Super 8 by Wyndham Johnstown — Hotel in Richland Township

There's something about this spot that makes this place so much more than just a regular Super 8 motel, which it is. Beyond that however, this place provides so much more in terms of not only it's convenience to the interstate and things like the Permanti's that is never crowded during the summer because all the UPJ students have gone home, or the Italian Oven in Richland mall that's less than a mile or so down the road. There's also the beautiful sunsets night after night. The fact that the crickets are more audible here than the noise of the interstate. And then there's the air. My God the air. Nothing beats the air in the Laurel Highlands when you need to escape those air quality alert days down in the Allegheny valley during the summer months. As far as the rooms, the rates, and all that other stuff goes it's a Super 8. If you've stayed at a Super 8 before you'll know what to expect. The staff here are exceptional though and besides running a clean, tight operation they really do go above and beyond to connect with their guests in a way that I can't recall ever having witnessed before at any other hotel.

I've been staying here for business for several days, but prior to that I'd been staying at the Holiday Inn Express on Scalp Avenue. On the night of my arrival here at the Super 8 however, I'd made my reservation too late online at the Holiday Inn after work and had accidentally booked for the next evening. I was able to cancel the booking but the hotel was sold out the previous night, so I needed to find another place to stay. When I came here, Vishal (the manager who'd been pulling double-duty all night behind the front desk) was who greeted me. He assured me immediately that he'd be able to get me into a room and there was a genuine sense of gratitude for my patronage from him that went above and beyond the standard fare manufactured pleasantness at 2 o' clock in the morning that one would expect from a front desk clerk at a Super 8 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In the time since then, I've noticed how not only Vishal but the rest of the staff as well seem to really put their hearts into this place and it really makes a difference. Their positivity rubs off on the guests and it makes for a vibe I've never experienced in a hotel before.

This is just a great spot and I had to give it this review. I just had to. It's not just the people, it's not just the location. It's both. This place has it all, and it doesn't need a solarium or room service or big comfy sofas in the lobby to accomplish it. Those things are sufficiently substituted by the warmth and kindness of the staff and the spot in which this hotel simply stands. There's Vishal and KP at the front desk. I haven't caught the names of the others yet, but hopefully I will before I leave. I most certainly plan on returning. 1000% recommend. Wow. Just wow. And it's a Super 8. This is a...

Let me start out by saying I have stayed at the Johnstown, PA Super 8 a number of times over the years, dating back to when it was built. Despite the occasional, minor issue I have never had a “bad” experience there - until last week. It should be noted that after visiting the front desk separately regarding two of the problems and receiving no resolution, I stopped trying. Here is a rundown of the issues: Right away I saw the security latch was stripped out and barely hanging on the room door. The “do not disturb” hanger was missing in the room. I asked couple of employees for one, and was told by the second one that she would slip one under the door. What I received was a “save your towels” hanger. There was no sink stopper in the bathroom, so I had to be extra careful not to drop anything in the sink. At breakfast each day, the juice machine’s flavors were all barely-colored and barely-flavored water. There was no screen on my window, so I couldn’t enjoy the night air. In 10 days I only got usable ice from the only machine in the hotel during the first two days. When I asked about it, I was told by the lady behind the lobby counter that there was a construction worker staying there who was filling a large cooler twice a day, and there was nothing they could do about it. Several days later the machine was finally labeled “out of order”, and remained that way for the rest of my stay. The AC unit filters in the room have not been cleaned in a VERY long time, which did not help my allergies. A new tv had been placed in front of a broken one still mounted to the wall, and I could never get the remote to show a guide, or even change channels on the new tv. Googling the remote and following directions didn’t help. The topper to all this came about 6 days in: I was walking across the floor in my socks and suddenly found myself “stuck” to the floor. There was a 1” fish hook embedded in the carpet fibers, sharp end out, and it went in through my sock heel and back out through it near the entry point! I had to cut it out of the carpet with a pocket knife and then work to extract it from my sock. When I checked out, there was no one at the lobby counter to relay all my concerns to - they didn’t even have the “drop key card here” tray on the counter so I don’t know why there was no one there. Add it all up, and this was not a pleasant stay for my vacation. In fairness, any one or two of these wouldn’t have been much of an issue because all other aspects of the stay were fine. And if the first two employees I encountered had responded differently, this would probably be a very different review. I have requested and await a follow-up...

We knew this was a budget hotel. Check in was easy. We were in a rush so when we got our room we went there dropped our stuff off quick and had to head back to the wrestling tournament. Upon walking the hall to our room there was a funky smell that is hard to explain but it wasn’t a good smell. Our room was so hot and smelled off. We tried to turn the ac unit on but it didn’t work. We saw there was a window so we opened that. I’m pretty sure that is a safety hazard because we were on the 3rd floor and the screen didn’t fit the window properly. It looks like it has been punched in and out of windows repeatedly and the frame was bent. We let it go because we knew there were no other hotels within an hour due to the multiple events happening that weekend and we were in a rush to get to the tournament. When we came back after the tournament my son took a shower. While in the bathroom we noticed there was black mold in the bathroom and there was a burnt mark on the sink and a hole on the outside of the bathroom door. There were black specs of stuff all over the wall. The light was so dim you could barely see in the bathroom. When my son pulled down his sheets there were black ‘things’ all over the sheets and underside of the blankets. They didn’t look like bugs but when you touched them they were oily, hard and gross looking. They almost looked like the things on the bathroom walls. My son went downstairs and asked for new bedding and the gentleman told him he could only give him sheets because there was no housekeeper. While in the room I already took all bedding off the mattress and on the mattress pad on the bed was a nice fresh stain what looked like spilled coffee. I took pictures of everything and went downstairs to show the guy and ask for bedding because we didn’t bring extra blankets of anything. He again told me housekeeping was not there but it was on the list. He did give me a blanket. We debated just sleeping in our car but it was cold that night and we had no other hotel to go to. We slept the best we could. Breakfast options were minimal. We went to the tournament and our room looked made up when we returned. However I looked on the floor and there was an unwrapped candy bar that was not ours on the floor so we knew it couldn’t have been that cleaned. The sheets never got changed on my son’s bed the housekeeper just made the bad the same disgusting stained bed pad was still there. I again called other hotels in the area but there were no opened rooms. We couldn’t wait to check out on Sunday. Would never...