One minute more

San Francisco – Sharing economy company Recharge has launched an app that enables guests to book and pay for rooms by the minute.

The app is designed to give increased flexibility to guests and hoteliers
Guests are charged £0.47 ($0.66, €0.58) per minute for access to a room and the hotel’s amenities
Hotels can use the app to assign a rating to their guests following their stay

The hotel industry is known for a lack of flexibility when it comes to booking a room and changing check-in or check-out times.

Recharge aims to change all that. The user-friendly app directs potential guests to available rooms and enables them to reserve them instantly using a simple, one-tap feature. Another quick tap enable guests to check out at any time.

‘I started Recharge so that everyone can have an element of home when they are on the go,’ co-founder Emmanuel Bamfo explained to Forbes magazine. ‘When you are travelling, commuting, shopping or jumping between meetings, you sometimes need a break space. That is where Recharge comes in.’

Hotels, especially during the low season, often have a number of unused rooms. The Recharge app highlights how hotels can capitalise on these empty rooms and extend their services to members of the wider community, such as local residents who require a room for a few hours.

Breather, a similar sharing economy rental service, enables people to hire office space and meeting rooms by the hour.

The Big Picture

In the on-demand economy, consumers expect to receive next-minute rather than next-day service. See our macrotrend The Optimised Self to find out more.