We wanted to visit Baseball Hall of Fame for few days with my school age kids. We were looking for a hotel in the area that had a swimming pool, which my kids seem to enjoy no matter else we do during a trip.

We did not find any inexpensive hotels in Cooperstown this time of year. We looked online at three hotels just outside of town (within 5 miles), including the Holiday Inn Express.

The HoJo one was new, had a pool, and received other good recommendations. Plus it has a basic breakfast included. We enjoyed our stay. The room was clean and bright with Crayola theme. The breakfast was basically what expected with bagels, muffins, cerals, coffee. The pool area was fine, although it is smaller than would like when crowded. Service was friendly and lobby area is bright and comfortable for sitting.

Tip for Hall of Fame: If you're planning to go for at least two days to visit the Hall, I recommend purchasing a family membership before your trip online at [--]. We did this and we cut through the lines outside to get in, received special treatment inside and tickets to members only event, had discounts on purchases at store, and the total cost was about what it would have been if we just purchased two-day passes. Plus, your membership supports the Hall of Fame and its activities.

Bruce, co-author "Watch It Made In The USA: A Visitors Guide to the Best Factory Tours and Company Musuems"

We stayed for one night. The hotel was very clean. When you walked into the room for the first time it actually smelled clean. The hotel is only a few miles from town. We parked and use the trolley service to go back and forth. Check in and Check out were quick and painless. Free Internet usage from your room. This is a family hotel, lots of baseball teams in town. There were some kids yelling and running around, but it did not last too long. I would recommend this hotel to any one visiting the area.

We stayed one night here in early July 2007. The room was clean and nicely decorated, but small. It was just your basic motel room. I thought it was overpriced, but then we were near Cooperstown. The room had a safe and they actually tried to charge us $1.50 extra for the safe. I refused!!! We had not asked for it nor did we use it. They removed it from the bill.

They have breakfast in the morning - just the cereal, toast, juice and coffee thing. Nothing special at all. We weren't there long enough to use the pool or other facilities.

I'd say if you need a clean, comfortable place to stay then this fills the bill

I booked a stay 1 year in advance for the upcoming HOF Induction Weekend at the Howard Johnson. I reserved 2 rooms for this event. I was told a few days ago, after calling to check on another reservation, that this reservation was cancelled directly by the hotel. After going through Howard Johnson customer service, I was told to contact the hotel directly. I have been doing this for the past few days, and have been given different stories each time by the manager. This hotel has terrible customer service and even worse front desk skills. I would suggest staying away. The hotel has now told me that they do not have an idea of how they are going to resolve this situation. This has been a terrible situation for us, as we have a friend's son who always looks forward to going to this event and has saved up his money for a year in anticipation of the HOF induction, and now we must tell him that we cannot attend the event. If anyone else has a reservation for the weekend of 7/27/2007-7/29/2007, I would suggest checking to see if your reservation is still good.