I worked yesterday, so I suggested to Won’t Run that we meet at one of our favorite Happy Hour spots, Docks Oyster Bar, for some drinks and oysters. He of course said yes, and I of course was the first to arrive. The bar was much more crowded than I expected – I thought I was the only person in New York who was working yesterday.  I found one empty seat, and the guys next to me said it was my lucky day as they were paying their bill and getting ready to leave. We began talking. I found out that these guys had a startup business of some sort.  Low and behold, I learned that Yannis, the gentleman next to me, was the CEO and founder of a travel tech company called Hotels By Day.  I told him I was a travel blogger, and we laughed at our fortuitous meeting.

Hotels By Day is a travel booking engine that specializes in daily (rather than nightly) hotel stays. The Hotels By Day website says this  Take a daycation. Shop in the city and take a break. Get ready for a show in style. The press release refers to the stays booked by the website as intra-day rooms, and refers to this as an untapped market not realized in the US hotel industry. This reminds me of something from last summer,  when I was invited to a fabulous daytime fitness event in Montauk, Long Island followed by an evening gala event in Bridgehampton. The sponsor, Women’s Health Magazine rented a bunch of hotel rooms for a few hours for us to shower and get ready for the evening shindig.  This is exactly the sort of hotel bookings that Hotels By Day specializes in.

For business travelers, this may mean a room to conduct a business meeting, participate in a conference call, prepare for a presentation or a place to check-in after a red-eye flight. For leisure travelers on a day trip, this could be a room for a nap or to get ready for an evening dinner or show or even a place for a nursing mother to go while in town for the day.  Of course, for me, I like the idea of a place to shower and change after a run.

Hotels By Day works with a large number of high-quality 4 and 5 star hotels internationally, from City hotels, to Cruise Port hotels to Airport hotels to Beach hotels. Many of the hotels are priced as low as $50 for a 10 am to 5 pm stay. I would have liked an opportunity like this last January, when I arrived in Milan’s Malpensa Airport early in the day and was not flying out to Prague until later that day.

Hotels By Day has a great app for both iPhone and Android that makes review of hotels and booking quite easy.  The apps are both attractive and user-friendly (see the website’s How it Works page).

DISCOUNT!

Interested in checking out Hotels By Day – use the promotion code Run4Miles on the booking page for a 5% discount! 

(NOTE: Run4Miles code can be used multiple times. I will receive a referral fee).

WHAT ABOUT FITNESS CENTERS?

A final point, and one that Yannis and I began speaking about: use of hotel gym facilities when in transit.  When I had my long layover at Milan’s Malpensa airport, I was able to use the fitness facilities at the Sheraton Hotel for 15 Euro. However, when I visited Paris for a day in September, I had an entirely different experience.  Prior to my trip, I asked numerous hotel social media representatives if I might be able to use a Paris hotel fitness facility to work out at and/or to shower after going for a run around Paris. The answer from each hotel chain (including those where I held Diamond or Gold status) was unequivocally NO.

Don’t we need a new startup to tackle this too??