I had a great experience with The Godfrey Hotel during my recent visit to Chicago. You should be able to tell why from the title of this post.
Early Check-In. It was such a simple request but truly made my day. Hotels often only allow check in after 3pm (or even 4pm in some cases now). It always sucks for international travelers with jetlags to try to make it through the day before they can finally rest up.
When I arrived at The Godfrey Hotel, it was only 10am. I was extremely exhausted, especially knowing I got another 5 hours of wait until I can finally touch the bed, so I thought “I’m just gonna ask if I can do an early check-in”. What’s the worst that can happen? It’s an answer NO, right? But guess what, the answer is yes!
Why do I bother to write about this experience? Well, I realized companies are trying to move into automating their systems whenever and wherever they can. Certain automation obviously saves companies big bucks and time. But I wonder, if today I was checking in on a machine instead of speaking to a real human being, will I still be able to get an early check-in? Would that even be an option on the check-in screen?
X Project 52 