Where remote work meets modern hospitality

by Alyssa Jaffer

Over the last two years, we’ve seen ways of working shift dramatically as the pandemic crisis forced us to shut our offices, cut our commutes and turn on our webcams, bringing work into our homes—in some cases, for good.

In fact, a report by the European Commission found that in 2020: “close to 40% of those currently working in the EU began to telework fulltime as a result of the pandemic.”

It’s no surprise that the European lockdowns had a severe impact on tourism and hospitality. According to a recent European Parliament report: “International tourism arrivals in Europe dropped by 70% in 2020 in comparison to 2019. The World Travel & Tourism Council reported that 3.6 million jobs were lost in Europe in 2020.”

Despite such strong impacts on the way we travel, work and live, some hotels have innovated a way to respond to the challenges of the new tourism landscape and serve a new market of travellers: digital nomads. Hotel groups Ennismore, Accor, Zoku and others have recently opened coworking spaces across their European properties to blend remote working with modern hospitality.

Accor has partnered with Wojo, a European network of hundreds of coworking spaces, to revitalise their hospitality offering and serve remote working travellers across the continent. Wojo, previously known as Nextdoor, is a rebranded combination of work and mojo. Over the last few weeks, Wojo has launched in a dozen hotels including Ibis and Novotel across Austria and Germany.

Mercure Opéra Garnier | All images courtesy of Wojo

CEO Stéphane Bensimon articulated his vision for the new brand: “Our ambition is to be the leading player in ‘workspitality’ by developing, all over the world, a large network of places, to create unique work experiences, with a full range of services, designed to promote pleasure, performance and connection in a talented workforce.”

For the digital nomad looking to get a bit of work done between cities, there’s a lot to offer—a comfortable place to set up your laptop with hotel Wi-Fi and facilities, with the benefits of a hotel stay.

According to Yoann Jaffré, Marketing & Communications Director at Wojo, the pandemic has had a drastic impact on their business model but it provided opportunity as well: “The need to think of offices as networks is becoming strong, with a central hub and satellite offices close to employees, from their homes or during business trips.”

“The spotlight has shifted to flexible solutions, which help companies maintain a collective dynamic, while saving money thanks to the optimisation of office space. We have many more client demands than before the pandemic crisis, and different needs.”

Ennismore’s Hoxton Hotel launched their coworking offering, WorkingFrom_, in London and Chicago. Flexible memberships for teams and individuals allow remote workers to choose between a private or open studio or hot-desking for a day, plus perks and discounts for hotel guests.

Beyond the natural light, comfy sofas and plants in every corner to get your creativity flowing, WorkingFrom_ Southwark offers breakout spaces, meeting rooms, lounges and phone booths to suit every kind of remote worker. They also offer day beds and a wellness studio for a yoga session with views of the Shard.

For the working traveller, coworking spaces in hotels could be the key to navigating this new world of work.

This month, we also spoke to Nibol and Selina—two players in the European coworking sphere.

For working travellers

Over the last two years, we’ve seen ways of working shift dramatically as the pandemic crisis forced us to shut our offices, cut our commutes and turn on our webcams, bringing work into our homes—in some cases, for good.