I don’t want to stay overnight due to personal circumstances. Would it be a problem for the hotel if we checked into a city hotel, checked out late at night a few hours later, and repeated this every time? Of course, we’d pay the accommodation fee for two people. Wouldn’t it be too obvious and make the front desk staff uncomfortable?

I’m Saito♪, a column writer. Luxury hotels keep detailed records of every guest. I use hotels more as a place to spend time, so sometimes I don’t stay overnight, and other times I have housekeeping come in several times. I imagine the front desk and staff see me as “the guy who always brings a different woman.” Even if it’s a luxury hotel, to me, it’s a love hotel.

This is Column Writer Hindsight Joe. Even if a hotel is merely categorized as an upscale city hotel, there’s always a certain demand from couples in complicated situations. Naturally, they’re regarded as important customers, so a decent hotel professional would never look at them coldly. That said, quite a few clowns work at newer foreign-affiliated hotels—especially late at night. Also, because of security measures these days, it can surprisingly take a while to leave the hotel late at night, and I get the impression that plenty of hotel staff don’t know how to guide guests through the process properly.

Maezawa from the Corporate Planning Office here as well. I’m not familiar with the hotel industry, so I can’t say for sure, but as long as the hotel has received the room charge, it seems like it makes no difference to them when you check out. (They probably wouldn’t clean the room until the following afternoon anyway.) If nothing changes for the hotel, I don’t think they’d have any reason to dislike it. At most, the front desk staff might think, “They’re checking out at this hour?” but even that doesn’t seem like a big deal. On the contrary, once the hotel staff recognize you as a regular, it can become more like your usual place and easier to use. Even when there are no rooms available, they might say something like, “Are you Mr./Ms. ○○? We’re fully booked at the moment, but please wait a moment,” and arrange a room for you. I don’t know whether they can do this because some guests who made reservations don’t show up, or because they keep spare rooms available in case of double bookings. But sometimes, if you call around 8 p.m., they’ll arrange a room for you even when the hotel is supposedly full. Of course, there are other regular guests too, so if a room has already been given to someone else, you may not be able to stay despite the hotel being familiar with you.

I’m Paper Airplane, a male member. I don’t think it would be a problem. I can’t stay overnight either, so I usually use the hotel until late at night. If you’re registered as a member under the appropriate name, I think they’ll accommodate you. That said, once the girl gets used to you, she may well think, “I wish he’d spend the money he’s saving on the hotel on me instead.” So why not give her the hotel money and let her stay wherever she wants? “With the change, I was able to buy a dress…” P.S. Late-night checkout I’m not a big fan of foreign-owned hotels either, but some high-end Japanese hotels have such strict security that you can’t even take the elevator without a room key. At hotels like that, late-night checkout takes practically one second. They’ll also bring your car around to the front at the same time, so you can get straight into it without waiting at all. (It makes efficient use of your time.) Just like in overseas hotels or a Bond movie, you get out at the front desk, leave the car there, and then glide smoothly away on your return… And then you hurry home as fast as possible, anxiously praying, “Please let everyone be asleep…”