HOTELS seeking to recoup their pandemic-related losses have started opening as co-working centres and 'luxury' offices, and letting rooms for daily use.
Chains nationwide, such as the Marriott, Meliá and Barceló, and the French network B&B in its Spanish and Portuguese premises, are advertising their facilities to people working from home: Throughout the day, they can bring their laptops and phones, use the hotel Wi-Fi and sit in comfort whilst they go about their daily duties.
B&B pioneered the idea, offering its facilities for €9 a day from 09.00 to 19.00 – either to workers themselves, or to companies to set up their staff in rather than using an office building – and Aloft Madrid Gran Vía, part of the Marriott's Aloft Hotels brand, has followed suit.
The latter has created comfortable working spaces – in shared areas, but with desks spread far apart for safety reasons – that can be used from 09.00 to 18.00 for €12 a day, with access to premium Wi-Fi, breakfast, and up to 20 photocopies all included in the price.
Meliá is offering a similar service in several of its hotels in Spain and also in Germany, Italy, the UK and USA – customers get a private suite to use from 08.00 to 20.00 for prices ranging from €49 to €109, depending upon where they are, what category of hotel, and which other services they opt for whilst working there.
Barceló Hotel Group says it has always offered its facilities for people to sit and work from its city hotels, but has now started to advertise this more and is seeing a rise in demand since the pandemic started.
NH Hotel Group has piloted the idea in México, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Argentina and is considering doing so in Spain, whilst Palladium Hotel Group has converted some of its suites and communal areas in the Only YOU Atocha hotel in Madrid into shared and private offices and meeting rooms.
Riu Hotels & Resorts is thinking about doing so in its branch in Madrid's Plaza de España.
Aloft Gran Vía says keeping hotels open 'creates confidence' in the market, and that as most bookings at any time of the year tend to be within the same week of travel or, at most, a week in advance, a hotel being shut down means opportunities are lost.
Its management decided to open its rooms as luxury offices when it saw that many of the co-working centres in the heart of Madrid had not reopened after lockdown – especially as hotels are 'generally already geared up for' this type of use.
One advantage of hotel co-working areas is that they can be booked and paid for as they are used – typically, a dedicated co-working space requires a monthly fee in advance, however many times the customer actually uses them.
Aloft Gran Vía says its 'office use' has meant 50% of its staff are able to remain on the job and have enough to do – only half of them, rather than practically all of them, are temporarily laid off or 'furloughed'.
Other Marriott Hotel branches offering, or planning to offer, similar services include the Arts Hotel Barcelona and Sheraton La Caleta Resort & Spa in Tenerife's Costa Adeje.
Some of the hotels listed say that if there is enough demand, they will consider opening up all or most of their suites for use as private office spaces – meaning a worker can take a kip on a comfortable bed midway through the day, and call for lunch on room service.
Photograph of Aloft Gran Vía from Google Street View
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