“How does workation work?
By starting simple: domestically, where there are no legal hurdles, and in serviced apartments that offer space, service and reliable
work opportunities.“
Sylvie Konzack
White beach, hammock and laptop on the lap – such images have become workation clichés and still leave many a company in doubt as to whether the employee in workation-mood is really working and effective. Confidence or not. Workation experiences are still often in the early stages for employees and employers. The balance between what employees want and what companies can make possible is often still to be found.
Simply starting on the doorstep and being sure that the national lido, the local mountain views or the big city on the other side of the country are also suitable for workation trips – that is the message of many companies that have already taken the first steps. Because there are no hurdles with regard to differently applicable tax, labour and social security laws in the domestic country, neither for employees nor for companies. Mobile working can thus be practised in one‘s own country with three exclamation marks.
The pandemic was a good school here. Ralf Krause of Adapt Apartments in Berlin remembers well how he increasingly counted employees from public authorities among his week-long guests in 2021. “The offices had to support each other with colleagues from other cities. Since there was little office space and little contact was desired, our apartments with their own living, kitchen and working areas offered them protection and space away from home – unlike hotels,“ says the host, who now counts public authorities among his regular customers in his house in Berlin-Adlershof, as well as TV production teams in the nearby studios for a long time or project engineers who have a few weeks to do in the neighbouring companies.
In the middle of the megatrends
“Serviced apartments were invented for business travellers who have business elsewhere for up to six months,“ emphasises Anett Gregorius, who started Apartmentservice, the first online booking platform for serviced apartments in Germany, more than 20 years ago and since then has also advised investors, developers and operators on the realisation of the properties. “The growth in supply that we have experienced in this hotel segment since 2000 is enormous and the demand is still far from being met in view of the megatrends of flexible working, digitalisation and urbanisation – especially since serviced apartments have been proven to produce significantly less CO2 than classic hotels and, last but not least, are cheaper,“ she says. In contrast to private accommodation offered via Airbnb & Co., serviced apartments meet all the requirements in the accommodation sector, from fire safety regulations up to VAT reporting. Serviced apartments are therefore also perfect places for mobile working and workation. Almost every apartments has a desk with matching light, chair and Wi-Fi. At Revo in Munich, you can also fold away the bed in some apartments and use a table in its place for working and small meetings. Or you can go to the Revo coworking floor with bookable desks and boxes in retro style. Brands such as Ipartment, e.g. in the new building at Berlin Airport, Adina Hotels as the serviced apartments market leader in Germany with the high-rise hotspot in Munich or the Felix Suites in Leipzig with window sills and rooftop, also offer good working possibilities in the apartment. At The Place in Herzogenaurach, between the Adidas and Puma headquarters, you can also use various roof terraces and a dedicated coworking floor with creative islands and the latest meeting technology. If you stay at The Base One in Berlin for months, you automatically book a coworking space and sit together with home office workers from the neighbourhood. And the Swiss brand Stay Kooook, which is currently available in Bern and will soon be available in Leipzig and Nuremberg, has created communal areas with large kitchens, tables, sofas and, in some cases, swings and garden areas – for a distinctive working environment with a leisure programme right on the doorstep.
Sylvie Konzack …
… has been working as a hotel journalist on serviced apartments, the innovative operators and the incredible dynamics on the market for over twelve years. Serviced apartments are perfect for bleisure and even more so for workation due to their homeliness, digitality and self-catering options.
Fotos: © Fotos: Sylvie Konzack, Revo
