Can You Sleep In Hotel Parking Lot? – (The Truth)

Hotels often have rather substantial parking lots. As a result, a lot of people will wonder whether they are allowed to sleep in a hotel parking lot or not. On this page, we want to give the definitive answer to this question.

Can You Sleep In Hotel Parking Lot? No, you are not allowed to sleep in hotel parking lot. If you sleep in the hotel parking lot, then you are taking precious car parking spaces away from the customers of the hotel.  However, we do know that there are some hotel parking lots that have RV parking. In the vast majority of cases, you are not actually going to be allowed to sleep in the RV.

Instead, you will have to sleep inside of the hotel. The RV parking is there just for your convenience rather than anything else.

Can You Sleep in a Hotel Parking Lot?

No. It was somewhat of a blunt answer, but it is the truth. Hotels are businesses where, you know, you have to pay to actually sleep there. The last thing they want is to have somebody skipping out on paying and spending time in the hotel parking lot instead.

What’s more, the parking lot is for the paying customers of the hotel.

Again, this is something which the hotel really isn’t going to be a massive fan of you doing.

If that wasn’t enough, you also have to remember that in some states, it is completely illegal to sleep in your vehicle too.

So, not only do you have to be fearing the wrath of the hotel parking lot owner, but you are also going to be dealing with a rather irate police officer at some point too.

Sleeping in a hotel parking lot is one of those cases where you really will not be able to just let things slide either. We know that there are some parking lots around where, if you keep yourself to yourself, nobody is really going to be complaining all that much.

This is not going to be the case with a hotel parking lot. Not by a long shot. These places are regularly inspected because they care about the safety of their patrons.

If you are caught sleeping in your vehicle, then they will come down on you pretty hard.

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What Will Happen if You Sleep in a Hotel Parking Lot?

You are going to be asked to leave. It won’t be long before somebody reaches your car and tells you to leave too. In fact, we doubt that you will spend more than a few minutes in the vehicle before you are asked to leave.

👉 The thing is that the security guards that watch over hotel parking lots are actually trained to keep an eye out for people that shouldn’t be there.

If they see a car that shouldn’t be there, or they fail to see somebody leave the vehicle once it has arrived, then they will check to see what the issue is.

Even if there is not a security guard watching over the hotel parking lot, we are certain that there will be somebody in the hotel that is keeping an eye over things. Long story short, you probably are going to be spoken to.

👉 If you leave, then that is fine. The hotel will not be happy with you, but at least you are leaving and that will be the end of it. However, if you decide to cause a commotion at the hotel parking lot, then the police will arrive.

You are now trespassing and, of course, this has the potential to lead to a criminal record.

Honestly, you are better off not parking in a hotel parking lot. The hotels, even the cheaper ones, are always going to be super tough about who is parking on their territory.

This means that there is no way you will be able to stay there for long. If you do cause an issue, then it may also lead to a criminal record. It simply is not worth it in any situation. 

👉 Yes. We know that there are some people that seem to have been able to park in hotel parking lots without any issues. However, we can assure you that these people are going to be the minority. They are an exception to the rule. Nearly every story that we read talks about people being forcibly removed from the parking lot.

Read also: Average RV Park Rates: Nationwide Campgrounds Prices per Night

Is Sleeping in a Hotel Parking Lot Safe?

Let’s assume that you did, somehow, manage to get into a hotel parking lot and sleep without anybody knowing. Is it going to be a safe place to sleep, or should you be fearing things when you are snoozing in the middle of the night?

Well, for the most part, hotel parking lots are going to be pretty secure. Because the hotel really does not want the items of their patrons stolen (it would result in some rather bad TripAdvisor reviews!), they tend to ensure that the security is as tight as possible.

Obviously, this is the reason why ti is unlikely that you will ever be allowed to sleep in the hotel parking lot to begin with.

Basically, you will be safe there. The items in your vehicle are going to be safe there too. However, in the grand scheme of things, this is something that is never going to matter all that much to begin with, simply because you will never be allowed to park in that hotel parking lot at all.

People that are sleeping in the parking lot are exactly the reason why there is going to be high security anyway!

Read also: Can You Sleep In McDonald’s Parking Lot? (The Truth)

Alternatives to Sleeping in a Hotel Parking Lot

Obviously, the hotel is going to be your best bet. They have been built for sleeping, after all.

If you cannot afford to stay in the hotel, then you may want to look up the laws for the state that you are in. There is a small chance that you may be allowed to park at the side of the road somewhere. As long as you are not bothering anybody, then this may be allowed to slide.

However, do bear in mind that if you just pull up the vehicle in the middle of nowhere, you will still be at the risk of crime.

Of course, if you have an RV, then look for the nearest campsite. You will be surprised at how affordable many of these RV campsites are if you are planning to stay only one night.

Of course, you also have the benefit of these RV campsites actually allowing you to sleep there overnight! They should be pretty safe too, as long as you are not choosing a sketchy RV campsite in the middle of nowhere, of course.

Read also: Where Can You Legally Live in an RV? (Incl. 10 Examples)

Conclusion

You cannot park in a hotel parking lot unless you have express permission to park there, which you are not going to get because the hotel is a business.

This is one of those situations where you are pretty much guaranteed to be removed from the hotel parking lot.

This is because there is no way the hotel will want people sleeping in their parking lot, mostly because they want to ensure that no crime ends up happening.

References

https://www.justlanded.com/english/United-States/Articles/Travel-Leisure/Parking