Travel Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for road warriors and seasoned travelers. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Typical scenario: I arrive by air very early and will be too tired to sightsee something in the city. I just want to go to sleep. How can I pick a hotel that allows early check-in (noon at least)?
On Booking.com I didn't find such a filter.
Do such engines exist at all?
No such tool currently exists as of 2017. However it should be trivial to write a small bot that would parse Hostelworld/Booking.com listings and spit out the options sorted by check-in time. If someone writes such a tool or creates a web service this answer will be updated.
Hotels in general don't allow early check-in for the general public. So since it's not a widely available option, you won't find it on search engines and web sites.
Early check-in does exist, but it is usually granted as a favor, to regular clients, members of the higher tiers of the loyalty card, etc. I was recently in Japan (where hotels are notorious to start check-ins at 13:00 or 14:00), and arrived at 6:30. By 8:00 I was at my hotel, and by 08:30 I was in bed.
Unless you have a membership with a hotel chain, forget about early check-ins. If you want to go to bed as soon as you arrive, book the hotel room from the day before your arrival, and let the hotel know you will arrive in the morning. Then you can go to bed ASAP.
