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Hotel room during port visit ( as your excursion)


Tammyd549
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I’m an experienced cruiser but have a question I can’t find the answer for . 
 

I’m cruising into Cabo (but this question could apply to any port visit)  next month and the port time is 12-8pm, I’m thinking of booking an all inclusive hotel room, checking in at 1pm and checking out at 6-7pm, using the hotel as my “excursion” for the day. I figure even if they don’t let me into the room at 1pm, they will let me check in and use the facilities.
 

Ive searched for day use hotels in Cabo (And other ports too!) and they seem limited so I was thinking this was a good alternative.

 

Thoughts or suggestions?

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Hi

 

This would be fine if you found a hotel that you wanted to spend the day at because you have been to that port many times before and there isn't anything else that might interest you (which you could put the hotel cost towards). The question is have you looked at other things that might be of interest to you, after all it is a beautiful port city to visit and if all you wanted to do was hang around a hotel, you might as well just stay on board. Considering it is tender port, if you want to be one of the first off it is generally a PITA (even if you have priority). The ship would be very quiet that day.

 

have a great cruise 

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I suppose if you booked the room through one of the online services they wouldn’t even know you were a cruise ship passenger.  Or need to for that matter.  One downside might be the cancellation policy.  Although rare, there are times when a port is missed.  Cancellation with a refund would likely be before you would know the port was being missed so you would be out the cost of the room.  As was already stated, the hotel and room would have to be pretty nice to be nicer than an already paid for cruise ship with very few passengers aboard and mostly free food.  Such a hotel would likely be very expensive for a single night.  If money is no object then go for it.  But if you really don’t need access to a room you might consider just paying a day pass fee.  Usually if the port is missed for whatever reason the reservation is refundable.  

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I suspect that the hotel will balk at you wanting to check in and out the same day. They don’t want to rent a room to you for one night even, they want you to stay for multiple days to a week. I suppose if you book online they can’t stop you from checking out later that day.

Edited by sanger727
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1 hour ago, sanger727 said:

I suspect that the hotel will balk at you wanting to check in and out the same day. They don’t want to rent a room to you for one night even, they want you to stay for multiple days to a week. I suppose if you book online they can’t stop you from checking out later that day.

Why would they mind? We booked comfort suites in the Bahamas to get access to Atlantis, checked in and out at the same time.

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9 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Why would they mind? We booked comfort suites in the Bahamas to get access to Atlantis, checked in and out at the same time.

I was just going to mention this and I'm sure it's a big money maker for them- they can rent out more rooms then they have because no one will be actually staying in them.

 

OP, we did something similar to this our first time in Nassau. We found a hotel that sold us an all inclusive day pass that allowed us full use of the facilities, drinks, meals, and even towels and changing area. I believe I found it on a general "things to do in Nassau for the day" google search.

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25 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Why would they mind? We booked comfort suites in the Bahamas to get access to Atlantis, checked in and out at the same time.


Because you booking the room on a Wednesday is one less room that they could book to someone who wanted to stay a week. The whole point of choosing to sell or not sell or to limit day passes is to keep the resort for the resorts guests rather than say a cruise ship guest.

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1 hour ago, sanger727 said:

I suspect that the hotel will balk at you wanting to check in and out the same day. They don’t want to rent a room to you for one night even, they want you to stay for multiple days to a week. I suppose if you book online they can’t stop you from checking out later that day.


What is the difference if you book the room for one night and leave at 8PM versus staying overnight?

 

If they have the room available, they will rent it to you.  It pays them NOTHING if it is empty

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1 minute ago, SRF said:


What is the difference if you book the room for one night and leave at 8PM versus staying overnight?

 

If they have the room available, they will rent it to you.  It pays them NOTHING if it is empty


As I said, I don’t think they really want to book the room for one night at all. That’s why you pay full boat for one night and none of the ‘discounts’ most of them run kick in unless you stay at least 3-6 nights. I personally would feel awkward doing this. Not to say it can’t be done.

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39 minutes ago, sanger727 said:


As I said, I don’t think they really want to book the room for one night at all. That’s why you pay full boat for one night and none of the ‘discounts’ most of them run kick in unless you stay at least 3-6 nights. I personally would feel awkward doing this. Not to say it can’t be done.

I just did a google search, first all inclusive that popped up, first one night stay that came  up, $100, 4 out of 5 stars. Hotels sometimes have minimum stay requirements during holiday periods, but I see no reason not to book for a night if allowed.

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49 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I just did a google search, first all inclusive that popped up, first one night stay that came  up, $100, 4 out of 5 stars. Hotels sometimes have minimum stay requirements during holiday periods, but I see no reason not to book for a night if allowed.


well, the cheapest I’m seeing is closer to $300 and they quicker go to $500 and more. I suspect one advertises for $100 is not an all inclusive option, but that’s a bit besides the point. 

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1 hour ago, sanger727 said:


well, the cheapest I’m seeing is closer to $300 and they quicker go to $500 and more. I suspect one advertises for $100 is not an all inclusive option, but that’s a bit besides the point. 

I found an AI one under $300 with taxes and fees, no problem with one night. Day passes at AI are usually over $100 pp, so the best bet is to do the math. I wouldn’t rule it out, especially if there are more than 2 people.

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A "head in a bed" for one night guaranteed is better than leaving it empty on a hope that someone books a longer stay. I've had people book for 1 night and just use it for the day.  I've also had people book for an extra night on a longer stay just so they can stay a little longer at the hotel than the 11am checkout time, usually because they have afternoon/evening flights.  I had that this week with two guests at my hotel.  

 

Your only problem is the check-in time.  Most places have 3pm or 4pm as the time.  You can certainly get there earlier and ask for an early check-in.  If it's available, great.  If it's not, say you would like access to the facilities until your room is ready.  No biggie -  people do it all the time at the resorts I have worked at.  

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thanks for the feedback all! I don’t like my selection for the day passes in Cabo (and many other ports I’ve visited in the past) so booking a hotel I prefer for the night makes sense for me. Most All inclusive day passes I’ve seen are About $100pp (X2) so booking a hotel room for $300 (for example) makes sense to me, might even get access to the room , which might be nice (I know some hotels don’t always accommodate early check ins with early room access) . 
 

I was mainly curious about others who have done the same and any kinks in my plan that I may not have considered. 
 

 

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23 hours ago, sanger727 said:

As I said, I don’t think they really want to book the room for one night at all. That’s why you pay full boat for one night and none of the ‘discounts’ most of them run kick in unless you stay at least 3-6 nights. I personally would feel awkward doing this. Not to say it can’t be done.

 

WOW, I book single nights in hotel rooms all the time, in many countries.  And never had any issues.  This year, probably 20 times.

 

Yes, some hotels offer long term stay discounts, but that does not mean they do not want a single night stay.

 

Now, there can be events or times of year where they will not book a single night.  But those are clearly stated on the reservation page.  Such as New Years, many hotels want you to book the night before and NYE, not just NYE.

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On 12/11/2019 at 10:31 AM, sparks1093 said:

I was just going to mention this and I'm sure it's a big money maker for them- they can rent out more rooms then they have because no one will be actually staying in them.

 

The same thing with day rooms.

 

I have had connections with 8 - 12 hours layovers.  I go to the nearby hotel zone and ask for a day room.  They charge around 50 70% of the normal rate, and you have to be out by 4:30 or so.

 

GREAT for the hotel, the can rent the room the night before, the person leaves for an early flight, rent the room for the day, then rent it again that night for a later arrival.

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21 hours ago, slidergirl said:

A "head in a bed" for one night guaranteed is better than leaving it empty on a hope that someone books a longer stay. I've had people book for 1 night and just use it for the day.  I've also had people book for an extra night on a longer stay just so they can stay a little longer at the hotel than the 11am checkout time, usually because they have afternoon/evening flights.  I had that this week with two guests at my hotel.  

 

Your only problem is the check-in time.  Most places have 3pm or 4pm as the time.  You can certainly get there earlier and ask for an early check-in.  If it's available, great.  If it's not, say you would like access to the facilities until your room is ready.  No biggie -  people do it all the time at the resorts I have worked at.  

 

And if you have status with the hotel, you can get late checkout and early check in for free. 🙂

 

But the standard I see is 50% of the room rate for early check in or late checkout.  At least beyond a couple of hours.  Although some charge a whole night.

 

For work travel, the flights occasionally arrive at 6AM, and I do not want to sit in the lobby until 1PM.  Or the flight leaves after 10PM, and I don't want to sit at the airport.

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I"m certainly not an industry insider and could be wrong but I don't think all inclusive's market themselves or have the same metrics as just another hotel. Their bread and butter is getting people to come to less desirable countries or countries where they would feel unsafe staying and eating at with the promise of free alcohol and food. Therefore they do many vacation packages. I don't think too many people decide on a trip to Jamaica to spend a night at the sandals because it's close to the airport before hoping on the flight. There are many more budget friendly hotels for that. 

 

My approach to this would be to call the hotel and see if they offer a day pass or a day room. If they don't, I would take that as a sign that they aren't particularly looking for day trippers and look at other hotels. If you want to book a room and check in and out the same day, I"m sure you could. But to me that appears rude, as if something was wrong with the hotel.

Edited by sanger727
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31 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

And if you have status with the hotel, you can get late checkout and early check in for free. 🙂

 

But the standard I see is 50% of the room rate for early check in or late checkout.  At least beyond a couple of hours.  Although some charge a whole night.

 

For work travel, the flights occasionally arrive at 6AM, and I do not want to sit in the lobby until 1PM.  Or the flight leaves after 10PM, and I don't want to sit at the airport.

True.  But, most of the time it also depends on occupancy.  You can't check in early if the last guest stayed until the checkout time.  In a good hotel, a vacancy cleaning takes about 45 minutes per standard room.  If each housekeeper has 10 rooms to turn, you can see why there is the long time between check out and check in times.  As part of my training, I did a day with Housekeeping.  I got to watch a vacancy cleaning, then I got to do one - it took me 54 minutes to do a standard room and my housekeeping mentor noticed I missed a few things.  

 

Some will charge $50 for the late checkout for the first 2 hours,  and full rate after that.  Based on the housekeeping needs, it is reasonable.  Chances are, the late checkout room isn't going to get cleaned until late, if at all, messing up the check in for the next guest.  Trust me, there's nothing like having an arriving guest screaming at you because the room isn't ready at the 4pm posted check in time because a Diamond Guest stayed in the room until 3pm.  Service recovery time. ("may I buy you some appetizers at the bar" or "may I buy you dinner at the restaurant" or "allow me to take off 10% of your room rate" ). 

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2 hours ago, slidergirl said:

True.  But, most of the time it also depends on occupancy.  You can't check in early if the last guest stayed until the checkout time.  In a good hotel, a vacancy cleaning takes about 45 minutes per standard room.  If each housekeeper has 10 rooms to turn, you can see why there is the long time between check out and check in times.  As part of my training, I did a day with Housekeeping.  I got to watch a vacancy cleaning, then I got to do one - it took me 54 minutes to do a standard room and my housekeeping mentor noticed I missed a few things.  

 

Some will charge $50 for the late checkout for the first 2 hours,  and full rate after that.  Based on the housekeeping needs, it is reasonable.  Chances are, the late checkout room isn't going to get cleaned until late, if at all, messing up the check in for the next guest.  Trust me, there's nothing like having an arriving guest screaming at you because the room isn't ready at the 4pm posted check in time because a Diamond Guest stayed in the room until 3pm.  Service recovery time. ("may I buy you some appetizers at the bar" or "may I buy you dinner at the restaurant" or "allow me to take off 10% of your room rate" ). 

 

Hmm, sounds like Hilton program. 🙂

 

I tend to be a Marriott person, and have stayed enough, they REALLY treat me well. 😄

 

I have had times when they asked me if I could check out an hour or so before the time I wanted.  And I do so.

 

Only time I got a bit bent was when I arrived at a hotel, and they would not put me in a room, while others were coming in and checking in and getting rooms.  Hmmmm.

 

After mentioning this to corporate, and them having the GM apologize to me, the next time I stayed at that property, I was in my room RIGHT AWAY, and got an upgraded room. 😄

 

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