Late Checkout Fee

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Breakfast Diva

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So, I just called and booked my hotel in January and just received my confirmation e-mail:


Deposit Policy[/td]
One night's room + tax[/td]
[/tr]

Cancellation Policy[/td]
72 hours full refund[/td]
[/tr]

Check-in Time[/td]
4:00 PM[/td]
[/tr]

Check-out Time[/td]
11:00 AM[/td]
[/tr]

Late Check-out[/td]
A fee of $100 per hour will be assessed[/td]
[/tr]

Room Tax[/td]
12%[/td]
[/tr]

[/table]
Think we (b&b industry) could get by with that late check-out fee?
 
My fee is $50. Early check-in here is the full night (at the hotels). However, I am now going to go and add that to my confirmation.
 
People on here do but the way to do it is to sell it as a bonus ie "extend your holiday with a late check out so you can enjoy the day and not worry cost is Blah extending check out till 2pm or whatever. It is all about selling the benefits even if it is about making money. On the other hand it does depend if you want people to buy it or not.
 
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out (e.g. Our check-in time isn't until 3:30, but we can usually make it happen at 2:30 as a courtesy if possible). After that, though, we try to make the Guest aware that there is a quarter-day rate per hour past our one-hour courtesy (which ends up being a decent amount depending on which room it is, between $32something and $64something before taxes). Now, depending on whether you want to sell them the extra time or not, you can pose it to them in a way that makes it seem inexpensive or very expensive. When we say "quarter-day rate," as opposed to "just a $30 fee" this scares most people into vacating ASAP. Not that we want to scare them, but we all have work to do... :)
 
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out (e.g. Our check-in time isn't until 3:30, but we can usually make it happen at 2:30 as a courtesy if possible). After that, though, we try to make the Guest aware that there is a quarter-day rate per hour past our one-hour courtesy (which ends up being a decent amount depending on which room it is, between $32something and $64something before taxes). Now, depending on whether you want to sell them the extra time or not, you can pose it to them in a way that makes it seem inexpensive or very expensive. When we say "quarter-day rate," as opposed to "just a $30 fee" this scares most people into vacating ASAP. Not that we want to scare them, but we all have work to do... :).
"Quarter-day rate" definitely sounds more expensive than $50!
Should we need to use this going forward, we are going to tell guests that we 'do this all the time and everyone finds it much more relaxing to have the extra hour(s) on either side'. So far we've been able to divert guests into leaving with 30 minutes' grace or going out to eat until 2 PM (before which it is $50 to check-in).
With the absolutely obnoxious early arrivals we've had over the summer I will have no problem keeping a straight face when I let them know their absolute need to check in early will be honored for a $50 fee. Or, a 'quarter day surcharge'. Altho, $50 is more for me than a 'quarter day'.
SOME guests have pushed it to more of a 'half day' surcharge! 8 AM! Please!
 
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out (e.g. Our check-in time isn't until 3:30, but we can usually make it happen at 2:30 as a courtesy if possible). After that, though, we try to make the Guest aware that there is a quarter-day rate per hour past our one-hour courtesy (which ends up being a decent amount depending on which room it is, between $32something and $64something before taxes). Now, depending on whether you want to sell them the extra time or not, you can pose it to them in a way that makes it seem inexpensive or very expensive. When we say "quarter-day rate," as opposed to "just a $30 fee" this scares most people into vacating ASAP. Not that we want to scare them, but we all have work to do... :).
MorrisonEscape said:
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out...
Yes, I was going to ask about when this all kicks in. A $50/hour charge, but does that mean if they leave 30 or 50 minutes late, there's no charge?
No charge until after 60 minutes may be the best way to go, with just "pressure" before then. Someone here once mentioned they go in and start running the vacuum in the room of people who are still in there after checkout time. Then they get the message, loud and clear!
 
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out (e.g. Our check-in time isn't until 3:30, but we can usually make it happen at 2:30 as a courtesy if possible). After that, though, we try to make the Guest aware that there is a quarter-day rate per hour past our one-hour courtesy (which ends up being a decent amount depending on which room it is, between $32something and $64something before taxes). Now, depending on whether you want to sell them the extra time or not, you can pose it to them in a way that makes it seem inexpensive or very expensive. When we say "quarter-day rate," as opposed to "just a $30 fee" this scares most people into vacating ASAP. Not that we want to scare them, but we all have work to do... :).
MorrisonEscape said:
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out...
Yes, I was going to ask about when this all kicks in. A $50/hour charge, but does that mean if they leave 30 or 50 minutes late, there's no charge?
No charge until after 60 minutes may be the best way to go, with just "pressure" before then. Someone here once mentioned they go in and start running the vacuum in the room of people who are still in there after checkout time. Then they get the message, loud and clear!
.
We 'allow' 30 minutes and then we let the guests know the charges are being calculated from 11 on. So, if it is 11:30 the first $50 goes until noon, after that it'a another $50. After 1 PM it's a full night and they still have to leave. We had to do that after guests insisted that checkout was NOON and they weren't leaving.
It was ugly. And the ugliness continued with the guests giving us a bad review and continuing to state they were 'only' a few minutes late checking out and that the owners were very unprofessional (I should have called the police, I really should have. THAT would have made a much more interesting story for the reviewer). I was not feeling the love at that point and broke every rule about mgmt responses. Short of calling the reviewer a 'princess' I let anyone else reading it know when we expect guests to leave by and don't mess with the housekeeping staff.
 
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out (e.g. Our check-in time isn't until 3:30, but we can usually make it happen at 2:30 as a courtesy if possible). After that, though, we try to make the Guest aware that there is a quarter-day rate per hour past our one-hour courtesy (which ends up being a decent amount depending on which room it is, between $32something and $64something before taxes). Now, depending on whether you want to sell them the extra time or not, you can pose it to them in a way that makes it seem inexpensive or very expensive. When we say "quarter-day rate," as opposed to "just a $30 fee" this scares most people into vacating ASAP. Not that we want to scare them, but we all have work to do... :).
MorrisonEscape said:
We are pretty lenient for the first hour with both check-in and check-out...
Yes, I was going to ask about when this all kicks in. A $50/hour charge, but does that mean if they leave 30 or 50 minutes late, there's no charge?
No charge until after 60 minutes may be the best way to go, with just "pressure" before then. Someone here once mentioned they go in and start running the vacuum in the room of people who are still in there after checkout time. Then they get the message, loud and clear!
.
We 'allow' 30 minutes and then we let the guests know the charges are being calculated from 11 on. So, if it is 11:30 the first $50 goes until noon, after that it'a another $50. After 1 PM it's a full night and they still have to leave. We had to do that after guests insisted that checkout was NOON and they weren't leaving.
It was ugly. And the ugliness continued with the guests giving us a bad review and continuing to state they were 'only' a few minutes late checking out and that the owners were very unprofessional (I should have called the police, I really should have. THAT would have made a much more interesting story for the reviewer). I was not feeling the love at that point and broke every rule about mgmt responses. Short of calling the reviewer a 'princess' I let anyone else reading it know when we expect guests to leave by and don't mess with the housekeeping staff.
.
Madeleine said:
We had to do that after guests insisted that checkout was NOON and they weren't leaving.
Don't you love it when they think they know your policies better than you do? Awesome.
 
That's an interesting post!Last summer, an antitrust settlement between retailers, big banking institutions and credit card companies Visa and MasterCard all but did away with credit card interchange fees, or the interchange fees retailers pay to the networks to process consumer payments. While merchants - and by extension, consumers - received $7.2 billion in short-term relief from interchange fees, there's a brand new fee that retailers can now charge consumers who pay with charge cards, called a checkout fee. It may be applied to credit card transactions in 40 of the 50 U.S. states, and does not apply to debit card purchases. A personal finance can help you pay for your checkout fees.
 
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