Flexibility foreign to Spanish hotels

I read with interest Jane Engle’s article on checkout times at American hotels [“Check In or Out at Any Time? Sure, If You Have the Clout or Cash,” Travel Insider, Sept. 4].

It’s not at all flexible in Spain -- check out five minutes after noon and you’re charged for another day.

I lived in Madrid from ’87 to ‘90, and my wife and I visited for a month in 2000. It was this way in the ‘80s and it was this way in 2000. We spent 20 days in the paradores, and twice we listened with interest to American couples screaming at the desk clerk; in both instances they were charged for another day.

DOUG JAMES

Fountain Valley