Have you ever wondered why hotels have check-in and check-out times? It’s not something that many people consider, but they are established for two very good reasons.
At most hotels, check-out times are usually at 11 am or 12 noon and check-in times are at 3 or 4 pm.
The industry standard is to have each housekeeper clean 16 rooms per 8-hour shift or one room cleaned per half hour of work. Any guest that checks out before the check-out time helps the housekeeper move forward with her work by allowing that room to be entered to be cleaned. Conversely, when someone checks out after the check-out time, it slows the process down.
Most housekeepers are very good at figuring out who is out of their rooms. Often, they can help themselves out by getting into rooms that they know have departed. But on occasion, the housekeeper is left with nothing to work on because guests are still in their rooms.
Check-in time is crunch time for the housekeepers and for the front desk teams. Guests have started to arrive with high expectations. They may be looking for rooms of a specific type. Those rooms may not be cleaned yet because a guest didn’t check out on time. That tends to be something very hard to explain to someone who has travelled a great distance to stay with you.
It’s a delicate balance of time that occurs in hotels, all over the world, every single day. The above example is a very brief example, without any variables that may affect efficiency. Hopefully, this can shed some light on the process. In the next issue, I will further examine how early arrivals and late check-outs affect this process, why hotels charge for these benefits, and how to get them complimentary with greater ease.
If you are traveling soon and have questions, please feel free to reach out to Practical Insider Travelers Tips at [email protected]. Until next time, be safe and happy traveling!
