Hyatt Begins Letting Guests Check In Airline Luggage In Its Lobbies

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts this month began offering guests the ability to check in luggage for their flights at their hotel up to a day in advance of their departure. For a $10 fee per person, Hyatt, through a corporate agreement with Baggage Airline Guest Services, a remote skycap company based in Orlando, Fla., will store, transport and check in up to two pieces of luggage.

Hyatt this month began offering the service at the Hyatt Regency Dallas, and will expand the program to 13 properties—including Boston, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando, San Diego, Seattle and Tampa—by the end of 2006, with more to come in 2007. In doing so, Hyatt joins Walt Disney World Resorts as the only hotel companies offering the Baggage Airline Guest Services feature on such a wide scale of its inventory. Currently, 19 Walt Disney World properties render the service, named Disney Magical Express. In May 2006, Disney extended the original May 2005 contract for another five years.

Until now, Baggage Airline Guest Services' arrangements were mostly one-off deals with single properties, such as its August signing with the Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta or its 2004 deal with the Doubletree Guest Suites in Boston. The Hyatt agreement gives Baggage Airline Guest Services a larger foothold in delivering its services nationally.

Carriers participating in the Baggage Airline Guest Services program are AirTran, American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, Ted and United airlines.

Hotel guests can check in their bags at the hotel from two hours up to 24 hours before departure, which are then checked through to the traveler's final destination. Baggage Airline Guest Services, under the eye of the Transportation Security Administration, bears responsibility for processing the luggage through airport security screening.