I've been checked in early on a space available in many Hiltons (US and intl). I've never been asked to pay a fee to check in early. For the hotels where i could not check in early, I was allowed to sit in the EL (if available) until the room was ready.

It sounds like it is a policy of the Atlanta Hilton. Different hotels have different policies. The only hotel where I ran into some problems was London Green Park many years ago when I was only Gold. Then I was told that no room was available for early checkin. But if I had reserved a room for the night before i arrived, they would have had a room ready for me. (Green Park is one of my least favorite hotels with fairly poor service, verified again on a recent stay).

The US EL overall have very poor offerings. What you saw at the Atlanta Hilton is typical of what I have seen at several Hiltons in the US.

It's been my experience that if you frequent a hotel enough they may waive the fee. One hotel wanted to charge me the fee so I just waited in the lounge area. My status didn't matter. Sometimes I start work so early that I can be done by 10am or 11am.

I like the lounge access on vacation but could care less about it when I am on business. I'd rather get the extra thousand points. Some lounges are nice and some are blah. Overall, I really like Hiltons. I am sitting in Newark Hilton now.

That's just absurd. I've never encountered it anywhere. I know Hilton is trying to make every dime of revenue they can, but I didn't know they had been reduced to being the kind of place where you rent rooms by the hour. :p

I have never been asked to pay an early check-in fee. Maybe Nor1 (boo, hiss) is involved.

MisterNice

travelinfoo has it right - it is a local policy, and at that will generally vary on factors such as stay type (Priceline, etc. fuhgeddaboudid,) occupancy rate, etc.

In May, OTOH, Hilton Wangfujing Beijing allowed me to check in early with no problem, and an advance visit to Hilton Shanghai the day before I planned to check in an assistant front desk manager greeted me, showed me the lounge and told me to check in there any time after 9:00 AM. Hilton Buenos Aires has done that for me as well, and when occupancy was high allowed me to use the lounge and the shower / bathroom before checking in / after checking out.

Great service orientation, and I am conscious enough about thier business that I will not try to abuse the hospitality if there is an event of high occupancy.

There were several Hilton properties, one being an Embassy Suites Galleria in Atlanta that were caught via hidden cameras not washing glasses or just rinsing them out in dirty tub water. The Atlanta properties fixed this by going all plastic. Pretty nasty huh?

I guess I should be glad that it was disposables in the roomhttp://www.flyertalk.com/redface.gif

I have checked in early on many occasions. Sometimes the room isn't ready and they store my luggage and I go off and do other things. I have never paid an extra fee.

Most recently in May, Hilton Beijing checked me in at 10:30 AM and invited me to breakfast (which was still open to 11AM) in the Exec Lounge (so 2 breakfasts for a one night stay).

Some hotels charge for late checkout too -- though maybe that's more theoretical than actual (for HHonors members, esp. Diamond/Gold, I think you could make a case for waiving it if they tried to enforce it).

Anyhow, would you have preferred that they flat-out deny the possibility of early checkin? It seems that a lot of hotels do that -- they don't necessarily check availability, or they don't even consider trying to accommodate you in some fashion. Instead, they just state categorically: "checkin is at 3 PM." I would actually condemn that behavior a lot more than I would condemn a charge for early checkin. :eek: If I were offered an early checkin for a smallish fee, I might consider paying it! Though first, I might ask if the fee could be waived.

Same thing happened to me at the Hilton Munich (City). I almost felt guilty...was on a 1-night mileage run, and I think my rate was something like 80E/night. Ate 2 full (and I do mean full) breakfasts...

Makes you remember that Hilton is in the hospitality industry, doesn't it?

Every Hilton reservation I've ever made has an indicated check-in and check-out time. Late check-out is a VIP privilege, though even that is based on availability. I've always considered early check-in to be a nice gesture, but I never expect it. I don't think a hotel charging for it at some point (e.g., before 11:00 AM) is "absurd" as one poster put it. I've never encountered it, but quite frankly it seems reasonable to me, I want the room earlier than what was originally offered, so I see no problem in them charging for that.

There are a few what I would consider infamous threads on early hotel check-in:

too early(4:30am) to check in, hotel charged me 1 extra night for the previous night!

Mistreated big time at the Wrightsville Beach Hampton Inn

While those incidents both involved much earlier check-in times than this, they still point to the problem in general that some folks seem to expect that they can check in any time regardless of the "Check-In" time that is indicated when they make their reservation. I think a hotel having an explicit policy with explicit fees for overly early check-ins (e.g., if you're checking in more than four hours before the official check-in time, there is a fee) is a good thing, not a bad thing. Sure it would be nice if it were free, it would also be nice if all hotels had free parking, free breakfast, free internet, free evening beverages, etc., etc., etc.

I've never encountered an early check-in fee. If I'm showing up seriously early (e.g., in the morning after an eastbound TATL), I might approach the front desk to ask...but I would never approach it as an expectation. I've had cases where they've checked me in with no problem at 11AM and I've had other cases where they've told me that no rooms are available. No biggie...

I've never had a situation where they were trying to squeeze cash out of me to get into a clean, ready room early. Admittedly, I'd be annoyed, but if the hotel really doesn't want to deal with me until 3PM I realize they can always simply say "No rooms are clean. Go dump your bags at the concierge desk and come back in 4 hours." So I'm not sure which is worse...

The pet peeve of mine is having to fight for a late checkout of even an hour or two. This happens all the time at almost every hotel where I ask for it. I hate being "that guy" who has to play the DYKWIA card ("I'm Gold/Plat/whatever!") because we all know that hotel statuses are pretty much wallet candy these days. But I feel like I have to announce my status level to the front desk, and then I get 2PM or whatever. It's not like I'm haggling to buy a used Camaro or something... :mad:

I fully understand a charge for an outrageously early check-in, but in this case I was told the assigned room was available at 11 but there would still be a charge. I guess it is revenue enhancement, but the charge, coupled with the Hilton Atlanta not being that special might encourage me to look around next time.