[Henryp1]

I always book from the previous night, the effort of asking and expecting a positive answer is not worth the potential stress of sitting around after a long flight. I want to go from the airport to the hotel and have my comfort ASAP.

Depending on the flight I may arrive into Sydney just after 5am, and no amount of free coffee, breakfast or sitting in the lounge would entice me to save on one nights stay. I believe my comfort, health and overall travel justify this. But accept that some travellers may be happy to sit around for a few hours until they can access a room. It’s also good practice to have the reservation noted that the arrival time would be early morning and not the previous day. If the hotel is providing the ground transfers it’s already noted on the reservation.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=946819]Hi Martin

the way i see it, anything before the standard check in time (depending on hotel, 12-3pm) will not secure a room regardless of status and relationship. If you value sleep over saving a nights rate then you’d have to simply fork out the extra night. I have done that a lot of times even when i knew i would arrive at the hotel before 10am just to make sure i have a room to shower, rest/sleep after a flight. It’s not worth the saving in my opinion.

I will try to push my luck come 11am but that hardly ever happens with travel these days. Due to status i’d love to think that i get priority but that’s not always the case. most hotel housekeeping doesn’t start making rooms before 9am hence it’s unlikely that rooms are available if you don’t have a secured booking for the night before.

[/quote]

I would say there is a big difference between trying to check in early at 9am or 11am (in my experience places will try and accommodate free of charge as soon as they are able) and expecting a room from 1am free of charge (which I would say is unrealistic).

[canucklad]

I rocked up to the Auberge in Discovery Bay after an early morning arrival into HKG.

Told them that I knew we were early and politely asked when we should come back to check-in , and when the pool was open, and playing the ignorance card asked for recommendations to do in DB until the pool opened

The manager was very helpful, told us that the pool wasn’t open until next month and took my mobile number, and then our luggage
Said he would text when a room was ready. A wander to the plaza , a coffee and a couple of Tsing Tao’s later and the ping came through.

Great service , in the room for 10

As an aside, I wonder if hotels are missing a trick here. More annoying for me, isn’t so much lack of early check-ins , but lack of facilities for late check-outs or rather late departures, especially in hot muggy cities like Hong Kong that have flights departing 24/7

[MartynSinclair]

Thank you all for your responses, thoughts and suggestions. Just to reiterate, I was never expecting to enjoy a gratis room, I was hoping for a rate, that reflected the rooms use – especially bearing in mind I was paying for a further 4 nights at the 100% rate.

Also, the reservation was made very late and I know every room category of the 200 room hotel was available, but not all the published room rates were available. I am absolutely certain, the hotel will be no more than 60% full during the period of my visit – hence one of the reasons I booked.

In response to a few comments.

Capetonianm – There are certain types of hotels that rent rooms by the hour, but other than Yotel type airport hotels, I’m not sure that this is a discussion for a business travel forum!

I have never tried a capsule style hotel by the hour (yet) but would certainly consider using if they had been available, but only when travelling solo. I am +1 on this trip & do not think a capsule hotel would have been diplomatically suitable for even 1 night. I would consider using such a hotel, for business or pleasure.

Re holding a room – yes I agree if the hotel was full, why should the hotel take 1 room out of circulation, just because I am turning up towards the end of a charging period. My answer is, better for an empty room to gain some revenue than none at all. If the hotel was 90% full and there was a likelihood of foot traffic, I would agree. But when the hotel is 60% full and there is no other way to get there other than a car/taxi, its very likely the rooms will remain non revenue generating.

Canucklad – I did some dummy bookings on the hotel website and there were some ‘special’ rates, but non that stood out. I also went on lastminute.com as well as expedia and others. Shocked to see those rates were nearly double what I was paying for the other 4 nights!!

EU-Flyer – yes I looked art an airport hotel or an on the route hotels but the savings would not have really been worth it.

The other interesting solution I found, were the growing number of website offering rooms in blocks of 3, 6, 9 and 12 hours. Some sites gave a time bar which you could move, others would only start at 7am. This would have worked had I found a hotel offering the block to start at 1 am. The slightly annoying part (very annoying) was the very hotel I was staying at, does apparently sell rooms based on block hours, but none were available.

The end result – the hotel have confirmed they have found a solution. A special rate for the extra night which equates to 60% of the room rate for the other nights. Whilst some of you may agree and others wont, I think this is a very fair solution.

2 users thanked author for this post.

EU_Flyer, w8ster

[cwoodward]

I have found the below web site useful on occasion.
https://www.dayrooms.com/en/

It offers day and part day rates however I have only ever used the sight as an information source and then contacted the hotel directly.
On all of the few times that I have used the site the hotel rate has been both better and more flexible.

1 user thanked author for this post.

GivingupBA

[canucklad]

[quote quote=947022]The end result – the hotel have confirmed they have found a solution. A special rate for the extra night which equates to 60% of the room rate for the other nights. Whilst some of you may agree and others wont, I think this is a very fair solution.[/quote]

Good to hear common sense and compromise prevailed Martyn
Less computer thinking and more human thinking I suspect.

2 users thanked author for this post.

EU_Flyer, MartynSinclair

[The Bed and Breakfast Directory]

We have a standard procedure in this case. You will definitely be charged for holding a room as it would stay vacant for that period of time. So, they are just following the protocols.

[EU_Flyer]

[quote quote=947022]The end result – the hotel have confirmed they have found a solution. A special rate for the extra night which equates to 60% of the room rate for the other nights. Whilst some of you may agree and others wont, I think this is a very fair solution.[/quote]

Nice one. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. It’s nice to see hotels being open minded about satisfying their customers.

[MarcusGB]

Would you consider taking the airport hotel for a few hours as you arrive?
I appreciate this can be difficult if airside, as you would not collect your hold baggage.
I have elected for this, just to give me night hours rest, and not be in that situation. I do like the Yotel / Mercure, often use these airside at AMS if i have an early connection next day. (Quite strange being airside overnight and wandering around the airport!)

I do not think that anything more reasonable can be offered than a 9am check in, even if you pay for a half day. It is worth asking ahead directly to the hotel.
It may well be subject to availability either way.

The Accor Novotel overall at BKK Airport, public side, Is is one of the highest standard airport Hotels (more 5 *, facilities superb.)
I always plan for a 24 hrs stay arriving in, and prior again to leaving.
However, it operates as a 24 hr booked hotel, you just need to advise time of arrival.
If only we had more of these at all major hubs.

[K1ngston]

I always book the night before I am arriving into a destination early, I understand the restrictions that hotels have when guests have not checked out even with my status, its a numbers game for them.

What has happened on more than one occasion is having booked the night before I arrive into the same hotel they have decided not to charge me if the hotel has rooms for me to get into, this has secured my long term business and was a complete and thoroughly welcomed surprise.

1 user thanked author for this post.

AFlyingDutchman

[LuganoPirate]

Frustrating Martyn but I’m afraid you’ll have to cough up for the whole night, as, as others have said, they are keeping the room for you.
I once arrived at a hotel at 11pm and left at 5 am, 6 hours later, but still had to pay the full rate. In these sort of circumstances, unless staying more than 1 night, I tend to book a budget hotel just for a bed and bathroom.

[IanFromHKG]

For me the key issue here is the inflexibility of hotels in deciding that they want to have a standardised check-in/check-out time regardless of the travel patterns of their customers. While I do understand the drivers behind this, I think there is also a case to be made for dynamic timing. Like capetonianm, I frequently used to arrive in hotels in India in the wee small hours (that being when flights arrived) and ended up having to pay (or rather my employers or clients having to pay) for an extra nights’ accommodation.

The arguments made by several posters that the room has to be kept empty overnight doesn’t really hold water when you think that a hotel such as this could offer, say, “19-hour” rates. For example, that would permit a 2am check-in and 9pm check-out (which was pretty much my pattern in India – arrive wee small hours, get back after meetings just in time to shower and change into travel clothes and head back to the airport). That leaves plenty of time to service the room, and to make it ready for the next arrival, and would suit the travel patterns of their customers, many of whom would have been following the same sort of timetable as me.

I have read about, and downloaded (but as yet haven’t used) an app called “Pay As You Stay” which is a booking app allowing just such dynamic timing. If anyone has used it, or anything similar, please let us have some feedback on how it has worked.

[canucklad]

[quote quote=948417]I think there is also a case to be made for dynamic timing.[/quote]

And Hong Kong would be the perfect city to adopt this approach, for the points I made earlier.

[st1969]

Is it just me? If one arrives at a hotel at 1am (which, let’s face it, is ‘late at night’ rather than ‘early in the morning’) then why would one NOT expect to pay?

I’m quite astonished that a frequent business traveller considers that blocking a hotel room from sale for their 1am arrival merits a discount on the basis that it’s less than a night’s stay.

The hotel cannot sell the room to anyone else, and they are keeping it for that person, so of course the person should pay the same rate as anyone else who has blocked a room from sale so that they can use it.

There’s an element of ‘Do you know who I am?’ added to the whole situation, when loyalty cards and personal relationships are flashed in order to get a better deal. If that works, why not go for it – but seriously, when the olives disappear from the salad, don’t complain. Simply remember that cost-cutting by service providers is also, in part, a reaction to penny-pinching from customers.

[BPP]

To add to MarcusGB.
I have used the Novotel BKK on numerous occasions inbound and outbound. It’s a great hotel and the 24 hr system works well.
As Marcus says – just get your timing right AND let them know!!
BPP

1 user thanked author for this post.

MarcusGB

[Author]

Posts