Depends on the hotel chain. I mostly stay in Hiltons and Marriotts lately, and they offer it; I’m not sure if smaller or more budget-oriented chains have that sort of setup on their TVs yet.
If the TV turns on (boots up) to a custom page for the hotel or chain, they probably have TV checkout. If it just turns on to cable or something, they probably don’t.
I always check out and get a look at my receipt in case there are any funky charges on it that I can dispute right then and there
That originates from something that happened to us years ago. I always request a late check out I rarely need it but I like the buffer. I only take one if its free.
One time the desk clerk extended our check out from 11am to 1pm and said there was no charge for that. We checked out at 11:45 and they charged us $50 for late check out. Then they insisted that the desk clerk had no authority to authorize a free late check out. I had to argue for 20 minutes to get the charge removed.
That only happened once and over 20 years ago but I still check out to this day.
I just remembered why I habitually check out at the front desk. I’ve been retired for about 10 years, but for 33 years before that, if I wanted to be reimbursed for my expenses, my employer required a ‘zero balance’ receipt that showed I had actually paid. The easiest way to do that is to stop at the front desk. The practice may have changed in the last decade, or there may be other ways to get a ‘zero balance’ receipt, but I no longer care.
That was my experience with filing expense reports fur many years, too. That paper which they’d slide under your door at 3am didn’t show that the balance had been paid, and my employers’ travel and expense people wouldn’t accept it.
IMHO, if there is an app or a way to check out via the TV that counts as checking out.
After I got burned once 28 years ago, I always checked out to make sure that there weren’t any incidentals added.
The last time I stayed in a hotel in the US, it had the option of checking out via the TV and the receipt was emailed.
No, you can still check out in person, and get a zero balance receipt. I was staying at a hotel a few weeks ago, checked out in person, asked for a zero balance receipt, and was provided one, no problem.
I like to make sure that there are no surprise charges. In my recent visit, I knew there would be the room charges, taxes, and parking fees. There were only those indicated on the receipt, so I was fine. But I did not want to see, for example, bar/restaurant charges when I had used my debit card in the bar for those. Besides, checking out in person allows me to thank the staff for what is usually a very pleasant stay.
Slightly different question but would there be any negative consequence to:
Quite often, I’ll have like, a flight at 2 or the next hotel checking in at 3 and the hotel room being the most comfortable place to hang out before then. I’m fine not having a guaranteed expectation of using the room for any time after 10am but to still use it until the very last second.
In my mind, this makes sense and is harmless but wanted to confirm with hotel people if they would have any problems with it?
I generally just blast off. Hadn’t thought about the “courtesy” aspect, so I’ll have to reconsider.
Me neither. Haven’t stayed in a hotel in 15 years, and had never heard of TV checkout. Glad someone else asked the question.
Back in the days when I still played acoustic guitar, I’d make guitar picks out of them. I had a special punch that worked just like a huge paper punch and would punch out pick-shaped bits from any credit card or key card.
I always tried to find a feature in the card’s design that would look cool on the pick as I positioned the punch.
And they were pretty darned good guitar picks as far as I was concerned.
I check out at the front desk of hotels when I leave. I think I have used the tv checkout method maybe once or twice, but these days I usually connect a streaming device to the HDMI port and don’t actually see the hotel menu on the tv, so I don’t know how many places I stayed in recently had that option. Since I tend to stay at hotels from different brands, I definitely do not have an app that I would use to check out. I know that you could leave key card in the room, but I feel that it adds work to the house keeping staff as they are likely the ones to collect them, so prefer to leave it at the front desk.
I am not a hotel person, but if they have a “business center” I think that would be where I would do that instead.
//i\\
I travel frequently, and occasionally I’ll have an unexpected need to go back to the room at the last minute (forgot something, return to the room’s bathroom, etc.), even once after I’d already left the hotel that morning. Lowest risk from a business travel standpoint is to keep the card until I’m well out of range of returning to the room, at which case it’s too late to give it back. At most, I’ll drop it off in a drop-box at the front desk on the way to the car, since the odds are pretty small I’ll need it after that (although it has happened). If I leave it in the room before coming down, I run the risk of needing to return to the room during/after eating a quick breakfast in the free breakfast area, having a line at the front desk delaying me needing to get a new card, etc.
For sure this has changed tremendously since we all were kids. If you’re not a frequent hotel user now, your gut and experience from 1995 or even 2015 isn’t real relevant to current practice.
Key cards:
Key cards are both reusable and disposable. They’ll never know or care if you take yours. But all else equal, it’s nice to leave it behind, whether in the room, on the front desk, or in a drop box, secure or otherwise.
The key only contains a code number and a drop dead time. If someone came by behind you and grabbed your key from the front desk counter, there’s nothing useful they could do with it unless a) they knew which room you came from, and b) they did their dirty work before checkout time. Anyone who has access to the computer to decode which room that key went to also has the access to make a fresh key for themselves.
So worrying about the physical security of the key after you’re done with it is just silly.
As to checkout w the staff:
I’ll stop by the desk on the way out and drop my keys. In the box or on their recessed desk, not on the countertop. I’ll talk to the clerk if there’s no line. My usual habit is to eat breakfast immediately before leaving and I’d like to ensure that charge did get onto my bill. But I sure won’t wait in line to do that. And nowadays I feel silly even doing that much.
Like every business everywhere, they are using whatever tech they can to reduce touch labor. And that includes front desk people. Which means, as somebody said upthread, the only people talking to the front desk are either people with complicated issues, or people who don’t know how to play this game. Or at least not how to play the current version of this game. As a result, the typical front desk clerk interaction takes several minutes. And they have very few clerks. So any wait in that line will be interminable. And probably a stupid decision on your part.
As to housekeeping:
If I happen to pass the maid in the hallway I’ll interrupt them long enough to say “I’m out of room 321”. That seems polite, minimizing the likelihood that poor frazzled underpaid person is left waiting until time X then saddled with too many rooms and too little time. It’s a courtesy to the worker, not to the giant corporation.
Story time:
When I was working, things were a bit different. The company reserved and paid for the rooms, but we were responsible for any incidentals. Walking out on a room charge led to hassle for the company and contributed to desk clerk hostility to all your identically-dressed interchangeable cog-like coworkers who’d be staying there every night for years. Meanwhile, if you used your hotel affiliated credit card for incidentals, and attached your hotel frequent-stayer number to your stay, you got some spifs for that.
So putting your card and loyalty number against your room at check-in was routine. As was ensuring your incidental bill was correct and settled on the way back out. I’m still breaking that second habit now that I’m retired. They’ll get my charges straight enough for my purposes. And theirs.
ETA: Ref @puzzlegal just below. All the above applies to modern corporate hotels pretty much world wide. But does not apply, as she said, to Mom’n’Pops, one-off boutique places, B&Bs, etc.
They cost more than you’d expect, like a dollar apiece to replace. When a friend organized the rentals of a few hundred rooms at the same hotel, she told us the hotel really wanted them back.
I went to an international event this summer at a non-chain hotel in Italy, and the organizer was really pissed by the number of people who didn’t check out. This hotel charged when you checked out, and the organizer got stuck with the bill (less the deposit) of dozens of guests. She had to chase after them. I pointed out that Americans are accustomed to being able to just walk away. She pointed out that these are all Americans who travel internationally, and they should know better. We all had to check out from our Japanese hotel last year, for instance.
If you aren’t sure, you should check out. Also, sometimes there’s an error in the bill. That hotel messed up my meal charges, for instance.
This is what i usually do in the US. Especially if they slipped a receipt under the door, or emailed one, or posted it in the app and everything looks right. I think it’s safe to assume that if they gave you a receipt, it’s okay to walk away.
Aa a long-time night auditor, it’s nice when you let us know, but we’re used to people not.
Personally I think you should always check your charges before you check out because mistakes do happen. Sometimes they should have been caught. Sometimes we don’t know.
For example, Bob Smith is in 123. He scribbles down 231 on his bar bill because he remembers the numbers, bjt not the order. Should have been caught by the server when closing the check but was not.
Jim Miller scribbles down 345 when he is in 543. 345 is under Robert Long. This is caught - can’t be fixed - because 543 is under his wife’s name, Susan Jones. So the server caught it but no Jim Miller is registered so they leave it under 345 because maybe he is staying there but not registered.
We like the cards back but if you forget to leave them or want a souvenir we’re cool with that.
I check out and get a receipt to make sure there isn’t anything funky going on with the bill.
Help us, someone, let us out of here
Living here so long undisturbed
Dreaming of the time we were free
The big chain American hotels all give you a bill before you leave, in my experience. If you are a “member” they’ll email it. If you aren’t, they’ll slip it under the door. Sometimes they do both.
I think that’s the indicator. If you get a receipt, and it says you’ve paid (they’ve billed your card on file) and the amount is right, you are good to go.
I tell the cleaning staff if i happen to see them, and i drop my cards on the desk and say I’m leaving room 123, but i don’t wait on line unless i actually need them to change something (or want to mention the drain that’s too slow, or the lightbulb that’s out.) And i don’t wait long in line to tell them about minor maintenance issues.
Or if you’re Bret and Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords, an entire women’s water polo team asks for your autograph, then asks you to write your room number under it so they know where to visit you later.
Huh, i have an older friend who was a hot female performer in her youth. No one asked for her room number. They discretely dropped their room key with her stuff, and mentioned the room number. She says that used to happen all the time.
I worked at a company around 25 years ago where I was warned against telling others in the group which room I was staying in, because they’d charge their bar bills to my room. They were kidding, and I don’t think it’s that simple.