Avid traveler Lora Bowler is cutting back on her vacation spending. That doesn't mean you skip the resort.
The New York resident said she spent more in 2023 than she expected, including on travel, and is now reining in her spending. She uses travel tricks and perks to cut some of the cost, and is part of a growing number of people turning to hotel day passes as a cheaper option to relax.
“It's like a nice way to get away and feel like you're in a five-star hotel,” Bowler said, “but you can't afford to stay.”
Day passes at hotels and resorts offer guests access to amenities without the cost of reserving a room. Bowler said she reserved lounge chairs and poolside amenities and even found a pass that offered a room where her husband could work from her laptop.
Hotels and third-party partners are making day passes more available to help bridge the gap between travel-interested consumers and luxury pricing.
A typical luxury hotel room in the United States between January 1 and April 6 costs approximately $400 per night, according to CoStar, a global provider of real estate data, analytics and news. Those rates are about 1% higher than the same period last year.
Luxury hotel room rates in July are expected to be 85% higher than the same month in 2019, before the Covid pandemic, according to luxury travel company Virtuoso.
“People have started thinking about travel budgets again,” said Hayley Berg, chief economist at travel site Hopper. “They are prioritizing spending on vacations, rather than on consumer goods.”
In a July 2023 survey by Booking.com, more than 60% of respondents said their cost of living will determine their travel planning in 2024, while just over half said they would likely pay for accommodation upgrades.
Most American travelers said they would be willing to pay for day passes to use the amenities of a five-star hotel without staying there, according to a Booking.com news release about the survey. The survey included nearly 28,000 adults from 33 countries who said they planned to travel over the next 12 to 24 months.
Consumers indulging in travel splurges after Covid restrictions were lifted fueled the “revenge travel” trend, Berg said, increasing demand for luxury accommodations. Now, he said, that trend “has petered out” and many travelers are working on tighter budgets.
Berg said day passes “give people exactly what they want” and provide a separate source of revenue for hotels.
“Hotels get an incremental revenue stream by offering exactly what they already have,” he said.
One of those hotels is the Virgin Hotels New York City, in the Koreatown neighborhood of Manhattan. On May 8, the hotel opened its rooftop pool for the second time, with the option for day guests to use the amenity.
The pool, tiled in cerulean blue and flanked by black and white lounge chairs, offers guests views of the Empire State Building and the city skyline.
Guests can reserve a lounge chair at the pool or upgrade to a cabana and invite up to four other guests. The cabin includes complementary services and snacks such as wine and fruit. Day pass users at the pool club can also get their own custom server, based on their selections. A day pass to the pool club starts at $130.
“Everyone needs a little escape,” said Sarah Payton, the hotel's director of partnerships and programming.
In May 2023, the hotel partnered with ResortPass, a site that offers day pass access to luxury hotels, resorts and spas, often at a discounted price.
ResortPass, launched in 2016, has a 95% share of the day-guest market, according to the company, and has partnered with more than 1,300 luxury hotels, including Waldorf-Astoria, JW Marriott and Fontainebleau.
The one-day guest platform has served more than 3 million users and has rolled out day pass access in more than 250 cities, the company said, at prices as low as $25.
“What we can really do is give people a more local way to get away without having to leave,” said ResortPass CEO Michael Wolf. “I think it complements other types of travel and potentially replaces them.”
The average ResortPass customer purchases all-day access at a cost of about $165, the company said. Customers who buy day passes through ResortPass often waste more money on the pool or other hotel amenities than overnight guests, Wolf said.
“Our guests spent on average more than $250 on the property's facilities, and often a little more than that,” he said.
Wolf said ResortPass is currently working on a membership-like program for customers who frequently use day passes, with an announcement expected later in 2024.
