A young professional checks into a five-star Hotel in suburban Mumbai. She is neither here for a business meeting nor for a mid-week break. As she registers at the front desk, she crosschecks the in-room facilities to help her get down to work: Wifi, adapters, comfortable office seating, the whole shebang that goes with a personal desk at the office.
The Hotel as office
Work-from-home is so passe that well-placed and well-paid employees are now checking out the scenery not too far from home.
“These guests have a different set of requirements than the usual guests. Their focus includes an in-room workstation with a good network; power backup; availability of adaptors; first-aid facilities; healthy food; and most importantly, a tranquil view to indulge in,” says Farhan Hamidani, director of sales and marketing, Novotel Mumbai Juhu Beach. They also require flexibility in housekeeping to ensure their working in-room schedules aren’t hindered.
The result is that luxury Hotels, like this one, are seeing a boost in business. Novotel Mumbai says it has seen an increase in people looking for relaxing ways to make the most of the newly adopted flexibility offered by their companies while also keeping up with the grind.
The location-agnostic office
For those not interested in a luxury workcation, local coffee shops or co-working spaces make a nice change of pace.
Decentralised Spaces Favoured
Starbucks, for example, has seen a definite increase in people opting to work out of or have a team meeting at their local Starbucks.
“Early into the pandemic, we saw that customers felt safer coming to a Starbucks as they knew we were following all safety protocols,” says Sushant Dash, CEO, Tata Starbucks. “We see the work-from-Starbucks phenomenon to be quite strong in pockets of metros (Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru) as well as Tier-2 markets like Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Nagpur.”
Co-working spaces have also seen a surge in people after offices re-opened. “With the reverse migration of workforce, decentralised workspaces are becoming a preferred option for employers and employees alike. At t
