Howard Johnson Hotel Riverside Grand Island NE

You can tell how old this place is. They have done lots of remodels. But not good ones. You can see the layers of wallpaper and drywall patches. If your on a budget it will do. Its like crack shack. But its close.

I’ve had a very pleasant stay here, the staff and management were very friendly. It’s a little older inside, and looks like it’s been remodeled and painted. I would stay there again.

Pretty shabby. Just outdated and old. «Free breakfast» is a lie. They give a voucher for $ 4 where every option is more than the voucher so you have to spend money to get your «free» breakfast. Front desk has one really rude lady that laughed at me when I asked if they had reserved the room my company requested. She was wrong. The hallway flooded due to very heavy rain and it started to smell really bad so they just stuck a fan over it which spread the smell throughout the halls for days. The shower head is roughly even with my collar bone…
I would skip this place if I could.

We made a reservation at this hotel because on Apple Maps it was listed as a Best Western Hotel. This is no longer a Best Western, it is a Howard Johnson’s, and no one answering the phone made us aware of this change. We were indeed surprised and slightly confused when we pulled up to a HoJo’s at 130am.
Granted, we got into town very late and just needed a place to sleep. This place was serviceable enough. The beds where fine, the linen and bathroom were clean. But that was about it.
First thing that happened, is that from the attached hotel bar a working girl walked out and sauntered through the parking lot in a lame attempt to solicit business? WTF? What kind of family hotel allows this?
Second, the hotel smelled. The room didn’t, but the hotel hallway from entrance A had a bad, funky, terrible smell. I suspect only a completely new paint job and new carpet would even begin to help remove this unpleasant welcome.
Third, unlike almost all hotels we have stayed at over the last three years, there was no breakfast with our overnight stay. The attached Denny’s did give us a $ 4 off coupon, but we won’t eat at a restaurant with the history of racism that Denny’s has had.
Fourth, the free WiFi was totally useless and was basically non-​functional.
This is what you get when you don’t plan ahead. Sometimes you get lucky and find a gem in the rough, but other times you get stuck with the bottom of the barrel. This was pretty close to the bottom of the barrel, who knew a soccer tournament in town would require us to stay here as a last resort. Ugh!
You get what you pay for, or maybe, more appropriately, what you plan for.
Plan ahead and get a reservation at one of the three really nice hotels at the Hwy 281 exit, Days Inn, Quality Inn and Motel 6. All three wonderful properties, new buildings, breakfast, reasonable pricing and solid Unilocal!reviews. You can be sure that on our next time through, we will plan better and stay at one of those three properties instead.

Scary encounter with this hotel. Called to make a reservation and the manager made the error of setting the reservation for the next day (rather than a week later as I had stated numerous times in our confusing phone call where I really started to wonder if he was suffering from some kind of debilitating memory disease or something odd). When we «didn’t show» that next day– they charged my credit card for the amount of the stay. Many many frustrating conversations with the manager– who could not remember who I was or what had actually happened in any singular conversation. Meanwhile– money in bank account taken down to zero and while I was out on the road and really needed it. In one conversation– the manager actually threatened me with just keeping it for his trouble. Exasperated– I cancelled the original reservation– or rather tried to– which they also «forgot» to take care of and therefore nearly charged me twice for no stay at all. This place really made me wonder if they weren’t up to something a bit more sinister than just «forgetting». I wouldn’t think of giving them my credit card information. In the end– the money showed back up after a week and a half but after MUCH hassle. Like I said– scary either way.