early check ins

Arriving at 00:30, yes, I would consider that the night before. Arriving anytime after about 4-5am, is more of a gray area, in my opinion. I would charge a guest who arrives around or after sunrise for just one day.

I think it also depends on the attitude of hostels and guesthouses in the country where you are located. Our hostel is in China and having checked in early (sometimes before 5am!) at several hostels in China and only been charged for one night, I feel the need to follow suit, so long as there is a bed available for guests.

I think the beauty of running a hostel is that you can make whatever rule you want regarding this. There isn't some kind of set rule about when one days charging starts and the previous ones finishes. I went to a hotel recently that has advertised check-in of 1500. I arrived at 1445 and they wanted and extra $10 for an early check-in. Most backpackers would expect more flexibility from a hostel than this. Personally my reception opens at 0730 - if someone turns up before then they'll be out in the car-park - unless another guest lets them in, as we don't have 24hr reception. Obviously there are lots of hostels that have night duty staff and 24hr reception, but I would never expect I could turn up at 4am and not pay for that night.

If people have driven through the night and turn up at 8am I am happy to put them in a room if it is not occupied, mainly because it's less work for me than having them hanging around in the common room.

I think the beauty of running a hostel is that you can make whatever rule you want regarding this. There isn't some kind of set rule about when one days charging starts and the previous ones finishes. I went to a hotel recently that has advertised check-in of 1500. I arrived at 1445 and they wanted and extra $10 for an early check-in.

It's going to tick me off if a hostel did this to me. If its the busiest season and they need every minute of it it is understandable but just to milk $10 is messed up. I'll make it a point to trash their review without lying. For example, if breakfast was posted as available at 0800 and it wasn't ready until 0810, I'm going to write it up as a service failure and emphasize that they advertised breakfast and I paid for it in the included price but I got shorted.

It's going to tick me off if a hostel did this to me. If its the busiest season and they need every minute of it it is understandable but just to milk $10 is messed up. I'll make it a point to trash their review without lying. For example, if breakfast was posted as available at 0800 and it wasn't ready until 0810, I'm going to write it up as a service failure and emphasize that they advertised breakfast and I paid for it in the included price but I got shorted.

The hotel chain that charges the $10 for early check ins advertise the fact, so it's not really fair to turn up and expect the receptionist to break the rule for you. It's a budget hotel chain, and those sort of charges are one way that the chain makes extra money. Looking on-line however it does alienate a lot of people, and result in bad reviews. I doubt they really care though. They are the cheapest hotel chain in the country, and make their sales on their cheap prices, not added extras. I think consumers sometimes over-estimate the power of their opinion.