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Enquired into, when one left the hotel (7,3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

checked out

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'enquired' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with communicating as well as being past participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?

'when one left the hotel' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'when' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is located in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found in the answer.
'hotel' could be 'h' (phonetic alphabet) and 'h' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'into' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for checked out that I've seen is " investigated".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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