Disclaimer: LaMa Aviation does not get sponsored by the hotels. We pay the regular fares and we solely provide a review for planespotters and aviation enthusiasts who like to watch planes from their beds.

The Howard Johnson hotel is one of many hotels on the north side of DTW airport. The hotel has it's own free airport shuttle, however you will need to call the hotel to book the shuttle. The hotel itself is pretty cozy. The standard rooms are quite small and not that luxurious. It's okay if you are easily satisfied, but although this hotel has a non smoking policy, the rooms are all definitely smoked in. We are non-smokers and we cannot bear cigarette smoke very well, so we tried three normal rooms, but we did not want to sleep in a room full of cigarette smoke. Therefore, we received an upgrade to the "executive suite". This room was way less smoked in, so at least it was bearable for us. 

The windows were extremely dirty, so although we had a room facing south, we could only see a shadow of the plane flying overhead. Quite disturbing. Luckily, the emergency door provided access to an outside staircase that leads to the pool as well (so that is why it is open most of the time). This staircase has a sort of balcony from where the planes can be seen well. The lobby wi-fi is strong enough to even check Flightradar on this balcony.  We were here in 2019, so it could be that this hotel has been renovated and upgraded since then. 

The air-conditioning in the room is extremely noisy but works well. The real cooling down can be done in the pool. This pool is nice and clean. The hotel does not have a restaurant, but some food courts are around the corner. The hotel does serve breakfast though. 

This hotel is okay for your plane spotting trip stopover, but we would recommend checking out other hotels instead.