Direct answer: an electric bike gives guests a way to experience the city and gives your hotel a reason for guests to book direct, plus a criterion that Green Key scores. To be premium, it has to carry your brand, stand up to shared use, unlock with the room key and create no work for reception, like Cityflow's bikes.
This article is about what the bike brings and what separates a premium amenity from a few bikes with a sticker on them. How the service works and who pays is in the guide to electric bikes for hotels.
Why is an electric bike an amenity and not just another extra?
Because guests use it outside the hotel, for hours, and associate it with your brand. Traditional amenities stay in the room; the bike goes out into the city with the guest.
People who travel to a city want to explore it, not just sleep there, and an electric bike makes that easy: no timetables, no parking and no arriving exhausted at the last sight of the day.
What does it give the guest?
The freedom to get around all day at their own pace. On a full battery, a Cityflow bike covers about 40 km, with pedal assistance up to 25 km/h, the legal limit in Spain. That's enough to cross Seville, Valencia or Málaga and get back to the hotel without tiring.
What's more, guests know what it's worth. An electric bike rental on the street costs around €25 a day; if the hotel's bike is free for booking on your website, they know what they're saving.
And once they try it, they use it again. Across Cityflow's accommodation operation, 38.8% of users rent more than once, according to the operating data.
What does it give the hotel?
What a bathroom kit can't:
- A reason to book direct. If the bike is free only on your website, you have something to offer that isn't yet another discount. How to present it is covered in free bike for booking on the hotel website.
- An amenity that can pay for itself. The hotel pays Cityflow a monthly fee per bike, on request. What OTA guests pay (the hotel sets the price; for example, €10 a day) can cover it.
- Your brand out on the street. Every bike carries your colours and your logo, at the hotel door and around the city.
Cityflow doesn't promise a specific rise in review scores or bookings: it depends on your hotel. You can see how your bikes are used in real time in the Cityflow dashboard.
Does it count towards sustainability certification?
Yes, in the programmes that look at mobility. Green Key scores hotels that lend bicycles to their guests and inform them about alternatives to the car. Biosphere, Travelife and EU Ecolabel assess the hotel's mobility along the same lines.
The certification goes to the hotel: Cityflow isn't certified by any of these programmes and doesn't claim otherwise.
What does a bike need to be truly premium?
Guests need to see it as part of the hotel, and it needs to be ready every morning without your team touching it. The difference lies in these points:
| Bikes with a sticker | Premium amenity | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | The hotel's logo on a consumer bike | Your colours and your logo on every bike |
| Use | Designed for an owner who looks after it | Built for a different stranger every day |
| At night | Someone carries batteries upstairs and removes saddles | It sleeps outdoors; nobody touches anything at closing time |
| Lock | Manual: if the guest forgets, it stays open | Doesn't depend on the guest: it stays locked anyway |
| How it unlocks | An app and a sign-up, or a code from reception | The room key |
| If it breaks down | Your team fixes it, and you pay | Maintenance and roadside assistance included |
Cityflow's bikes are in the right-hand column. They unlock with the same NFC card the guest uses to open their room, with no app and no sign-up, and Cityflow checks compatibility with the hotel's lock beforehand.
They also have a smart lock, GPS and insurance. The lock is the least visible part and the one that matters most: that's where bikes go missing with other systems.
Why does a bike you buy stop being premium?
Because premium isn't about it being new, but about it being perfect every morning. A consumer bike isn't built for a different stranger every day: it gets scratched, punctured and worn, and someone on your team has to fix it.
Buying six electric bikes with locks and anchoring comes to around €9,000 on day one, and from then on maintenance, theft and breakdowns are the hotel's. With Cityflow there's no upfront investment and no minimum term: if it stops making sense, Cityflow takes the bikes away.
How much work does it create for reception?
None. With Cityflow, reception doesn't hand out keys, doesn't take payments, doesn't fill in paperwork and doesn't store batteries. Guests' questions go to Cityflow, in their own language, seven days a week. And if the bike breaks down along the way, roadside assistance is Cityflow's job too.
An amenity that piles work onto the front desk stops being premium for the team that keeps it going.
How do you get started?
With Cityflow, like this:
- You tell Cityflow which city your hotel is in, how many rooms it has and whether your keys are NFC.
- Cityflow suggests how many bikes to start with, the fee and an example price for OTA guests.
- You choose your colours and your logo for each bike.
- The bikes arrive at your door and, from then on, Cityflow runs them.
Cityflow operates in 9 Spanish provinces. The hotels already working with Cityflow include properties from Wyndham, Petit Palace, Room Mate, Ona Hotels, Hoteles Gargallo and Sunotel. The full service is on electric bikes for hotels. If you want to see which bike your hotel would have, talk to sales.
Frequently asked questions
What does an electric bike bring to a hotel as an amenity?
For guests, a way to get around the city all day. For the hotel, a reason to book direct if the bike is free only on its website, a criterion that Green Key scores and, with Cityflow, an amenity that can be paid for by what OTA guests pay.
Do bikes count towards Green Key?
Green Key scores hotels that lend bicycles to their guests and inform them about alternatives to the car. The certification goes to the hotel: Cityflow isn't certified by Green Key.
What's the difference between a premium bike and a bike with the hotel's logo on it?
A premium one carries the hotel's colours and logo on every bike, is built for shared use and to sleep outdoors, has a lock that doesn't depend on the guest and unlocks with the room key. With Cityflow bikes, maintenance and roadside assistance are included.
Do you need to invest to have electric bikes at the hotel?
With Cityflow, no: the hotel pays a monthly fee per bike, on request, with no upfront investment and no minimum term. Buying six bikes with locks and anchoring comes to around €9,000 on day one, and maintenance falls to the hotel.
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