Escape from the busy life. Take a Daycation
This student-founded startup allows users to book “daycations” to hotel amenities without staying the night.
Traditionally, people must be checked in as hotel guests in order to access hotel amenities like pools, lounges, hot tubs, gyms and private beaches. Now, users can just pull open the Daycation site (and soon the app!) to book hassle-free day experiences.
Rough Draft Ventures is excited to support Matt Boney and Alex Novo of Daycation, an innovative startup that allows users to book day vacations to upscale hotels and spa amenities without staying the night.
Daycation’s innovative model benefits users and hotels alike. On the user side, Daycation enables busy locals to relax and experience upscale amenities on-demand without committing to a club membership.
Daycation also fills a huge gap in the Airbnb vacation experience: luxury amenities. Airbnb travelers can now access luxury pools and saunas, something the Airbnb experience has lacked until now.
On the hotel side, Daycation empowers hotels to take full advantage of their amenities. By limiting access to hotel guests, hotels have historically failed to capture their full market potential.
Daycation founders Matt Boney and Valentin Perez met at Brown University as freshmen. Soon after, they met their third co-founder Alex Novo, a University of Miami student, while expanding into the Miami market. When we first met the Daycation team, their enthusiasm and conviction reaffirmed Rough Draft’s commitment to young founders. We talked to the team to learn more about how they were inspired to start Daycation:
“Growing up, our favorite thing to do was to sneak into hotel pools in Jackson Hole (in Matt’s case), in Cancún (in Valentin’s case) and Miami (in Alex’s case). We realized at Brown that there was no way to do the same thing legitimately, and then Matt began to ponder, “Why don’t we create a system that allows you to use hotel amenities for the day without spending the night?” Matt had worked in hotels growing up and knew that starting Daycation filled a real and increasing need.”
Matt also explained Daycation’s strong focus on ensuring a pleasant hotel and guest experience:
“It’s very important to us that hotels are able to have full control over their Daycation system. We are constantly adding features for improved hotel-facing experience. Valentin built the iOS app in Swift and the webapp in React.js on Amazon AWS. The iOS app and web platform are geared toward providing a sleek, simple, and efficient user experience while also ensuring the hotel has enough insight and control to capitalize on having prospective overnight guests on property.”
The team has been incredibly committed to their company, with Matt and Alex both leaving school to focus on expanding Daycation’s offerings. Moving forward, the founders have some big targets:
“We’re currently working with hotels in Miami, New York, and LA to capture the day customer market and raising a larger seed round. Daycation will also be onboarding more technical development, marketing, and sales roles. look out for the app launch this summer!”
Feeling in need of a daycation? Visit Daycation.
If you’re a student looking to take your startup, company or project to the next-level, drop us a line & let’s explore what we can build together.
