What does it mean to "Check In" even if your Rooms is not Ready?

[devotedchristian]

We are staying at Marriott Grande Vista. They sent me a confirmation with a really nice brochure of their property.

It says Check In at 4:00pm.

If we arrive at 8am in the morning, can we still check in...even if they rooms are not ready?

We want to enjoy the Resorts Amenities.

Do you still check in even if your room is not available?

 

[U2_rocks!]

Most hotels will check you in, except that they won't be able to give you your key yet. Most will store your luggage, and may let you use the pool. They aren't required to do this, but many do as a courtesy. I have no idea how flexible Grande Vista will be - hopefully someone else who's tried to do that at that resort will be able to tell you. If you can't officially check in but they'll keep your luggage for you, then let them, and take off for the day and enjoy yourself, and come back in the afternoon!

 

[Detailor]

We arrived at Grande Vista around 1 pm a couple of weeks ago knowing that we'd likely not be getting into a room until around four - we had lunch plans at BoardWalk anyway. They took care of the formalities - taking a credit card for resort purchases, discussing room location, gave me the resort map and a parking card, told me where we'd be parking, gave me an interim card to use to charge purchases to our room and described the various resort features that we could use (essentially everything that is available to all checked-in guests). We didn't discuss holding luggage (had plenty of space in the SUV) so I don't know if they do that. They also took my cell phone number so they could call when the room was ready. We were still at BoardWalk when they called around 3:30. When we got back to Grande Vista I went back to reservations and got my key cards. Nice process that seems to rid the resort of having huge lines at registration from 3:00 to 5:00.

Dick Taylor

 

[bearzabout]

Some resorts will allow you early access to a room, but only if they have a room that has already been cleaned. On nights where the resort was full the night before, there is no chance of this. During the off season, they may have a unit that was empty the night before that they can move you to very early in the day.

Some resorts (like Cypress Pointe) will not allow you to even fill out the paperwork before noon. They are too busy with check outs. Others don't mind.