The very first thing I did upon entering the room was to check the internet connection. It did not work. Upon calling the front desk, I was told someone would be there to assist. After about 15 minutes I had to call back. Then someone did come to my room. He saw that it did not work with my PC. He explained that the network was working fine and he even showed me that his computer did work.

But it did not work for me. (I had used the PC only 3 hours earlier along the highway, so I was very suspicious.) It turned out that the property had multiple access points with the same name. So it appeared that the connection between the network and the PC was "moving" and could not be sustained.

Upon explaining that I could not stay without being able to access the internet, this man told me that the charge for leaving early would be 50% of the room charge. WHAT?

He explained that I had "used" the room and that it couldn't be rented to anyone else. WHAT?

Then he explained that this was Howard Johnson's policy. I called HJ corporate while standing in front of him. They said this was not their policy, but the individual property's. So he was caught in a LIE.

I left and went to a nearby establishment, checked in, and accessed the internet with no problem. So much for my PC being faulty. I called the HJ property immediately and told the same man about the status. He still refused to do anything about the bill.

This is subjective, but it is my feeling. The man became arrogant and almost hostile. It couldn't have been his problem.

Well, as an innkeeper, the guests' problems are his problems. If he doesn't feel that way, he should not be working with the public.

To give Howard Johnson corporate proper credit, they did in fact refund the charge in full. Hopefully they also corrected the management problem at this property.