Can you skip your hotel checkout?

Hotels are offering more checkout methods than ever. Experts say the “right” one is mostly up to you. To check out of the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans in August, Cameron Sperance planned to leave the key in the room and bolt.

His mother preferred a more genteel exit strategy. “She’s definitely of the generation that goes to the desk and does a line-item review,” said Sperance, 35, a senior hotels reporter at the Points Guy. “I’ll forget to check out and make my way to the airport as quickly as possible.

” Today’s hotel checkout practices are shaped by personal and generational preference as well as the pandemic, which accelerated the industry’s move towards a more contactless experience. Depending on your accommodations , you might check out by informing the front desk, using a mobile device or the guest room TV, depositing the key in an express checkout box, or just departing with the key in your room or forgotten in your pocket..