@great_pillow08 none of that bothers me. I just Mentioned cards cause I thought it was odd the site didn’t ask for a card to reserve the room.
Dayuse will often charge a small room hold fee ($5-6).
You can pay with cash but I haven’t even heard of a hotel that doesn’t require a card for damages. Maybe smaller motels.
With Dayuse you can cancel even after the check in time - I think up to 1-2 hours before check out (if you haven’t actually checked in). The main benefit is you get a much nicer room - usually 50-70% off overnight rates.
If you cancel too often the hotel may shadow ban you.
It’s also not often not available in rural/outer burb areas but as others shared, calling directly is always a good option.
@dan_blue
Yes, it’s legit. But don’t use it if you’re self-conscious. You know what the receptionist thinks you’re there for.
As someone who worked in hotels (including management) for over 16 years, I can say from experience that this is generally both false and could needlessly cause guests anxiety.
First, it maters not one iota what the staff thinks you're there for - they're there to do their job, and I can promise you that they're far more concerned about rudeness, safety, and cleanliness issues than they are about what you do in private. As long as you're not causing scenes, making a mess, or doing illegal activity that could ruin their day, they're not likely to spend a whole lot of time thinking or talking about your business.
Secondly, midday visitors in most locations are FAR more likely to be tired truck drivers and out of town business folks. Over all my time in hotels in multiple states, I could count only a small percentage of times where the guest was being obnoxiously obvious enough for me to seriously consider that they were there for SW or shady dealings. And the shady folks mostly were either drug users or running scams, not SWers. While I'm sure SW was happening, it largely flew under the radar because most people aren't stupid enough to flaunt it. Granted, I worked at mid-level 2-3 star hotels from major chains, so yrmv if you're picking cheaper and lower quality places.
Tl, dr: if you're not doing anything shady, don't act shady and hotel staff won't pay any attention. Just be polite, don't leave an excessive mess, and you have zero to worry about.
Speaking from my own experience using DayUse, both from the hotel employee side of things and as a guest, it's been a long-overdue change in the industry.
A lot of decent hotels would love to fill empty rooms midday to squeeze out some extra profit, but the logistics can be a nightmare. Hotels generally have strict check-in and check-out times due to the headache that is involved with scheduling housekeeping and assigning rooms to meet guest requests. DayUse helps with some of that, though like all 3rd party vendors it has its own quirks. I will say that it's a lot less of a nightmare to work with than Expedia/Priceline/et al.
From the guest point of view, it's really nice to have an option for shorter stays, day trips, cuddling, etc. The prices aren't usually as great of a deal as it's sometimes hyped to be, but sometimes can be good if you pay attention to all the terms.
Just in general: read all the fine print before you book, and don't expect special requests to be granted no matter who you talk to - requests are ALWAYS fcfs and based on availability. The only thing ever guaranteed with hotels is that you have a room and the number/size of beds you booked. Anything beyond that is generally considered a request and may get changed if availability fills up. If the reservation or staff member doesn't explicitly say "guaranteed", it's not, so have backup plans or be ready to be flexible.
Also, pro tip:
when calling the hotel, always search for their local number directly from their website - relying on Google search and then calling whatever 800 number pops up runs the risk of reaching a 3rd party booking agency who absolutely can and will pretend to be the hotel staff. You could think you're speaking to the front desk, when really you're talking to an Expedia agent 5k miles away who has zero authority to guarantee anything. Then you show up at the hotel and are mad that your room isn't what you thought, and the hotel will not be able to help you because you made a contract with the 3rd party and not them directly.
In case you can't tell, I (like many/most hotel employees) absolutely LOATHE 3rd party agencies. They're nothing but headaches for hotels and don't actually end up being that great of a deal 90% of the time.
Although I created this thread, I don’t see my self using Dayuse all that often. This was a special circumstance where I had 6 free hours on a work day trip. I used Dayuse because I wanted some space to myself for a for that time but this is not a common scenario for me. In my younger days, I would have just hung out somewhere in the city but in my old age, I just want to go nap lol
I'll take the dayuse nap too. heck yes
@Morpheus aye, our joints are getting to old for car naps in parking lots 😅
@Morpheus posted: "In my younger days, I would have just hung out somewhere in the city but in my old age, I just want to go nap lol"
Emagersh, for real! 😆 Actually, due to discovering how lovely park cuddles are because of this site, my boyfriend and I began going to parks and snuggling down on a blanket when we took long road trips but arrived too early to check into the hotel. After driving eight hours, sometimes you just don't wanna walk around a museum or do an activity, just yet. Laying down and relaxing together turned into a wonderful habit we both look forward to, now.
~ Sunset Snuggles
🫂 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Junkie 📷 Shutter Bug