Sometimes you may need hotel room for day use; you have a long transit and you prefer not hang at the airport or you have a meeting at the hotel and would prefer freshen up.
I am surprised how few hotel chains actually offer Day Use-rates on their websites and make them easy to be found. Hilton Honors to my knowledge is the only one that allows same day check in/check out bookings on their website and seems to have good buy in from their hotels.
You can access Hilton’s website here.
READ MORE: Hilton Honors Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
Earlier this week, I had a long transit in New Delhi and preferred not to stay 10 hours at the ITC lounge at the airport. All the reasonable options by the Aerocity were sold out and the reviews of the Holiday Inn Express that is within the Terminal 3 were too mixed to spend any time there.
Plugged the dates to Hilton’s booking engine:
Three hotels south of the airport had Day Use rates available that were quite reasonable. I was arriving around 1PM and my next flight was leaving 11PM and this my preference was hotel that had a lounge in case they wouldn’t allow “late check out” on Day Use rate.
Traffic in New Delhi can be bad. Consulted Google Maps and the DoubleTree was 30 to 45 minutes from the airport depending on the traffic during the time frame I needed to get from/to.
Day Use Rate @ DoubleTree Gurgaon
The hotel had attached the Day Use rate for number of room types.
Day Use Hours:
You always need to check the usage hours and this DoubleTree had them from 9AM to 6PM that would suit me quite well (was planning to leave the hotel around 8PM for my 11PM flight).
Regular Rates:
Seems that the hotel had actually sold out the room types that they were selling for Day Use as only suites and executive rooms were available for overnight use.
Upsell Email:
I made the booking for the regular room because would be eligible for the upgrade plus lounge access. Was surprised to get the upsell email from the property. Wasn’t surprised that they were pushing the airport transfers too.
Upgrade:
Got the executive club room and the property gave me 8PM check out. Used the lounge until 830PM when I left to the airport.
Conclusion
Not sure why other chains haven’t enabled similar bookings on their websites as Hilton? Some do provide Day Use rates when you search for overnight accommodations but even then these are quite rare. I am not willing to call hotel and ask for their prices. Waste of time.
I had made a mistake and made a booking for the JW Marriott Aerocity for the night before. Tried to phone the property to ensure very late check in (1PM on the day of departure) and equally late check out (6PM), but couldn’t get hold of anyone at the front desk. Hotel pushed by call to reservation and when I called back and asked to speak with the front desk manager the call went nowhere. Couldn’t change my reservation online because the hotel was showing sold out. Canceled it.
