check out a day early (I had been booked for Friday and Saturday night, and attempted to check out Friday night) and not get charged for the 2^nd night, they told me they were unable to cancel the charge because I had «booked through a 3^rd party». Absolute and total bullshit. You just took a 300+ dollar charge on my card for your reservation. Pretty sure that 3^rd party had nothing to do with that.
I get the whole «cheap places in desirable locations» thing, but this is really REALLY not worth your time and money. Just pay a couple extra bucks and stay at a real hotel.

Terrible customer service. No parking space. Their tiny Parking spaces were sold out. I had to park my car 1 mile away public parking lot and it cost me 50 dollars for overnight parking. NOT RECOMMENDED…

I picked it because I don’t require a lot to be happy, don’t care about fashion or TV, and don’t need staff to be super polite all the time. My only complaint about the hotel itself is there is next to zero parking and you must pay $ 20 a day. Yup… first hotel without parking I’ve ever seen.
I came to town to run a half marathon and picked the location as it is walking distance from the event. I enjoyed the area during the day and like Vancouver.
But unless you are a teenager intent to stay up till 05:00 am drinking and partying in your room, do NOT stay here.
Here are some of the things that have occurred between 01:00 and 03:00
Five different ambulances or police cars going by.
2 drunk guys in alleyway singing at top of their lungs
Neighbors in/​out/​in/​out of their room 6 times
Party 3 doors down
Minor party across hall
People in hallway talking down hallway to each other
Nightclub is downstairs and next door with loud bass
3 cars with fart pipes intent on letting the world know their douchery
Angry woman yelling at date
Random guitar player in alley. Yes, he teamed up with the singing drunks
Honk of a car horn to tell someone to hurry up
Neighbors having Sex
I don’t begrudge the neighbors having sex, at least someone was enjoying themself, but the way the room is situated, the headboard is 2 feet from the door, and the walls are paper thin.
By he way, I travel a lot and carry a stereo that I play loud white noise through to drown out stuff. This hotel’s location defeated this system.
Trust me. Drive out of town and stay someplace else.

For a budget hotel, this one falls under the $ 100 below category. Booked here during September for vacation. Located in downtown Vancouver and among other vintaged buildings nearby. You get what you pay for this one. Rooms, floors, the building, you get that very familiar old musty smell. I’ve gone nose blind while I was staying here. Carpets, walls, beds, have that old look and feel. Got allergies when I lay in the beds made with some styrofoam material. I dont have allergies usually but this building just gave me one! Staff are borderline pleasant and cranky. Never going to stay here again! I’m better off in bed and breakfast.

DO NOT STAY HERE.
Just don’t.
***I will quickly mention, that the Howard Johnsons rates fluctuate during peak and offseason as most hotels do in Vancouver. I have seen the HoJo advertised for as little as $ 85/​night CAD up to $ 350/​night CAD. This hotel «might» be okay if you can get it for under $ 100/​night AND if you can put up with poor customer service. But you’d be better off burning your money if you decide to pay upwards of $ 300…it is definitely NOT worth that kind of money as it is a FAR cry from a luxury hotel.***
My boyfriend and I have stayed at many hotels in the downtown core and this had to be one of the worst experiences we’ve ever had.
While this hotel is centrally located, rooms were decent, clean, basic, and there was A/​C BUT the negatives soon out-​weighed any positives of our stay.
We stayed here for 2 nights, left for one night to stay at a different hotel, then came back for one more night. Our first two night stay was okay but our major problems were when we came back to re check in.
Where to start… the rooms smell HORRID. The best comparison would that be of a dirty, musty, wet sock. We asked to change rooms a couple of times but soon realized that they all smelled the same.
The next major problem was the incompetent, unprofessional, rude and downright snobby staff (they all acted as if this hotel was the same caliber as a Fairmont… puh-​leaze!!) Upon check-​in at our first arrival, as is customary at most hotels, the Howard Johnson took a deposit of $ 100 in the form of a pre authorization on our credit card (or so we thought). We are used to this deposit, we never damage any rooms, nor are we party people, so we always get it back, no big deal. Both my boyfriend and I are budget conscious so we always know what we have on our credit cards, keeping in mind we always need that extra money for a deposit. When we came back from our other stay to re check-​in was when the major problem started. After trying to run the credit card for the room rate and agreed upon $ 100 deposit, it came back declined. This didn’t make sense to either my boyfriend or I so he called his credit card company to find out what was wrong. It turned out that upon our previous check-​in just two days prior, unbeknownst to us, HoJo had taken a preauth of $ 150, NOT the $ 100 they mentioned. This was an extra $ 50 we were unaware of. They were also trying to run through another $ 150 deposit for the current stay while AGAIN telling us it was only an extra $ 100. When we informed the lady at the front desk, she denied both claims of the extra $ 50, even though my boyfriend pulled up his credit card statement on his phone to show her. We had enough on the credit card to cover the room rate and we were just $ 20 short to cover this $ 150 deposit, so we asked her to run through $ 20 less for a preauth which she refused. I thought this was ridiculous because we were told it was only $ 100 anyways and it was our previous stay at the HoJo with the extra $ 50 that caused this issue in the first place. She then rudely told us if we did not check in and were to cancel our reservation we would be charged the room rate anyways. What??! At this point I contacted the main HoJo customer service line. This is the one reason I usually like chain hotels… If there is an issue that cannot be dealt with on site, someone higher up will assist you. Lets just say… Worst franchise customer service EVER. All the main customer service line did was call the hotel we were at and asked them to sort it out with us!!! After much arguing we no longer felt welcome here and they finally agreed to let us cancel our reservation penalty free (sheesh, what a favor, huh?)
We won’t be back and I suggest anyone reading this finds a room elsewhere too. There are plenty of cheaper hotels in downtown Vancouver with way better customer service.

Centrally located, easy access to buses and skytrain. Easy access to food, sit down, takeout, late night etc. We didn’t have any trouble parking. I imagine It’s similar to staying in a hotel on yonge street in downtown Toronto. We were here during the week, had a second floor suite and no noise issues, but did run the ac. Friendly, helpful staff. Low shower pressure and soft water not my fave. Rooms small but comfortable. Charming lobby and old fixtures. Recommended if you’re not looking for luxury or to stay in your room all day. Free WiFi. Paid about $ 100 a night from corporate website, last minute booking too!

Horrible experience! First off, no parking avail, had to park 5 blocks away in another lot. The keys were deactivated twice and would have to go get new ones. Had a friend who was staying at a neighboring hotel and came back with us during «non-​visiting» hours. At check out we got charged for another guest and were informed that «there is video surveillance monitoring»… Really?!? It ended up costing $ 250 plus the cost of having to pay to park at an off site lot, for a one star hotel.

You know, I’m going to go ahead and give 4 stars. I think whatever problems the 2013 reviews had have since been resolved.
The hotel itself was clean, including the room itself. Sure, the curtains, carpet, etc. were outdated, but its not a big deal as long as its all clean (which it was). The mattress wasn’t the best, but it was sufficient. The room was larger than I expected based on other reviews. I didn’t think the noise was any worse than other older hotels I’ve stayed it.
Now. Why the hell anyone would want to stay in this area of town is beyond me. On a Saturday night, we were easily the oldest people out (we are in our 30’s). Sure, there were some seemingly normal people mixed amongst the panhandlers, tweakers, and people handing out coupons for free marijuana cookies at the cannibis store, which is conveniently in the middle of this armpit of Vancouver. Certainly not the hotel’s fault; I’m actually amazed that there are any hotels here at all.

FOR WHAT IT IS… this place is legit. Given that Vancouver might be the most affluent (overpriced) place outside of NYC I’ve ever been, to find a hotel room for 125/​night on short notice was NOT BAD. Yes, the room was tiny. Yes, there were inconveniences (free wifi. but you had to get a new code every 5 hours), Yes, the service wasn’t great. and Yeah, the elevator was slow. But it was a safe, clean place to hang my hat for a couple days while I visited the hoity-​toitiest place on the West Coast.
YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Would recommend this place to other thrifty travelers like me. Nuff said.

HOJO on Granville: budget hotel in an older building that’s had some recent remodeling. Stayed one night with the Padre. I had a room with a queen size bed– small, but not uncomfortable, with the usual free shampoo and amenities you usually find. I don’t really have any complaints about the staff (who was really friendly and got us checked in in under 5 minutes) or the room, which was clean and well kept. The internet is free, but you do need a log in username and password from the front desk staff– I couldn’t connect from my smart phone or laptop, and wound up giving up after three calls to the desk for a new set of log in info. But– they do have a couple computers available above the check in desk, and theres loads of Starbucks and Blenz within a 5 minute walk if you’re desperate to check mail or refresh your Instagram feed.
Some of the reviews mentioned general skeeze outside and surrounding the hotel– I personally felt fine, the noise level wasn’t an issue, and we had no issues with our car in the adjacent lot.

I have NEVER been so unsatisfied with a hotel!
The rooms are disgusting and small. Our toilet was clogged! The water pressure sucked. The floors were dirty. Our heater/​air conditioner didn’t work. The hotel was extremely loud. And lastly, the staff were rude and extremely condescending, especially the front desk guy named Richard!
Because of this experience, I will never stay or recommend The Howard Johnson. I get mad just thinking about it!