Reader Question: How To Book Day Rooms For Limited Time Hotel Use?

Today, we have a Reader Question about the option to book hotels for day use. This might be beneficial in many cases, especially when you arrive very early on a flight and either have a long layover or can’t check in elsewhere until late afternoon.

Readers are encouraged to send us questions, comments, or opinions by email, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. We’ll try to cover them here several times a week.

There might not be many use cases for day rooms at hotels, no matter the destination, but the occasional opportunity (or requirement) makes it well worth knowing how to book them best.

I got an email from Ellen asking how to utilize a day room booking in Germany:

Hi Sebastian!

Two weeks from now, I have a rather unfortunate layover in Frankfurt, Germany, where I arrive in the morning around 7:00 am and will depart in the evening.

I don’t really want to spend the day outside wandering around Frankfurt, let alone the airport. I’ve been trying to research if I can book a hotel for that day, but they all sell overnights only.

Is there any trick or do I need to contact the hotels one by one to check their rates?

Day Rooms aren’t directly advertised, but you have to search for them specifically. In the case of Hilton, for example, you enter the same date for arrival and departure. Then it’ll populate day rates.

We have previously covered day room bookings in the past, specifically with Hilton and Accor:

Booking Day Rooms With Hilton

Accor Day Room Bookings

It’s of course much simpler when hotels give you the option of simply booking your room the easy way straight on their website without having to contact the sales department and ask for a manual day room booking (if it’s even offered in the first place) but sometimes even OTA’s such as Agoda can help:

Not all brands show up on these OTA’s and sometimes (depending on the location) there can be some rather obscure results like actual “Love Hotels” in Korea or Japan. But, you ask and you shall receive.

Sometimes, the airline of your choice also offers an actual stopover program with various options ranging from free city tours to free or discounted hotel rooms. It’s always worthwhile to inquire.

Conclusion

A reader asked about the best way to book a day room at a hotel near Frankfurt Airport, and I thought it’s a good way to remind our readers that there are different channels through which this can be booked. Contact the hotel, check the website, utilize an OTA, or see if the airline offers a stopover package if that’s the purpose of the booking.

Mind you, if you have top-tier status with hotels, sometimes they let you check in very early, especially in Asia. I think the earliest I ever checked in was ~ 5 a.m. in Beijing, both at the Park Hyatt and the St. Regis. Considering I also had a 4 p.m. late checkout the next day, this was real value.

Sometimes day rates are actually expensive, while other times they are dirt cheap, depending on the hotel.

Source