00:00For this video, I'm taking you on a full hotel tour of the Howard Johnson by Wyndham located
00:06in Branson, Missouri.
00:30In this video, I'm taking you on a tour of the Howard Johnson Hotel by Wyndham.
01:00If you've watched any of my previous hotel reviews, you'll always notice that I'm always
01:09attracted to the best value options.
01:13You know, whether it's entry level accommodations or like a five star luxury resort, I'm always
01:20looking to find the absolute best deal.
01:23And that's basically my primary motivation when I book a hotel.
01:27And that's exactly how I ended up at today's hotel, which is a Howard Johnson's.
01:32I've never filmed a Howard Johnson's before.
01:34It's kind of like a name out of the past and they're pretty rare in today's hotel landscape.
01:41So this hotel is under completely new management.
01:44Apparently Wyndham bought it and is kind of rebranding it.
01:48And if you go online and look up the previous name this hotel was known as, which is the
01:54Southern Oaks Inn, it's no wonder why they are completely changing the name and basically
02:01completely renovating the place inside and out.
02:04In my entire life, I've never seen a hotel bashed as relentlessly as the Southern Oaks
02:09Inn.
02:10Most of the customer ratings on this one were like 3.2 out of 10 and just constantly talking
02:18about cockroaches and bed bugs and all kinds of stuff.
02:22So the place was apparently a wreck under the previous management.
02:26Thankfully, Wyndham has come in and completely gutted the rooms.
02:32Everything's new inside the rooms, whether you're talking about the linens, the beds,
02:37the furniture, the bathrooms have all been completely renovated.
02:40It's been painted inside and out when it comes to the hotel rooms.
02:44Now obviously the exterior is still old, they haven't caught up with that.
02:47And one of the pools is empty and they're still doing some renovations on that.
02:53But when it comes to the hotel room itself, they're incredibly clean and right now they're
02:59very aggressive with the pricing.
03:01I paid about $50 a night to stay here in Branson and while it was off season, that was a great
03:08value and I was incredibly impressed with the quality of the room itself.
03:14Even though it's located inside an old building, you would never know from inside the room.
03:19It was very quiet, it seemed like the building had pretty good insulation.
03:23The bed, linens, and pillows were all brand new so it only took me about 5 minutes to
03:28fall asleep.
03:29It was just a wonderful experience.
03:32And you know, I can't emphasize this enough, they didn't retain anything from the Southern
03:36Oaks Inn besides the telephones as much as I can tell, the mini fridge, the air conditioning
03:43units, the TVs, pretty much everything but the telephone and the clock radio were replaced.
03:51That's the only thing that I can tell that got carried over into the new place.
03:56And I mean, why replace the phone?
03:58I mean, how many people actually use a landline phone nowadays?
04:03So the location of this place is wonderful.
04:06There's a bunch of tourist attractions right on the same street, within walking distance
04:11probably.
04:12They call it the Howard Johnson's Branson Theater District and they're not kidding.
04:18You are surrounded by a bunch of dinner theaters.
04:20There's the Branson Zoo, it's I think maybe a mile from here.
04:25So there are a lot of nice attractions that are very close.
04:30The alpine coasters like the Branson Coaster and the Runaway Mountain and Copperhead Mountain,
04:37those are all about 3 miles from this hotel.
04:39So a lot of the neat attractions are nearby.
04:44I think the Titanic Museum is about 4 miles out.
04:48The Silver Dollar City theme park I believe was about 7 miles.
04:51So everything is just convenient and this hotel is in a great location.
04:58The indoor swimming pool that's all the way at the back of the hotel was open and operating
05:04so they did have at least one swimming pool going.
05:09This hotel also does include a free continental breakfast in the lobby and it is kind of funny
05:16sitting in the lobby because there's still a bunch of signage on the walls bragging about
05:20the Southern Oaks Inn and I think this is like one of those classic hotels that Branson
05:27was once known for.
05:28So when the Southern Oaks Inn first opened apparently it was a pretty big deal and very
05:35popular but just got mismanaged into oblivion apparently.
05:41So what's my bottom line for the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Branson Theater District?
05:45I definitely recommend it based on the current room rates.
05:48It is a really compelling value.
05:51It's one of the cheapest options in Branson and like I said the rooms are brand new inside.
05:58Overall I'd give it a score probably about a 6.5 or 7 out of 10.
06:04Ironically 7 out of 10 is the current score on Hotels.com at the moment.
06:10That is more than double than the previous score as the Southern Oaks Inn so Wyndham
06:15has definitely come a long way quickly when it comes to the improvements to this hotel
06:21and the renovations have definitely helped a lot.
06:24This was my first time to Branson and it's just an incredible town to visit.
06:28There's so many great smaller attractions and Silver Dollar City is a great theme park.
06:34You just can't really miss with anything around here in Branson and I plan to come back as
06:39soon as I can.
06:41Thanks for joining me on this hotel tour.
06:43If you enjoyed this episode of Mike Conveys the World don't forget to click on that follow
06:47button above.
06:48See everyone next week on Daily Motion.
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