Howard Johnson Escondido CA

Had a soccer tournament in town so got 4 rooms for our team.
Decided on the «HoJo» for the usually good name for basic hotels.
We requested and was told all rooms would be next to each other. Wasn’t the case when we checked in.
One room the AC was broken, another had really old dirty blinds that had splotchy holes that let light in.
3^rd room the beds were made on 2x4s.
Ants in some of the room, and just dirty feeling.
The pool was the most disgusting pool I’ve ever seen and I’ve been to plenty of hotels all over the US and Europe and always go to the pools.
The lady on the phone was very pleasant though and helpful while booking the rooms.
But don’t plan on coming back here for next years tournament.

I so so wish I could take the one star they make you give them on this review. Place was pathetic at best… Within one mile from this place is the following: Homeless shelter directly across from the place, goodwill store with all the homeless people outside there, detention center, transient bus station that brings out some wild characters at night. And the continental breakfast was totally EPIC — there is toilet rift next to the breakfast bar that all the homeless people come in and dump in and shower in and then proceed to take all the breakfast food so you have nothing or you have to deal with all the stuff they have touched — horrible experience… The rooms were not even sub par — see pics attached to review — brown molded shower head, Home made pallet to supper the bed — see pic — and a fridge and microwave that i think was used to melt something that smelt absolutely horrible. Outside our lovely room 120 is the smoking pit where at the transit kids come and play and older people approx 12 at the time smoke outside your room all night long and the AC sucks it in your room. Great F-​in time… next time I’ll sleep under the bridge for free and haver a better time — I’ll just come here for free to shit & eat… sounds fair

It’s dingy and a lot of blue collared men stop at this hotel. So if you Wanna stay for a whole week, maybe not your most comfortable hotel.

Here are the good points
Staff was friendly
Bathroom was clean
Pool was clean
That’s it
Bad points
Clientele was awful and scary. Looked like there were residents here, not good ones either. Neighborhood looked rough, not good for kids. Carpets are gross.
The beds were god awful and the continental breakfast needs help, coffee, no creamer only milk, bread, croissants and juice. A muffin or doughnuts would be nice.
Hotel is outdated.
We won’t be back.

Worst motel I have ever been to in my entire life. No hospitality, bed bugs attacked my daughter and I also had the front desk call the Cops on me because apparently I was a non guest stealing continental breakfast. Really? Then I called the General Manager who turned out to be a total dick and sided with her. I will never stay at a Howard Johnson anywhere again.

One of the cheapest in town, but it’s run down, dirty, and in disrepair. My parents needed a room for one with disabilities. They claimed it was a handicapped-​fitted room. Nearly everything was a disappointment, except the staff. Norma, you’re a little ray of sunshine in a dark cave. Apparently, the hotel has an agreement with the city to house the homeless, and it shows. I just wish there was some kind of warning. My parents’ «non-​smoking» room reeked of cigarette smoke. The toilet was the smallest you can buy (other than those tiny ones they put in elementary school kid bathrooms). My mother nearly injured herself using it. And the room has a BATHTUB! Seriously? Granted «disabled» can mean many things, but the room should at least have a walk-​in shower with a bench. The room has a fridge and microwave, but only one can be plugged in at a time. The only restaurant within walking distance is a dodgy Mexican restaurant. Mom said the refried beans tasted sour and the rice was inedible. Since those happen to be her favorite foods (she even eats canned refritos), and this is a woman who eats cold hotdogs, it’s very telling that she couldn’t eat it. There is a lot of illegal activity going on in the parking lot and rooms. As we were unloading their luggage, a man was meeting a prostitute, who looked like a transvestite. «Oh, look she has seams up the back of her stockings,» my mother remarked. (Yes, and a fuchsia tube top and black micro mini and outrageous wig.) Homeless people for whom there was no room at the inn can be seen sleeping on the sidewalks around HoJo’s Esco. Unless you’re very desperate or incredibly cheap, like my dad, you’ll pass this one up.

The room is clean-​ish but the bed is not comfortable at all, fan in bathroom made an absolute horrific sound, the parking lot is a little sketchy. Def what you pay for, beats a DUI but don’t plan to stay here again.

This place is old and run down the carpet in our room was in tatters the fridge had a funny smell the sheets though clean were so over washed they had tiny holes throughout and we had to go ask for towels. The Carpet should have been replace back in 1980, holes in it and very stained. The bright side no bugs the tub actually had a plug the stove worked and staff was friendly and you are close to lots of restaurants and shopping. A lot of the rooms seem to be rented long term and in the night someone knocked on our room looking for someone else all in all not a place I would recommend

ROACHES, ROACHES, ROACHES, ROACHES!!! DO NOT STAY HERE!!!
If I could give this place ZERO stars, I would! My husband and I stayed here for less than 4 hours! We checked in around 7 – 8 pm and dropped our dog off (because this is one of a the few places that was pet friendly in the area). When we got into the room, it wasn’t the nicest places we had seen, but it was doable for one night. I took a quick shower and we went to dinner for my birthday at Stone Brewery. When we got back about 2 hours later, the sun had set, so the room was pitch black at this point. We opened the door and turned the light on and there was one roach on the wall in the mini kitchenette area! My husband didn’t want to make a big deal about it since it was only one roach so we killed that one and looked around for more. then we found roaches in the cabinet above the stove, roaches behind the stove, roaches on the table, roaches on the night stand and roaches in the phone receiver when I picked it up to call the front desk! It was about 11pm at this point and I was NOT going to sleep in this place! We marched down the front desk and demanded a refund and told them we were leaving. The woman working that night was very, very apologetic, and she admitted that there was a roach problem «in the past,» told us she would give us a refund, but since we booked the room on Expedia (for a cheaper rate) we would have to call them and work out the refund through them. She gave us her card and said she would honor a refund when Expedia called. We checked out (searched all of our bags for roaches and I even threw my dogs bed away since it was on the floor in the hotel room) and we headed to the Holiday Inn (which was AWESOME!).
Here’s where things get even more frustrating. My husband called Expedia and explained the situation on Monday. They said «no problem, we will issue a refund after we get a confirmation from the hotel.» They put my husband on hold and called the hotel and when they came back to him a few minutes later they said THE HOTEL REFUSED TO ISSUE A REFUND! My husband went back and forth with them, but Expedia said there was nothing they could do if the hotel would not cooperate. So, I called the hotel and asked to speak to the manager. He wasn’t there so I left a message and he has yet to call me back (it has been almost a week). Update: My husband was finally able to get in touch with the Manager and he was very apologetic and agreed to issue us a refund. For that, this hotel only deserves one star. But for the hoops we jumped through with the other person who worked there and having to call several times just to sort this out, no more stars!
We were dumb and didn’t read the Unilocal reviews before we booked this room. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE read this review and don’t stay here! It will save you a lot of headaches! It is worth the extra $ 30 to stay in the much nicer Holiday Inn.

I am actually embarrassed to say I stayed here! Extremely overpriced for the quality. We paid $ 150 for a one night’s stay over Labor day weekend (Sat). Bc we planned a getaway very last min, all rooms in SD were sold out, and of the ones still available on Sat afternoon of Labor Day weekend, the prices were going up before my eyes!
We arrived in the evening and there was a sign on the door that said No Vacancy. So I knew we were probably the last ones to check in and would be getting the worst room. If it was not the worst, I do NOT want to know which one was worse! The carpet in the room was so sticky you didn’t even want to be bare foot on it. The first thing I saw when we opened the door was a baby cockroach on the wall by the bed. We found another in the tub, as well as a small flea-​like bug on the sink vanity. There were stains on the box springs that looked like dried blood. (Seconds before I saw the «blood» I said, hey at least there’s no blood stains! and then I turned and saw the stains.) The mini fridge smelled disgusting, and I was very surprised it even worked (it was actually off when we arrived so it took awhile for it to cool our drinks). Lastly, the AC barely even worked. It was humid and musky in the room and the AC served not much more than a loud fan. I was not expecting much, but this was ridiculous. They offered a free breakfast but I would not chance eating anything from that hotel. If there are roaches in the room, I wonder what is in the kitchen! Oh BTW, when we first got there to check in, the front desk guy said he’d be back in 5 mins. When he came back he was holding a Raid can.
This place looked like a crack head apt complex.
I will never stay at another Howard Johnson again.

Hell does exist. We are from Las Vegas and we have standards when it comes to hotels… and I figured… hey $ 80 will get us something decent… well yeah no this was a mistake. It was so nasty and ghetto we had to buy sheets and bug spray from Walmart to be able to make it livable. Oh man and the cigarette smoke smell was disgusting. NEVER AGAIN WILL I SKIMP ON A HOTEL! YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! HOLY S*IT! You may ask…“why didn’t you complain at the front desk?!” Well if you stay there you’ll know why we didn’t complain… lol.

I wish there was a negative star rating because I do not even want to give them 1 star. This hotel was horrible. The room smelled and there were bugs. It was not clean at all. After my family checked in we stayed about an hour and then checked out, there is no way I could have stayed in that disgusting hell hole! Do not stay here!

Are we in hell?
THE WORST… !!! EVER!!!
Later after a festival, we planned to stay there to go back to the festival the next day in Escondido.
We got a room on the 1^st floor w/​2 beds. Next door was a family with the door open, actually living there, with 2 kids running around in dirty cloths and a smoke chimney coming from out of the room the 2 adults were in…
We opened up our room, and turned on the lights and to my utter amazement were baby cockroaches scattering 360 degrees for safe refuge.
Appalling as it was, on top of the smoke leaking in from next door, was a stained carpet, stale orders seeping out of the walls, curtains and bathroom area.
We turned around, went straight to the managers office and switched rooms.
Next room on opposite side of the hotel, supplied us with a harsh shrill sound of the smoke alarm going off approx every 4 to 5 minutes, we had to go out into the freezing cold outside the room every time the alarm went off to stop our minds from exploding from the harsh boisterous shrill sound… and finally he manager came after about ½ hour to change the battery. Sill a stale smell, old carpet with stains too, but seem to be free of roaches and less smokey smell. DIRTY TOWELS!
THE BEDS WERE ALSO HORRIBLE. Springs!
Need I say more?
We were so tired that we couldn’t keep changing rooms, so we agreed to stay, only this one night.
NEVER AGAIN!!! EVER!!!

«Great place to fuck the night away. If I’m ever in the area I will mos-​def be staying here again. The beds are clean, quiet and bouncy. Norma was able to provide outstanding front desk customer service she also did a great job at keeping the breakfast well stock. Norma deserves a pay raise. Because of her if I am ever in the area I will stay here again

Of course the only reason I stayed here is because it was cheap. The continental breakfast was a good plus– and it was pretty good and had fresh fruit! But the toasters took too long for my toast. The room came with a microwave and a mini fridge! The location is pretty difficult to get to as its tucked away and have to make a few u turns. My room spelled of Raid! The whole time smelling of pesticides ugh. And the maid left someone else’s trash in my room– hair and a left over burrito– gross! The bed was rock hard. Oh and they have no wifi!

Well, it’s cheap and the television works… If you are on a super tight budget and can sleep just about anywhere, this well work out just fine.
The room was decently clean and it was bed bug free (I checked). The television worked, and the staff was very friendly. The maintenance guy obviously works harder than the cleaning people, because the exterior was well maintained and the pool was sparkling. The room also entitles you to a breakfast (continental with muffins, croissants, cereal, and juice\coffee). They do run out though, so if you want to eat I suggest getting to it before 8.
On the downside, the carpet felt grimy (keep your flip flops on) and the beds are the absolute WORST I have ever experienced. It couldn’t have been more than 5 inches thick or less than 15 years old. The frame was either constructed from old wooden pallets or 2×4’s. It was so uncomfortable that we were all fighting yo sleep on the air mattress we had brought.
Long story short, if you don’t mind hard beds and are looking for a cheap room fairly close to So. Cal attractions it will do just fine.

Bad place. Dirty and shady. The owners allow people to live in the same room long term… months to years. The rooms are nasty. If you look closely you will notice drug deals and prostitutes close by. This is not a family place. The Police and Fire Dept. Are called out regularly.
My advice is stay somewhere else or sleep in your car.

OK, by far one of the worst places I have ever stayed in.
The room was in dis-​repair, with blue painter’s tape holding the fan cover in place in the bathroom, that they had tried to paint over, unsuccessfully. Paint was peeling from door frame in the bathroom. The chair in the room had «stripper glitter» all over it. And we had a big ol’ iron burn in the carpet.
(see pics)
Worst of all was the bed. I swear to God we slept on 2 box springs stacked, rather than a box spring with a mattress on top. It was like sleeping on pavement.
The owner has a white golden retriever that he lets wander around the property and leave giant piles of dog shit in the grass. Nice, huh?

The worst hotel I have ever stayed in. We got a non-​smoking room, but the adjoining room was a smoking room, so the smell of cigarette smoke made its way into our room. On top of that, there was shampoo but no conditioner, holes in the shower curtain, dirty towels and a poorly functioning from-​the-​80s TV. They have verbiage in the room about going green, but provide you with styrofoam cups. I spent as little time as possible in my room because it made me feel gross.

Not the absolute worst hotel I have stayed in but it is down there. You pretty much get what you pay for here. The room cost me about 48 bucks, so I was not expecting anything lavish.
The room was your average motel room, had a fridge, coffee maker, microwave. Runs of the mill stuff, the bed was super uncomfortable and had some weird stain on it that i noticed after i slept in it all night (looked like blood or ketchup, lets hope the latter). AC worked great all night and they did have a few free movie channels.
Free continental breakfast in the morning, although after seeing the stained bed I was pretty much out on that.
The lady who ran the place was super nice and very friendly.