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A relatively new website which allows customers to book rooms by the hour as opposed to making reservations per night is said to be doing very well. Mainly operating in
London and
Paris for the moment,
Dayuse-hotels.com has reported establishments getting an extra 100 bookings since it launched the service, reports Hotel and Caterer magazine.
So there certainly seems to be demand for it, but what are the
pros and cons for the hotels which get involved in the new scheme? There is, of course, the increased custom, which sees people checking into a hotel and paying for a few hours stay at times when the room would otherwise be empty. Michael Benjamins, corporate
sales manager of the Town Hall hotel, said: "It's such a great concept and there is definitely a real demand for it. Hotels can bring incremental revenue by maximising rooms that would otherwise be sitting empty during the afternoons."
Rooms without residents in them are not making profit, so this is one way to overcome that issue and help them to pay for their upkeep. Speaking of upkeep, renting rooms for a matter of hours presents the same maintenance costs as one which has been used for the whole night. The sheets still need to be washed and the room cleaned, and where does a day-use hotel stand on those quaint little toiletries, do they get replaced after a five hour stay?
These are all services which cost money and depending on the hourly rate charged, could leave the hotel with a very small
profit margin. There is also the practical matters to consider, such as making sure that there is time for the cleaning to be done between one set of guests leaving and others arriving. If a hotel has plenty of empty rooms then this may not be so much of an issue, but bookings must be carefully managed in order to prevent guests meeting each other on the way out.
Then there is the issue of why somebody would rent a hotel room during the day - we all know that it happens, but few establishments tend to advertise the fact. Yes, businessmen may use the service to freshen up when travelling to cities for meetings and those who find themselves in need of a rest in the afternoon, but it is likely that day use hotels will also be used for romantic trysts. With this in mind any hotel thinking about offering day use rooms must not only add up the financial benefits and the practical implications, but also what it may mean for the establishment's reputation.
Undoubtedly the success that the service has found so far is bound to mean that it will spread further afield with those in need of a room during the day able to book one in cities all over the
UK. After all there are always people wishing to come in and fill a niche in the market, especially in this day and age when the
hospitality industry has to do all it can to make ends meet and return a profit.
