B & B charging us EXTRA to check in after 5PM.

No, but I've considered a booking at a B&B that required the check-in before 7pm or the doors would be locked!

Is this condition written on the booking.com website for this B&B? If not, contact Customer Service and see if you can't cancel without penalty and book yourself into somewhere else less restrictive.

I have seen this type of charge listed on a few B&B websites. It is normally a case of a small B&B where the owner/s do not live in the same building. They have already put in a full days works and must leave home/dinner to check you in so they charge to get something for their time and to discourage people from checking in late.

Diane, No, can't cancel. The full amount has been charged on my credit card. If we don't show up, or try to cancel, we forfeit all monies. We just have to deal with our mistake of not reading the fine print - actually it was a few clicks to get to the page that had the "late check in fee".

In our rush to get reservations done, we are at fault. Booking.com can do nothing, they are just a 3rd party. and I'm sure my credit card company can't support us in a refund either.

Yeah, you're hosed. As you know, that's the risk when you don't read the fine print. One thing that you've probably found in Italy is that the customer is NOT always right. :-) Merchants don't generally bend the rules for customers anywhere near the extent that they do in the US. If it's any consolation, the reason they're charging you this fee is probably because they don't staff the front desk after 5 pm so it actually is an inconvenience for them.

In order to avoid having this color your entire vacation, I suggest you take the amount of the late fee and mentally divide it by the number of days you'll be spending in Italy, and then chalk that daily amount up to experience.

Happy travels.

Why do you believe it could be as much as 100 euro? How much is a night at this B&B?

Ask for mercy, explaining that you were forced to fly into Florence and will get to Venice as fast as you can. Offer to pay a reasonable late fee, say 20 euros, for the inconvenience. And subtly remind them of the power of reviews onTripadvisor---good or bad.

As others have said, it's probably because the B and B is not staffed all the time.

My experience in Italy is: Be nice, be very polite, don't start the conversation by complaining. The upside to Italy in my experience is that being polite and nice counts and you may not get charged at all on the day if you are very nice. It may not work, especially in Venice where I feel they don't treat people as well as elsewhere in Italy, but if you start out being very nice and perhaps even apologizing for making them come to the b and b after hours, (and explaining you only just arrived in Florence that day) they may decide to be nice too and not charge. Rules are flexible in Italy and that can work to your advantage. I know this is contrary to our idea of service and I suppose we are more used to complaining and believing the customer is right, but that doesn't matter in the same way in Italy.

If not, hopefully the charge won't break the bank. I would expect it to be far less than 100 euro. I assume you will be communicating in advance with the owners to let them know of your arrival after 5 pm. I would write that correspondence very politely too and see if they come back to you with a late arrival charge. And even if they do, I would still be very polite upon arrival and let them know how happy you are to be in Venice after your long trip. It won't hurt and they may just "forget" to charge you.

This approach has worked in my favour many times in Rome and Florence and Venice too. The less fuss I make and the nicer I am, the better I've been treated. My restaurant bill is often rounded down quite a bit, a table will suddenly become available after my reservation has not been found on the list and there's no room, special desserts offered, and the definition of "family" expanded to include adult sisters and not just the typical nuclear family for admission to events. So try this approach first.

Good luck.

If nothing else you can have the last word by writing a detailed review and leaving it on tripadvisor.com Be sure to inform everyone of this particular B&B's "checkin after 5 fee" policy.

So what if the owners have put in a full day's work...it's called a "JOB". Why do people want to shoot themselves in the foot over annoying policies like this? A late checkin fee is not so bad, but 5pm is not late and 100E is way too steep for a fee.

Tim, would you go back to work if your boss asked you too without being paid for it? That's what you're saying these B&B owners should do. They have a policy that's written on their website. The OP admits she didn't read the cancellation or late check in requirements. She has chosen to fly into Florence and stay at this particular B&B. It's not the owners fault and they shouldn't be penalized. She is guessing that the fee will be 100 euros but doesn't know for sure.

My advice would be to call or email them explaining the situation. They may take pity on you but if not, just mark it down as a lesson learned. I certainly wouldn't threaten them with a bad review on TA, that won't get you anywhere and they can certainly dispute the review and quote the policy that they have in place.

Donna

This B&B has buried a non-standard policy in fine print away from the listing because it is non-standard. A guest at this hotel is entitled to receive service typical of the industry. It's not the poster's fault that she didn't guard against every whacky eventuality, and the poster should not suffer because the B&B owner made the decision to run a hotel from a distance.

it is quite normal for small b&bs, and small hotels for that matter, to have certain hours that various facilities are available. Those are the hours that work for that establishment.

I have a friend who used to own a B&B. He regularly got phone calls late at night asking on no notice for him to go to the airport or train station and collect a guest who was supposed to be checked in by 6pm. They seemed to think that he would just drop everything, get out of bed and dressed and drive 20 minutes. This same poor guy had to be up at 6 to get the fresh bread and rolls for breakfast which he and his wife served from 7:30. It was only the two of them. Only being the 2 of them and only having 3 rooms to rent kept the prices down. If you wanted to get around the clock service you needed to pay more and stay at a place which could afford 24/7 desk staff. Even then the requests to collect them in the middle of the night were pretty outrageous.

When people were upset that he put his foot down they threatened to "expose" him. True story.

We haven't been told the name if the place involved. To make sweeping statements that the check in hours were somehow hidden from view is without knowing facts. To threaten an owner, and encourage a poster to threaten, with crippling reviews unless they "see things my way" is equally odious.

Tell them what your situation is and then see what happens. You catch many more flies with honey than with vinegar.

My father was in business for himself and it is because of "customers" that expected him to be available 24/7 that I never wanted to be in business for myself.

It is not "whacky" to limit your work hours. It may be normal for the hotel business to have a desk open 24/7 but that is not the norm for small B&Bs. A B&B is NOT a hotel.

I'm going to update my post. I contacted the B & B, and I also contacted Booking.com. I've just heard back from both of them that the B & B will NOT charge me a late fee for arriving after 5PM. How wonderful is that? I understand that this is an inconvenience for the owner, and I plan to bring a small token gift to thank her for waiting for us. I will email her with our train reservations so she knows exactly when to expect us (when I can make those reservations next year for May!)

I'm just hoping she can accept copies of our friends passports, and give us the key to our friends room as they arrive 2-3 hours later than we, and I don't want to make the owner stay until 10:30PM. I wrote the owner to see if that would be OK. That way she can go home around 8PM to her family.

Learned an important lesson here - DO NOT RUSH through making reservations, and make sure you click through to all policy information links! I did see that once we made the reservation, there was no chance to cancel, and we paid in full $1400 - but that is for 2 rooms, 3 nights for what looks like a beautiful place, and great location for us.

I'm glad this worked out for you. Trenitalia accepts reservations 4 months in advance, so start checking then.

Italo, the other high speed train starts accepting reservations around the same or even a bit earlier than that. I'm trying to book now for March 20 - as of yesterday I could have booked up to March 19. So it's around the 4 month mark.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.

Donna, I would go to work above and beyond if it were my business and my livelihood. If I had a reputable business I probably wouldn't choose to hide important details and gotcha's in obscure fine print.

Ellen, I'm so glad this worked out for you and thanks for coming back here to update us. How about sharing the name of the B&B now that it's all been sorted out?

For others who find themselves in a similar situation, Shirley's advice to be nice is spot on. Italians seem to be much more responsive to a friendly approach than to intimidating threats. I've been able to get a reservation at a restaurant after initially being told they were full just by being friendly to the person taking the reservations. This works much better in person than over the phone.

Glad to hear that everything worked out in the end. It was great that the B&B owners were willing to be a bit "flexible" with the rules.

I've encountered this situation a few times in the past, with smaller places that don't offer 24-hour service. Their work day ends at 17:00 when they go home to have dinner and spend time with their family, so anything outside of those hours is "overtime" which comes at a higher cost.

Hope you enjoy your stay in Venice.

Happy travels!

The B & B is "Ca' Dei Polo. I do understand that this is not where they live, and for the owner to wait for us to arrive is extremely nice. I honestly do plan to bring a little gift from Colorado as a thank you when we check in.

Ca Dei Polo was rated pretty highly on Booking.com (if one can believe ratings on the internet)

My friend who is traveling with us wanted to look at room photos, and after reviewing lots of options, based on location and then price, Ca Dei Polo met my friends expectations.

There are only 6 rooms at this B & B, so I expect the experience to be nice.....

Tim, when you own your own business then you can say for certain that you would do anything a customer asks of you. Until then you can only argue that you would do anything they asked....I own my own business and try my best to accommodate people but there are certain rules that must be in place or people will simply take advantage of you. This B&B has chosen to charge a fee for those checking in after a certain time... there is nothing wrong with that and if someone doesn't like the policy they don't need to stay there. It's not an uncommon policy and it is in the paperwork for anyone to read.

To the OP, I'm glad you contacted the owners and they agreed to waive the fee. I would contact them again to see if they will be allowed to take a copy of your friends passports. They are required by law to report everyone staying there and may be required to personally check their I.D. You should ask to be certain.

Donna

Donna, I did just that - I've emailed the owner to see if she will accept passport copies for our friends. They arrive 2-3 hours after we do, and I certainly don't want the owner to hang around till 10:30PM! I'm hoping she will agree and accept the copies until the morning when if needed, she can take the originals to copy down the numbers and other info she needs.

I am very happy that the B & B understands our dilema, and has been so gracious waving the late fee.

Ellen, I'm really glad they are working with you on this. Most of the time if you ask politely and tell them your issues they will be glad to help out. The only problem that I can see is that they might not legally be able to take a photocopy from someone who is not actually there to give it to them. I hope they can and that they don't mind verifying it in the morning.

Let us know how the trip goes and how the B&B is. You might want to do a trip report when you return naming the B&B so others might stay there.

Donna