8 benefit of microstay hotels in India

India’s Hospitality Industry is very well suited to tourism. Still there lies a need of flexibility for travelers in Hotel bookings. As, most hotels allow booking only as per fixed check-in/check-out. Thus if anyone needs the hotel earlier than 12 PM or needs to checkout after 11 AM, they are forced to book for another complete day. And it is irrespective of the fact that they might not need hotel for the night. Even we have faced this issue. We do most of our hotel bookings via Booking.com and Agoda. While these are perfect places to book full day hotels, with lots of deals and discounts always going on and a plethora of hotels in partnership with them. But, the hotels that they partner with seldom provide the flexibility to book for just couple of hours.

Thus, there is a need to book hotel rooms on hourly basis. This is known as MicroStays. Microstay is a pioneering concept that can bring fairness to both travelers as well as Hotels. In India, MicroStay is offered by MiStay.

On the surface, it looks like flexibility with the hours of stay is the only benefit of Microstay hotels in India. But, the benefits of MicroStay hotels in India can be much more than what appears at the surface. For example, some of the benefits of MicroStay hotels in India can be outlined  right away like the following

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India for guests:

#1 Pay on hourly basis

Travelers can make great use of hourly basis hotels to either stay overnight or just for a few hours while in the middle of their journey and pay only for the hours stayed in the hotels. When you are on the road, at the end of the day, you truly wish for a good night’s rest and hourly hotels offer this at very low price. I can clearly see if we could avail of this kind of concept when we did our trip to Europe, our itinerary could have been much more efficient. And we could have saved a lot as well.

As, we were out exploring the cities and towns most of the time.Thus, returning back to our hotel only for the night. And we could have paid for the night stay only instead of occupying the room for the whole day. Be it on the one day roaming around in Rome. Or, when we went from Florence to Pisa. And the full day trips that we did on our 4 days in Switzerland like the trips to Bern, Interlaken, Grindelwald or Mount Titlis. Also, when we arrived late or left early at certain destinations, like Venice, we could save money by paying on hourly basis.

Again on our recent trip to Indore, our flight got rescheduled, and delayed by a few hours. And just to accommodate ourselves somewhere for those few hours, we had to book a hotel for one whole day, and then shift our luggage from our first hotel to this one.

#2 The right option when you need to relax for a while

Many a times, we have layovers during our journey. When we are just crossing a city. And we have a few hours at hand there. We can utilize those few hours for either a quick nap after a good meal or to nourish our kids. Or to allow our parents to lie down or just to take a bath and grab a quick meal. No matter what the requirements are, we can now book a hotel room on hourly basis and achieve the above. Such a short relaxing break will keep the spirit of our road trip high without shelling out the hotel cost of an entire day.

#3 Early Check-in

How displeasing will it be to having to wait at hotel’s reception, after a long journey, only because you reached there well before their check-in time. MiStay allows check-in as early as 8 AM. Again, this reminds me of my trip of 4 days in Udaipur. We had reached Udaipur from Jaipur by an overnight train and arrived there by 7 in the morning. We were lucky that the hotel had rooms available and ready. Imagine how our experience would have been if we had to wait till 2pm for checking in! By that time we were all fresh and ready to explore Udaipur city, after lunch & a nap as well. The same happened when we traveled to Ooty for the first time. Our bus reached there by 5am itself and we were at the hotel by 6am!

#4 Nationwide Accessibility

The Microstay pioneered by MiStay offers hotels on hourly basis across all major cities in India. Thus, the concept is not limited to just a handful of destinations. As, Mistay have hotels in 90+ cities including the major ones like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune. And I can’t stress enough how glad I am about it. As, we often travel to our hometown via Kolkata. Where we often end up spending a lot of time on the railway station awaiting the connecting train. Now, with the concept of MicroStay in India, next time, I am going to rather relax in a hotel room for a few hours with my family.

#5 No 11 AM Checkouts

Mistay allows check-in/check-out based on the hours the hotel is booked. If someone need the hotel, let’s say till 4PM, MiStay allows to book till that slot and thus the traveller don’t have to book for another complete day. Thus, MiStay gives the flexibility of booking hotel without opting for complete 1-Night booking.

We recently visited a resort on the outskirts of Bangalore. After checking out at 11 am, I had to request them for some place where I could feed my baby before we leave. And I ended up in an empty conference hall! Also, we wished to have lunch and then leave from the resort. But that meant waiting in the restaurant or the lawn for more than 2 hours before the lunch was served. How I wish I had rather selected a hotel with microstay option. I could have easily extended my stay by a couple of hours, fed my baby, relaxed a bit longer and then left from there.

#6 Hotel Amenities

What’s more. Travelers can enjoy complimentary breakfast, fitness centre, swimming pool, Wi-Fi, mini-bar etc just like the complimentary services provided for complete day’s bookings. This makes booking MicroStay hotels in India all the more lucrative. A few months back, when we went to Cafe Palmyra for a lunch, we spent close to 3 hours there. We could also avail of the play area and the swimming pool. However, end of it all, our kid wanted to stay there even longer. We could have easily done that if the resort had implemented MicroStay concept.

#7 Wide range of Hotels

Mistay has a wide range of hotels with almost 900+ hotels in its kitty. Thus, it is not limited to one particular variety of hotel. Which means everyone can chose their hotels from budget to luxury segment based on their own budget. How convenient!

#8 24*7 Support Services

Customers can get in touch with the support services 24*7 without any hassle when they opt for MicroStay hotels in India. Thus, in case during the short stay customer needs any kind of assistance, or faces any inconvenience, they can easily reach out to the customer care. And get their issues resolved in no time.

Not just this, Microstay can actually benefit various sections of travelers. Let’s see below how it’s benefits can be extended to each section of travellers in India:

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Layover travelers

Travelers having layovers after long journey certainly needs some rest and can opt for MiStay.  A cosy hotel room stay is undoubtedly better than waiting at the Airport. Travelers awaiting next connecting train for hours can select MiStay and escape the hot temperature of Indian subcontinent. Many a times we have spent hours at airports and railway stations because we had to check out from hotel at 11am. Like when we returned from our Europe trip in Amsterdam, or, while returning from our Shimla Manali trip or Palampur via Chandigarh, when we waited at the Chandigarh railway station for hours.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India for Tourists

Tourists hardly use the hotel rooms as the whole day is utilized in sightseeing and exploring local places.(Examples from our Europe trip that we stated earlier!) What they require is a good night’s sleep and refreshment and MiStay is perfect for their need. They can book hotel only for the night, rest, have some refreshment in the morning and move on to the next attraction.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Business Travelers

Business professionals travel for long hours and look out for a place where they can freshen up and prepare for their next meeting or presentation. They surely wouldn’t be wanting to break their bank just to quickly freshen up and read some notes. Thus, they can opt for MicroStay hotels.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Backpacking and trekking

Backpackers or trekkers on their long adventurous journeys may need a nap or two to give their tired bodies some rest and refreshment. Before they continue on their trekking or backpacking trip. Thus, MiStay is a perfect fit for them.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Religious tourists

Pilgrims who take connecting transportation need a place to lounge and unwind. MiStay is a good option for this. When we travel to places like Tirupati or Rameshwaram, we just need a hotel room for couple of hours to freshen up. And then continue to the temple.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Weekend Getaway

Why go to one place when you can visit a whole series of them in one trip! When you can club some awesome destinations along with an exciting road trip. A well charted trip to various attractions along with short hotel stays sounds great for getaways. And it will be very economical as well.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Cultural Tourists

As, the cultural tourists travel to experience various cultures, attend festivals and ceremonies. They write blogs on their experience. For them too, MiStay can provide a very viable option. Thus, not just the travelers,  Microstay through MiStay can even help the Hotel industry as well. Let’s see some of the ways it helps the hotel industry.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India  for Students

Students who have to go to a different city to appear for competitive exams, or attend a seminar can choose Mistay without paying complete day’s hotel charges. And one can’t stress enough how good it will be. Because students often have limited budget. And by booking a hotel for just a few hours they can relax before their exam and rest properly.

Benefit of MicroStay Hotels in India

Increased occupancy

Microstay leads to increase in occupancy. Despite a large traveling population, the average occupancy rate of hotels in India is less than 67% as per the CARE rating. Hotels cannot risk diluting their brand value by lowering price. By offering room on an hourly basis, hotels can attract this untapped segment of customers to increase occupancy. Moreover, when hoteliers price the room on hourly rate, they are supporting fair pricing and without diluting the brand value of the Hotel since full day rate of the hotel remains same.

Monetize on vacant hours

Majority of the existing customers that the hotels get through various channels include guests checking-in late in the evening and checking-out in the morning. Hence, most of the rooms remain vacant in the day. Offering room by hour during those periods enables the hotels to monetize on the rooms additionally.

Increase the RevPAR

By selling the room on hourly basis, the hoteliers have the opportunity of selling same inventory more than once in a day. Total revenue earned from a single room by selling it multiple times in a day will add up to a lot more than the full day rate. Thus we see, it is a great flexible concept which provides several benefits to different sections of travelers as well as the hotel industry. Let’s popularize this concept so that more and more travelers and the tourism industry itself as well can benefit from this.

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