How early can be early check in?

[gtellez]

I have a flight that arrives at 4.30am in Madrid, I’ve booked the following night in the Intercontinental and I’m Diamond Ambassador. How early would they give me my room (obviously based on availability)? I’m considering booking the previous night but it is over £200 and not sure if it is worth it.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Probably not until around lunchtime once they’ve started to clean rooms of departing guests.

Mist early checking are late morning not the middle of the night.

As an alternative you could look for a day use room but when I’ve looked in the last the earliest they start is around 8-9 am.

[davefl]

How long is a piece of string. Depends how full they are the night before.

I walked into a Kimpton at 10.45 the other week to drop my bag and they checked me into my room.

Best way to guarantee something is to email the hotel, quote your reservation number and ask them what they can provide with your Diamond status. Every hotel will give you a different answer depending on occupancy.

[Andrew J]

And often it’ll mean you won’t get upgraded by checking in early as the better rooms will be occupied by people wanting late checkout.

[Lula]

Can work either way though. I once arrived at 9am after an early flight and was upgraded from a basic room to a suite because it was all they had available for check in at the time. Depends so much on the hotel and your luck with staff at check in.

[Swiss Jim]

You just have to ask. In advance always better. I’m also Diamond Ambassador (which I assume helps). Recently stayed at IC Tokyo ANA. Checked in at 7:30am and out at 4:00pm the next day. Not bad for a 31,000 points redemption. I agree room upgrades can sometimes be an issue though.

Just emailed IC Doha City to see if they will let me check in at 5:00am. That I accept is pushing it….

BTW, does anyone have any experience of IC Doha City v. IC Doha Beach? Location wise City seems better – and with temperature c.20C the better pool set up at Beach doesn’t do it for me… Need to stick with IC this time as need 4:00pm check out. Unless I book the second night elsewhere of course (late night flight out).

[gtellez]

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

[Andrew J]

gtellez wrote:

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

They will likely only be able to confirm an early checkin time on the day, not in advance.

[AnotherUser]

If they can’t/won’t offer early checkin that morning, you could also just book and pay for a room when you arrive – though that depends on what (if anything) they have available

[John]

I have checked into Conrad Bangkok at 7am and some of the Australia Hiltons at 6.30am, managed to get lounge breakfast straight away (well after showering) too. Late check out request was also accepted, so ended up having the rooms for 30 hours despite a typical one-night guest only staying about 15 hours.

If they had refused at such an early hour, I was prepared to leave bags and go to lounge if permitted, or just come back a bit later in the morning.

AnotherUser wrote:

If they can’t/won’t offer early checkin that morning, you could also just book and pay for a room when you arrive – though that depends on what (if anything) they have available

You could just offer to pay the “early check-in fee” and then as if by magic the hotel will suddenly have a room available, unless they are truly fully booked.

[roz]

Recent stay at InterContinental Singapore,
we used facilities after 7am to have a shower, freshen up, went for breakfast outside and by the time we returned, room was ready to check in by 11am. Also extended late check out to 7.30pm for a 11.50pm flight, so grateful for it too!

[Lady London]

gtellez wrote:

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

gtellez wrote:

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

I advise you just to go, be polite, ask to drop your bags and politely ask what’s possible.

[gtellez]

Lady London wrote:

gtellez wrote:

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

gtellez wrote:

I think I’ll email the hotel before booking the night before, if they offer me something like 8-9am, I may wait and have a nice breakfast while saving over £200. If they don’t want to give me the room until 3pm, I definitely need the room before and I’ll have to pay for it…

I advise you just to go, be polite, ask to drop your bags and politely ask what’s possible.

That was my original plan, but I go with a 2 years old and it is after a 5h flight in economy, so I definitely need the room and can gamble it.
I have contact the hotel and they have offered me the room at 6am for 150 euros, that seems high but it is cheaper than booking the previous night (250 euros or 35k points). So I’m afraid that can’t do anything else than paying it…