(I've had housekeepers working as late as 8:00 p.m., an 11-hour day. Even if we're not particularly busy, once it's time for the housekeepers go home for the day, if that room hasn't been cleaned, we can't rent it again that night, so we lose a night's revenue on it. if that's the hotel's check-in time) is the drop-dead, 'turn into a pumpkin', witching hour. But no matter how lenient we want to be with anyone, mid-afternoon (3:00 p.m. Some (including mine) will give you so much extra time for the asking, some will let you stay into mid-afternoon for an extra twenty to fifty bucks, others will bill you for another night if you overstay check-out by five minutes.Īs to leniency toward guests who've stayed several days, maybe a week or two, yes, we're more inclined to go along if someone has spent a lot of money, has otherwise been a good guest, and can be counted upon for lots of revenue in the future. If you're a bona-fide guest from out of town and it takes you an extra 45 minutes to an hour after check-out to get it together and be on your way, the first time, we might talk to you but even with guests from out of town, the kind of people that we do see ourselves as here to serve those who are persistently bad about overstaying check-out get charged for an extra night at some point and ultimately, if they don't get the message (or complain or argue with us about the charge), be permanently banned as well.Įvery hotel sets its own rules on late check-out fees. It's not a problem at every property, need not be a problem at any property, and would over time stop being a problem at the two in which I encountered that particular difficulty, once word got around among the local residents (who will be the most persistent offenders if you let them get away with it at all) that, if you do it here just once, you never get a room here again. I've had properties - cheaper motels - where this was a daily ritual with a half dozen or so rooms - and where at least twice a week, we'd have to summon police to extricate and eject a guest who would not be moved by anything short of a visit by cops who would stand there until the late-departing guest gathered his things and went. Then if we haven't heard from you, and the housekeepers inform us that you're still in the room, we'll give you a polite call, hoping to ascertain your intentions.įifteen to twenty minutes later, if you still haven't either vacated or come around to pay for another night, someone will knock on the door with an agenda that's a bit more assertive and less open to negotiation - all the more so if you ignore the knock on the door, or blow off the person who's knocking, as we've seen some people do. If you overstay by an hour or so, you might not have anyone notice, but don't count on it: one of the day shift clerk's jobs is to notice, as check-out time approaches, which rooms are still 'due out.' When check-out time rolls around, I and the clerks that I employ or train, will give you an extra twenty minutes or so to play with, just to 'go the extra mile' and prevent friction or misunderstandings. Continuing to occupy the room until 5pm or so, after all the housekeepers have gone home, until your mother wires you some money from Florida - if she chooses to do so - is not reasonable, as we never could explain to one college-age guest from hell at one of our properties, who was traveling around the country on Mom's credit cards and Mom's demands that she be allowed to pay for another night for him by phone - if she returned our calls at all. (Your request does have to be reasonable. If you call first and ask for extra time, we can accommodate you if your request, the extra time you need, is reasonable the housekeepers can plan around that contingency, and everyone is happy. On a typical day at a typical hotel (and few days, or hotels, are typical), there are four housekeepers, they have some 40-45 rooms to do, and they can't be standing around one waiting for the occupant to leave so they can make that room before moving on to another floor. They can't make the room for the next guest until the previous occupant is gone. If the housekeepers encounter issues with being assigned to clean still-occupied rooms, without knowing the intentions of the occupant (Is he going to pay for another night and stay over ? Does she just need an extra hour? Can they be counted upon to do what they say they're going to do - especially after having agreed in writing to what time check-out is, and after already having failed to honor that agreement?), it throws their work flow out of sync. If you overstay check-out, and we don't know about it ahead of time, you drive everyone nuts.
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