I'm planing a day's visit to Minsk on 19th June. I arrive at 6.30am on the sleeper from Warsaw and depart at 10pm the same day on the sleeper to Moscow. However the train times mean that I will cross the border from Poland just before midnight (i.e. on the 18th), and cross the border into Russia just after the following midnight (i.e on the 20th). As a UK passport holder, this means I cannot use a transit visa which only allows two consecutive calendar days in Belarus. (Some people have suggested I could get away with a transit visa as my passport won't be checked on the outward journey, but I'm not keen to risk that.)
The extra cost of a tourist visa is not a problem, and my travel agents say I can get a letter of invitation if I book a cheap hotel room. As I've already got accommodation sorted (on the sleeper), I won't set foot in the hotel, so I can get something really cheap, regardless of how dodgy or inconveniently located it is. However my travel agent has now warned me that failing to check in / out of the hotel will invalidate my visa. This seems unlikely to me. Can anyone advise me?