Originally Posted by
Herb687
At which time a new key can be made quite easily.
I've had plenty of times when a hotel room key stopped working anyway despite having late checkout approved in advance.
Definitely.
I will do that after the fact. MR can do its educating after I have left the hotel at 4pm! They don't need to retrain their staff on my time.
If I need to stay in my room until 4pm (or some other late checkout time after normal checkout and before 1600), chances are I don't have time to argue with FD clerks or MR phone people that morning.
Tell. Don't ask. You can sort it out and educate hotel staff later.
I think RogerD's post was in reply to one implying that you haven't necessarily been "approved" for 4PM. Yes, "telling" not "asking" should help but there could still be properties that say no. Technically the guest would be in the right (unless it's a resort or convention hotel), but at best you're probably going to waste a bunch of time arguing about it if you leave the room and come back to find they've removed your stuff.