How hotels sell day passes to non-residents

Hotels sell day passes by turning spare capacity in the pool, spa or gym into timed sessions that non-residents book and pay for in advance. The usual approach is to cap day guests well below the facility's safe maximum, price by day of the week and time slot, publish clear terms, and check every day guest in on arrival.

A hotel day pass can add revenue on days when the leisure facilities are quiet, and it introduces local people to the restaurant and spa. The risk is a crowded pool on a sunny Saturday while residents who paid for a room look for a free lounger. Most of the work is in deciding how much capacity to release, and when.

What does a hotel day pass usually include?

Day passes come in a few common forms. A leisure pass gives access to the pool, gym and thermal areas for a set window. A spa day adds one or more treatments, often with lunch. Some hotels also sell cabanas, daybeds or day rooms as separate products. Each one needs a start and end time, a list of what is included (towels, robes, lockers, parking) and a clear statement of what costs extra.

How much capacity should go to non-residents?

Work it out for each facility and each day:

• Set the safe maximum number of users for the pool, spa and gym, based on your risk assessment.
• Forecast resident and member use for the day, from occupancy and past visit patterns.
• Treat the remainder as the most you could sell to day guests, and release less than that.
• Split day-guest capacity into time slots so arrivals do not all land at once.
• Review the allocation weekly against occupancy and actual use.

Time slots do a lot of the work. A morning and an afternoon session, or a choice of three-hour and five-hour passes, keep the changing rooms and pool deck from filling at the same moment. When the hotel is full, cut day passes back. When residents are thin on the ground midweek, release more.

In Tiquo, each pass can be a bookable service with its own availability, duration, buffers, capacity and pricing, and availability updates as bookings are created, changed or cancelled. Several pass types can draw on the same pool or spa inventory, so a booking through any of them uses up the same places.

How should you price a hotel day pass?

There is no standard price, because location, facilities and inclusions vary so much. Start from your own costs: towels, laundry and consumables for each guest, any lunch or treatment included, and the extra staffing needed to supervise more people. Then add a margin that reflects demand on that day.

Price weekends and school holidays higher than weekdays, or restrict the cheaper passes to off-peak days. If you also sell leisure memberships, check the arithmetic from a regular visitor's point of view. If a month of weekday passes costs less than a monthly membership, some members may switch to passes. A food and drink credit, redeemable on the day, gives day guests a reason to use the restaurant and makes a higher price easier to accept.

In Tiquo you can set up weekday and weekend passes as separate services, restrict a discount to particular days of the week, or use pricing seasons to apply a different price level over date ranges such as school holidays. If you want to track a food and drink credit in Tiquo, staff can issue store credit to the guest's profile and limit it to a sublocation such as the restaurant.

What terms and conditions should a day pass have?

• Arrival and departure times, and what happens if the guest arrives late
• Age limits, and the times children may use the pool
• Cancellation, refund and no-show rules, including bad weather for outdoor pools
• What is included in the price and what is charged separately
• Health questions for spa use, such as pregnancy or medical conditions, and when guests must answer them
• House rules on dress, phones and photography, and alcohol by the pool
• The hotel's right to limit day-guest access when residents need the facilities

Collect the health answers and the guest's agreement to the terms before the visit, so reception is not handing out clipboards at the door. Tiquo forms can collect answers and acceptance of your terms through a published link, and each submission is stored on the matching customer profile. Documents can also be sent for signature through a secure link, and the recipient does not need an account to sign.

What are the health and safety duties for pool day guests?

In Great Britain, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) says there are no specific health and safety laws for swimming pools. Operators must still comply with their general duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the associated regulations, and make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to workers and users. HSE's guidance for pool operators is Health and safety in swimming pools (HSG179).

The risk assessment decides whether constant poolside supervision is needed, and HSE says it cannot make specific recommendations on lifeguard numbers. Where the assessment finds constant supervision is not required, HSE says a member of staff will need to be on call and able to respond immediately to emergencies whenever the pool is in use, and that it is essential these staff are trained in pool rescue, CPR and first aid. Opening the pool to non-residents changes who uses it and how many arrive at once, so revisit the assessment before you start selling passes and again whenever you change the day-guest cap.

Spa pools and hot tubs are a known source of legionella, and HSE covers them in separate guidance, HSG282. If you are unsure what applies to your facilities, ask your local authority's environmental health team or a pool safety specialist before launch.

How do you balance day guests with residents and members?

Residents and members pay for access as part of something larger, and they notice crowding first. You can protect them with member-only or resident-only hours, tighter day-guest caps at weekends, earlier booking windows for members, and member rates on treatments and lunch. Members who want to bring a friend can use a guest pass allowance instead of buying a full-price day pass.

In Tiquo, a service can be restricted to active members or to selected plans, and discounts attached to a membership plan apply automatically at checkout, so member rates and day-guest prices sit in the same system. Guest passes let each membership carry its own allowance, which Tiquo enforces, and every guest is recorded against the member who brought them. Members can register guests when they join or on arrival, and they can carry their membership card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.

Day guests are also potential members and overnight guests. Record who visits and how often: someone who has bought six passes in three months is worth a conversation about membership. In Tiquo each booking sits on the customer's profile, and marketing segments, which update as customer activity changes, can filter the customer and booking lists, so regular day guests are easy to find.

Should you sell day passes through a marketplace?

Day-pass marketplaces list hotel amenities for people who are not staying. In the US, for example, ResortPass lists day passes, spa passes, cabanas and day rooms, and gives partner hotels tools to update pricing and inventory. A marketplace can reach people who would not find you otherwise.

Before you sign up, check the commercial terms, who owns the guest's contact details, and how marketplace sales reach your own capacity count, because a pass sold elsewhere still takes a place in your pool. Selling on your own website avoids any marketplace commission, keeps the customer record, and lets you sell the treatment or lunch with the pass. You can do both, giving the marketplace a smaller allocation.

Selling day passes on your own website with Tiquo

Each Tiquo booking flow has a hosted page and an embed code, so passes can be sold on your own website in your own theme, with full payment or a deposit taken at booking and Apple Pay and Google Pay available. If you would rather build your own pass pages, the DOM Package lets your website list services, show availability by date and open the Tiquo booking flow for the pass a guest picks.

Booking confirmation, appointment reminder, cancellation and follow-up emails can be switched on for each flow. In the customer portal, day guests can book again using live availability and see their upcoming bookings and booking history.