Hospitality: Trends360
Emerging work patterns of hotel guests.
At Steelcase, we study and design for how people work, wherever work happens. Our research took us to 22 hotels in 6 cities, and led to some interesting discoveries and insights.
The term “third place” appeared in 1989 when author Ray Oldenburg noted that, after home and the workplace, there was a rising culture of shared community experiences. Third places are not new — clubs, pubs and cafés have served as third places for centuries. Fast forward a couple of centuries and their role is changing. Third places traditionally intended for leisure and social activities are evolving into work spaces. And this includes hotel spaces.
The number of virtual workers has increased 800% in the last five years. Today, 1 out of every 5 workers is getting their work done at a 3rd place. And the trend is worldwide. In North America alone, there are over 4.9 million hotel rooms in over 50,000 hotels. On any given night, up to 40% of the guests in these rooms are business travelers on a journey to get important work done, and they look to hotels to help them do it.
Business travelers are expecting even more from their hotel experience. The most common frustrations: poor lighting for reading, writing and keyboarding, power outlets are too few or hard to find, uncomfortable desk seating and lack of horizontal spaces for stacking papers, books or laptops.
Hotels are a critical third place for business travelers. And the business traveler is a very important guest. As a frequent customer, they make up only 10% of guests, but they can account for 40% of hotel nights. One global consulting firm estimates that it has more people working in hotel rooms than in their corporate offices.
The explosion of mobile technologies from texting to video conferencing lets work take place anywhere, anytime. This has led to a “no down time” approach to business. Hotels have the potential to take “down time” and make it “up time” for business travelers.