Attention roadies, day trippers: Check in, and pay, for just a few hours
(Micro-stays
are catching on as hotels, apps and websites allow business and
transit travellers, roadies and day trippers to check in — and pay
— for just a few hours.)
There
used to be just one kind of place that gave out rooms in hourly
batches. Not any more.
Responding
to demand from travellers — mainly business and transit, but also
day trippers and roadies — www.chaturmusafir.com
website is helping guests book rooms for anything from 3 to 12 hours,
and pay accordingly. Guest has to verify their account in advance
before getting this facility.
And
no, these aren’t just rest houses and lodges; they range, in fact,
from budget to boutique and starred hotels..
The
term for such bookings is micro-stays, and the concept first became
popular in Europe during the economic downturn of 2008, after which
it spread to the US and then parts of south-east Asia.
With
changing market dynamics, including online bookings and real-time
reviews, hotels too must change, says Adarsh Shetty, president of
AHAR, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association. “Micro-stays are
a reflection and a part of that change.”
They’re
certainly making some hotels more popular.
Chatur
Musafir allows guests to book hotel rooms in packs of 3, 6 and 12
hours. In 19 months, the website has seen 14,000 micro-stay bookings
at 2-, 3- and 4-star hotels across 20 cities.
“In
a price-sensitive market, if we can resell the same room in a
same-day cycle and double our revenue, then why not,” says Sujith
Chandrasekharan, director of rooms and the man leading the micro-stay
initiative at Park properties across Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Goa
and Navi Mumbai.
At
the Taj Lands End in Mumbai, there is no new-age aggregator involved,
but the five-star hotel came to the micro-stay model on its own.
Land’s End now offers four-hour stays between 9 am and 6 pm.
“Given
today’s hectic work schedules, people find it difficult to plan
holidays in advance. Checking into a hotel, even in their own city,
can provide a break from the routine. Since these guests may not
necessarily want to rent the room for an entire night, we came up
with the micro-stay option,” says Zal Tarapore, director of rooms
at Taj Lands End.
Courtyard
by Marriott in Gurgaon and Sahara Star in Mumbai both introduced
micro-stay options three years ago too, responding to the many
short-stay inquiries they received from business travellers.“
How
Chaturmusafir Started
Two
years ago, ad executive Preeti Jain and her husband Manish, a
businessman, were travelling from Coimbatore to Jodhpur by flight and
then train, with a nine-hour gap in between.
“We
needed a room for, say, six hours. Just to wash up and relax. But we
still ended up paying the full day’s tariff,” says Preeti, 35
Co-Founder . “We decided to do something about that, and that’s
how Chatur Musafir [Smart Traveller] came into being.”
Their
website now allows guests to book hotel rooms in packs of 3, 6 and 12
hours. In 19 months, it has seen 14,000 micro-stay bookings at 2-, 3-
and 4-star hotels across 15 cities, including metros like Delhi,
Mumbai and Bangalore, smaller cities like Jaipur, Kochi and Amritsar
and pilgrim towns like Shirdi & Katra.
Mumbai-based
businessman Manoj Mehata, Director @ Kora Gifts used the website
while driving to Gandhidham, paying just Rs 1,400 for a 12-hour stay
at a 3-star hotel in Ahemedabad, which would have otherwise cost Rs
3,000 (for 24 hours).
“I much
prefer inter-city drives to trains or flights, but finding a nice,
reasonable place to stop for the night was always a problem,” he
says. “Four months ago I stumbled upon Chatur Musafir while
searching the internet with word combinations like Hourly Hotels,
short-stays etc. This time, I checked in at 10 pm, slept through the
night, had a shower the next morning, grabbed my complimentary
breakfast and was back on the road by 8 am. It was convenient and
great value for money.”
IN A NUTSHELL: WHAT
ARE MICRO-STAYS?
* Disrupting the traditional 24-hour check-in-check-out cycle, micro-stays allow travellers to book hotel rooms for fewer hours and pay less too.
* While Japan’s ‘capsule hotels’ that offer tiny sleeping spaces to businessmen and its ‘love hotels’ for space-starved couples have been around for a while, micro-stays first become popular in Europe during the economic downturn of 2008, and then spread to the US and south-east Asia.
* Here, hotels ranging from budget to boutique and five-stars such as Courtyard by Marriott in Gurgaon and Sahara Star in Mumbai have begun to offer the option over the past three years.
* Websites and apps such as 6 Hourly, Stay Uncle, Chatur Musafir and HotelsAroundYou have also joined the game, acting as aggregators and tying up with hotels to offer packages in cities across the country.
* Options range from 3 to 12 hours, although many aggregators refuse to entertain unmarried couples.
* Disrupting the traditional 24-hour check-in-check-out cycle, micro-stays allow travellers to book hotel rooms for fewer hours and pay less too.
* While Japan’s ‘capsule hotels’ that offer tiny sleeping spaces to businessmen and its ‘love hotels’ for space-starved couples have been around for a while, micro-stays first become popular in Europe during the economic downturn of 2008, and then spread to the US and south-east Asia.
* Here, hotels ranging from budget to boutique and five-stars such as Courtyard by Marriott in Gurgaon and Sahara Star in Mumbai have begun to offer the option over the past three years.
* Websites and apps such as 6 Hourly, Stay Uncle, Chatur Musafir and HotelsAroundYou have also joined the game, acting as aggregators and tying up with hotels to offer packages in cities across the country.
* Options range from 3 to 12 hours, although many aggregators refuse to entertain unmarried couples.
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