Working on the go is a must-have option for many people, having the ability to work from where you are comfortable and within the hours you want, is a huge selling point. Village Urban Resorts have acknowledged this need for accessible, comfortable working spaces and have set a precedent for other venues to follow.
When people travel, they typically want a lot more from their hotel than simply a place to sleep; they want to eat, shop and have accessible connections to work. Hotels are becoming increasingly eager to provide these services, hoping to attract and retain guests while finding additional recurring revenue streams. When guests travel for business, the same is still true. Since many business travellers often have no need for a rental car, they search for hotels which can offer them everything they need under one roof. Yes, it is possible to work from the desk in a hotel room, but just being around the buzz of others has been proven to increase productivity. To combat this comes the increasing trend in hotels of touchdown spaces.
What is touch down working
As the name suggests, a touchdown space is typically a laptop centric, informal setting such as a private room, lounge, or a collaborative area, allowing individuals to pop in and out at their leisure. They typically have fast, free internet connection, allowing workers to quickly respond to an email, call, or message without the need for a formal office space.
For some, having a calm place to focus is essential whereas others like the collaborative environment of a large open space. The ideas behind touchdown working can be implemented in any venue and utilise the existing space, bringing multiple facilities such as leisure, relaxing and working, together.
Typically a lobby space in a hotel is mostly unused, research has found this can be for up to as much as 50% of the day. Hotels such as Urban Village Resorts have found that turning this area into a touchdown space allows existing guests somewhere to work, whilst encouraging others who may not be staying at the hotel to use the bar, spa or ad hoc leisure facilities. This draws in customers and creates a regular traffic flow through the venue.
Creating an urban hot desk space
Introducing simple ideas into an unused space such as docking stations and lockers, rather than desks or workstations, encourages users to use this collaborative environment and makes working on the go easy.
Soft, inviting and comfortable furniture as well as accessible charging stations are essential in creating an open working space.
We have a large portfolio with inspiration for creating these urban hot desk spaces, as we have done in hotels across the UK. Our expert design team can turn unused space into attractive, practical and usable working areas complimenting the existing style of the hotel.
