What Is Early Departure Fee: Charges You Must Know About

You booked a hotel room for a week for a vacation. But something came up so now you have to leave after a couple of days. 

After billing, you find out that you were charged extra. It is listed as an early departure fee.

So what is early departure fee exactly?

An early departure fee is a fee charged for checking out before the scheduled time. Many people try to take advantage of long-term booking. This fee stops that. But you don’t have to pay this fee if you prepaid for the nights earlier. Letting the hotel know beforehand might help you avoid this fee.

So now you know about how the early departure fee works. But if you want to know more, we prepared a detailed article for you.

So, Let’s dive Right In!

What Is Early Departure Fee Exactly? 

Traveling sure is exciting. And whenever you travel, hotels are a must. Be it yellowstone or the grand canyon, a good hotel stay will make the trip much more enjoyable.

If you plan a long trip, you are most likely to book the hotel for several days. But there could be a change of plan or you might have to return early. 

That will require you to check out early from your hotel room. And that’s where the early departure fee comes in.

So, what is early departure fee in a hotel?

Early departure fee is basically a fee charged to you if you decide to check out a few days early 

It is essentially a revenue management system that tackles the evasion of restrictions that is applied to short-term bookings.

Why Do Hotels Charge Early Departure Fees?

Now you might think, why do hotels charge early departure fees?

Early check out fee acts as a deterrent from exploitation. Because people might book more nights to get the associated discounts. And then check out early.

Hotels do not have policies like honor bars because that would be impractical. So they have to use hotel early departure policy to reduce this kind of occurrence.

Generally, if you book a hotel room for more nights, you get some special discounts and privileges for that. And that can attract people to book for longer days and then check out early.

And if that happens, hotels will have a hard time finding customers for the recently emptied rooms.

That will potentially yield loss for the hotel. To prevent that, hotels adopt the early departure fee scheme.

Can Early Departure Fee Be Avoided?

Early check out fee can be avoided. But that won’t actually aid you in any way to save money.

If you pay your whole bill beforehand, then you won’t be charged anything extra for leaving early.

Because when prepaid occurs, you already have paid for all the days you were supposed to stay. So there isn’t any loss factor for the hotel.

And when you’ve paid earlier, then you don’t necessarily need to check out.

You can just not return, and check out over the phone later. Most hotels will automatically check you out after a certain amount of time.

Moreover, if you have paid fully earlier then you might inquire about a refund or discounts. Because the hotel can use the availability of the room and rent it out if you left 2-3 days early.

Therefore, it’s worth a shot that you ask for any potential discount or credits.

Another thing, if you have some sort of membership from the hotel due to visiting it often then you might get waived early departure fee. 

Many hotels offer this to their membership owner customers. It is better to check in your renting agreement if there is anything mentioned about the fees.

What Should You Do To Avoid Early Departure Fee?

Early departure fees can be an inconvenience. As there might be an unwanted emergency that we can not foresee.

So what could you do if you wanted to avoid giving the early check out fees? Let’s check out the possibilities:

1. Plan Ahead As Much As Possible

Well, the best way to deny it is to just avoid it. If you can plan a few weeks early and make a detailed overview of a plan chances are that you should have a pretty planned trip.

And yes you can not ensure that everything will always go according to plan, but planning ahead will leave options for you.

Therefore, if any situation arrives you might have a backup plan. And enjoy your stay to the full extent.

2. Notify The Hotel Beforehand

You have understood by now that the reason hotels charge for early check out is that it could result in a loss for them.

But if you can notify them earlier about your early departure after booking, they might consider a waived early departure fee.

Because knowing earlier will let them tidy up the room sooner. And they can easily rent out the room again as available.

3. Paying In Advance

Paying in advance doesn’t necessarily mean that you’d be able to get your money back.

You could use avis pay now or pay later to make advances.

But it might get you some extra privilege while checking out. For starters, you wouldn’t need to notify in person while checking out. As you have paid in advance you can just leave.

And later notify them over the phone or email.

If you could inform the hotel beforehand then they might reconsider the hotel early departure policy for you.

As they know that they will get your full payment and also can rent out the room early. 

So the hotel might let you enjoy a better stay than you paid for. You could get a better room and get back a large portion worth of your money back.

4. Searching For Hotels With A More Lenient Policy

You should remember that not all hotels will charge you for leaving early. The problems caused by leaving early are mainly for busy ones.

But there are hotels that do not have an early departure policy.

You have to go through the hotel booking policies to know if this hotel charges for leaving early or not.

After finding the right hotel that doesn’t charge this fee, you can choose to stay there.

Hopefully, these tips will help you have a better traveling experience in the future.

FAQs

Can You Book A Hotel Room Without ID?

Yes, you can book a hotel room without an ID. And the booking can be paid with just credit card information. But while checking-in most hotels require Id for security purposes.

Can You Book A Hotel For A Guest Using Their Credit Card Information?

Yes, most hotels will allow you to use a guest’s name and separate billing address for hotel booking. But there will be checking while checking in the hotel. And if the person checking in doesn’t totally match with the reservation information, they could suspect fraud and cancel the reservation.

Can You Add Or Change The Name To A Hotel Reservation?

Yes, you can surely add or change a new name as long as you have reserved the rooms. And as the rooms are booked by paying earlier, you have the freedom to add any name to your hotel reservation.

Wrapping up

As we reached the end, we hope this article helped you know better about traveling. And you got to know what is early departure fee. 

These tips should help you in making trip plans in the future. And they contribute to making your stay at a hotel more enjoyable.

Until then, see you!