Half-day charge for checking in early to a hotel?
 

I recently made a hotel booking online and added a note saying I would be arriving early (int'l flight) and would appreciate an early check-in if a room is available. I got this response:

Checking in between 6 am and 2 pm on day of check will incur a charge of half of the room rate.

I haven't ever seen this before - is this normal? I'm hoping this is just corporate nonsense and the desk will take pity on me.

Is this a chain hotel, and do you have status? I've had some smaller non-chain places near ICN with similar notices.

It's a smaller chain (Pan Pacific), and I don't have status.

I've seen it at several places around the globe but mainly in Asia.

Do you know if they enforce it?

Usually yes, I've even seen it enforced at higher end places like the Hotel Okura in Tokyo.

Ugh, thanks. What an unpleasant way to be greeted after a redeye.

Half a day seems reasonable, unless you want to wait 8 hours.

That's kind of the point. People getting off of red eyes just want to get to a hotel, shower and either go to sleep or off to work. Why should the hotel give you that for free? I've shown up at a bunch of hotels around noon for a 14:00 check-in and been given my room if it were available for not charge but showing up let us say at 9:30 for a 14:00 check-in is reasonable to be charged.

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Originally Posted by ROCAT



Ugh, thanks. What an unpleasant way to be greeted after a redeye.[/QUOTE]

Seems like a good deal they will have a room ready for you and only charge half price

It's normal. In fact I've seen other hotels where they demand a full day room charge if you check in before noon.

It's by no means unfriendly. It's disclosed and provides a significant value after a long-haul flight. Many places used to require you to book the night before. But, they likely came to realize that they could rent the room the night before and count on some # of early AM checkouts.

I know some places in Japan still do full day solely as offering half day rates on anything makes them seem like a love hotel.

"check-in time is 2pm" is not the same thing as disclosing that there will be a charge for getting into an available room any time before 2pm, which they did not mention in the booking process or confirmation email. I don't begrudge the hotel for maximizing revenue, but any deviation from common practice creates unpleasant surprises, unless there is adequate notification.

You're right. But if you read most of the replies to you, this is *not* a deviation from common practice. It's standard.

Further, you said that when you made the booking they told you "Checking in between 6 am and 2 pm on day of check will incur a charge of half of the room rate." No surprise. They told you.