Originally Posted by
jebr
Many of them are okay, especially for a night or two. Early check-in or late check-out could still be valuable, even if they're not destination properties. Lots of weddings are mid-afternoon, and being able to check in and change before the ceremony (if you're traveling in that day for it) is a definite benefit. Or maybe you have a late afternoon flight and would like to freshen up or pack up at 2 PM instead of being kicked out at noon.
If Wyndham could consistently offer some sort of guaranteed early check-in/late check-out benefit, that'd be valuable even at lower end hotels.
Not sure I agree with "stick to Comfort Inns," but agreed that they currently have the better program. They're much more aggressive lately with promotions for points earning, and their more granular points chart leads to some better redemption options.
These low end Wyndham Travelodge and other junk properties aren't set up to handle late check out or early check in. They are running on skeleton crews (often times the family running the place is doing everything) who are on duty all day and all night and they cannot afford to have a bunch of unpredictable late check out and early check in transactions and get things turned around for the next night, along with fitting personal errands into that mix. The last thing these properties want to worry about or hear about is "Guaranteed Reward Benefits." For properties that want to provide a gesture of good service to a customer, they are free to offer late check in or early check out to any customer they please. The nature of these low end properties is that they cannot really do "Guaranteed Benefits" because Wyndham has such limited operational control over the properties (literally none). Same reason Best Westerns don't do any "Guaranteed Benefits" though they sure seem to hold properties to a higher standard on condition than Days Inn, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Ramada, etc. junk properties do.