Early Departure Fee on a One-Night Hotel Stay?

[AFF Editor]

Early Departure Fee on a One-Night Hotel Stay? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Early Departure Fee on a One-Night Hotel Stay?

Many hotels charge an "early departure fee" to guests who check out before the date originally booked. This fee doesn't always make sense.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[Lynda2475]

Interesting, I would not have expected to ever pay an early departure fee on a 1 night stay, just forgo that nights fee.

I am looking for a day hotel at LAX for later this year, there is only 1 option which is Hilton but you only get the room til 5pm and as I wont arrive until 1pm, was hoping to have it til 7pm when I could head to the first lounge. I had assumed (possibly incorrectly) I could just burn some IHG points for 1 night at an IHG property but check-out early at no further cost. Will need to call to find out I guess.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Interesting, I would not have expected to ever pay an early departure fee on a 1 night stay, just forgo that nights fee.

I am looking for a day hotel at LAX for later this year, there is only 1 option which is Hilton but you only get the room til 5pm and as I wont arrive until 1pm, was hoping to have it til 7pm when I could head to the first lounge. I had assumed (possibly incorrectly) I could just burn some IHG points for 1 night at an IHG property but check-out early at no further cost. Will need to call to find out I guess.

The Hilton LAX? I called them cause I’m also on the 9pm departure. They said they charge $20 per additional hour. I’ve checked a couple dates for the LAX Hilton… their day rate is 9am to 6pm (bookable online). Plus an additional hour should bring it to around USD139, plus tax of course.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Early Departure Fee on a One-Night Hotel Stay? is an article written by AFF editorial staff:

Early Departure Fee on a One-Night Hotel Stay?

Many hotels charge an "early departure fee" to guests who check out before the date originally booked. This fee doesn't always make sense.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

Looking at the terms and conditions posted in the article it says the early checkout fee will only be added to your bill if they are applicable to your stay.

Presumably for a one night stay the early fee won’t be applicable! Only for multiple night stay where you leave early?

My take is that this is just a boilerplate clause which appears regardless of the length of stay.

 

[dajop]

From what I've read in the US, where contactless checkout is the norm, and room servicing is often less than daily, if the early checkout fee is going to result in higher payment (for example you have a five night stay booked for $150/night and you want to check out after four nights, but the early checkout fee is $250) you simply leave you roomkey in the room and call the hotel on the morning you want to check out asking could they check you out remotely ...

 

[Lynda2475]

The Hilton LAX? I called them cause I’m also on the 9pm departure. They said they charge $20 per additional hour. I’ve checked a couple dates for the LAX Hilton… their day rate is 9am to 6pm (bookable online). Plus an additional hour should bring it to around USD139, plus tax of course.

Online says til 5pm for about USD$160 including tax (hence why burning some IHG points on another property would be cheaper). As my flight departs at 11:40pm, I don't think I can check in until ~4hours before. But I guess there may be lines or may get lucky with earlier bag drop given there are earlier QF flights.

 

[serfty]

Online says til 5pm for about USD$160 including tax (hence why burning some IHG points on another property would be cheaper). As my flight departs at 11:40pm, I don't think I can check in until ~4hours before. But I guess there may be lines or may get lucky with earlier bag drop given there are earlier QF flights.

At LAX, Qantas afternoon check in opens for all Qantas flights to Oz sometime between 3pm and 5pm (depending on the status of Daylight savings of the respective states). I have never had a problem checking it more than three hours before my flight. (Since I basically do not check luggage I am not sure if there is a checked baggage curfew.)

Back in November, I was even able to successfully OLCI, so did not need to worry about this at all.

 

[Lynda2475]

I will be able to OLCI its just I will have at least 2 checked bags, hence why looking for a hotel for a nap as I fly in about midday, and my understanding is LAX doesnt allow bag drop > 4 hours from flight.

 

[justinbrett]

From what I've read in the US, where contactless checkout is the norm, and room servicing is often less than daily, if the early checkout fee is going to result in higher payment (for example you have a five night stay booked for $150/night and you want to check out after four nights, but the early checkout fee is $250) you simply leave you roomkey in the room and call the hotel on the morning you want to check out asking could they check you out remotely ...

There's a few unnecessary steps there.

There's no requirement to check out at all in most US chain hotels.

If their system doesn't have your check out registered, house keeping will knock on your door, they'll enter if no answer - and if it's obvious the person has left, you will be checked out.

There's a couple of times I've counted on using the Hilton app to check out, but forgot to do so, tried it on the road and got the "step by the front desk so we can check a few things". Just ignored it and was checked out anyway. I have since checked with Hilton and they said the same - you can just leave, they won't charge you for not checking out.

And you don't even need to leave the roomkey.

 

[dajop]

There's a few unnecessary steps there.

Good to know, even better.

So all you need to do is leave and not tell anyone that you are checking out early (unless it saves you $$$) , then you don't incur potential early departure fees.

 

[JohnK]

I've departed early many times. I have never been charged an "early" departure fee.

I have also been known at times to leave keys inside room and leave early.

 

[CaptJCool]

early departure fees,
next thing you know there;ll be a late arrival fee....

 

[p--and--t]

What next, a charge for using the bed during your stay?

I would like to know in advance of any hotel with this policy and black list them

I totally understand being charged for the day you left or if after checkout time an additional day but absolutely not a fee larger than the daily rate. Thats pure unjustified extortion for services not provided.

 

[CaptJCool]

Sounds like the hidden ticket pricing
Fly less, pay more
Fly more, pay less

Paying less for more services

 

[dajop]

There’s a case on FT where someone had a 5 day stay booked at an Aspen (IIRC) , checked out a day early and got the whole trip repriced at the rate the were selling at the time for four nights and got a hefty slug.

 

[bullerdude]

Seems absurd to change a one night fee to an early departure fee… if you go for one night you should be little time as you need up to the limit of the stay. At the end of the day, you booked for the night and paid so what time you leave should be irrelevant.

Agree app based checkout for Hilton works super well in these cases.

 

[CaptJCool]

early departure fees,
next thing you know there;ll be a late arrival fee....

I spoke too soon

And there is early Check-in fees $

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I spoke too soon

And there is early Check-in fees $

Early check in fees I ‘get’.

What i’m not so ‘on board’ with is the creep in hotel timings.

In Australia many hotels and packages now offer a ‘super late’ checkout of … ‘11am’, so you can ‘fully enjoy your morning’. Err… no, it always used to be midday! And if ‘super late’ is 11am, what’s the regular time?

Checkin times have now moved to 3pm, used to be you could turn up around 1.

Don’t mind paying an early check in fee if arriving at 8am on an early flight. Worth its weight in gold!

 

[jb747]

Really quite simple isn't it. By enhancing the check-in and out times, there's more opportunity to charge fees for things that used to be normal. MBAs are doing their thing for hotels as well as airlines.

 

[dajop]

Seems absurd to change a one night fee to an early departure fee… if you go for one night you should be little time as you need up to the limit of the stay. At the end of the day, you booked for the night and paid so what time you leave should be irrelevant.

Agree app based checkout for Hilton works super well in these cases.

As mentioned by @MEL_Traveller in an earlier post this is probably just a boilerplate clause - the programming hasn’t been done to not show the clause for one night stays. I’ve not read about people being charged the fee when they check out before midnight on one night stays or indeed on multi night stays once they pass checkout time the day before they are due to depart.