Do you want to offer Workation?
Are you a hotel, coworking office or a AirBnB looking to offer Workation to attract more visitors?
More and more visitors are looking for combining work and vacation, offer them a place to stay!
Here are some great tips on what to offer!
The corona pandemis has been terrible for the travel and hotel industry. But there are some new opportunities coming up, with new types of visitors, make sure you are ready to serve them!
First, what is Workation?
There are many names for a new type of travellers, that like to work while travelling. I´m sure you heard about digital nomads, remote workers and now also workation travellers.
Well, it is generally the same thing, even though a workation travellers is normally a bit less shorter traveller then a digital nomad or remote worker. These first types of travellers, are more normal to rent a house or an apartment and stay for many months (pending visa regulations that normally is 90 days), while workation travellers have a tendency for shorter travels, just to get away from the office, work on a project, teambuilding etc.
The pandemic of corona have of course been a disaster for the travel and hotels industry, but one good thing is that many more people have been forced to work online, now realizing that they can work from anywhere, while travelling!
So it´s a good advice, to offer workation if you are a hotel, coworking place or have an AirBnB!
What to think about?
To be able to offer workation, there are some few things you to need to arrange, nothing much, but to be able to offer your workation travellers a hazzlefree stay (will also give you good reviews!), you need to prepare a few things.
Read below on what to prepare!
The #1 advice!
Just think of a workation visitor as yourself! You live somewhere, you go to work and then you have other things and services around you, like where to shop food and clothes, where to cook and clean your clothes, cut the hair, where you can fix your computer, where you have a gym etc.
So, a workation traveller should be offered the same things that are normal for a common resident, the more, the better!
Read at the bottom for the #2 advice!
1: Working room
Since remote workers, workation visitors are working whenever time they feel for it, they appriciate if they can work without disturbing others or be disturbed themself. Very often they have video meetings, record podcasts and videos etc. where it´s important that they don´t get disturbing background noices.
It´s therefore great to put workation visitors away from for example families with alot of kids, since kids need o be kids also! This is normally just a booking/planning question, but well worth mentioning.
Offering possibilities to cook your own food, is very appriciated for workation travellers, since they often want to be as effective as in home office.
2: Working desk
A visitor needs a good desk to be able to work comfortable. There are many versions of desks on the market, but a good size would be 120 x 70/80 cm. You of course could use any material or color, but best advice is if the desk is foldable, so you easily can set it up or remove it, pending if a workation traveller are comming. A desk that can be adjusted in hight is also very good, because visitors are different in size etc.
Place desk in a good place in room, so it´s easy to move around and not pushing things of the desk by mistake!
3: Desk chair
The desk chair should be comfortable for long sitting and with wheels so it easily can be moved around. (if you have a wooden floor, you should use a floor cover to avoid marks from desk chair wheels!) Armrests are good, to be able to relax the arms.
Leather is a popular choice, but in certain very hot locations, leather can get stuck to the skin, annoying the visitor. There are some great airy alternatives, that are very comfortable,
The chair should also be able to be adjusted, due to various lenghts and demands of visitors.
4: Keyboard and mouse
It´s great to offer a keyboard and a mouse, but just make the visitor clear of that it will be with the local language keyboard.
If they need there own language keyboard, they need to bring their own!
Use preferablly USB-connections for the keyboard and mouse, since it´s more durable. Also but mouse with laser movement, since its more reliable.
Also remember to offer a mouse pad, since many tables are not reflecting the mouse movements properly, making it very disturbing to work.
5: Computer screens
To be able to work comfortably, it requires a ordinary computer screen. A good screen size is 24″ with HDMI-connection. Just remember, that there are many computer connections depending on the computer, so keep adapters for VGA to HDMI etc.
Some visitors also need 2 screens, so have a few screens extra!
Below some common computer screen connections:
6: Printing
When working remotelly, you also need to be able to print documents etc. It would be very hard to offer a printer for each visitor, due to damages and use of cartridges.
A good solution is to have a stand-alone printer in the reception, where a visitor can bring their USM-stick, put it in the printer, print and pay for the amount of printed pages.
By having a standalone printer, that are outside your intranet, you will safeguard that the visitors USB-stick is not infected with any virus, ransomware etc!
Also, it will give the visitor the possibility to print documents, that are not seen by the reception staff due to secrecy aspects!
7: Internet speed
The speed of the internet provided, is of great importance, since a workation worker are connected in multiple ways, often with online video meetings that requires good speed.
Inform the visitor of what internet speed (Up/Down) that is available.
8: Security
A workation traveller, require that his computer, information and documents are kept safe when on the vacation part of workation!!
You therefor must inform hotel staff etc not to touch or move any documents of belongings of the visitor. A good solution, would be to use a confidentiality agreement with all staff!
A good computer safe in the hotel room, which fits at least a 15″ laptop computer is very appriciated, especially when doing the vacation part!
Also the internet connection needs to be secured via firewalls and bruteforce attacks etc.
9: Get paid!
You should of course get paid for your investment and all extra service, also since it´s valuable to the visitor!
I can´t set any exakt prices, but I have previously paid about 35 Euros per week for a desk, a chair, one 24″ screen and a keyboard/mouse.
The #2 advice!
I would highly recommend that you set up a new webpage, that contains all the information that a workation traveller would like to know before bookings. Here they also can book what they need and pay upon arrival, so then you will have the time to prepare and set it all up (or even buy extra if required!).
When a visitor books anything on that page, it would be great to sen an automatic conformation email, that also includes links to where the visitor can shop, go to the gym, cut their hair, wash their clothes, book rental cars/motorbikes etc etc. All to make the life of the workation traveller, as if he/she was at home. You also might get comissions of all that you refer to others!
The #3 bonus advice!
Market the workation solution to other gueats/visitors, they might book extra of whats offered, but foremost, they will get information about the possibility of workation, and come back or tell others!))
Example of a 3 weeks workation stay in Gran Canaria!
About the writer!
“I´m constantly travelling, working remote with projects and running multiple companies!”
