Why do hotels want me to check in early?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Please note that I’m not talking about hotels with digital keys. I’m staying at a hotel tomorrow, same one I stayed in last week. They’re already bugging me to check in early but last week when I did it saved me no time. I still had to “check in” physically at the front desk to get my key. The only difference is that I don’t have to show ID or swipe a card.

If me the customer doesn’t care either way, then surely the hotels themselves must get something out of it. I just can’t figure out what.

2

Hotel receptionist here.

That’s not something we do, or something I’ve heard of, but I’ve a couple of guesses.

  1. They’re confirming that you’re still going to be there - much like airlines, many hotels overbook if given the opportunity.* This gives them an idea as to how close they’re skating the line, between having empty rooms and having to pay for an overbooked guest’s room elsewhere.
  2. A surprising number of people flat forget they’ve made a booking. No, seriously! In the little place I work (37 rooms), this just happens a few times a month. When you’re talking a bigger place, though, it adds up. Checking to see if you want to check in early also has the advantage of subtly reminding the customer that they have a booking. In fairness, it often seems to be because some family/work/personal emergency has come up, and they flat forget in the press of events.
    *Not mine, thank goodness. I used to work third shift at a chain that did this, and the drama when we were overbooked was just a massive pain.
3

Some hotels charge a modest “early check in” fee, so they might be trying to pad the bill a bit.

Another possibility I’ve encountered is there may be a large group coming in at a scheduled time and inviting you to check in early is actually a benefit to you as you won’t be in line behind 45 people on a bus tour.

4

I haven’t noticed this with hotels, but it kind of annoys me when airlines want me to check in the day before my flight. My inner pedant wants to know how I can check-in before I’m in.

5

Once you are checked in, can you still cancel? I’d guess that they want you to be locked in the earlier the better.

6

I’ve never understood this. If the point of checking in is to let the airline know that you are at the airport and ready to go, why would I check in the day before, when I’m nowhere near the airport and not at all ready to go yet?

7

With Alaska, it gives you the opportunity to pick your seat, and potentially upgrade to first-class for a big discount if there are first-class seats available.

8

For international flights, I like to travel to the airport the night before and stay in an airport hotel. (This avoids running late on the day and missing the flight altogether. :eek:)
I also check in the night before because:

  • there’s less crowding + queuing
  • I’m not in a hurry
  • I can hand over my hold baggage

So the next day I can walk past the check-in queues (full of screaming children and harassed adults ;)) and go straight to security, carrying only my cabin baggage.
Anything that reduces travel stress is worth doing.

9

Yep. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of people being annoyed at early check-in. :confused:

10

The annoying bit is when you go through a five minute process of turning down all the extra bits they try to sell you while you’re doing the online check-in, and then when you arrive at the hotel, it doesn’t save you any time.

11

Certainly you see the difference. Why would you early check-in for a flight if you still had to wait in line to get a boarding pass?

Same thing here. I LOVE early hotel check in if I get a digital key, then I don’t need to stop at the front desk at all. But if I still need to wait in line and talk to a human in order to get a physical key, I gain barely nothing by checking in on my phone.

12

But you DON’T have to wait in line. That’s the whole point. I can print my boarding pass at home. Or I have it on my phone (which I hate). Or I can use a separate “People who already checked-in” line at the airport.

To be fair, I’ve never heard of this type of early check-in for a hotel, so I don’t have any comment on that.

13

I guess people who check bags ha e to wait in line. Nobody else does.

14

In all the times I’ve used it online check-in, there was a separate “drop your bags here if you checked in online” area that I just took my bags up to. No line to wait in for that either.

15

I do this sometimes with the accor hotels here in Europe. It is quicker, because they normally already have everything ready when you show up…with normal check in they have to look up the booking, sometimes pick a room and then “load” the key card. With early check in takes half the time.

In my experience you van still cancel, even after early check in.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn moto g(6) met Tapatalk

16

Exactly my point! Why check in early if they still make you wait in the same line!? That’s 100% what’s happening with my hotel today.

(Granted, I doubt there will be a “line”, but still… I’m checked in but I still need to stop at the desk and get my key. Just trying to figure out why they want me to do this.)

17

Yes, I agree that is weird.

18

Like galen ubal stated for hotels, there’s probably a certain percentage of people who actually forget they’ve booked a flight. Or their plans change but they don’t bother to call the airline and cancel their flight, but instead simply don’t show up. So even if you’re not physically at the airport checking in at least tells the airline that you do in fact still intend to take the flight (even if there’s still some chance that you might not make it because you got into an accident on the way to the airport or whatever).

But actually I’ve heard the main reason you still have to check in for flights is because the software airlines are running was designed decades ago, before checking in from home was possible, and the software won’t allow certain things to happen until after the passenger has checked in. So checking in is at least in part a legacy software thing.

19

On Southwest you check in early to get a good boarding position. If I remember to check in exactly 24 hours before the flight, I can always get a good enough position to get the seat I want when I board.
If you don’t check luggage, you can go right to the gate. If you do the kiosk prints your luggage tag, and there has seldom been a line for dropping off luggage.

20

When my wife flew to Europe last month (Turkish Airlines), we checked in in online the night before. The process was fairly minimal, but it took a few minutes, and when we got to the end it said we could not print out the boarding pass. My wife was already stressed about the upcoming trip, so when that last step couldn’t be completed, she was upset and felt it was a waste of time. However, I did get a confirmation email that she was checked in.

When we got to the airport, we still had to go to a counter to check her luggage and get a boarding pass, but the advantage turned out to be that we got to wait in a much shorter line (after showing a gatekeeper my confirmation email). It was still long and slow, with everyone still spending several minutes at the counter, but the regular check-in line was at least three times longer.