At Accor, employees can take twelve days a year for workations, and bleisure has been an option for a long time. We spoke with Jelka Ulott, Vice President People & Culture Corporate Offices Europe & North Africa, about how the hotel group has been structuring its offers and and how well they have been received.
Jelka, you are very open and proactive when it comes to bleisure and workation topics. Even when employees have returned back from their trip to the office, right?
Yes, employees enjoy sharing their experiences after their bleisure or workation trips and see the opportunities as a sign of trust and individual flexibility. It’s important to remember that many people in our industry have worked in many different locations and therefore feel they have friends everywhere. They enjoy visiting old friends or their families. And our employees can also book our hotels and get to know them better.
However, primarily our employees at head office benefit from this offer, as our colleagues in the hotels themselves are not employed by us but directly by our hotel partners. Even here there are jobs that make bleisure and workation difficult. My husband, for example, is an Executive Chef, so it would obviously be difficult for him to prepare dishes from afar. But everyone benefits from the “Heartist rate”: Heartists – our employees – can book their vacation at our properties at a reduced rate.
What options does the head office have for workations?
Two years ago, we merged several regions and used this as an opportunity to offer, what were previously different workation arrangements, as one big benefit for everyone, including talent acquisitions. Applicants, especially young ones, ask about this a lot. In total, we have around 1,400 employees working at almost 20 locations in our central functions in Europe and North Africa. They can now take twelve days of workation per year in Europe and abroad, which has been received incredibly well. 70% took advantage of the offer in 2024, mainly during the summer and at Christmas. Twelve days is working well for us; often, not all days are even used up.
How is this regulated?
We have a guideline that stipulates that employees must first obtain approval for their plans from their manager, then clearly define their trip in terms of country, address, and date in our attendance system, and then our HR department clarifies the necessary A1 forms and insurance, whereby our business travel insurance usually applies. Incidentally, our central attendance tool always shows how many vacation and workation days you have left when you log in.
And bleisure?
We have had a bleisure offering for a long time, but only gave it a name recently. I have been with Accor since 2018, for example, and was already allowed to take bleisure trips back then. Many other colleagues have been making use of these kinds of offers for a long time. Here, too, the rule applies: if agreed with your manager, bleisure is no problem, provided that the travel costs remain within the budget. Bleisure stays often even cost us less for the flights than traditional business trips.
How do you personally experience bleisure and workation?
Last year, for example, I attended a meeting in Barcelona and arrived two days early to see the city – together with colleagues, as part of our private time. But overall, I use workation more than bleisure, and I do this a lot to visit friends and extend my weekends.
So it’s kind of a workation-bleisure.
Yes, a real blend. It’s also possible for an employee to travel to their vacation destination and extend their stay with a workation at the local office. We hardly have any national teams anyway, rather we are very internationally mixed everywhere.
To what extent is working from home currently possible at Accor?
We have introduced a hybrid solution following Covid-19, which means that we are in the office three days a week and work from home two days a week, with a clearly defined location.
If I am a regular guest at an Accor hotel, which brands and properties are best suited for enjoying bleisure and workation?
We have provided good desks in many of the rooms, as well as general rooms where you can work comfortably. At Tribe, for example, we focus on social hubs where you can meet colleagues or like-minded people, and there are snacks on offer during the day in the Grab & Go shops. You don’t have to leave the hotel if you don’t want to.
Our impression is that our guests mainly use business brands such as Tribe, Ibis, and Pullman for bleisure, because many of them don’t want to move after their business trip. Or some people check into our semi-detached houses at another hotel with a different brand.. Our ALL loyalty program naturally offers additional options.
What would you like to see in order to further expand bleisure and workation opportunities?
We have already created very simple registration options for employees, including a daily overview of the days still available. For the HR department, however, I would like to see easier, faster, and more meaningful access to all the legal issues that need to be covered. This is probably one of the reasons why some companies are still reluctant to make this kind of offer available, along with a lack of time and resources. It’s a real shame because bleisure and workation are incredibly attractive benefits that every company and every employee can benefit from individually.
Thank you very much for talking to us, Jelka!
Photo: © Accor Hotels
