[ PLATFORM COMPARISON ]
Hotel Day Pass Platforms: ResortPass, Dayuse, HotelsByDay and Selling Direct
A guide for hotels · Based on DestinationCommerce's audit of 151 Southern California hotels (Oct 2026) · Last updated: · By Philip Beck
Day access has become a real revenue line for hotels: pools, cabanas, spa passes and day rooms sold to locals and travelers who aren't staying overnight. Most hotels sell it through a platform. This guide explains how the main platforms work, what they're good at, and what our audit found about hotels that also sell under their own brand.
Key findings from our audit (full report)
- 72% of Southern California hotels that sell day access on ResortPass don't sell it on their own website. Only 23% let a non-guest pick a date and pay on the hotel's own site or brand booking engine.
- 26% list day access or day rooms on more than one platform, most often Dayuse (21 hotels), Giftory (10) and HotelsByDay (8).
- Prices are about the same in both channels. Where a hotel sells both ways, the median Saturday day pass is $52 on the hotel site and $56 through a platform (23 hotels; the hotel was cheaper in 11 and dearer in 12). Cabanas: $336 vs $353 (20 hotels).
- Branded hotels are far more likely to sell online themselves than independents (28% vs 5%), mostly through brand-run day-pass sites.
The platforms at a glance
| ResortPass | Dayuse | HotelsByDay | Selling direct (your own site) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it sells | Day passes, cabanas, daybeds, spa passes, day rooms | Day rooms by the hour (often with pool or spa access) | Day rooms | Anything you choose: amenities, spa, rooms, meeting space, local experiences |
| Main buyer | Locals and travelers looking for a pool or spa day | Travelers between flights, remote workers, couples, locals | Travelers and locals needing a room for a few hours | Your own guests, past guests and local followers |
| Scale | 2,700+ hotel and spa partners across the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean (ResortPass, May 2026) | 9,000 partner hotels in 29 countries; 2.1M bookings in 2024 (Dayuse partners page) | U.S.-focused; smaller network | Your audience |
| Brand partnerships | Hilton (2024), Marriott (2026) | Chains and independents | Chains and independents | — |
| Who owns the customer data | Shared via the platform | Shared via the platform | Shared via the platform | You |
| Best for | Discovery: reaching people who've never heard of your hotel | Filling empty rooms during the day | Filling empty rooms during the day | Repeat buyers, bundles, and guests who already know you |
Platform facts are from each company's own site or press releases, checked . Commission and contract terms vary by hotel and aren't published, so we don't compare them.
How each platform works for hotels
ResortPass
ResortPass lists a hotel's day products (pool day passes, cabanas, daybeds, spa passes and day rooms) on its consumer site and app, and handles booking and payment. Hotels manage inventory and pricing through a partner portal (the "ResortPass hotel login"). Some hotels also use a hotel-branded ResortPass booking page, linked from their own website: it shows the hotel's logo, and ResortPass runs the checkout. In our audit, 20 of the 57 hotels that sent visitors from their own site to a platform used this kind of branded page.
Strengths: strong consumer demand (about 67,000 U.S. searches a month for "resort pass"), city pages that rank for "day pass near me" searches, and a dedicated partner team.
Worth knowing: buyers find you through ResortPass. Their next search is often "resort pass" again, not your hotel's name.
Dayuse
Dayuse sells daytime room slots, typically a few hours between morning and evening, at a discount to the overnight rate. Guests often pay at the hotel. Hotels manage availability through the Dayuse extranet ("Dayuse partner login").
Strengths: global reach (29 countries), strong for airport and city hotels, and it turns unsold rooms into daytime revenue.
Worth knowing: the product is the room. Pool, spa or cabana access is usually an add-on rather than the main offer.
HotelsByDay
HotelsByDay is a day-room marketplace, similar in model to Dayuse, with a smaller, mostly U.S. network.
Strengths: another discovery channel for day rooms.
Worth knowing: in our audit it was the third most common second platform (8 of 151 hotels).
Selling direct
Selling direct means a non-guest can choose a date, see a price and pay on the hotel's own website or booking engine. In our audit, the hotels that did this used brand-run sites (such as Marriott's and Hyatt's day-pass and experiences sites), spa booking systems, or poolside ordering tools.
Strengths: you keep the customer relationship, can bundle (a day pass plus lunch, a spa pass plus parking), and can sell the same buyer an overnight stay later.
Worth knowing: someone has to build and promote the booking page, and 77% of Southern California hotels haven't.
What our audit found
We checked the official websites of 151 Southern California hotels listed on ResortPass on 1–2 October 2026, recording what a non-guest could actually buy and at what price.
Three patterns stood out:
- Most hotels let the platform be the storefront. Even hotels that promote day passes on their own site usually send the buyer elsewhere to pay.
- Price isn't the difference; the relationship is. Prices on the hotel site and the platform were within a few dollars, so a direct option doesn't have to undercut anyone.
- Mixed messages are common. Some hotels' own websites say their pool or cabanas are for overnight guests only, while the same amenities are sold to day guests on a platform. A visitor who checks the hotel's site first may simply give up.
Method: official sites checked in a browser with screenshots; Saturday 3 Oct 2026 prices; a blind re-check of 17 hotels agreed on 14. Hotel prices mostly exclude fees, and platform prices include them. Full methodology and dataset: The Hotel Day Pass Report.
Platform, direct, or both?
Most hotels don't need to choose. Platforms are good at finding new buyers. Your own site is better for everyone who already knows you: past guests, locals who follow you, people who searched your name, and guests booking a room who might add a cabana.
A simple test:
- If someone searches your hotel's name plus "day pass", can they buy on your site? At 77% of the hotels we checked, they can't.
- Does your website say the same thing as your platform listing? If your site says "guests only" while you sell passes elsewhere, fix that first.
- Can a guest booking a room add a cabana or spa pass in the same checkout? Platforms can't do this. Only your own channel can.
FAQ
- How does ResortPass work for hotels?
- Hotels list day products (pool passes, cabanas, daybeds, spa passes, day rooms) on ResortPass, which handles discovery, booking and payment. Hotels manage availability and pricing through ResortPass's partner portal.
- What's the difference between ResortPass and Dayuse?
- ResortPass mainly sells amenity access: pools, cabanas and spas. Dayuse mainly sells hotel rooms for a few hours during the day, sometimes with pool or spa access included.
- Can a hotel sell day passes on its own website and on ResortPass at the same time?
- Yes. In our audit, the hotels that sold both ways priced them within a few dollars of each other: a median $52 on the hotel site vs $56 on the platform.
- How many hotels sell day passes directly?
- In our audit of 151 Southern California hotels listed on ResortPass, 23% sold day access online on their own website, 5% by phone or at the desk, and 72% didn't sell it directly.
- How much do hotel day passes cost?
- A median $56 on a Saturday in Southern California, and $336 for a cabana (platform prices including fees, Oct 2026).
Run every day guest through your own brand
Platforms bring you new buyers. DestinationCommerce lets you sell to everyone else under your own name: day passes, cabanas, spa passes and day rooms, alongside meeting rooms and the local experiences your concierge already recommends, all in one branded storefront on your website.
- Your brand, your checkout. Guests buy from your hotel, not a third party.
- Keep your platforms. Run ResortPass or Dayuse for discovery and your own storefront for direct buyers, with consistent prices and messages.
- Sell more per guest. Bundle a cabana with lunch, or add a spa pass to a room booking.
- Own the relationship. Every day guest becomes someone you can invite back overnight.
It's what we call destination commerce: making your hotel the place where guests book everything around their stay.
Is your hotel selling day access under its own brand?
Get your free day-access check → We'll check what a non-guest can buy on your website today, compare it with your platform listings, and send you a one-page summary. Takes us 10 minutes, and there's no obligation.
Or book a 15-minute walkthrough of a branded day-access storefront.