Mirage--Early Check In?

We will be arriving at the Mirage this Friday around 11:00 a.m. I would really like to check in right away and get settled, as we plan to hit up the pool right away. Have they been allowing folks to check-in early, or should I purchase the $30 early check in to make sure? FWIW--we are Mlife Gold members.

Thanks

 

Almost all hotels have a magic 3-4pm checkin rule.

In reality, almost all hotels will give you a room if the have one. They really do not want a thousand people showing up at exactly 3pm to get their rooms.

Some hotels,especially in Vegas have been trying to make money by charging for early checkin. The actual practice seems to vary widely.

Being a Friday,they probably have lots of rooms that were empty Thursday night and you should be okay - unless they had some big event and rooms were full, and therefore no clean ones available. Unless i REALLY wanted that early checkin, I would wait to pay after you get there - since you may get it free anyway.

 

I always pay for the guaranteed early check-in.

 

I am Gold as well. I called (3 days ago) and they said that if I wanted to guarantee a 10am check-in, I would need to agree to the upfront $30 fee. However, it can be comped on the back-end easily. If I didn't agree to pay it upfront, early check-in would be based on availability when I arrived. "Courtesy check-ins" begin at 11am IF there are rooms available.

I wouldn't pay it normally, but I have a Fantasy draft to do and need to be in my room on time.

If you don't need to get into your room and just want to go to the pool, I would ask for dead keys to get you into the pool and leave your luggage with the bell desk.

 

I have never had to pay for early checkin. Only place that would not let me check in early was Encore, but that was 3 years ago. This saturday I got to Aria at 9am and checked in. They did not have a room ready but the guy gave me a room key and told me I would get a text with the room number, when it was ready. I got the text around 11 am and went straight up and the keyed worked...worked out smoother than I expected. Last time I stayed at Cosmo and they did that for me, my keys did not work so i had to go all the way back down to the desk.

 

We take the same flight each year. Same check in time. Same hotel (Bally's)
This year I booked over the phone due to web site issue.
They asked what time I will arrive?
They charged an early check in fee for the first time.

 

We paid for the early checkin at Mirage in July and when we went to go checkin there were no rooms available. Wtf was the point of that? I was told they'd call or text when a room was ready. 4 hours later I had to call to find out our room was already ready. I complained and got the charge removed but still...really? Seems like the "guarantee" is only a best case scenario.

 

I'd take the shot of showing up to see if they have something with the chance they wouldn't charge you. If they do charge then just pay then. If nothing is ready then you can just dump the bags at the bell desk and go grab some grub!

 

We always just show up and attempt to check-in. We've never had to wait. That could have been strictly luck, though.

 

Don't pay for it. Just show up early. I've checked in early at The Mirage twice with no issues. Make sure to use the Invited Guests check in too!

 

Last two times at the Mirage, I showed up at 3pm and was told that the room wouldn't be ready until another 3 hours, the first time I also paid for early check-in. I complained and ended up getting comps for the Spa and the Secret Garden. The first time I wanted to buy some food/coffee but I was told they couldn't give me my room number until it was ready, but that I could just use my name. When I went to Starbucks and used my name to charge it to my room, the receipt had the room number on it, so I went upstairs saw that nobody was even cleaning it. So that meant it was either done and cleaned and their text system sucks or it wasn't going to be ready for a long time. When I went back down I asked to speak to the manager and when she double-checked it was ready.
Just last week, a similar situation, I check in at 3pm and I told that it won't be ready until 6pm!!! I tell the guy that's unreal being that there weren't even that many people in line and something must be ready, he goes in the back, comes out and says....'sorry they have the same information back there...' then he checks his computer again and says...'oh wait it just opened up'. Now I was standing at the desk no more than 5 minutes, so being that it takes longer than 5 minutes to clean, that room was ready before i even walked up to the desk. Their messaging system is just plain horrible. Maybe he was waiting for me to slip him a $20

 

over the last 2 years we have been the mirage 7 times, always arrive at 11 am, and always got a room. we usually travel on sunday mon tue , the last time was a sat. for the gaga concert. no problem and no extra fees!!!

 

Of course the room does not take 5 minutes to clean. But, a room that is being cleaned will always show not ready up until the EXACT MINUTE is is then released as clean. So, in this case, they could have already been cleaning it for a half hour or whatever and just called it in as clean. Sometime during that 5 minute time, the supervisor could have entered in that the room was now ready.

With all that said, I would not be surprised if they had no idea what the heck they were doing.