I checked in the evening of 12/22/2010. I asked the desk clerk if I could have a late check-out time. He said I could have until 12 noon. My businessran longer than I
anticipated. I called the Howard Johnsons at noon. The voice on the
other end told me that I had to pay extra if I was not out by noon. I
argued a little but finally said OK. When I arrived back at the Howard
Johnsons, my 83 year-old father, whom I had left back in the room while
I performed the graveside service, told me that he had been told to pack
up get out of the room #226. He was standing outside when I returned to
the Howard Johnsons. In addition to being 40 degrees, the lady at the
front desk literally screamed at him. Nothing that he could say is going to take the sting out of the fact that some desk clerk yelled at my 83-year old father and told him to get out of that motel room.
By the way, the checkout time listed for the McKinney Howard Johnsons is NOON on the website. The general manager or someone there put a piece of masking tape over the check-out time and hand wrote 11:00 A.M.
There were probably four cars in the parking lot when my father and I returned to the motel after a late supper. In the morning when I left for the cemetery service, there were fewer cars than that. The extra hour (or 15 minutes) that I used the McKinney Howard Johnsons hotel space could not have thrown off their room cleaning schedule. It didn't appear that they had a lot of rooms to clean.
- Howard Johnson Mckinney
