Options for Late hotel Check-in

[SeatBackForward]

Sure most of us have been in a situation were we're checking in to a hotel after midnight - but needing to book the room for the day before arrival.

Has anyone used any techniques for asking for a half day booking? or any other concession based on arriving at a hotel closer to check-out time, than to the earliest check-in time?

Are there any particular hotels, or brands that are likely to do this?

 

[Mattg]

I'm not aware of any hotels that give you a discount because you're checking in around midnight. But would be interested to hear if there are any out there.

 

[Hvr]

I'm not aware of any hotels that give you a discount because you're checking in around midnight. But would be interested to hear if there are any out there.

Maybe if you're only planning to stay an hour or so?

On a serious note, surely airport hotels that have lots of evening flights should be used to people departing and then arriving at stupid o'clock on a regular basis? And have processes in place to cater for their guests.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Maybe if you're only planning to stay an hour or so?

On a serious note, surely airport hotels that have lots of evening flights should be used to people departing and then arriving at stupid o'clock on a regular basis? And have processes in place to cater for their guests.

Even aside from airport hotels, surely there's a marketing opportunity there somewhere, arrive after10pm and discounted rooms rates or something..

I say this because I'm looking at a potential trip where I'll land about midnight, and need to be in an office later that morning, and then depart that evening, so all I really need is a bed for a few hours, a shower and a breakfast, but i'll be paying for a room that wont be used anywhere from 2pm to 1am...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Even aside from airport hotels, surely there's a marketing opportunity there somewhere, arrive after10pm and discounted rooms rates or something..

I say this because I'm looking at a potential trip where I'll land about midnight, and need to be in an office later that morning, and then depart that evening, so all I really need is a bed for a few hours, a shower and a breakfast, but i'll be paying for a room that wont be used anywhere from 2pm to 1am...

I guess the hotel would argue that they could get someone in the hotel for the whole night - so why would they sell it to you at a discount for part of a night? Plus a significant cost is really the cleaning and new laundry. The bed still has to be changed, new towels provided, new bathroom amenities and tea/coffee. The room attendant still spends the same time on the room, as does reception staff checking you in and out.

If the hotel had plenty of spare rooms maybe they'd be willing to accept what they could get for the room, but that might not be something they know until much closer to your intended day of arrival (anything can happen, like bad weather meaning an airline wants 300 hotel rooms).

I'm often in the situation you describe.. the options seem to be as follows:

• short term hotels where rooms are in blocks of 4 or 6 hours (Bangkok Airport Box Hotel, or Singapore's Aerotel)
• hotels that allow 24 hour check-in (your 24 hours starts from the time you check in, be that midday or midnight). But these aren't easy to find.
• hotels that allow an extra half day for a discounted rate (Accor does this withsome properties, Bali being an example when I looked last year)
• a very cheap hotel where the nightly rate is low enough that it doesn't matter.
• day use (like many airport Hiltons in the USA) - but while day rates might be cheap, overnight usually is not.

 

[Solid]

Limes Hotel in Brisbane (think it has changed owners now) used to have a deal where if you went to reception after midnight you got a discounted rate if rooms were available.

 

[odysseus]

I say this because I'm looking at a potential trip where I'll land about midnight, and need to be in an office later that morning, and then depart that evening, so all I really need is a bed for a few hours, a shower and a breakfast, but i'll be paying for a room that wont be used anywhere from 2pm to 1am...

Sure... but the demand for customers that only want a room from 2 pm to 1 a.m (in reality it's much less as they need to service and clean it again before the next guest) is undoubtedly very limited.

Plus, as mentioned they need to pay for staff to clean and service the room again - and moreover their cleaning staff work on a roster, and likely have gone at midnight, so that would entail extra staffing and admin, which means extra cost, negating any possible benefit.

They still have the same costs/profitability model if only one person stays there in 24 hours, regardless of how long you stay. Basically, not gonna happen in general, except in limited markets e.g. airports.

 

[Forg]

Plus, as mentioned they need to pay for staff to clean and service the room again - and moreover their cleaning staff work on a roster, and likely have gone at midnight, so that would entail extra staffing and admin, which means extra cost, negating any possible benefit.

This is the thing; it apparently costs a hotel MORE to run an abnormal guest arrival-departure rotation & run twice as many guests through a room, unless they're set-up for it in the first place for some reason. A you say, 2x as much work for 2x the bookings in a 24hr slot, and the cleaning staff are usually only rostered on to handle 1 booking.

So if hotels are offering a discount for arriving late or whatever, that's really a marketing thing, they're taking reduced profits in the hope of getting more customers.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is the thing; it apparently costs a hotel MORE to run an abnormal guest arrival-departure rotation & run twice as many guests through a room, unless they're set-up for it in the first place for some reason.

Many hotels that cater for crew are set up with type of arrangement - they might have 10-15 rooms that are required to be cleaned every 6-8 hours and ready for the next set of crew in a fairly short period of time (one bus load goes out and the same bus brings back a new crew a couple of hours later). But they'd have a well tested system for doing that, probably not the time or resources to be doing other odd rooms as well.

 

[opusman]

Even if you check in at 6am it still means they can't sell the room to someone the night before. I don't really see why any hotel would offer a discount on that basis. The incremental cost of not having to change the sheets and towels wouldn't make a huge difference.

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

The only similar concept is if you have Ambassador status with Marriott where we have My24 and you can actually choose which 24 hr period you want the hotel for. Of limited use more generally but can come in handy for weird overnighter stays.