Jack Smith

Recharge - Take a nap or shower in a luxury hotel

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Jack Smith
With Recharge; there's no need to rent a hotel for a day at a time. If you have a conference or something and want to just have a shower/use the gym, Recharge enables you to pay for the hotel by the minute. It's currently live in SF. https://recharge.co/app is the link to the iphone app Enter promo code “PH” in the app for 30 minutes free on your first stay.
Suzanne Sheridan
@_jacksmith have been saying this to friends for years. Nothing out there currently. Hope it's a success
Diego Iglesias
I guess it depends on the hotel, but anyone know the average price of the service?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@diego_iglesias Every Recharge is super nice. $40/hour and you pay by the minute.
Aaron Myers
@mannybamfo @diego_iglesias Interesting concept, not sure the pricing is in line? Let's say I take a shower and nap for a total of 3 hours, I could of paid for an entire hotel room. Is it $40/hour across the board?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@amyers @diego_iglesias Solid question Aaron. Our philosophy is no one stays in a hotel room for 24 continuous hours. So why should you pay for 24 continuous hours? Our customers love the freedom to pay for what they use and not a penny more. Our customers use Recharge for work space, or even to work out in the gym. The amenities of our luxury spaces make Recharge valuable for folks who would normally pay for a luxury space. Down the line, we will provide other tiers of service similar to UberX that have a more affordable price point. But even Berkeley/Stanford Students who are price-conscious feel using luxury space for a quick break is totally worth the mental relief when it gets busy in the city. Try it out for free with code PH and let me know what you think!
Jake Gibson
This is pretty cool! Seems like Breather except you're not in some random person's conference room. Where in SF are you available right now? And what's next on your expansion plan?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@iamjakestream We are available in downtown San Francisco. When you are in the city, check us out. Also, expansion is in the works!
Chris Wilson
Great concept and I can see where there is a need when you want to "recharge" but the price seems strange since a decent nap and shower will probably run you $100 or so, which means that you could use Hotel Tonight to find something in that range but for much longer. Any thoughts on the price?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@automateiq Recharge rooms are currently nicer than HT inventory and our customers enjoy the convenience of one-tap booking. Ultimately we provide control & convenience. Customers enjoy knowing they could pay $100 or they could also pay $10 for a shower after a run in the city. Recharge is very similar to Uber Black-- we will introduce other tiers of service down the line.
Casie Millhouse-Singh
I can totally see this in Asia, especially with all those Long-haul layovers with 16+ hours to spend in a city.
Emmanuel Bamfo
@casielane Casie, we're with you 100%.
Hua
How did you come up with this idea?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@hua great question Hua. Part of the team was early at Hitch which Lyft bought. We started solving that problem for drivers, and people kept telling us they would pay $$ just to have a private place to use the restroom, take a shower or grab a nap. We got a couple of our friends using it on a text system and it just kept spreading, so we built Recharge!
Vybhav Ramachandran
Great Idea! I had one question in mind : How will the hotel manage room cleaning/maintenance between each traveller? Let's say 10 travellers use a room for 1 hour each. Does room service have to clean the room after each use? If not, the next customer will end up with a used shower and used sheets. On the flip side, room service between every use could be costly. Would love to hear your thoughts on this @mannybamfo
Emmanuel Bamfo
@tacack Vybhav I like the way you think-- sounds similar to a lot of the considerations we made many moons ago as we designed our operations. We have a meticulous process of managing inventory. Our system as a whole, provides the customer a room that is cleaned to the exact same luxury standard as a 24-hr booking. Book a Recharge and you'll see what we mean! And of course, shoot me a note at manny@recharge.co if you would like to chat further.
Alex Shirazi
I used Recharge the other day. I work in the city and live in the south bay. After work I needed to shower/get ready and my gym is not in the city. It was a luxe way to escape the office atmosphere and jump into a nice shower, relax for a bit, then head out. Highly recommend.
Jack Sitt
Definitely see the need for this. I rented out a hotel room with some friends for last years Super Bowl. We would have saved money if we could have payed by the minute instead of by the night.
Emmanuel Bamfo
@jacksitt $$$ saving is good. It will be great for Superbowl 50 & anytime you need elements of home, but home is too far away.
Ryan Junee
Would be great when taking the redeye somewhere and then heading to a meeting (quick refresh before the meeting). Looking forward to seeing it in New York, Houston
Alex Plutzer
Do you clean the rooms?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@alexplutzer Ah yes. Every time you hop into a Recharge it will be immaculate, cleaned to the exact same standard as a regular room.
Liora
Super fascinating concept -- looking forward to seeing where this goes! This is an interesting take on the "on-demand" market and a nice complement to AirBnB.
Emmanuel Bamfo
@liora_ Thanks Liora, you rock.
Schoneck Shoaf
This is literally why a pay for NYSC membership. Allows me to shower before meetings or a run and decompress with a quick sauna / stem to collect my thoughts. Phenomenal business. A tiered option of shower + nap vs hotel gym(sauna for me) amenities would be nice. Conference partnership would be nice also. Vote for NYC & Seattle next!!!
Emmanuel Bamfo
@schoneck We were thinking of folks just like you when we decided to make this happen! NYC & Seattle are on the list for sure. Would you like us to ping you when we're there?
Fábio Krauss Stabel
Really cool concept! Does anyone know if it is coming out for Android any time soon? =)
Emmanuel Bamfo
@fkrauss Android definitely coming soon my friend
Ouriel Ohayon
Similar to Dayuse.com?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@ourielohayon Similar in concept, but based upon a map view. There is also no set time. You can stay 20 minutes, OR 20,000 minutes. Once you get matched to a Recharge you can hail a Uber there as well.
Lea Marolt
Oh, but this is wonderful (:
Oliver Page
How do you check in?
Emmanuel Bamfo
@oliverpager Once you get to the hotel you will see a sign for the Recharge check in line. Just make sure you have a government ID, and they will check you in quickly for your stay.
Yuri Kleban
very cool concept. Are you going to look to expand to the "not so fancy" hotels? e.g. the cheaper hotels that you just want to take a shower/ nap a bit and go? (and don't care about it being a high star hotel)
Emmanuel Bamfo
@yurikleban Yuri, We're starting with our premium tier, and we'll add additional tiers similar to UberX down the line. Give it a try when you're in SF. I'm curious to see what you think.
Daniel Kegel
I could see this working, but agree with others that the price seems steep for anything more than a shower and a power nap. Use it for more than 3-4 hours and the nightly rate becomes more attractive. Also, have you considered this app becoming popular for - uhm - X-rated use cases? (could be a positive/negative)
Harry Cheung
@danielkegel Regarding our pricing, San Francisco has the highest average daily rate at close to $400 per night. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/ar... Our pricing is very competitive when compared to that. Our team is fully aware of illicit use cases. However, we feel that most if not all our usage will center around increasing one's productivity and saving time.
Daniel Kegel
@harrycheung Thanks for you reply. Most hotels still have the classic 3pm checkin 12am checkout pattern. In non-leisure related use cases, I would imagine that rooms stay mostly empty during the day and early evening. It seems logical for a hotel to offer day/night packages (9am-7pm for work/rest, 8pm-8am for sleeping) to maximize space usage. I know of some hotels that offer half day stays but usually this flexibility is only offered in airports.
Akshay Anand
Definitely a must have app for my next holiday :)
Emmanuel Bamfo
@akki0421 Awesome we'll be there.
Michael John McClain
I'm going to use it tomorrow. This will be fun.