Was a Howard Johnson's - under new management, which is very amateurish. Staff doesn't wear uniforms. Place is mostly deserted: restaurant and bar are closed. Pool was filthy when we arrived. Fitness center contains only machines not working and/or not plugged in. Internet reservations don't get picked up by the hotel, so there was a line of dissatisfied people at the desk when we arrived. They assigned us a smoking room instead of nonsmoking that we ordered. Our ONE room key that they assigned (for 4 people) didn't work... you get the idea. Breakfast included instant coffee - no brewed. Many people didn't get breakfast at all because the staff puts it out hit or miss. Remote control for TV didn't work. Some women I spoke to felt unsafe because it's so empty and the rooms all have sliding glass doors that open to the front.

The only positive thing about the hotel experience was the friendly staff. The pictures on the hotel's website are far from accurate. Upon arrival at the hotel, the entire parking lot was vacant. Our room experience left many wonderful surprises: leftover coffee in the coffeepot, a tv remote that didn't work, dirty pillowcases & no pillowcases, burnt out lightbulb in the bathroom with chipped bathtub to go with it. There is no cable in the rooms, making it very difficult to watch the Twins vs Red Sox game. The shuttle to the airport was a beat up conversion van, that we didn't know if it would make it to the airport. For the cost of $120.00/night, I would definitely recommend finding a different hotel. This place needs a lot of work.

We pull in and the parking lot is virtually vacant which, is somewhat surprising since the operator from expedia indicated he only had "6 rooms left" when I called to inquire about the location. It's an older property and you can tell they are working on it. Upon entry, you smell this musty old place smell and the entryway has what should have been a nice rock water garden ... it's empty. We went to the desk to inquire if our room was perhaps ready yet as we arrived in Windsor Locks early. I had requested a handicap accessible room on the ground floor with 2 double beds. Upon check in, I was informed they only had king beds in the handicap rooms so, we would have to choose. We took a non-accessible room on the ground floor. You couldn't park in the vicinity of the room and had to go from the entry thru the lobby and hallway and down another hallway to arrive at the room. The pool was closed and we saw none of the other "claimed" ammenities we read about on the website. I checked the room and it seemed reasonably clean except for that old hotel smell w/ the air freshener covering it. We turned down the air and left to go shopping. Upon leaving my room, I spoke with a cleaning person who was extremely nice and I asked her if we were the only ones staying there ... she laughed and said oh no, we are almost full. Hmmmm .... We were gone about 4 hours and returned to the same empty parking lot and walked through a lobby with about 7 males gawking at us. The room had cooled down but still smelled funny. The carpet near the A/C felt damp and we decided to wear our shoes when walking around on it. Since we were flying out early the next morning, we showered and hit the bed which was surprisingly comfortable. The night was quiet and we got up and out of there w/out incident. Well I thought. It seemed odd they ran my credit card when we checked-in since I had prepaid the room. I asked about this and she said it was in case we had charges after check-in. That is not an unfamiliar concept so, I did not worry about it. Today as I was reviewing my credit card bill, I see a charge from the hotel on there for 74.36 ... what the hell? I have no number to call them directly and I've submitted my information to my credit card company. This makes me quite angry. Watch out for this one. While it doesn't scream scary ... it has that underlying fright feeling! I guess you get what you pay for ... live and learn.

After waiting an hour and a half for them to try to figure out what to do with me and my family, they sent us off to a room that was not licensed for occupancy. Half the hotel was actually not licensed but the manager Jennifer did not think it was necessary to tell me that the portion of the building she was sending me, my wife, and two small children off to had failed two inspections and was not open for guests. The frame of the sliding glass door was broken. The lock on the slider was broken & the security bar for the slider was broken off the wall and was laying on the floor by the bed. I gathered up my family, loaded up the minivan and drove off.

My wife and I booked this hotel because of the very nice description on **THIS** site and our need for a "park and fly" hotel room for a very early air flight for a vacation starting on the Nov 4th. We are Senior Citizens and depend on sites like yours for our travel plans. Upon arrival, we found that the hotel was being totally renovated and there were dumpsters and renovation debri everywhere. There were few guests. The place was a mess, but we arrived after supper and our plane was to leave early in the AM, so we stayed rather than try to find another place at late time. Among our problems - 1. a wake-up call [3AM] one hour earlier than requested because the hotel did not adjust their clock for the end of "daylight savings time" [we had reminded them of this at check in and they assured us that their clocks would properly adjust] 2. a false Fire Alarm at 2 AM followed in a few minutes by a desk call apologizing 3. a group of rowdy, drinking young people roaming the parking lot and grounds in and around our room between 1 and 3 AM - our calls for help to the front desk got no help [we were told that there was no security available, but that a call would be made to get someone] - ETC. The young clerk apologized profusely in the AM and assured us that contacting the manager [not then available] would certainly get us a refund for our troubles. He gave us her business card with her Email address. We sent her [Jennifer] a detailed story with such a request when we returned from our vacation. After a few weeks went by, she sent us an Email saying that she would immediately refund 50% of our money and was very sorry for our many problems. We have tried to get in touch several times in the MANY WEEKS that have passed since her email without success because - in fact - we NEVER received any promised refund.