New figures from short term hotels booking platform ByHours.com have revealed a 55% increase in micro-bookings in the last month in London after launching there just two months ago and a 150% rise in by the hour hotel bookings in the last twelve months in Spain.
The figures also revealed that 67% of these short term bookings are made with a maximum of 1 days notice. The other third of bookings for 3, 6 and 12 hour stays were booked up to two weeks in advance.
With millions of business travellers in and out of London every week by train and by rail, it is not surprising that 68% of bookings are made for business related reasons such as showering after a long flight, getting some sleep and catching up on work.
Research also revealed 4 star hotel bookings are most popular with 80% choosing 4 or 5 star for a short stay.
The new data comes from ByHours.com, a booking platform and mobile app offering micro-stays and pay-per-use bookings. The mobile app offer users a complete booking solution for hotels, in sets of 3, 6 and 12 hour periods, and also provides users with the convenience of being able to select their own check in and check out times. Many of the hotels are situated near to airports, train stations and city centres making them perfect for business travellers in need of down time.
While the market is more than two thirds business travellers, short stays are becoming ever more popular with leisure travellers too. With a range of 4 & 5 star hotels, people are booking short term hotel stays for use of the facilities such as spa and swimming pool. Families visiting the city with small children and needing some downtime are also an interesting use case.
Hospital visits are another key reason for booking through the app, with relatives wanting to get some rest and catch up on sleep before returning to the hospital.
Bookings are most likely to be made on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and the most likely hours of check-in are 11:00, 13:00 and 17:00. 55% of booking are made via mobile web or using an app, due to the geolocation functionality, allowing travellers to find hotels nearby who are part of the ByHours.com platform of hotels.
Christian Rodriguez, CEO and founder of ByHours.com stated “The popularity of micro-stays in London is great to see after already testing our model in Spain. Travellers in and out of London are taking advantage of the excess inventory hotels have and putting it to good use, either catching up on work or using the 5 star facilities in some cases.”
“People who are used to travelling for business know that it can be complicated to work efficiently without proper internet connections and the steady stream of noise and potential interruptions there can be in public places. However every business traveller also knows that every hour counts, it’s a matter of productivity, so it’s no wonder business travellers utilise time between meetings or before/after flights to grab somewhere quiet for a power nap or to take advantage of the hotel internet and catch up on emails.
Furthermore, people are getting used to catching an early morning flight and returning the same day, so hotels are losing out on the usual overnight custom they would have from these business travellers. By allowing these business travellers to book for three hours to work and rest prior to a flight is an opportunity for them to acquire new customers, and promote the mornings, middays or afternoons- times their rooms would otherwise be empty.”
“Going forward, we expect that micro-stays will only increase in popularity both among business travellers and leisure travellers. In Spain last year we had more than 150,000 bookings and we fully expect London will be an even bigger market for us in years to come. In London there are many more stopovers, and in these first two months in the capital we can see that a high percentage of our reservations and requests belong to customers that need hotels inside or next airports.”
