Just about every time we are about to check-in to a hotel, Kim and I cross our fingers that the room will be ready for us when we arrive. After a flight the last thing we want to do is have to wait for our room!
I know that many times there is nothing that the hotels can do, especially when arriving early in the morning, hours before check-in.
Over the years a couple of early arrivals stand out:
- During a trip to New Zealand, we arrived very early at the hotel. I don’t recall which city or hotel it was but I remember that our room was definitely not ready. I decided to take a nap on a couch in the lobby and sure enough, like magic a room happened to become available!
- Kim and I took the bus to Toronto from NYC years back. We arrived at our hostel very early, like 5AM early. The door to the hostel was locked and nobody was answering the door so I had to call. The room wouldn’t be ready for hours but we got to leave our luggage and use the bathroom. With hours to kill, Kim and I discovered Tim Horton’s, spending some time there with some shady characters and late-night party-ers having a snack. After that we headed to a park and watched a movie on my laptop. Fun stuff!
LaQuinta is offering a service called Ready For You. With this service, you tell the hotel when you would like your room and they will text or e-mail you the time when your room will be ready.
Here are the reasons I feel this service could come in handy.
- I think this could be really useful if you stopped at the hotel, left your luggage and wanted to know when it would be good to head back to check-in to your room.
- I also think that if you are driving to the hotel it is beneficial since you can leave your things in the car, visit some sites (or whatever it is that is on your agenda) and save a visit to the hotel until you really need the room.
Getting an e-mail or text alert when your room is ready would be a nice little service for all of the hotel chains to add.
Do you think getting an e-mail or text to find out when your room is ready would be helpful?
Find out more about Ready For You from LaQuinta HERE.
Heather- Sounds like paying a little more might be worth it in this scenario. I just wonder how much your extra cost was for using a hotel taxi?
DaninSTL- Funny! I have some LaQuinta points from the Play & Stay game which I defnitely plan to redeem. Not sure if I’ve stayed with them so far. If a hotel has the capability to give an early check-in, they usually will it just happens to be that sometimes it just isn’t possible.
The down side is you have to stay at Laquinta and experience their point expiration rules 🙂
Many hotels in Europe will allow you to check in early if you inform them of an early morning flight arrival. I would imagine many hotels everyone would.
In Beijing, flights from Europe often land very early in the morning (5:30am) so I always arrange for an airport transfer with the hotel, as my experience has shown me that my room is alway available for me when I arrive about an hour later. Yes, I pay more for the airport transfer than say taking a taxi, but that extra cost is worth it to me knowing that my room will be ready and that I can take a small nap and have a shower before heading to the office and I won’t have to camp out in the lobby.
I also like the little “extras” with this, including having them greet me by name when my car arrives 🙂
taking the simple step of calling your hotel 2-3 days before arrival and asking them to note your early arrival time can usually help prioritize you for an early check-in. Works for me every time, especially with loyalty program status.
Not a bad idea. Didn’t know people made phone calls these days!