Hourly Rate Hotel Rooms Go Mainstream

Looking for check-in information. Young handsome businessman in classical blue suit looks at his tablet device standing just in front of the hotel reception desk where young receptionists welcomes him with a smile

Times have never been better for movers and shakers who are looking for a place to freshen up before a sales pitch or hoping to quickly find a quiet spot for an ad hoc business meeting. Now there’s an app for that, or more accurately, several apps that will allow both travelers and locals to tap into the large inventory of hotels that have until recently largely sat empty during bankers’ hours.

Already, companies like Minute Suites and Yotel have removed the stigma from the notion of an hourly rate room. The firms, primarily based in airports, have cornered a market which previously had a reputation for catering to cheating spouses and sex workers. Far from the cash-only business of yore, Minute Suites has become popular with travelers who don’t necessarily need an overnight stay but are looking for a little more privacy, peace and quiet offered in the airline club lounge.

Now, tech firms are hoping to use the same innovative technologies that allowed Uber and Lyft to revolutionize transportation to bring this sort of on-demand, individually tailored service to consumers looking for a place to shower, a meeting room or just a private place to grab some downtime. Hotel properties willing to make unused rooms available for last-minute hourly bookings are starting to see huge returns with very little downside.

Perhaps the best known of these companies is the firm Hotels by Day. The start-up was featured on the television show Shark Tank in February. The firm currently offers rooms for morning, midday or afternoon use in increments of four to six hours at rates said to be less than 40 percent of the cost of overnight accommodations.

Day Use offers a similar range of rooms and time slots in cities across the US. Officials at Day Use promise a savings of as much as 75 percent verses traditional hotel stays.

JetBlue is even attempting to get in on the ground floor in this rapidly expanding niche market. The airline’s parent company is helping to fund Recharge. Unlike its competitors, the Recharge app promised to allow users to book available rooms from a time period of several hours to as little as a few minutes. The start-up is initially focusing on properties with a reputation for more luxurious accommodations.

Recharge founder Manny Bamfo says consumers will ideally start to think of using the Recharge app in much the same way people plan to meet up at a coffee shop today.

“Imagine if you could only park your car for 24 hours, and that was just the only option,” Bamfo explained to Bloomberg recently. “All we’ve done is put a parking meter on some of the greatest hotels in the world and allowed travelers to decide on their clock when to come in and come out.”

Time will tell whether the trend will become good news for consumers and hoteliers. One thing is for sure, however, as names like Hotels by Day, Recharge and Yotel start to appear more frequently as line-items on expense reports, the notion of an hourly rate room is certain to take on a much more sophisticated connotation.

[Photo: Shutterstock]