An alternative if you LEAVING real early in the morning is to take a chance, take a ticket and enter the lot, and when you leave either Pay the guy at the booth or more likely than not, it will not be staffed and you can just leave for free. I've done this at so many hotels in all the chains. The golden rule seems to be that most places are not staffed before 6 AM and I usually leave for work before 6 AM.. I'll bet I have a >50% success rate on this method. In the end, the most I pay is the rate I'd have to pay if I told them at check in I had a car