WFH 2.0: Are hotels the new offices?

Covid-19: the virus is escalating, large group gatherings are discouraged and hotels are now…the new office? Undeniably, the work from home trend has transformed the way we do business, juggle our work-home life balance and forced many companies to completely re-vamp their business model and marketing to compete in a world where we can’t go out and do business as usual. Enter WFH 2.0: Work from Hotel.

Hotels have pivoted in a way that was unexpected: created a perk system for loyal members and consumers to utilize their rooms and services at a discounted rate as an office (Villano, 2020).

Pre-Covid times, employees who are successful at work from home have more independence in schedules (Rupietta & Beckmann, 2018), have higher intrinsic motivation to work more (Ryan & Deci, 2000) and higher output as a result (Rupietta & Beckmann, 2018). However, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. Knowing the common distractions, it is a brilliant move that hotels had the foresight to start to offer their spaces as an office away from home to mitigate the interruptions from kids, cooking, TV, errands, and general home chores. Working from a hotel room offers perks such as a private bathroom; in an office, you typically share a bathroom. There is also the major added perk of peace, quiet and cleanliness away from the stresses of home.

Several big names such as Marriott and Hilton have rolled out programs to offer a space for the day without having to spend the night (Barwick, 2020). Workspaces by Hilton offers a room, desk and internet for the entire day at a special rate, usually about half the rate of a normal night’s rate. Taking this a step further, they offer “play passes” where the worker can bring their family to use the amenities while they stay in the room and work, a staycation of sorts (Villano, 2020).

Understanding the opportunity to keep revenue coming in during a time when travel is essentially on a big pause, major hotel chains that take on this new business trend use loyalty programs, customer databases and partnerships with airlines to generate this new “work from hotel” income stream. Marriott International’s CEO Arne Sorenson mentions in their Q3 2020 earnings that there is increasing demand in this style of stay. For example, in Q3 residency in the US was up 37%, almost double the occupancy in Q2, after they started rolling out the programs.

Still, incomes for hotels are significantly lower with Marriott reporting $252 million in Q3 2020 as opposed to $607 million in Q3 2019. Embracing this new style of “WFH 2.0” might just be the catalyst to introduce the new office: your local hotel.

References:
Barwick, R. (2020, Oct 27). Marriott uses loyalty program to roll our new work from anywhere program. AdWeek. Retrieved from https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/marriott-loyalty-program-new-work-from-anywhere-program/

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new
directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.

Rupietta, K., & Beckmann, M. (2018). Working from home: What is the effect on employees’
effort? Schmalenbach Business Review, 70(1), 25–55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41464-
017-0043-x

Villano, M. (2020, Jul 23). Sick of working from home? Work at a hotel instead. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/work-remote-hotel-room-covid-19/index.html