I took a long trip to Germany over Christmas, and I reviewed my business-class flight experience on Austrian Airlines here. On my way from Chicago to Munich, I had a 6-hour layover in Vienna. 6 hours is a “bad” amount of time for a layover because it’s not long enough to really explore a city (and get back in time to go through international security), but it’s too long to just sit around in the lounge. So what to do on a long layover? We rented a hotel room near the airport, during the day, for just a few hours to take a nice nap in between our flights. Read on for our Dayuse review.
Overall: Great way to spend a long layover!
Pros: Easy booking; seamless experience; hotel exactly as expected. This is what to do on a long layover.
Cons: Really none, just don’t expect a luxury hotel experience.
Booking process
This process is super-simple. Head to Dayuse.com and look for a hotel in your location. So far, most of Dayuse’s properties are in Europe, with a few in major cities in the U.S. I found a lot of hotels to choose from near the Vienna airport:
Note the box where it gives you timing options. You’re paying for a private room during the daytime (hence the name Dayuse), so the price varies depending on the number of hours you need. The most common windows seem to be 8a-2p and 10a-6p, but many hotels offer lots of options. Once you click on a hotel, just pay attention to the different available time windows, and pick the one that fits best for you.
I chose the Das Reinisch Vienna Airport hotel, marked above, because of its proximity to the airport and reasonable price. I needed it from pretty much exactly 8a-2p, so this was perfect.
Book it, and you don’t even have to pay up-front. There are also no cancellation fees!
I got my booking confirmation almost immediately and didn’t think of it again until it was time to check in.
Check-in process
We touched down at Vienna airport after our long-haul business class flight on Austrian, which I reviewed here, around 8a. I felt pretty exhausted, having not slept much on the flight, so I was excited for a rest in a real bed.
Das Reinisch Vienna Airport hotel apparently has an airport shuttle that you have to pay for, but we found it easier to just order an Uber rather than try to arrange a shuttle. For about $12 and almost no wait, we made it to the hotel really easily with Uber.
I had never experienced Dayuse — or even heard of it — before this trip, so I was a little worried the front desk would be confused about our booking. My worries were unfounded. Check-in was quick and efficient, no confusion whatsoever about the fact that we were checking in at 8:00 in the morning and leaving that same afternoon. We presented our information, they gave us keys, and we were on our way to a nap immediately.
Dayuse promises this seamless experience, and I think they really delivered. I give credit to the Das Reinisch hotel too, of course.
The room
The Das Reinisch Vienna Airport is a quintessential airport hotel. This means it’s not particularly luxurious, but it is perfectly clean. And when you’re really tired and just want to nap between flights, it is perfect.
I only took one quick picture of our room, because we literally walked in and went straight to bed after pulling shut the blackout drapes:
As you can see, the room is somewhat small, but consistent with European standards.
The Das Reinisch Vienna Airport hotel took some professional photos of what looks to be the same room type we had. Their photos look a lot nicer than mine. Keep in mind, they’re using professional lighting and really maximizing how big the room looks! That’s not meant to be critical, just to point out that this is a standard, satisfactory room.
The bathroom was also small but standard. Since our next flight, from Vienna to Munich, was very short, we chose to maximize our time sleeping here. We showered at the hotel in Munich after our nap here.
I loved the blackout drapes in the middle of the day. We slept peacefully for a few hours and woke up confused about where we were. That’s how you know you had a good nap!
In short, the room was exactly as promised: Perfect for resting during the day.
Experience
We woke up a few hours later in the early afternoon, ready to make our way back to the Vienna airport. We handed our keys to the front desk, they charged us the price we expected, and we went on our way without any issue.
I have to compare this experience to our other alternatives: Hanging out in the lounge for 6 hours or trying to find something to do in Vienna for a couple of hours. We were way too tired to rush around trying to see something in Vienna, and it didn’t seem fun to try to navigate into and out of the city before making our way through security again. So, that wasn’t really an option. We could’ve hung out in the lounge for 6 hours, but as you’ll see in my review, the lounge was nothing special. There was a lot of seating and a couple little daybeds, but it wasn’t a place I’d feel comfortable passing out for a few hours. And how many carby snacks can you really eat? (Actually, don’t ask.)
We made the right choice and got some good sleep with Dayuse. It was very worth the ~$70 we paid for both of us to rest peacefully.
This also set us up for a great, epic stay in Germany! Here’s what we did:
- Took a short-haul business-class flight from Vienna to Munich
- Spent a few days at the Andaz Munich (NOT recommended as a hotel, but Munich was a great city!)
- Took a quick train from Munich to the lovely city of Nuremberg – check out my review of the Park Plaza Nuremberg here
- Took another quick train from Nuremberg to Berlin, where we stayed at the amazing Waldorf Astoria Berlin and then the lovely InterContinental Berlin
I think Dayuse really set us up for a good first day, sans jetlag!
Bottom line
Would I stay somewhere with Dayuse again? Absolutely! It’s a great way to spend a long-ish layover. Dayuse is exactly as advertised, and it was totally hassle-free. This is key when you’re jet-lagged and need to make the most of a few hours worth of high-quality sleep.
I hope you like my suggestion for what to do on a long layover! Share your favorite layover activity tips in the comments.
