Leaving bags at a Makkah hotel after checkout is usually possible, but it is a hotel service, not a right, so ask your own hotel before you plan the day around it. Confirm whether it will hold your luggage, until when, and how collection works, then book your departure journey from the hotel at a time that leaves room to collect everything. The car is not a luggage store, so the suitcases should be either with the hotel or with you, never left in a vehicle while you are out.
This guide is for families and small groups whose hotel check-out comes hours before their flight, train or road journey to Madinah, and who want to use the time in between. It covers what the rules say about check-out times, the questions to ask about hotel luggage storage in Makkah, what to keep out of the stored bags, the alternatives and their limits, how to time the collection, and how to book the departure journey with the full load. It does not repeat our guide to Masjid Aisha on checkout day, which covers that one visit in detail; this page is about the luggage itself, whatever you do with the afternoon.
Why leaving bags at a Makkah hotel after checkout is so common
Most departure days in Makkah have a gap. The hotel wants the room back at a fixed time, and the flight, train or long road journey leaves later. The gap can be a few hours or most of the day.
The Saudi Press Agency has reported the Ministry of Tourism’s position on hotel check-in and check-out times: the time from check-in to check-out must not be less than 20 hours, both times must be clearly stated in the reservation document, and facilities may set their own schedules as long as guests receive the full minimum period. It also states that a guest’s late arrival does not change the check-out time in the reservation.
Two practical points follow. Your check-out time is the one written in your reservation, not a general rule someone remembers, so read it. And because hotels set their own times, relatives staying in different hotels may have different check-out times on the same day. Leaving bags at a Makkah hotel after checkout is how most families bridge that gap without carrying suitcases around the city.
What your reservation should tell you
The Ministry of Tourism’s statement of tourists’ rights says guests should receive a copy of the reservation document that includes, among other things, the booking dates, service prices, free and paid services, reservation policies and conditions, and contact details for customer service. It also gives the right to a price list of services in Arabic and English.
That means your reservation and the hotel’s price list are the first places to look for luggage storage. If it is listed as a service, note whether it is free or charged. If it is not mentioned, ask the hotel directly. The same document lists the right to complain to the Unified Tourism Center on 930 if luggage or personal belongings are held for any reason, which is worth knowing but, for most families, never needed.
Hotel luggage storage in Makkah: the questions to ask
Hotel luggage storage in Makkah varies from property to property. Ask these questions by email or at the desk a day or two before check-out, and keep the answers in writing.
- Do you hold luggage for guests after check-out? Do not assume the answer is yes.
- Is there a charge? If so, how is it paid?
- Until what time can bags be collected? Some luggage rooms may close, or be busier at certain times. Ask for the latest collection time on your departure day.
- Who may collect? If one person checks out and another collects, check whether the hotel needs that person named, or needs the tag or reference.
- What do you give us? A tag, a receipt or a reference number. Photograph it.
- Are there items you will not accept? Some hotels may decline valuables, cash, medicines or very large items. Ask.
- Can we use the facilities after check-out? A place to wash and change before a long journey can matter as much as the bags.
- Is late check-out possible? If it is, get the time confirmed. It may be simpler than storage for a short gap.
If you are unsure how to put these to the desk, our guide to asking your Makkah hotel reception for help explains what reception can and cannot do.
What to keep out of the stored bags
Stored suitcases are out of reach until you collect them. Before you hand them over, move everything you need for the rest of the day into one small bag per person.
- Documents. Passports, visas, tickets, the hotel reservation and the transport booking details.
- Money and cards.
- Medicines, with a note of doses for anyone with a chronic condition.
- Phones, chargers and a power bank.
- A change of clothes for the journey, especially before a long flight or road trip.
- Water and anything the children need for the afternoon.
- Anything valuable or fragile. Even when a hotel accepts it, it is safer with you.
If anyone in the party is wearing ihram on the day, or will be, questions about that belong with a qualified scholar. Practically, make sure the clothes each person will travel in are in a bag they can reach.
The car is not a luggage store
It can seem sensible to book a car for the afternoon’s outing, leave the suitcases in the boot and go straight to the airport afterwards. Unless the booking team has agreed a specific waiting arrangement in writing, that plan does not work.
In our planner, a journey is one pickup, one destination and a time. It ends at its destination. Every journey includes a short waiting allowance at the pickup, meant for getting everyone into the car, not for an afternoon. The driver’s day has other journeys, and the car that takes you out may not be the car that brings you back. Luggage storage is not a product we offer. Our guide to whether a vehicle can stay with your group explains why.
So the suitcases stay at the hotel until the departure journey, and the departure journey starts from the hotel.
Other options and their limits
Hotel storage is the usual answer, but it is not the only one.
| Option | How it works | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel luggage room | Bags held after check-out, collected before departure | Opening times, collection queue, whether offered at all |
| Late check-out | You keep the room until later | Must be confirmed by the hotel, with a time |
| Luggage storage at the Grand Mosque | Reported by SPA as free for up to four hours, 24 hours a day | Time limit; for mosque visitors; check current arrangements |
| Leave from the hotel at check-out | No storage needed | Long wait at the airport or station |
| Take the bags on the outing | Bags travel with you | Not practical unless waiting is agreed in writing |
The Saudi Press Agency has reported that the General Authority for the Care of the Two Holy Mosques runs luggage storage at the Grand Mosque, free of charge for up to four hours and open 24 hours a day. It is a service for people visiting the mosque, with a time limit, and it is not a substitute for a hotel luggage room across a whole afternoon. If you plan to use it, check the current arrangements before the day.
Using the time between checkout and departure
Once the bags are with the hotel, the afternoon is yours. Families usually choose one of three shapes.
Staying close. Time at the Grand Mosque on foot, a meal, and back to the hotel for collection. No transport is needed until the departure journey.
One short outing. A single visit, booked as two journeys: hotel to the site, and the site back to the hotel. Our guide to choosing one meaningful Makkah stop helps you pick a site that fits the time. Keep the return well clear of the collection time.
Resting. For older relatives, a quiet afternoon in the hotel lobby may be the best preparation for a long journey. Ask whether the hotel is happy for departing guests to wait there.
Whatever you choose, every journey needs at least 48 hours’ notice before its pickup time and has a minimum booking value equivalent to £40. On Makkah Cabs you pay in full online; payment secures a provisional request, and each journey is booked only when its status reads Confirmed, usually within 1 to 12 hours.
Collecting bags before the airport: timing the pickup
Collecting bags before the airport is the step families most often underestimate. The collection takes time, and the departure journey should not be booked for the minute you walk back into the lobby.
Count back from the airline
Your airline sets the latest time to drop bags and check in. Find it on your ticket or the airline’s own site, and check with the airline which terminal you leave from. Then count back: the airline’s deadline, a generous margin for the drive and traffic, loading time at the kerb, and the time needed to collect the bags. That gives the latest sensible departure pickup. On our live route checks, Hilton Jabal Omar to Jeddah Airport measured about 91 km; we do not quote journey times, which vary too much.
Allow for the collection itself
Ask the hotel how long collection usually takes and whether the luggage room is busy at the time you plan. Set the departure pickup for when the bags will be at the door, not when you start looking for the tag. If one adult collects the bags while another keeps the family together, both know what to do and the pickup is not delayed by a search for people.
Madinah by road, or a train
If you are leaving Makkah for Madinah by road, the journey is long, about 439 km on our route checks, and the same counting applies: the time you want to arrive, the long drive, loading and collection. If you are taking a train, count back from the time the railway operator asks you to be there. Any place that is not in the planner’s popular locations is typed and must be checked in the route summary before you pay.
Booking the departure journey with the full load
A day outing may need only a small car. The departure journey carries everything. Search it with every traveller and every large bag and cabin bag, because the results show only vehicle classes that pass the capacity check for what you enter.
As a guide from our current vehicle classes (examples “or similar”): an Economy car has 4 seats and 2 large bags; a Hyundai Staria has 6 seats and 2 large bags; a Premium SUV such as a Chevrolet Tahoe has 6 seats and 4 large bags; a GMC Yukon XL or Hyundai H1 has 7 seats and 6 large bags; a Toyota Hiace has 11 seats and 10 large bags. On live checks, four adults with four large cases returned only Premium SUV and larger, and five adults with five large cases returned only seven-seat vehicles and larger. Our guide to choosing a car or van for a Makkah journey explains the classes.
For airport journeys, the checkout asks for your flight number; enter the flight you are leaving on. Use the booking notes for practical details, such as that bags will be collected from the hotel’s luggage room just before pickup. Agree where you will meet the car; our guide to a hotel frontage or an agreed meeting place helps you choose.
Adding the collection as a stop in an outing
A common question is whether bag collection can be a stop within a longer journey. A journey can include up to 8 stops in journey order, so in principle an outing could end with a stop at the hotel and continue to the airport. In practice, a stop is a brief call where people get in or out, not time to queue at a luggage room and load a full set of suitcases. The outing vehicle may also be too small for the full load.
For most families, two separate bookings are clearer: the outing returns to the hotel, and a departure journey, sized for everything, leaves the hotel later. Our guide to moving between Makkah hotels with a visit on the same day uses the same thinking for a hotel change.
If the day changes
- A new pickup time. On a paid booking, use “Request a new pickup time” in your account before the current pickup time. It stays pending until the booking team approves it. An approved change carries a £5 rescheduling fee, converted into your booking currency and added to the cash paid to the driver at pickup; a rejected request costs nothing.
- A changed flight. Contact the booking team about the airport journey as early as you can.
- Other changes. Only the time can be changed online. A different pickup place, destination, passenger count or vehicle needs the booking team, or a new booking plus a cancellation request.
- Cancellations. Bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if you cancel. If we or our transport partner cancel, or cannot supply the journey, you receive a full refund for the affected journey. See the cancellation and refund policy.
Worked example: an evening flight after a noon check-out
Farid and Nadia are flying home from Jeddah in the evening with their daughters, Sara, who is fourteen, and Inaya, who is nine. Their hotel near the Clock Tower has a check-out time in the reservation that falls around midday.
Asking the hotel. Two days before, Nadia emails the hotel. It confirms it holds luggage for departing guests without charge, gives the latest collection time for the evening, and says the tag holder must collect. Late check-out is not available that day.
Planning the gap. They decide on the Grand Mosque on foot, lunch, and a rest in the lobby. No outing transport is needed.
Booking the departure. Farid checks the airline’s bag-drop deadline and terminal, counts back with a generous margin, and adds time for collecting the bags. He searches hotel to Jeddah Airport with four passengers, five large bags and three cabin bags. Only seven-seat vehicles and larger appear, and he chooses one. He enters the flight number and adds a note that the bags will come from the luggage room. The booking reads Confirmed the same day.
On the day. At check-out, Nadia moves passports, medicines, chargers and a change of clothes for everyone into two small bags, and photographs the luggage tag. In the afternoon, Farid goes to the luggage room before the pickup time, while Nadia and the girls wait at the agreed meeting point. The driver-assigned email has given them the vehicle registration, and they check it before loading.
Checklist for leaving bags at a Makkah hotel after checkout
- Read your check-out time in the hotel reservation.
- Ask the hotel, in writing, whether it holds luggage after check-out, any charge, the latest collection time and who may collect.
- Ask whether late check-out is possible, and get any answer confirmed with a time.
- Move documents, money, medicines, chargers and travel clothes into small bags that stay with you.
- Photograph the luggage tag or receipt.
- Plan the gap: stay close, one short outing booked out and back, or rest.
- Count back from the airline, train or arrival time to the departure pickup, adding time for collection.
- Book the departure journey at least 48 hours ahead with every traveller and every bag.
- Enter the flight number and add a booking note about the collection.
- Keep nothing in a vehicle unless waiting has been agreed in writing.
- Check the departure journey reads Confirmed.
When the hotel has confirmed its arrangements, enter your hotel and your airport, station or Madinah destination in the Makkah Cabs planner, with your full luggage, and book the departure pickup at the time you have counted back to.