Hotel day stays: an increasingly popular solution

Got an unexpected meeting? Need to focus? Looking for some downtime? The number of day-use hotel amenities available is on the rise.

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What if you could book a stay in a hotel, with no intention of sleeping overnight, and still get to enjoy all of its comforts for a few hours? Now you can, because this is precisely what many city and airport hotels are offering. Here's why. 

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On the one side, there are hotels that are seeking ways to increase their day occupancy rate, and on the other there are business men and women who are looking for somewhere to spend a few hours of peace and quiet; all it took was an intelligent solution to step in and meet these two differing demands, making hotels available to guests for a day, half-day or as little as two hours. This trend is now on its way to becoming a viable way of working. 

What hotels gain: better time management

Did you know that less than three years ago, 70% of hotel rooms in Europe were empty during the day? This makes sense, as hotels are mostly used for overnight stays. But this doesn't mean that during the day hotel staff are no longer there, or that amenities disappear. Essentially, it was this waste of energy that gave impetus to major hotel chains like Accor to make their services available to guests during off-peak hours. Between the hours of 9am and 6pm, hotels are now obliging by providing the same service and amenities to "day" guests as those reserved for their more traditional hotel guests.Did you know that less than three years ago, 70% of hotel rooms in Europe were empty during the day? This makes sense, as hotels are mostly used for overnight stays. But this doesn't mean that during the day hotel staff are no longer there, or that amenities disappear. Essentially, it was this waste of energy that gave impetus to major hotel chains like Accor to make their services available to guests during off-peak hours. Between the hours of 9am and 6pm, hotels are now obliging by providing the same service and amenities to "day" guests as those reserved for their more traditional hotel guests.

What guests gain: a comfortable interlude

Being able to book a room for daytime use offers a whole host of possibilities, especially for business trips. Of course, the first thing anyone thinks about after a long journey is getting as much rest as possible, with or without jet lag. "Day use" lets you enjoy use of a room, bathroom, or somewhere to freshen up and have a bite to eat, or get settled in a quiet area to focus on work or to make an important phone call without being disturbed; what sounds like a luxury is now becoming the norm. But that's just the start of it. Amenities that usually come with a hotel room are also being made available to "day use" guests, such as use of the fitness centre (between meetings), the business centre or an ironing service, making this short stay an adaptable experience from check-in to check-out. Last but not least, there are the growing numbers of restaurants and bars now opening their doors to non-hotel guests; they can stop by for a quick coffee or a longer while to get some work done, against an urban backdrop. This just goes to show that we can indeed choose to work from a hotel and afford to take a break or hold a meeting in a more relaxing setting.

The current offering

In terms of what's on offer, a crucial thing to remember is that day-time rates are scaled down, making them 30 to 75% less expensive than overnight room rates; this alone makes it an easy decision. Which hotels offer this kind of solution? You will normally find hotels providing these services in France and Europe on dedicated platforms like DayUse, which lists offers in Europe, Dubai and New York. Completely attuned to the needs of business travellers, Accor also offers a "daytime" booking service for three, six or nine-hour stays in its hotels across Europe. This service is all about catering to business travellers' need to focus, as the perfect complement to our Meeting & Events service, specifically for hiring meeting or conference rooms. You can now organise and adapt your business meetings exactly as you need.

Published by Magali on 05/11/2018 Photo credit: © Geoff Lung

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