A short memo caught my eye to United Airlines flight attendants from its union. Apparently, some flight attendants are not checking out of layover hotels and some may even be running up charges for incidental purchases and not settling them. It’s an important reminder that we all should check out of hotels rather than just depart.
Union To United Flight Attendants: Check Out Of Your Hotel And Settle Bill For Incidental Charges
A November 15, 2022 memo to flight attendants lays out the issue:
Section 5.B.4. of our Contract establishes our responsibility to check into and out of our layover hotels. Given the, at times, shorter layovers, or last-minute reassignments, overlooking check out is something that can happen unintentionally. Nevertheless, this is something that we must all collectively make a priority as part of maintaining United’s relationship with these hotels. Based on this check-out requirement, Flight Attendants are not required to provide a credit card for room service or in-room telephone calls at check-in.
When checking out, settle all charges incurred during your stay, including telephone calls or room service charges and request a receipt. This is an excellent way to ensure that erroneous charges have not been applied, in error, to your room folio during the course of your stay.
From this, it is not a stretch to say that some flight attendants were likely abusing the contractually-negotiated privilege of not having to provide a credit card at check-in. I’ve stayed at hotels like this before (all outside the USA): you check in under a prepaid rate, are told that any incidentals will be charged at checkout, and then essentially can order room service, dine in the hotel restaurant, or use other hotel amenities just by signing for them.
If you leave without checking out, there is a problem because (in the flight attendant case) your employer has only agreed to pay for the room and therefore the hotel faces a quandary: try to charge the airline, go after the flight attendant, or write it off. The increasing answer is that hotels are not even allowing for such arrangements any longer.
This story resonated with me not because I have the ability to effectively dine and dodge, but because I have to admit, I’ve neglected to check out lately on several recent stays. Typically, if I am at a Hyatt and leave ahead of the 4:00 pm checkout deadline, I will leave open my option to return just in case of an unforeseen delay. Then I forget to actually check out.
When you skip checkout as a regular consumer, your credit card is simply charged for any remainder on the hotel bill at some point after checkout. That’s where you can create a headache for yourself. In my case, a hotel I recently stayed at failed to remove breakfast (a Globalist benefit). That then took time out of my day to call the hotel and to get the charge reserved (it actually took two calls).
So I now make it a point to always check out and review my bill in-person when not available on a hotel app. You should too.
CONCLUSION
Flight attendants at United have been reminded, by their union no less, to ensure they check out of a hotel when leaving and settle any charges. But this is an important reminder for all of us: sometimes long lines may seem like a deterrent, but that time spent will be less than correcting a mistake after the fact.
Do you bother to check out of hotels when departing?
image: weariwandered / Instagram
very nice and helpful
“not because I have the ability to effectively dine and dodge”
Isn’t that something we all technically have the ability to do?
At most places, yes, but at hotels they have your credit card number on file.
I’ve negotiated dozens if not hundreds of airline crew hotel contracts and in every case, the hotel will eventually send unpaid incidental invoices to the airline. This is usually also a contract provision in most crew contracts. Our policies were usually to request the crewmember to settle the invoice directly with the property and if they failed to do that (or provide justification to challenge the charges) within a reasonable timeframe, it would be handled as a payroll deduction and we would pay the hotel off.
This used to be a bigger problem in years past (pre-cellphones with affordable roaming) when telephone charges used to be the bulk of the incidentals charged. We were usually able to negotiate free toll-free calls back then (to the calling card access numbers – oh dear, I’m really showing my age now!). Since the pandemic though, in-room dining charges saw a significant spike – especially at properties where complimentary breakfast buffets that crew were used to were replaced by boxes of random stale things left outside your door and crew would then order a-la-carte breakfasts that were not inclusive in the rate.
Yep, I was going to say Sean, this resonates as a common occurrence. I bet United always got billed by the hotel or hotels involved . The question really is, does United ever bills the unions or do they directly go after the F/A’s? By the looks of this, it’s something that happens more often than not.
Matthew, are you glob-lite? If not you have a concierge, let them deal with the hotel bill issues.
I am. I have no concierge and will not next year either.
“safety professionals”/pretty thieves/drug smugglers.
If I have inclusions, I’ll call from the room to make sure they are correct or just check the folio on the tv. Otherwise, I just leave.
Why stand at the desk or in line to get to the desk?
I always give my key and key packet with room number to the desk/ side desk if there is a line. That way they know the room is vacant for housekeeping and they don’t have to physically check the room.
Meh. Most of the hotels I stay at as a crew member look at my top tier status with their hotel and pretty much don’t give a crap.
Yeah. I know. Contract rate is the excuse the hotel uses to ignore your status and loyalty to their brand. I am literally a ghost in the hotel. No breakfast, no lounge access, no water bottles, Pretty much nothing.
Leaves me sour. The hotel knows exactly what time I checked out. Exactly what time my van was. They can check me out just fine.
Cheap. Should treat their flight attendants better.
I always check out and ask for both a printed and emailed final bill showing a zero balance. Two months ago I stayed at a Le Meridien and was surprised to see multiple charges for room
service and bar tabs charged to my room. I don’t drink and I never use room service. I wasn’t making much progress convincing the front desk those weren’t my charges until a work colleague and his wife walked up and confirmed that I was pretty much with them the whole stay (this was a work retreat, and our meals were catered). Eventually Le Meridien removed the charges before I departed, but explained that to do so they had to wipe out any trace that I had stayed at the hotel at all. So, Marriott has no record of that stay. Bizarre.