Guests arriving from overnight flights

This is a very good question. When we open our hostel we'll definitely be promoting our proximity to the major airports, which have their fare share of overnight flights. However, I can't see allowing surfers to lounge around for hours until their check-in time the following morning, to me it'd be too distracting. Then again I'm not sure this would be much of an issue since guests should inform the hostel ahead of time of any late/early arrivals so the hostel can reserve a bed for them.

Now if a guest shows up unannounced at 4:30AM for the following day and I don't have a free bed then I'm up a creek with no paddle! They'd have to put their stuff in our storage area and chill out in the common area until morning. I don't know if I'd charge for this though because hostels don't charge when guests check-out yet stick around for hours because they have a late departure. At least none that I know of. I guess, this is a situation I'll have to resolve if and when it actually happens. :o

All I know is that if it were a hotel, inn or B&B and the guest showed up unannounced for the following day and there were no vacancies, they'd be shown the door. :eek: They are very strict about their check-in times! Hostels have the ability to be more flexible, some more than others.

Fountainrunner: I appreciate your thoughts on the subject, but you've exaggerated the points I made and then said they are not very practical.

I didnt say 430am, I said 7am or later. Most overnight flights, to my knowledge, land at about 0600-0800, so the guest would arrive at the hostel typically 0700-1000.

I didn't imply "hours until their checkin in the morning". The point is that most hostels DONT ALLOW CHECKIN IN THE MORNING, but more often around 1400h.

Arriving unannounced -- this is a fair point. But I didn't imply that. If a guest knows he is going to land in London at 0600, and knew there was a hostel that would allow him to check in (even in a partial way) at 0800 provided he arranges it when booking, he would surely favour that hostel over others, and I think he'd be prepared to pay a modest amount for that facility.

Yes, hotels and B&B's are not flexible in this respect. They are catering for the standard guest doing standard things. They are not good at catering for people who are abnormal in their eyes, such as lone travellers, or people who want to prepare food :rolleyes:

We have a pretty flexible check-in and policy. If someone arrives earlier than the check out time (noon), then allowed to leave luggage, use any facilities (including shower, internet, luggage storage, even breakfast), then could choose to wait for the check out time or head to town and come back later any time. If someone took a night train and couldn't sleep, we find the first available bed for him/her and sort it out later without any charge. Sometimes even our sofa will do. Why should we torture people when we work in hospitality?
It might sound strange but we stick to our easygoing way to deal with it! ;)

Well said! Agree with everything you say. You meet too many people in the hospitality trade who seem to want to go out of there way to be unhelpful.
If a room is available then the guest can check in any time as far as I'm concerned, and can use the common room etc if the room isn't ready. I think people expect flexibility. Obviously they can't move into a room/ bed if last nights occupant is still in it, but otherwise they can.

Having said this it is difficult to have a formal policy on this - people can't expect to turn up at 10am and go into their room immediately, it depends if the room is ready or not.

With most ferries and charter flights arriving on Crete between 2 and 6am it is is impossible for me to have any check-in or check-out policy. As has been said, flexibility is the answer. We even have a hammock in the garden for 7am arrivals.