New Office Design Experiments for When the Remote Work Dream Fizzles

The large question mark hanging over the future of workplaces has prompted one accommodation specialist to set up an independent think tank.

Synergy Housing, a member of Ascott, has launched Reve Innovation Lab, which sees offices as a blank canvas — but its mission to “reposition commercial office assets” may also having something to do with gaining an edge over rivals, too.

The debate over how many employees will end back up in their offices is very much ongoing, but downbeat notes from one of the largest co-working space providers reveals a sense of urgency. IWG’s improvement in occupancy was lower than expected, it warned in a trading update this month, and likely to impact its results.

And in the UK the government is reportedly drafting legislation that could make it impossible for employers to insist staff return full-time to their place of work.

Back to the Drawing Board

Reve is headed up by industry veteran Jon Wohlfert, who has previously worked at Marriott brand Residence Inn, BridgeStreet (recently bought by National Housing Corporation) and Reside.

Topping the agenda are “distressed property assets,” and Wohlfert said these include hotels as well as offices. “Hotels have been in a bit of distress. That market may not come back, and they’ll be looking for solutions to optimize that asset, or reposition it,” he said.

Real estate companies no longer know how their assets are going to perform, he added, so he’s open to listening to new ideas, to offer them new channels of revenue. “We believe office vacancy will continue in the coming years and office owners and investors will seek to reposition office assets,” he said.

Reve is now working with an architectural firm to define a partial conversion of existing commercial office space to a residential component. Ultimately it will build a case study that illustrates how it can be done, echoing one developer’s plans to patent a blueprint for new homes that cater to remote workers.

Global engineering firm Arup has also been drawn into the wider conversation, according to one leading future or work consultant. Employers are wondering how to facilitate those all-important water cooler conversations for when staff do visit.

“I did a webinar with a group from Arup, and they said they are designing offices specifically for this incredible circulation,” said Lynda Gratton, founder of HSM, speaking at a Reset Work online event on Tuesday.

“In my view, if you say what’s the office for, it’s for cooperation, and you have to build it for those serendipitous encounters,” she added.

Playing Catch-Up

With the launch of Reve there’s a suspicion that part of its remit is to step up the service apartment sector’s own game, because it lags many other parts of the travel ecosystem.

For example, in a world where real-time confirmations should be the norm (note Hilton’s latest connecting rooms development), not the exception, most serviced apartment companies are wide of the mark. Wohlfert estimates less then five percent of inventory is displayed with real-time availability.

Does the sector have a reputation for being old fashioned?

“Yes, and I feel I can say that because I’ve lived in it for a while. It’s several years behind the times,” he replied. “That’s part of the mission here, to bring it forward to a more current platform that allows the ease of use you have with hotels, airlines and rental cars.”

Reve will also look at the concept of “live, work and play,” and at how technology can improve distribution, better communicate the arrival process and guest services, and even join the dots with behind-the-scenes aspects like maintenance, billing and accounting. It’s a vision shared with New York-based real estate firm Fisher Brothers with its Ease division.

Who Stands to Gain?

There’s more scepticism: Reve is tied closely to a single company, but Wohlfert is open about this. “Will Synergy be able to take advantage of Reve? Absolutely, but so would Reside, or anyone else in the space,” he said.

Synergy founders Jack Jensky and Henry Luebbert will also help with day-to-day operations.

“Many operators are prognosticating the future of hospitality, but few are looking at commercial office assets as a means to create and grow inventory like Reve is,” said Andreas King-Geovanis, CEO and founder of Sextant Stays. “The commercial zoning and bearish outlook on office space could make a convincing value proposition for any potential landlord.”

Not everyone’s convinced though. “A corporate announcing a think tank normally ends up with very little actionable innovation,” one global mobility expert, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Skift. Reve could also be a reaction to counter the dominance of Airbnb in the alternative accommodation space. It’s certianly made no secret of its ambitions to win more business travel.

“I’m sure it’s a concern for Synergy, though this think tank won’t solve it,” the expert added, and also questioned just how much demand there will be coming out of the pandemic, forecasting a potential surplus of accommodation.

On the practical side, with travel restrictions still lingering, Reve will run two Zoom meetings a week, one around strategy, and one tactical. Alongside its own clients, other operators, including rivals, and technology providers are encouraged to sign up.

“The bigger companies can afford to invest in new technology, and test new ideas, smaller companies typically don’t have the capital to do that,” Wohlfert said. “Our mission is to do that, and share it with the industry.”

Sidenotes

The concept of Reve chimes with “Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze,” which was a common phrase during the Reset Work event. It’s an organizational change model developed by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s, and reflects the state most industries are now in.

We’re clearly in the “change” phase because of the pandemic, and there’s another travel company hoping to ride the wave.

On Wednesday, Internova Travel Group launched a bizarre sounding campaign called “Go Human. Book Human.” Internova, which is owned by travel investor Certares, has built a dedicated platform, BookHuman.travel, featuring a searchable database of advisors, with buttons to easily call, or video, them.

This is part of the “Unfreeze, Change, Refreeze” model because its chief marketing officer thinks the opportunity to launch such an aggressive push might not arise again. “We may never have a more attentive audience to this messaging than we do today, and that’s super important because as marketers and advertisers, we’re always fighting for people’s attention and their eyeballs,” said Brent Rivard.

Internova wants to reframe how people think about booking travel, almost demonizing online agents with the tagline: If machines can’t dream, how will they plan your vacation?

The platform is being piloted with about 30 consultants, and adverts will target Los Angeles and New York. Then it will eventually roll out to include its business travel consultants.

“We believe there’s as much strength there, and as much insight and tension, as there is with the leisure traveler and average individual,” Rivard said at a media briefing on Tuesday. “A lot’s going to change … coming into the pandemic, (corporate travel) became a very commoditized business that dealt more with procurement than worrying about what might happen if somebody can’t catch the last flight out at 3am.”

Don’t be alarmed to see more companies look to capture the moment before the refreeze.

10-Second Corporate Travel Catch-Up

Who and what Skift has covered over the past week: Airbnb, Accor, Cvent, digital nomads, Eurowings, Hilton, Hopin, JetBlue, KLM, MGM Resorts, Sabre, Troop.

In Brief

Troop Factors In Greater Risk Control for Meetings 

Travel and event booking startup Troop has partnered with travel risk intelligence platform Riskline. The tie-up allows Troop’s corporate customers to see more safety and security data, and marks the latest in a series of integrations for Riskline. “Covid-19 has changed the priorities of how to plan in-person meetings. While in the past, cost was a main deciding factor, today safety is the core driver,” said Dennis Vilovic, founder of Troop.

60 Percent of Top Execs Plan More Business Trips Than Before 

Business travel for executives may be stronger than 2019 levels after pandemic restrictions lift, according to a survey by global business aviation company VistaJet International, in association with WSJ Intelligence.

In the survey of 200 high-level company executives in the U.S., EMEA and APAC, 81 percent said business travel will be more important than ever. Among respondents who take eight or more private flights a year, 60 percent plan to significantly increase in-person meetings.

Amex GBT Plugs WhatsApp Into Its Platform

American Express Global Business Travel has expanded its existing live chat assistance to WhatsApp. The company said this gives travelers and travel managers more choice in the way they communicate with advisors, and comes as more agencies look to add platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams to their systems.

“The channel shift to chat is even more profound than when people switched from the telephone and fax machine to email in the 1990s,” said Felicia Schneiderhan, head of Amex GBT’s chat adoption strategy.

WhatsApp has two billion monthly active users across 180 countries.

TripActions Launches Team Travel Tool

TripActions has launched a new platform, tapping into the trend of more companies embracing hybrid work models. It said its new Team Travel solution lets companies create and customize meetings and events with just a few clicks, and bookers can bring employees together based on Covid-19 destination data, carbon emissions, country restrictions and health guidelines. Algorithms also estimate the overall event travel cost. In January, co-founder and CEO Ariel Cohen told Skift the startup would use some of its $155 million funding to build a product related to the future of work.