While this is very much a 3-star hotel, it represents good value for Saipan. Many of the so-called five-star hotels have also seen better days, so the difference in prices for rooms do not represent a fair difference in terms of the quality of rooms, in my opinion.

The Ocean View is well located, in sight of the ocean, and adjacent to the popular DFS shopping plaza, which also houses the Hard Rock Cafe. Next to the hotel is a Chinese grocery store which stocks all the amenities the hotel may not, including bottled water, snacks, toothpaste etc.

The room itself was quite basic, but clean. It had an in-room safe, decent AC (I don’t like AC generally) fridge and old TV with basic channels. The front desk staff seem to be mostly from the Philippines, and are friendly and helpful when approached. They kept my luggage for me for at no charge when I ventured over to neighbouring Tinian island for a few days.

The hotel has a pool which seemed clean and reasonably maintained. The hotel also has on-site self-service laundry facilities. There is a restaurant open for breakfast and lunch, but I never used it.

The vast majority of their guests seem to be from Japan and China, many on group package tours.

There is an unadvertised dive operator on the third floor that seems to cater mostly to Japanese.

Bottom line for me: Fair price, convenient location, everything worked as it should, basic but clean room, and hot water for showers.

Tip: For breakfast, make the 15-20 minute walk to Cafe at the Park by the American Memorial Park. The best breakfast in Saipan. Tony Roma’s is also a popular dinner spot, but get there early to avoid the queue.

This hotel is located across Beach road in Garapan from the ocean. Despite the name your view of the ocean will depend on how high a floor your room is on and which way it faces. The staff is ok. The facilities themselves are tired and worn out. The beds in the room were just marginally better than a camp cot. There is no internet available there. If your room faces Beach road then you should expect to hear traffic all the time. The towels I recycle and use to wash my car are better than the tattered pieces of cloth that pass for a bath towel here. The price is low… so I guess you could make the argument that ‘you get what you pay for’, but even that argument does not hold up when compared to other places I’ve stayed… If you are hungry, take a pass on the restaurant and walk 3 min up the road and go to Round Two. Alternatively there is a MacDonald’s just across Beach Road and down a few hundred meters. Wild Bill’s is just down the street if you want Thai food. The best that can be said about this place is that it located in the middle of downtown Garapan; you can walk to a-lot of places; although there’s really no much to do there unless you are a fan of overpriced stores selling items you can buy for 30% less on Amazon.com

My wife and I stayed here in August 2011. We read reviews on trip advisor prior to booking a room and understood that this was an average hotel with a great location. After arriving, we quickly found out that the only thing good about it was the location. It is in the main Garapan district close to resorts, shopping, restaurants, and bars.

The hotel itself is very poor. Both the male and females bathrooms in the lobby were "out of service" the 3 days we were there and looked like it had been that way for a long time. The hallways were very dirty and they have no air conditioning so they smell like mildew. The room had a constant running toilet and a shower that leaked all over the floor. THe room smelled like smoke. The T.V. was very old and lots of static as if it was about to die. Therefore, you could never watch T.V. because the picture never came in clear. The lock to the balcony off of the room was similar to a paper clip and certainly not secure. The bed was very thin as you could feel each spring. Finally, the airport shuttle that is offered to and from the airport is not free. They will charge $20 each way so you are better off renting a car for $40 from the airport. To sum it all up, my wife and I ended up checking out a night early just to switch to another hotel in Saipan. For an additional $25-$35 a night you can get a nice, clean hotel right on the beach. This hotel is not worth the location that it is in.