Hotels By Day: Solves a Problem, Gives Readers Free Day Rooms!

by Gary Leff

A new app and website has publicly launched today which solves a real travel problem.

Hotels By Day lets you book hotel day-use rooms online.

The problem:

  • Day rooms are really hard to book.
  • You usually can’t book them online. I’ve booked them occasionally — the Sofitel Heathrow has day space on its website, but people often get confused and book those rates either for the wrong day or in place of overnight’s which are what they really want.
  • Sometimes you call the chain to book them, sometimes you have to call the hotel directly.

Hotels By Day — website, and both iPhone and Android app — brings the inventory online.

The app uses geolocation to show the day rooms closest to you for booking same-day easily. But it also lets you book them in advance.

These can be really useful off of a long overnight flight, take a shower, take a nap.

Sometimes I wind up with super long layovers, especially connecting internationally on separate tickets, and a hotel is going to be much nicer than a contract airport lounge.

They suggest it’s great for working remotely while on a business trip (a competitor to Regus offices and Starbucks?) or to enjoy a daycation.

Their initial markets, available today, are New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and DC. Next month they will add day rooms at hotels in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, and Fort Lauderdale. Following in the queue are Boston, Charlotte and San Francisco.

They estimate that 11% of rooms that are occupied two nights in a row are available for intra-day bookings due to early check-outs/late check-ins. And that’s the occupied rooms which have this inventory possibility. I love the business model, like Priceline and Uber it takes an underutilized resource and brings revenue to hotels while making a service available to travelers. And it solves a market failure, because it’s hard to book these kinds of rooms now.

And they’re giving away 5 free day rooms in the market of your choice.

  • 3 nights drawn at random from comments on this post
  • 2 nights selected by me from tweets that mention both @garyleff and @HotelsByDay

For avoidance of doubt, I receive no compensation for running this giveaway, I’m just passing along free day rooms to readers.

Enter to win on this blog.

  • Answer the question in the comments to this post: What would you use a hotel day room for?
  • Since three day rooms are being given away out of the comments, you may enter up to three times if yo have different uses for a day room.
  • Contest is open until Noon eastern time on Friday, February 13.
  • Winners (1 day room each) will be drawn with the help of random.org

Enter to win on Twitter.

  • Follow @garyleff and @HotelsByDay
  • Tweet what you would do with a day room booked through the site/app. Your tweet must mention both @garyleff and @HotelsByDay to be eligible.
  • You may enter twice if you wish, because two day rooms are being given away in this fashion.
  • Contest is open until Noon eastern time on Friday, February 13.
  • I will select the winners (1 day room each) from tweets that (in my sole opinion) express great uses for the rooms/app.

Check out Hotels By Day and their Android and iPhone apps. I’ve download the Android app, it’s something I want handy on my phone for my travels. Readers get free day rooms. I’ll pay for mine. 🙂 Getting commenting and tweeting!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. A day room would be super awesome when I’m traveling and have a long layover. Just being able to nap and shower would make all the difference.

  7. I would use a dayroom for when I book a red-eye from the California to the East Coast and I’m making my kids go to school the next morning!

  8. A place to rest and freshen up after a long international flight if my actual destination is well outside the area, ie before a long car/train ride.

  12. I could see using this as an alternative to Starbucks or Regus. Easier because I won’t have to worry about locking up my laptop when I need to use the loo.

  17. Looks great. Too bad that the app is not available for download at Google Play outside the USA.

  26. Intriguing, depending on the cost compared with other options and the check-in and check-out time. Possible work place.

  27. I often book red-eye flights to the east coast or early morning arrivals for west coast dinner meetings (to counter delays or travel interruptions) and it would be much nicer to have a day room over showering at the lounge and napping in the car 🙂

  29. As above, the app is not available in non-us iTunes Store. This means that most international visitors will not be able to use it. However a search on the name does show some websites that offer this service much more widely than this app.

  31. I use day rooms all the time as I connect internationally plenty and end up with loooong connections. 🙂 Sounds like a useful service.

  40. I could see using this for a long layover in a different time zone where I don’t want to get off of my home timezone.

  45. I would use it on international layovers, rather than dozing in an uncomfortable airport chair and washing up in public restrooms.

  46. I would use one after an all-night event (party) when I wanted to sleep for a few hours and have a shower before traveling/driving again.

  47. I would use one as an arrival suite when I planned to stay some distance from the airport – fly in on a red eye, nap and shower, then do a long drive/train trip to my destination. Break up the over-long travel day.

  48. I would use a hotel day room to take a quick nap and change into heels and a dress before a fancy party in NYC

  49. I would use one if I was being silly enough to attempt a same-day turn on a mile (status) run. I’ve considered itineraries with back-to-back redeyes. I know I shouldn’t do them but, if I did, having a real bed in between would be golden.

Comments are closed.