Technology has helped hotels micromanage all facets of their business from adjusting room rates based on occupancy on a daily basis, to being able to charge mini-bar items immediately upon a guest simply touching those items.
So why is the issue of late check-out such a hassle?
This past weekend I was staying with two friends at the Planet Hollywood hotel in Las Vegas, a 2,500 room property. We’d already had some issues with our reserved room not being available Friday night when we noticed that check-out time was 11 a.m. on Sunday.
Since Saturday night was one of my friends’ birthday celebration, I asked if we could arrange at least a slightly later check out. (Our room was booked on a special Signature Travel Network rate too, which was not highly discount, but which included a free breakfast, and in theory, early check-in/late check-out if available.) The check-in agent told me they wouldn’t know until Saturday night.
Now, weekends in Las Vegas are hotels’ busiest times, although less so in the summer with triple digit temperatures. Sunday nights, except during conventions, are pretty quiet. So I wasn’t particularly concerned, although for whatever reason, the hotel’s phone system was completely overloaded all weekend with approximately 10 minute waits to speak to a human.
So I gave up after being on hold earlier Saturday night, and called at almost 3 a.m. Sunday morning to formally request the extension. After only about five minutes a woman from the front desk came on the the line and said “Sorry, we won’t know about any late check-outs until 7 a.m Call back at 7 a.m.” I said, could we at least get until noon.” “No,” she said, “7 a.m.”
I refrained from pointing out that if I planned to be up at 7 a.m. we wouldn’t need a late checkout, or something less polite. But set an alarm for 10 a.m., waited on hold, and after again about 10 minutes was told “We can give you until 12 noon,” which the agent then agreed to extend until 12:30 p.m. At least my friends could sleep a little later.
Now, I am certainly sympathetic to occupancy issues, and the last thing a hotel needs is angry guests camped out in the lobby waiting for rooms. (Although, in fact, last year for my own birthday celebration at the Ritz Carlton, San Francisco, we had to wait until 6 p.m. for a room that should have been ready by 3 p.m., because the hotel apologetically said they had promised late check-out to the previous occupants.)
As a travel agent, it was easy to check room availability via my laptop. Planet Hollywood had plenty of rooms available at an inexpensive rate Sunday night (a sign they were not close to full). A front-desk agent later confirmed to me they had plenty of rooms.
In this case, why not confirm the request sooner? It also wasn’t as if my room had been booked at a super discounted online or auction rate. I could also see a hotel simply limiting the number of confirmed late check-outs, using any of a number of criteria, but that wasn’t the case either. The night agent said NO late check-outs had been or would be confirmed early.
I’ve had similar issues with other hotels, but none I can remember in such a big property with so many rooms and such an early check-out time. Plus, this wasn’t a situation where, as another property once told me “most of our housekeeping staff goes home at noon.” Planet Hollywood in fact makes a point of stating that they have 24 hour housekeeping.
Adding to this story, we already had to change rooms early on Saturday. In that case, after a number of promises starting at around 11 a.m., our new room wasn’t cleaned and available until almost 4 p.m.
Clearly, this is still an inexact science. But when hotels have their occupancy levels online, it seems like they could make it a great deal easier for guests to confirm a late check-out. Especially when it’s not a huge extension request. (On the other hand, I’ve had to explain to clients more than once that getting a guaranteed 6 p.m., 7 p.m. or later check-out just isn’t realistic without paying for another night, because then that does affect the hotel’s ability to resell the room.)
It also might be just my imagination, but it seems like an increasing number of hotels are moving the traditional noon checkout earlier. (Disney properties have been using 11 a.m. for years, although you can ask for a later time until 1 p.m., preferably at checkin.)
Again, I realize that hotels are facing tough economic times along with the rest of the travel industry, but it seems like there has to be an easier way. As always, suggestions, comments and other stories encouraged.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
I used to work in hotels and it was fairly common to allow late check outs, especially on Sundays, to 2pm (as a business hotel, Sunday nights were rarely full). The biggest issue is the managing of the housekeeping staff–if there are too many late check-outs, there may be inefficiency in the system as housekeepers have to wait for rooms to become available to clean, however in reality this almost never happens.
As a practical matter, I now travel a bit for work and have noticed/experienced the following:
1. I’ve never been turned down for a late check out of no later than 1 hour past the posted check out time. Often, I do not even ask if I need to stay for less than an hour–I’ve never been penalized for doing so.
2. I have almost never been denied a late check out no later than 2pm, one exception was a hotel expecting a huge convention-related check in day and even then the hotel allowed me extra time to leave (I had fallen suddenly ill which might have been food poisioning and really did not want to be far from a toilet).
3. Many hotels offer check out via the in room tv. In this case, it is easy to “check out” but stay in the room for a while if needed–especially if you leave the “do not disturb” sign on the door–housekeeping will often skip that room for the short term, even if it is shown as a “check out” and return a bit later just to make sure the guest has left.
IMHO, the casino hotels in Las Vegas are different from non-casino hotels. I have stayed at several large hotels and never encountered the problems that I have encountered at the casion hotels in Las Vegas. Almost every stay at a casino hotel in Las Vegas, I have received some compensation due to poor service.
This past spring, I had some problems with my room at the Rio and they give me a credit (I didn’t asked for it). At checkout, the credit was in the system but not on my bill…it took the front desk clerk 20 minutes to fix it. I have encountered the same problem at other casino hotels in Vegas. It seems like their software isn’t that good since it takes them forever to post a credit, etc.
I have stayed at four non-casino hotels in Las Vegas. It was a night and day difference. I have stayed at these hotels over ten times and I have not encountered problems and received excellent service during my stays.
I have run into a number of hotels denying late check out requests. In one case I was told that the hotel in question never permitted guests to stay late.
In Moab, I arrived at a hotel that I had requested an early check in of 1pm (which had been confirmed by the manager of the hotel) and ended up cooling my heels until 5pm because they didn’t have my room ready. What made me grumpy is that they checked all sorts of other people in, including one walk up.
I agree with ARW, the casino hotels seem to have all sorts of issues when it comes to their reservation systems. I have both a positive and a negative experience with this and I think it comes down to which casino hotel you are dealing with as to what the outcome will be. In one case they couldn’t figure out how to apply a certificate for one free night, so they comped both nights. In the other case, the front desk accidentally canceled my reservation and then couldn’t restore it at the original rate. I refused to pay the higher rate and when appealing to the FD manager didn’t work, I left and went down the street to a different casino hotel, explained what happened and was offered a rate that was somewhat higher than my original price had been but was much better than what the other casino was going to give me.
whatever happened to the concept of a 24 hour stay, where you check out exactly 24 hours after you check in? I remember reading about that several years ago, though I think it was only in higher end properties.
I just checked out of a hotel that has a check out of 10 AM, something I couldn’t wrap my head around. I always ask for late check out and most times they tell me to call at 7 am and ask the morning staff. So I set my clock for 7 am wake up (defeating the purpose of sleeping in but whatever) and asking, in the most chipper pleasant voice I can muster that early in the morning. At this last place I stayed they said yes and extended our check out to 10:30. Hell I would most likely not make it down to check out until 10:30 anyway.
I would have been less pissed if thy had said no, we can not accommodate your late check out request. A Half an hour is a joke!
The holy grail of late check out was 3:00 pm and that hotel gave us that the night before. I could have jumped across the counter and kissed the woman. I practically dance up to my room after that.