DailyPass, a website that draws people to use facilities at hotels without booking a room, is gearing up efforts to bring five-star hotels into its network to attract domestic tourists.
It plans to raise Series A funding early next year.
So-called daycations will be the new normal among tourists in the post-Covid era, said Chris Secher, chief executive of Travel Ads Network Thailand, the operator of DailyPass.com.
"This serves as a new experience to spend time at hotel facilities without room booking and makes visitors feel like having a short holiday," said Mr Secher.
It collects the minimum service charge of 650 baht per person and every pass includes a discount voucher for food and drink at the hotels.
Mr Secher said many DailyPass users spend time at hotels for remote work, celebrate their birthday near swimming pools and have a special time with their family.
Friso M. Koopmans, chief marketing officer of DailyPass, said the pandemic is shedding 90-95% of hotels' revenue due to the lack of foreign tourists.
The platform, he said, will help hotels leverage usage of under-utilised facilities by external guests as new customers.
Some 60% of DailyPass's users are Thais. Most Thai users are females, with foreigners making up more of the males. Most of the platform's users are aged 24-45.
"We promoted it mostly in social media as Thais heavily use this channel," Mr Koopmans said.
Mr Secher said the company earns a commission fee of 15-20% from each pass. Its hotel partners see their revenue increase 15-20% by joining the platform, he said.
The platform, which focuses on hotel swimming pools, will add more facilities, including spas, gyms, meeting rooms and restaurants, as well as tapping group customers, said Mr Secher.
Big data and machine learning technology will be used in its system soon to suggest hotel facilities to meet customers' lifestyles, he said.
Some 50 hotels in Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket participate in the platform. It will expand its reach to those in Chiang Mai and Hua Hin.
"We aim to reach 300 hotels nationwide by early 2021. We hope to make this website a Southeast Asia platform and start to expand to Singapore hotels. The company expects to raise funds in Series A round by early next year," said Mr Secher.
DailyPass can serve tourists who might stay in boutique hotels but would like to experience luxury facilities in five-star hotels, said Vasant Chatikavanij, director of Loxley Plc, which holds a 37% stake in Travel Ads Network.