“Home office on the beach, in the foreign metropolis or in the vacation club complex? Everything has become conceivable in the course of the trend towards remote work. And almost everything is now possible in hotels. An overview of current initiatives.” Sylvie Konzack
Working in the vacation club? And club vacations in concentrated peace? What used to be mutually exclusive like dogs and cats has gained in dynamic mix quality after Corona – and even turned Robinson Clubs into business travel hotels. The TUI club provider now offers its hotel rooms as home office vacations as part of “Workation@Robinson”. Among the first club destinations that are possible for this are the Robinson Club Quinta da Ria (photo below) in the Portuguese Algarve, Cala Serena in Mallorca, Jandia Playa in Fuerteventura and Club Nobilis in Turkey. The corresponding rooms are located here and there in particularly quiet areas, have a fast, stable Internet connection and, if possible, offer a separate office next to the bedroom. If required, fully equipped conference rooms are also available, and at lunchtime the club’s WellFood® station invites you to take a lunch break.
After work, before or in between, the golf and tennis courts, the spa, fitness studio or various bike offers are tempting. And if you want to bring your family with you or catch up, you can take advantage of the club’s childcare facilities or the evening live music and shows. Workation@Robinson is aimed primarily at long-term working guests who want to work under palm trees while enjoying the vacation atmosphere. The longer someone stays, the more additional services are offered.
Meliá: A day in the city or working on the beach for weeksmeasures are convincing
Meliá is also planning longstay offers in its resort hotels in the Caribbean and Spain, which will make the home office with beach view possible. With “ribbon-on-arm feeling”, included bleisure packages will be offered, enabling special rates and services for stays of 14 days or longer.
For those who want to stay in the chain’s city hotels, the Day Stay Package can be interesting from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m: With fast WLAN as well as printing, copying and scanning facilities, the “Work by Meliá” offer is aimed at people who need a quiet, comfortable and hygienically safe place to work or hold meetings during the day and who also want to make free use of the fitness, pool and roof terrace areas in between. The participating pilot hotels include Meliá Düsseldorf and Innside Munich Schwabing in Germany, ME London in Great Britain and ME Milan Il Duca in Italy. In Spain, the workspace is currently available at the Meliá hotels in Madrid (Serrano), Mallorca (Palma Marina), Sevilla, Bilbao, A Coruña (Maria Pita) and Valencia (Oceanic), as well as at Innside Zaragoza and Tryp Apolo in Barcelona. Two houses in the USA are also participating: Meliá Orlando and Innside New York Nomad.
Marriott: Day, Stay, Play Passes
Working from anywhere in a varied and generous way, being more undisturbed and productive and achieving a better work-life balance? To take advantage of the new Remote Work, Marriott has launched a Marriott Bonvoy Day Pass, Stay Pass and Play Pass. This allows guests to book a one-day hotel stay, an extended overnight stay with early check-in and late check-out, or optionally a work and vacation stay of several days.
With the Day passport the hotel room becomes from 6am to 6pm the office for one day and goal of the business trip. The guest has access to extended WLAN, food and beverages as well as additional rooms and business center facilities at the hotel. Bonvoy members receive a welcome package with snacks, members with Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador Elite status have access to lounges and points. In Europe, the offer is currently available in twelve hotels in London, in Asia in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, in America in Toronto, Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas and New York. Further hotels in several European cities, the Middle East and Latin America are to be added.
The Stay Pass, available in over 2,000 hotels worldwide, combines a day pass with an overnight stay and allows you to check in from 6 am and check out by 6 pm on the following day of departure. It also includes breakfast and cocktail offers as well as free use of the pool and fitness areas.
Finally, the Play Pass is suitable for anyone who wants to combine mobile working with a longer trip – even with the family. Bleisure Travellers enjoy a business concierge, supervised children’s activities, work/study areas and curated family experiences. The Play Pass is currently available at several hotels in Europe, including Marbella, Tenerife, Venice and Limassol in Cyprus, as well as Hawaii, Florida, California and Arizona in the USA. There are also hotels in Rio de Janeiro, Sharm el-Sheikh, Koh Samui and Bali.
CitizenM: Global passport for 29 days
The Dutch lifestyle chain CitizenM plays the I-want-to-get-out-of-office card for digital nomads, freelancers and city dwellers. To this end, it has developed a global passport that allows you to travel 29 days at a time in one of 21 CitizenM in 14 cities from Paris (photo left) via New York to Kuala Lumpur. The only condition: The passport holder must stay in a hotel for at least seven days. Otherwise, he or she is free to change offices and can live and work for an average of 50 Euro / GBP / USD per night including Wi-Fi, free use of all hotel rooms and discounts on food and beverages for one month in lifestyle hotels around the globe. The promotion is limited to 1,000 available global passports.
Floating Villa Brombachsee: Bleisure in the water villa
Working on the doorstep, yet far away from home and every office – this is the principle behind the Floating Village Brombachsee in the Franconian Lake District, 50 kilometers from Nuremberg. Opened almost two years ago, the 19 water villas, permanently installed on the jetty, promise seclusion and tranquility all year round with zero common areas. Each villa offers 67 square meters of bright living, dining, kitchen and bathroom space. On the roof terrace, awnings, lounge furniture and privacy screens ensure maximum privacy. And a gas fireplace, green electricity and solar flares for a good feeling. And what else? Falling in and swimming, stand-up paddling, sailing and fishing. There are already business travelers who sometimes visit customers for meetings and small seminars in their water villa.
Clear trend towards more working vacations
Business trips, long-distance journeys, short and long trips – however travel for business travelers develops further, work vacations will rise noticeably in the future, all the more to Corona. Booking.com also comes to this conclusion based on international surveys and its own search and recommendation data. A growing number of travelers will therefore extend their trips by a week or two and work from there, or organize a vacation around a work trip.
More than one-tenth (15%) of travelers have already thought about booking a stay to work from somewhere else. 16% would also be willing to go into quarantine if they could work from another location. And a quarter of travelers would extend business trips to spend some free time at the destination – with an overall increased need for privacy, cleanliness and longer stays.
Sylvie Konzack …
is excited about the new home office options that hotels and serviced apartments offer, making it easier to live and work anywhere at times. The Business or Leisure drawer remains closed, and everyone becomes what he or she has always been: today a business traveller, tomorrow a city breaker, at the weekend a family man catching up with loved ones.
Photos: Marriott International, Robinson/TUI, CitizenM, Floating Village Brombachsee
