Hotel Staff Reveal The 6 Biggest Mistakes Guests Make During Their Stay

Picture this: You’ve just checked in to your hotel room, whether that’s for a weekend business conference or a week-long vacation. You likely greeted the front desk employee, showed your ID, put down a card for incidentals and headed to your accommodations after a long day of travel.

If that sounds familiar, you’re probably like most guests and don’t give much thought to your overall stay beyond the basics. That said, there are some mistakes you’re probably making when staying at a hotel.

We spoke to front desk employees and managers at hotels across the United States and internationally to see what errors guests make most often. Here’s what you may want to do differently on your next hotel stay:

Not booking directly through the hotel.

It can be enticing to book through third-party travel websites to save money. However, there are a few downsides.

“Booking through third parties takes away more than half of the actions we can do to assist you,” said Chase Christian, director of rooms at 106 Jefferson in Huntsville, Alabama. “Often, we aren’t able to refund a night’s stay if your trip was unexpectedly canceled, you may not receive your loyalty benefits, or the third party charges late fees for last-minute changes.”

These issues are all usually avoidable when booking directly through the property.

To help put it into perspective, here’s how Rhiannon Reynolds, vice president of operations at Innisfree Hotels , explained it: “If a front desk agent has one king view room left and has two guests standing there waiting for their room, one of whom is a loyal hotel brand rewards member who booked direct and the other who booked through Expedia costing the hotel a high commission… who do you think has a better chance of