Day room access in hotels goes one step further with the introduction of ‘by-the-hour’ rates. Not a novel concept in red light districts for hotels with a reputation for being used for illicit purposes.
But now, some high end hotels are targeting middle-class to affluent business and retail guests offering access to their hotel rooms for a minimum of 4 hours between 9am and 7pm. Perfect for travellers with extended layovers, business people needing a quiet place to work and perfect for locals on a day visit to the city looking for somewhere to relax and change between shopping and an evening out on the town.
Rather than trying to manage the logistics of selling rooms for these short periods they are being serviced by companies set up specifically to help the process. HotelsbyDay.com has established a presence in more than 60 cities with more than 600 3 to 5 star category hotels available. Dayuse.com has 4,000 hotels listed in 22 countries with a three hour booking minimum. This offers hotels a potentially significant boost to their revenue and a service that the likes of industry disruptors such as Airbnb will find difficult to match.
