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It is 10 am and the front desk attendant started heading to my room at E.Gwada Hostel in Guadeloupe. She was in search of my key for their 10 am checkout.
(I was already in the lobby because they can’t be bothered to have a router that extends coverage to the room next to the lobby, or a curtain that extends coverage over the room window. The private rooms are next to the shared bathroom and shower, and the rooster lurks outside – only stay here if, like me, you need a last-minute cheap room during French holiday season, which seems to be year-round).
I have recently had a string of hotels with early checkout from the Bahamas to Norway. Nassau’s Comfort Suites Paradise Island is 11 am, doesn’t mention that at check-in, and wants $40 for checkout between 11-2. Norway’s Spitsbergen Hotel is also 11 am (I was walked there due to renovations at the Radisson Blu).
My earliest ever checkout time was 7:30 am at the Megapode Nest Tourist Complex in India’s Andaman Islands. A rate for 9:30 am checkout was agreed by phone on their urgent 7:30 am calls, and a staff was sent to my door to collect the money in case I ran off at 8 am.
I assume the reason for this is to save cost on housekeeping. Early checkout provides more regular work hours to service rooms. I don’t see any of these hotels offering earlier checkout than others.
Perhaps what I like even less than the early checkout times is that these hotels rarely make any effort to call this out when booking or at check-in. Customers go in expecting noon and if hotels are going to impose on guests in this way, they should come clean.
Readers, what is your biggest hotel annoyance?
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[…] and merits its own best. I was reading over on Rapid Travel Chai the other day where he shared his biggest hotel annoyance. His was checkout times before noon – and shared a story of having a 7:30 a.m. checkout time […]
A Weird Old Trick (Front Desks Hate Him!) that’s always worked for me is to order breakfast up to the room an hour or so before checkout time and then call the front desk asking for time to eat it. Sure, it costs a little, but I’ve never been turned down.
@pointster – I love it!
10am check out is pretty standard in hostel. A lot of business hotels in Japan also ask to check out at 10am.
Yes, the inconveniences caused by housekeeping schedules drive me batty. I usually take advantage of late check out for elites. However, my biggest irritation is on multi-day stays at hotels where if you have the “Do Not Disturb” out at any point in the morning, housekeeping spots it and marks off your room for not getting cleaned at all that day.
Similarly annoying are the housekeeping staff who ignore the DND sign and require a signed, notarized affidavit acknowledging that you will not get service that day…
I thought the international standard was 10-11AM unless you book in upscale chain hotels.
I actually seem to get 11am more often than I see noon check-out, so always assume that is standard. Most days, I’m out by 8am anyway so if I know it’s later than that, I’m in the habit of checking just because it’s so unusual for me. Good reminder!
Late check-in times. I despise arriving in a foreign country, especially after an overnight, and discovering that it’s too early to check in. At least with a check out you’ve had a night’s sleep and can usually store your bags if needed.
I ran into an unusual early checkout at the Extended Stay in Braintree, MA. I assumed this was negotiable but it was not the normal, OK we can let you…
I was told I would have to pay the hourly wages for the two housekeepers for the extra time they needed to wait for me. I had an early interview.
I would say I won the battle; I paid up and have been in the area for many short stays totalling 100+ nights but never at the Extended Stay.
Over the weekend I was at a class fieldtrip with my kid at a Quality Inn. I dropped my kid off at her workshop at 8:00am and I went back to the hotel to relax. At 10:00am, they called my room (!) asking when was I going to check out. I figured the same thing as you (they needed to get in and clean) but it was an annoyance (check out time was 11).
crap hotels = crap checkout times you will never encounter this sort of nonsense at 5 star properties. you pay for what you get
Where’s the confusion? 10AM checkout is listed on their site:
http://www.e-gwada.net/en/faq/
At what time is the…?
Check-In: From 3 p.m.
Check-Out: Before 10 a.m.
@lopere – yes, I am not in the habit of checking that and need to be. So much is standardized at noon I usually treat it as one less detail to worry about, now with this string of tourist area hotels it keeps popping up. Interestingly, they wouldn’t come up with a rate to check out later, it wasn’t clear if they had an incoming booking. Anyway, the point is not so much confusion as the annoyance however well it is communicated.
I get annoyed when they can’t provide me a room that accommodates my ten friends, a giraffe, and a helipad for a former American Idol.