Generator and Freehand Hotels CEO Sees Overreach for Remote Workers

Not all hotels should pursue remote workers, a hotel group CEO has suggested, because they mostly served their purpose during the pandemic. It’s not a warning from a luxury hotelier, but one from Alastair Thomann, who leads boutique hostel-meets-hotel brands Generator and Freehand Hotels. “We saw a lot of blended travel during the pandemic. The markets we cover are really high-compression markets around Europe and the U.S,” said Thomann at the inaugural Skift Global Forum East event in Dubai on Wednesday. “What’s really changed now is that we don’t necessarily want that customer anymore, because that customer will spend a longer time in the hotel, they’ll expect a discount … we can sell our rooms at a much higher rate." Moderator Sean O’Neill, Skift’s senior hospitality editor, asked if he wanted peopl