Marriott now offers hotel rooms by the day so workers can escape home
If you need a break from working from home, maybe you should head to a Marriott hotel...
By David Flynn, October 29 2020
With travel nipped in the bud, hotel occupancy rates have plummeted. At the same time, the constraints of Covid are seeing more people than ever before abandoning the office to work from home.
For Marriott that’s become an opportunity to turn lemons into lemon juice, with the world’s largest hotel group now offering a worker-friendly Day Pass at many of its key properties.
This provides access to a room – in some cases a suite – from 6am through to 6pm, with free access to WiFi and (where available) business facilities such as printing, fax and scanning. Need some downtime? Hit the hotel pool or fitness centre.
Marriott Bonvoy members can even earn points on their daytime stay (at a rate of 5-10 points per US$1) and receive a “complimentary assortment of snacks”.
Should there be a Bonvoy Platinum Elite, Titanium Elite or Ambassador Elite card in your wallet, this will also unlocks the hotel’s executive lounge during your day stay.
The thinking behind Day Pass
If you’re finding working from home is rife with distractions – especially if you need to hunker down, focus and and work uninterrupted on that important presentation or project – a Day Pass could be your ticket to productivity and sanity.
“Working remotely doesn’t necessarily have to mean working from home, where blurred lines between personal and professional lives can create distractions and stress,” says Marriott International Group President Stephanie Linnartz.
“We are inviting guests to work anywhere with Marriott Bonvoy to help them be more productive and achieve a better work/life balance by reimagining our hotel rooms as local remote workspaces for our customers.”
“By providing flexible booking options, our loyalty members and guests have a familiar alternative when choosing where to work.”
Marriott says its Day Pass is currently available on certain room types at selected hotels in Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas, New York, Toronto, London, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, with planned expansion in Europe, Middle East and Latin America.
How much does it cost? Executive Traveller checked the Day Pass rates at several Marriott properties for mid-November:
- Marriott Tang Plaza, Singapore (deluxe room) S$155
- St Regis, Singapore (executive deluxe room) S$180
- W Hong Kong (standard city view room) HK$1200
- JW Marriott, Hong Kong (standard room) HK$1250
- Marriott Grosvenor Square, London (standard room) £140
- Marriott Grosvenor Square, London (suite) £190
Upgrade to a Stay Pass
There’s also a Stay Pass, which combines a Day Pass for work with an overnight stay and an extra-late checkout at 6pm the following day, Marriott says: that'a a full 36 hours.
This includes free breakfast “and complimentary evening cocktails, wherever available”, with Marriott Bonvoy members also earning Elite night credits.
The Stay Pass is available at a broader range of Marriott properties – almost 2,000 hotels worldwide – although it appears that not all Day Pass hotels are also available for a Stay Pass.
For the sake of comparison, Executive Traveller priced a Stay Pass at the Marriott Grosvenor Square London at £209 for a standard room (against £140 for the Day Pass) and £290 for a suite ( £190 for the Day Pass).
Rounding it all off is the family-oriented Play Pass, available “in participating luxury and resort locations worldwide.”
“Guests enjoy a business concierge, supervised kids’ activities, preferred office/study spaces along with curated experiences for the whole family to enjoy,” Marriott promises.
For more details, visit workanywhere.marriott.com.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
13 May 2020
Total posts 827
this is not a new idea. Hotels, at least the smart ones, have been doing this forever. Check in whenever you want, check out whenever you want. Pay by the hour, with some minimum amount.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 125
There used to be a lot of ‘pay by the hour’ hotels in Sydney’s Kings Cross. I do believe the intent was somewhat different 🤭
13 May 2020
Total posts 827
we often fly to LAX or SFO via Fiji. Sometimes we stay for few days, sometimes connect at NAN. The schedule from BNE means about 4-5 hours between flights (5pm to 9.30 or 10pm), so no way am going to sit at any airport for 4 or 5 hours, so head to any one of a multitude of hotels for 3 or so hours. Have a swim, have a few drinks, snacks & then head back to airport. Simple pay a small day fee.
Hotels that are switched on & relying on airport arrivals, know that flights at many cities, except SYD, arrive 24 hours a day.
For NAN example above, if having to get a 9.30pm flight, would aim to be back at airport by 8.30pm. Many flights arrive around this time or later, so all a hotel has to do to make that room available for another late arriving guest, is get housekeeping to turn the room around. Most rooms can be turned around in less than 30 mins or faster if more than 1 person working on the room.
27 May 2017
Total posts 21
Great idea!
09 May 2020
Total posts 572
If I am going to take advantage of this Day pass, it’s to get away from children, including other people’s.
So if the Stay pass for staycations is happening concurrently with Day pass, it is actually a disincentive for me to make that travel to the city locations for a day stay
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
15 Dec 2015
Total posts 9
I'd consider this even here in Melbourne
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