Originally Posted by
greg99
It's the same thing even if you arrive at 1pm. As you say, unless you're lucky, you're not going to get your room for at least a couple of hours, so you check your bags with the bell desk and take advantage of the pool, the bar and the beach. I assume that if you were to arrive early AM you just get breakfast before going to the pool.
That's not really the same thing at all. If I arrive at 1pm, by the time I get my bags and uber/taxi/rental car to the hotel, it is definitely check in time. And a daytime flight, in my experience - is a heck of a lot different than a red-eye for most people especially in economy.
If I arrive at 5am (like the Vegas flight) - I'm groggy (it is not a fun flight - I've done it a few times) - you'd get to Waikiki by 6:30am, you have no shower - you are tired - after you change in a public bathroom and have breakfast (a lot of people don't have breakfast) it's still 8am - so I groggy it out until 10am for the pool - get sunburned off the charts - finally get drinks at 11am when the bar opens - and eventually get into my at 3pm checkin. Then, I'm so exhausted, I can't even rally for evening number 1.
I just don't see a market for that for tourists. Sure, some will do it - once. Fewer, twice or more.
I just don't see a bunch of people leaving at 3am (LAX/SFO) or 1am (EWR) to land at 5am. I don't see the mass market appeal at all. I think Oscar was either mis-quoted or meant something else.