Hybrid offers: the future of hospitality  

Smart working is gaining momentum in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, 16% of Italian workers will continue to work remotely. In America, 84% of those surveyed in favour of smart working say they are willing to accept a 5% pay cut to continue remote working. The benefits of remote working are many: improved work-life balance, more space for self-care, hobbies and family. As well as increased work autonomy, flexibility and consequent productivity.

Interesting business opportunities for the hospitality industry emerge, which should consider the emerging target of digital nomads as a big opportunity to recover from the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. The so-called workation travelers don’t care about the classic seasonality of the tourism industry, being only interested in long stays and in working safely from appealing locations, together with other professionals. Being able to satisfy this segment leads to great revenues. Hotels are already specialized in hospitality and additional services, together with dining and drinking facilities, but they should adapt their spaces to the new customers’ needs.

Colliers describes Hybrid Hospitality hotels as providers of pleasant and inspiring workspace supported by good services by day, and hotel rooms by night. They should respect some core qualities, such as:

• Closed-off focus rooms, meeting rooms and co-working spaces;
• A general lounge room for networking and socializing;
• Hotel rooms suitable as workspaces;
• Good services and facilities;
• Providing daily work flexibility;
• A hospitality-first experience;
• An inspiring and dynamic environment.

Many hotels all around the world have already started to provide offers for this new trend, with good results. The pioneer of hybrid hospitality was Zoku in Amsterdam, which provides inspiring co-working spaces as well as private WorkLofts.

Accor also launched his own co-working brand, WOJO, implementing workspaces in their hotels all around Europe.

In addition, Airbnb includes in the Winter Release some filters for the better evaluation of a place as ‘remote working approved’.

At Twissen, we observed how implementing hybrid offers can create additional value for hotels and increase performance due to the rapidly growing target group. Hybrid hospitality also generates benefits for smart working residents who will be able to access hotel workspaces for very flexible periods of time and, in the best cases, at favourable prices.

Twissen