Hotel booking site to sell rooms in three-hour blocks
A Spanish hotel booking platform selling rooms by blocks of hours rather than nights is planning to launch in the UK.
Barcelona-based ByHours offers customers the chance to book rooms in blocks of three, six and 12 hour periods.
It allows users to select their own check in and check out times.
Founder and CEO Christian Rodriguez said the concept was aimed at business travellers who need some down time and many of the hotels are situated near to airports, train stations and city centres.
It is aiming to have 25 hotels in London by the end of this month, but so far has only six: the H10 Waterloo, the Kingsway Hall Hotel, Yotel Gatwick and Yotel Heathrow, Ramada Hotel & Suites and the Academy Hotel.
Rodriguez said: "Our target is strictly business, and our goal is to improve customer’s whole travel experience, in addition to strengthening the local leisure economies.
"Customers can see in the hotels of the city as an attractive proposition from where to enjoy their free time or to just enjoy some down time or a shower before a big business meeting. In Spain we have hotels that generate more than €70,000 in profit this year, and now our aim is to be able to do the same in Europe, starting with London.
"Hotels in Spain have generated €5.5M extra in the last twelve months by using the ByHours platform."
ByHours has been rolled out and tested in Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza. More than 150,000 bookings at more than 1500 hotels were made in 2014, an increase of 150% over the previous year.
"In Spain, particularly in cities such as Barcelona or Madrid, we’ve had very good results and are very well received by the hoteliers, however ByHours.com has an ambition to be a global company," added Rodriguez.
"London is the first on our list for expansion because the UK travel sector is mature, the business model will work well between customers and hoteliers alike. It’s also a key destination for business travellers who are our core market."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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