Time of checkout and payment at hotels [duplicate]

Booking Nights

Hotels count the nights you spend rather than the days. A night is defined as the time period between hotel check-in and check-out times and, whilst this is often less than 24 hours, it will inevitably span over a calendar-night.

Check-in Times

In general each hotel decides its own check-in and check-out times. There is no unique rule. However you can safely assume that check-in will be in the afternoon, and check-out will be in the morning before 12. This is to allow for the room to be cleaned between two occupancies.

You can however ask the hotel for early check-in and late check-out should you need it. This will most certainly come at a cost which should be less or equal to paying one extra night. On the other hand, if all you need is a place to store your luggage, you can vacate the room on time and ask the hotel to store your bags. This is usually free. Luggage storage facilities can also be used should you arrive before check-in time.

Your Reservation

In your case, a reservation with an arrival time of 05:00 and departure at 16:00 the next day will span 2 calendar-nights, but three hotel-nights because 16:00 is after standard hotel check-out times. Hence, assuming you need the room until 16:00, you would be paying for three nights, unless you negotiate a better deal with the hotel. You mention that you have no time to negotiate this over email, hence I would advise you to book for two night, and ask about late check-out once you are there.

Inform the Hotel about your Late Check-In

On a different note, because you are arriving very late I would suggest to inform the hotel to avoid your reservation being cancelled due to a no-show.