Full Tour & Review of Howard Johnson Branson Theatre District (Branson, MO)
Nestled in the Ozark Mountains, 14 miles from Branson Airport™ (BKG) and 56 miles from Springfield-Branson National Airport (SGF), Howard Johnson by Wyndham Branson Theatre District welcomes you with free hot breakfast, WiFi, and parking as well as two pools and spacious rooms. Our location in the theatre district is near endless entertainment at Branson’s IMAX® Entertainment Complex, Pierce Arrow, Sight & Sound, and Hamner’s Unbelievable Variety Show. You’ll also be close to Silver Dollar City, Table Rock State Park, and Dolly Parton’s Stampede® Dinner Attraction.
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TravelTranscript
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.