Daycations take off

Published on straitstimes.com | 06/07/2021 | Direct link

Clara Lock

More people are booking hotel rooms, work co-working spaces and even Yachts for a quick Escape - an overnight stay.

 When Mr. Toby Cai and his friends were backpacking in Thailand two years ago, they wanted to book a hotel room for the afternoon to freshen up before a trekking expedition. Unable to find one, the trio wound up paying for a night's stay, but left after 3 hours. Walking through the corridors they also realized many rooms were empty during the day. That was our “aha” moment. We realized there was a need for instant daytime bookings, says Mr Cai, 32, one of three co-founders of Stayr.

Launched last year, the local start-up lists hotels, workspaces and yachts that people can rent for durations as short as two hours. It received about 3,000 bookings last month. 

For Dayuse, a Paris-headquartered booking platform for what if calls "microstays", the pandemic has more than triples its monthly bookings in Singapore. 

Founder and chief executive David Lebee said in April the platform gets about 10,000 monthly bookings for day0use rooms here, up from about 3,000 before the pandemic.

such platforms are part of a "daycation" trend that has burgeoned amid the dearth of international travel last year. 

Hotels now offer a slew of day-use packages catered to all sorts - from exxecutives seeking a quiet space to work to groups celebrating bachelorette parties and baby showers. For the properties, it is a chance to boost occupancy rates while borders remain shut. According to statistics from the Singapore Tourism Board, hotels reported an average occupancy rate of 45 per cent from January to May this year, compared with 87 per cent in pre-pandemic 2019.