Daycation hotels offer the chance to spend a few discreet hours with someone without staying the night - a boon for modern city-hoppers

New app Dayuse is bringing an elegant solution to the problem of needing somewhere relaxing and comfortable to get changed before the office Christmas party (rather than the shared loos), or to destress after barging your way along the high street looking for the perfect presents. It means you can book into your favourite hotel for just a short stay — several hours, rather than overnight — for a fraction of the normal cost. With access to facilities, from gyms to spas, it could be the perfect base from which to do your Christmas shopping or party prep. Sample cost: from 9am to 6pm at Hotel Indigo, Edinburgh, is £50, or from 11.30am to 4pm at The Hux, Kensington, is £60.

Hotel platform Dayuse (another clever name – see AND FINALLY in this week's BTN) is highlighting its programme to offer business travellers a way to ensure they arrive refreshed and prepared for their day ahead.

Once, years ago, when I walked into a hotel and asked to book a room for about four hours I received an old-fashioned look which said: “Wahay, we know your game”. Everyone assumes you’re after a furtive bunk-up, procured or adulterous. (I needed it for work, honestly. I’m too boring for the other.)

French start-up Dayuse says that it opens up hotels to a new, local clientele by democratising high-end stays thanks to prices that are 30 per cent to 75 per cent cheaper than an overnight stay (rates start from £50 a day). It also allows hotels to monetise rooms that would otherwise be empty between bookings.

Dayuse.com is the first site to offer daytime hotel bookings. Founded by David Lebée at the age of 29, along with his two partners Eugénie Lebée and Thibaud D'Agrèves, Dayuse.com saw the day in 2010. Working as director within large Parisian hotel groups at the time, David Lebée was often asked about daytime bookings. Guests wished to book a room for just a few hours, but traditional structures never had an appropriate service to offer. Dayuse.com was created to suit this exact need. Since its creation, the startup has strived to make daytime hotel bookings available to the bigger numbers. Dayuse.com gives its customers the opportunity to enjoy a hotel room as well as other services traditionally available to overnight guests only, in the daytime, at the best possible price.

DesignStudio has designed the new identity of travel industry company Dayuse, which seeks to show that the brand offers its customers much more than “a cheeky rendezvous”.

It was the pen pot on the desk that tipped us over the edge. I wanted it there so I could grab a pen during an important work call. My husband thought it was cluttering up a workspace that should ideally be kept as clear as possible, given that it was also our bedroom.

Booking a hotel by the hour might stir up some amorous connotations, reserved for quick liaisons and romantic encounters.

“Do you want to prove your love and make a romantic gift? Why not send her an invitation to meet in the hotel?”

Apps are digital tools that can make booking and coordinating travel, navigating a new city, translation, currency conversion, combating jet lag and beyond a whole lot easier with a simple swipe or tap. Apps can help travellers speak new languages, relax in airport lounges and find a public loo in an unfamiliar city. Though there are endless options for helpful travel apps, we narrowed it down to our top 20 favourites, in no particular order. With these, loaded on your mobile, you can fill your 2020 with both travel activities with much more ease. Start downloading!

Running for one month, the campaign will see more than 400 of the iconic Black Cabs, adorned with Dayuse.com’s branding, take over the streets of London. The undersides of tip seats in the taxis will also be decorated with the brand logo.

Forget staycations, daycations are the latest mini break travel trend to hit our shores. “A ‘daycation’ is the concept of enjoying all the benefits of a hotel - luxurious room, access to spa facilities and gyms, fine dining - without the cost or hassle of staying overnight,” says Simon Botto, founder of DayBreakHotels.

Already a big hit in Japan, daytime and by-the-hour hotel bookings are becoming more popular in Western cities – it’s just that not that many people know about them yet.

While Booking.com and Expedia lead the segment, there are some amazing tech startups which are transforming the sector and gunning fierce competition to these tech giants.

By transforming hotels into daytime living spaces, Dayuse.com is seeking to rejig the hospitality industry.

Dayuse.com, the global leader in daytime hotel bookings, announces today that it unveiled an advertising campaign across 500 black cabs in London in a move designed to educate consumers about the opportunity to book a hotel room for a few hours during the day at a discounted rate.

Dayuse.com, a premier solution for daytime hotel reservations worldwide, is launching its new brand campaign, the “Dayuse Effect”.

The wonder of travel is in the sights and sounds of your new location, but if a tool could smooth your path and free up your senses, you would use it, right?