CHECK IT OUT

China loosens 12pm-or-else hotel checkout policy

By Wang Xinyuan

The China Travel and Hotel Association (CTHA) posted a press release on its website Friday officially revising its rigid checkout policy. Now instead charging guests a half-day rate if they check out after 12pm, hotels are free to set their own policies. But "they must clearly indicate the room rate and the checkout time in an eye-catching location in the lobby or confirm that the guests are well informed through appropriate ways."

"CTHA should not and I don't think that it's necessary for CTHA, a national association, to stipulate the checkout time for all hotels," Zhang Ruigang, president of CTHA, said in the press release.

The old rule was made in 1981 and "in alignment with international practice," though long prior to that most hotels in North America and Europe had flexible checkout policies.

"We have accommodated 1.7 billion people over the 30 years since China's reform and opening up, and we haven't received any complaints from hotel customers about the checkout policy," Zhang said.

The guideline is just an instructive document for the industry that is not legally binding, said Yin Zhongli, a lawyer at Beijing Junyong Law Firm. In other words, members are free to set their own checkout times and policies unless told otherwise.

The significance of the modification is that it explicitly allows its hotel members to establish their own checkout policies and provide differentiated services to consumers and thus let them have more options in choosing hotels, Qiu Baochang, a lawyer at Beijing Huijia Law Firm said.

Different hotels, different practices

Even under the original rigid rules, many hotels adopted flexible checkout policies if guests notified the front desk in advance.

Ctrip.com, a leading consolidator of hotel accommodations and airline tickets in China, initiated a late checkout campaign from June through August with hundreds of hotels nationwide. The campaign was just intended to help hotels to win more customers during the economic downturn and off-seasons, but some doubted that late checkouts might be maintained during peak seasons.

Many well-known five-star hotels in Beijing said that they have already extended the checkout time to 2pm without charging any additional fees before the new guidelines.

Grand Skylight CATIC, a five-star hotel said that their checkout time has been 2pm since August 8, 2008 when the Olympics Games started.

The front desk service of Chang An Grand Hotel told the Global Times that the normal practice is checkout before 12pm, however, they can also accommodate guest's special requests.

Another five-star Swissotel Beijing said that they began the new checkout policy recently and half-day rate will be added to the bill for checkout later than 2pm.

"We have changed our checkout time from 12pm to 2pm, but our guests should not check out after 3pm at the latest," said Li, working at the front desk of Fairy Land Hotel, a four-star hotel in southeast of China, Fujian Province.

Extending checkout times are more popular with the four and five-star hotels, but some small hotels or inns are still rigid about the policy.

"Our checkout policy here is 12pm, half-day rate will be charged if guests check out after that," said the receptionist at Dongxing, a small inn located in Chaoyang District, Beijing. "Most of our guests stay long, and very few stay just for a night, so we don't care about the new rules."

Consumer's response

"It's a good thing for the consumers. If checkout is before 12pm, I'll have to take my luggage going to lunch," said a hotel guest surnamed Zhang at the Intercontinental Hotel, a five-start hotel in Beijing.

"I don't care too much about it," another guest surnamed Zhao told the Global Times.

Some web surfers expressed their opinion online at sina.com that deletion of the checkout timing in the guideline is absolutely good news and that 2pm checkout timeline is appropriate.

Some Internet visitors said that it's fair to calculate the fees based on hourly rate after 12pm.

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