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!
- You can join the 50,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
desparately in need of shower
nap time
illicit affair
washing up after a long flight
Transiting soon via Munich on my way to Asia. Will use it there.
How else would one use it??
Shower and nap on a long (but not long enough) layover.
@Laurent- they have not rolled out internationally yet. I arrived in Manila at 4 am Tuesday morning- could have definitely used this service then, so Yannis, please roll out internationally ASAP! Ended up booking the Tune hotel for an overnight stay, just to use the shower and lie down for a few hours before my morning meetings.
Lance
I would use one for a long layover.
I would use one for a quick day trip – a place to freshen up before dinner.
Shower and a quick nap when on business
A place to get away from people before further travel again in the midst of people
To have a safe and private place to rest instead of some open floor space somewhere in the airport since am carrying valuables like cash, cards and passport
Get electronics charged without having to huddle in some corner of the airport while using computer/ipad etc
Would be great for a long layover
sex
more sex
even more sex
Take a nap.
Early morning flight arrivals on red eyes.
sleep…
turn and sleep
rest from long 16hours flight until time to pick kids up for visitation time.
I’d use a day use room to get away from the kids!!!
I’d use it to give to a servicemember transitting through my airport, by offering it on my military social network.
sleeping on a comfortable bed rather than on an airport chair
nap
shower
enjoy the view
watch tv
I would use this “underutilized resource” to take a nap or catch a game on TV on a long layover
A place to keep stuff while shopping.
Take a refreshing shower
Watch some TV
Some XXX…
Use it for a long layover on an international trip
For a quick shower and luggage storage on a less-than 24 hour TWOV tour of a city (like Seoul) en route to my destination (like Beijing)
Use it for a nap after a long leg on my international trip (usually from US to north Asia) before hopping on the next/last short leg home …
Binge watching Orange is the New Black!
Taking a break from my boyfriend!
To take a mental health day from work.
A place to relax and recharge in a bustling city!
A home base for a day trip in a layover city.
A place to meet *a special friend* in between who lives in a hard-to-reach part of town.
I’d use the day room for a layover
Love to use a room for a long layover
I nice mid-day shower.
Gary, I’d use it for my husband to get a nap on my go go vacations when our hotel isn’t convenient.
I could always use a nap when traveling
i’d use the room to nap and shower in between flights!
Would use it for drinking a nice bottle of red wine to relax while in the bubble bath.