How to Get Your Hotel Stay to a Good Start

Every day millions of Americans stay in hotels and motels all over the world. Some travel for business, others for pleasure, some just want somewhere to stay for the night. Staying in a strange place can be a little hard especially if it was your first time staying in the hotel. However, there are ways to make your stay easy for both yourself and the hotel.

Reservations.

Hotels have only so many rooms of a certain type. Many times, that hotel would get filled up by holiday travelers, people going to a convention, or other stuff. If you need a room, you must try to get one as soon as possible. You must make a reservation as soon as you find out you are going and find out what kind of room you have.

You could go to the Internet where the prices are cheapest but you have to be careful to make sure you get the right type of room. Travel agencies are the same way. I know that you trust your travel agencies, you probably fish with your travel agent or go to the same school but even your travel agents could make mistakes with your reservation. You can negotiate over the phone with the hotel itself for the lowest possible rates.

So for your benefit as well as the hotel's, call the hotel itself and ask them to confirm your room. Also ask if they allow certain things like pets or smoking in those rooms. Some hotels won't accept any pets because of allergy concerns. They would be happy to do that since it will make everything easier.

There are other ways to make reservations. One of them is of course calling the hotel itself. When you call the hotel, please call from the late mornings to the early afternoons. That is before most people check in and yet after everyone checked out. Check the time zones so that you know what time it was in the hotel when you call them. You can also call the main reservations branch of the hotel. Their job is to make reservations for the various hotel branches all around the world and they would not be distracted by anything else.

When you make reservations, please make your reservations in a quiet place. If you have a cell phone, make sure that the connection is good. You must be able to talk to the person so you can give your information. Please have your credit card information, times of arrival and departure at hand. Hotels need information to make the reservation. Even if they have the information from a past stay, there are safeguards protecting your credit card information so the hotel people still need the credit card information for the reservations.

You must also get information about your reservation. Have a pen and paper ready to write down this information. Get a confirmation number, any directions that could be helpful in finding the hotel, information on the hotel itself, and even information about local restaurants that you can eat either before you show up at the hotel or afterwards. A confirmation number is the unique number that marks your reservation, it helps you in case you need to make changes to your reservation, cancelling your reservation, or even confirming your reservation.

If you are going to show up early or late, please call the hotel. If you are going to show up early for any reason, there could be a room available already and you can check in. Sometimes, there would be a slow day before, so you could take a ready room or that clerk could make sure that your room would get ready. Just make sure that you call a couple of hours ahead.

If you are going to going to be late and you call ahead, that clerk would be able to hold your room until you can show up. Remember, hotels are a business, if people don't show up, that room remains empty and the hotel does not make any money.

Getting Ready

Packing for your trip is important. If you are bringing your cell phone and cell phone charger, make sure you write your telephone number and address on the charger. Many people had left their chargers behind and never came back to return them. You must also label anything else that is important to you, like your medicine or electronics.

To save money on eating out, you can bring food with you. If there is a microwave or a refrigerator, you can go to a local grocery store and buy some cheap instant food and take it with you. Make sure you find out if the hotel has a pool or a gym so that you can bring the appropriate stuff to wear. Bring your own garbage bag to hold all of your dirty clothes and if you are planning to buy souvenirs, leave some empty space or bring a small duffle bag in your luggage.

If you need to wake up at a certain time, use your cell phone as an alarm or bring your own. The hotel alarms could be confusing to use and when you leave, the alarm would still be going off angering the other guests.

Double check all items to make sure that you have everything, both before you go on your trip and just when you are about to leave.

Showing Up

Okay, after you traveled to your hotel, you must get through the process of checking in. When you check in, if you have only a piece of luggage with you, just bring it in, if not, leave it in your car until you are fully checked in and you have your room.

Right after you get out of your car, write down your license plate number or take a picture on your cell phone. Front desk clerks need that information just in case you left your headlights on, something happened to the car, or if something really bad happened to you. If you are renting a car, most rental places keep the license plate number on the keychain so look at that.

When you show up at the front desk, please be nice to the front desk person. The front desk clerk is human; the front desk person has feelings like every other person who is programmed to be extra nice to complete strangers even if they are real jerks. The front desk clerk is also responsible for most of your comforts and knows the area well. So, treat the front desk clerk with respect.

Make sure you get the room you wanted and if you need them, ask for specifics like if you want your room at the end of the hallway or in the middle near the elevator. If they don't have them, don't blame them unless you called ahead asking for them.

When you are checking in, get your ID out and ready for that clerk to see and copy for their records. That clerk will ask for your ID, especially if you are going to pay cash.

The most important thing to do on any hotel stay is to have fun and to keep a positive outlook. Remember to be prepared for anything and your hotel stay will be great.