While many UK hoteliers have refused to book rooms out during the day in the past, those who have adopted the service offered by hotels in other countries are seeing the benefits says Tomas Bik, co-founder of between9and5.com.
“Traditionally it has been frowned upon by hotels for customers to book a room for use during the day," he said. "But now hotel owners are starting to appreciate the value of filling space, and the need that business customers have as their work lives become more mobile means they can provide a respectable service that helps them build higher occupancy rates at times that are traditionally quiet. It’s a win win situation for all."
Bik said international business executives who were working in mixed time zones had been booking rooms for day use 'for years', but that the UK had been slow to recognise the trend.
"They’d often check into hotels during the day to catch up on sleep, use leisure facilities or catch up on work," he said. "The Japanese and European cultures are very used to capitalising on every single hour to make their business days more productive, but the UK had not adopted this approach until recently.”
Research by the company found that the majority used rooms to refresh after a long-haul flight (41 per cent) while others used them to work in between meetings (39 per cent) or as a base for meetings (11 per cent).
Service trial
Hotels who have adopted the approach include the Radisson Blu in Manchester, The Park Inn in York and more recently Grange Hotels, who are trialling the service in three of their 17 hotels. Rooms will be available from 10am to 6pm at lower rates than those for an overnight stay.
Mary Doogan, group general manager of Grange Hotels, said research by the group had identified a sector of the business travel market that found the check-in time of 2pm inflexible to their needs.
“We hope that the flexibility of being able to book a room for a few hours after an overnight flight, or in-between a busy meeting schedule will prove very useful and cost-effective for many of our business clientele,” she said. “This is in line with Grange Hotels constant endeavours to satisfy and, if possible, to surpass the expectations of our guests.”
Meeting rooms
News of an increasing demand for day use from business travellers comes as Travelodge announces plans to target the corporate market further by adding meeting rooms to its business.
Business travel revenues doubled at the budget hotel chain last year as it welcomed more than 3,500 corporate customers to its brand and Travelodge chief executive Grant Hearn said he was expecting growth to continue this year.
“Our new corporate website is currently receiving 30 per cent more bookings year on year and we are receiving around 1,000 new business customer leads every week which is a 22 per cent increase on the same period last year,” he said. “We are expecting business customers to spend over seven million nights with us this year, which is an average of 20,000 business stays per night. In contrast back in 2007, at the start of the recession, we had three million business stays for the year”.
The Travelodge meeting rooms, which will be available for £200 including breakfast, claim to be the best value meeting room proposition in the marketplace and will be added to 60 hotels this year.
Hearn said: “Trying to find inexpensive meeting space can be a challenge for businesses, especially in major UK city centres."