Hotels Offering Tiered Spaces for the Remote Work Era

As Accor continues to stamp its Wojo co-working brand across all its properties, it can expect more competition from other hotel brands that are starting to offer their own premium spaces.

A growing number of startups are also looking to fill the gap by “activating” these spaces in top-end hotels — a potential signal this particular area of hospitality is fast maturing.

Worklounge, for example, is a flexible workspace startup that offers subscriptions to high quality business, executive and club lounges in four- and five-star hotels. These areas in theory can offer a more relaxed working atmosphere, particularly if they provide hotel comforts and reflect the hotel’s design, rather than typically efficient co-working spaces that focus on desks, cubicles and sound-proofed booths. In Thailand, it already plugs into brands like InterContinental and Sofitel.

“Quite a few traditional hotel companies were trying to catch up by developing some kind of work-from-hotel concept,” said Riku Penttinen, its co-founder.

“In early 2020 I was receiving requests from hotel companies and operators that wanted to open a flexible workspace.,” Penttinen said. “That was the lightbulb moment for us — there are so many underutilized spaces in upscale hotels. If we could find a way to activate this inventory, in a way that would benefit both the hotel and the end user, we’d be on to something big.”

Join Us Online at Skift Aviation Forum on November 17

Krow is another new subscription service, offering premium locations in Portugal, and it targets restaurants as well as hotels.

Hospitality brands are doubling down on luxury, and workspaces represent a lucrative revenue stream. IHG Hotels & Resorts’ latest brand launch was the upscale Vignette Collection. Other brands include Kimpton, Regent and Six Senses. Hotel Indigo and InterContinental round out its luxury and lifestyle portfolio, which accounts for 400 hotels.

Accor also recently completed its merger with Ennismore, the company behind brands like the Hoxton. A new combined entity, which will be called Ennismore, includes 87 properties with 146 hotels in the pipeline. Accor’s lifestyle hotels make more than half their revenue from food and beverage as well as other amenities like co-working.

These hotels are fast adapting to the changing needs of a new generation of travelers that mix business and leisure, but will lounges filled with people on Zoom calls detract from the experience they’re designed to offer? There’s little luxury in a room filled with executives shouting at their screens.

It’s not the case, Penttinen argues. “The kind of customer that would be using our service is the kind of customer that already uses these lounges. It’s not like there’s nobody in these lounges ever,” he said. “Hotels can optimize the use of space. From our perspective, we compensate them based on the usage they have from our members, so they can generate additional revenue from it.”

Another platform, Hubli, has yet to offer a grading system comparable to hotels. “We don’t currently have a star rating application for workspaces, but like all venues there certainly are varying levels of providers available in the market,” said Ciaran Delaney, CEO and founder.

He said that people need to base their choices on a range of factors, including location, space size, ancillary services and refreshments, which all contribute to the overall offering.

“There are certainly many premium providers and other more low-cost spaces available,” he added.

Penttinen has 20 hotels in Thailand, where 10 visits per month can cost $145, or unlimited access is available at $275, but he aims to expand globally, and offer corporate memberships.

Expect more platforms to emerge that connect remote workers to environments a step above WeWork or other office-style spaces.

Sidenotes

Everyone’s got an opinion. A recent interview with Herman Miller — designers of the iconic Aeron Chair — sheds a little light on where office design is heading. And it’s not pretty.

We could soon expect “neighborhood” style offices, according to Ryan Anderson, Herman Miller’s vice president of research and global insights, who shared his view on the future office designs. They have spaces for team interaction as well as private work, while conference rooms are more Zoom-friendly. Sounds like pretty much every co-working building.

“You take a group of desks and collaborative spaces and give ownership of that neighborhood to your team. That’s your clubhouse,” Ryan told Bloomberg. “You can leave it and go see other people, but it gives you a sense of knowing where your people are, and you can spend quality time with them outside of all the Zoom meetings.”

This insight was garnered after talking to hundreds of companies to learn what it will take to get workers back to their desks. Another conclusion was it’s the end of open-plan floors.

In the interview we also discover another piece of jargon: “resimercial.” This is a combination of the words residential and commercial, and describes how offices are being made to look and feel more like homes. It’s already a strong contender for Pandemic Travel Buzzwords We Hope Get Left Behind in 2021 (here’s the 2020 recap.)

There’s more opining from the CEO of Sonder, a travel startup that turns properties into short-term rental buildings and hotels. Francis Davidson doesn’t believe in fully remote, or hybrid, or forcing people into an office anytime, really. He’s gone full flex.

On having an office for team meetings, he said: “How those in-person collaboration days will work is puzzling to me. It seems like everyone will have to go in on the same days because teams need to collaborate with other teams.”

He also thinks there’s no point in a Zoom-friendly conference room: “… I don’t believe in the superiority of in-person collaboration. With the right tech stack — which could be as simple as Google Docs, Asana and Zoom, you can run creative and high impact sessions virtually.”

There’s no right answer, so Sonder is covering all bases with its new label: “Work Choice.” The only concrete development from the relaxed policy is frequent offsite meetings in cities where Sonder does have an office to foster connection.

10-Second Corporate Travel Catch-Up

Who and what Skift has covered over the past week: AIR, AirAsia X, Amazon, American Airlines, carbon offsetting, Google, Heathrow Airport, Hopper, Marriott, Queen’s Gambit, Singapore, United Airlines.

In Brief

ANA Ventures Into Subscription Travel With Low-Cost Airline

Peach Aviation, the low-cost subsidiary of Japanese carrier ANA, has launched an all-you-can-fly travel pass for domestic flights during November. It initially offered 150 unlimited passes, priced at $173, according to reports. Peach operates 33 domestic routes across Japan.

Talent Platform Deel Gets $425 Million Funding Boost 

Deel, a platform that manages human resources administration, compliance and payroll for global teams, has raised $425 million in funding. The company will use the money to make hiring staff easier and will release an Open API. The Series D round was led by Coatue, and the company claims it brings its valuation to $5.5 billion.

Frosch Takes Controlling Stake in Conlin Travel

Frosch International Travel has purchased a 51 percent interest in the corporate division of Michigan-based Conlin Travel. The partnership gives it greater presence in the Great Lakes region. Conlin Travel had sales of over $200 million in 2019, with corporate travel sales accounting for $160 million. Chris Conlin will stay as managing partner, and will help grow the new Frosch-Conlin corporate business. Conlin Travel keeps ownership of its leisure and specialty travel divisions.

Register Now for Skift Aviation Forum on November 17