How can Hotels Tap Into The Trend of Coworking Space?

Whenever there is a new trend in the market, the hospitality industry tries to adapt it in the most creative ways. 

For example, working from home is becoming quite common in every sector. This led to the rise of workcation, i.e., work while you travel. The hospitality industry took this as a perfect opportunity to start promoting the workcation culture.

One such trend is coworking spaces in hotels. Let me tell you how you could make the best out of it in this blog.

What is a Coworking Space?

Coworking space is a rented place shared by various organizations and individuals as a workplace at an affordable price. Let me explain it in detail.

Since work from home is being adopted by the majority of organizations these days, the need for bigger office space has reduced drastically. 

Moreover, startup culture is at a boom. Most of the startups have a small team size, which negates the requirement of investing in a big official space. 

That’s where coworking culture comes to the rescue. How? I’ll tell you in the next point.

Why is Coworking Culture Becoming a Trend?

I would say that there are two reasons:

1. Cost-effectiveness
2. Ease of maintenance

First of all the cost-effectiveness is due to the pricing structure which is on a per-seat basis. Meaning the organization pays only for the number of seats they need instead of paying out for the entire office space. Secondly, they don’t need to worry about maintaining cleanliness, inventory, and paying utility bills.  Let me explain with an example. 

Suppose there is a startup with 10 employees. Now, they would be looking for a small official space to set up their office. This includes investing in other aspects like hiring an admin and housekeeping staff, installing Wi-Fi, and purchasing amenities (coffee machine and related accessories, printer, chairs/recliners, whiteboard, etc.). Coworking spaces simply provide them with all these things.

Moreover, the per seat per day pricing is feasible for freelancers. That means any individual looking to work from the office can rent a seat for a day, week, or month as per his convenience and avoid the hassles of signing a lease.  

That’s why working professionals are widely adapting to coworking culture these days. 

How can Hotels Benefit from the Coworking Space Trend?

In 2020, the hospitality industry suffered a major setback and hotels were figuring out various strategies to recover the loss and welcome guests to stay with them. That’s when workspitality came into existence. 

Many hotels, including big chains like Accor, converted some of their rooms into a workplace. Basically, the local people can check into the room between 8.00 AM to 8.00 PM and work from the hotel thereby enjoying the available luxurious services.

In this way, people can maintain a work-life balance and get away from the noisy home environment. Also, they didn’t have to worry about their regular household chores, because every kind of service was available in the hotels. Be it cleaning the room, ordering food, or getting any stationery supplies. 

For hotels, it became an opportunity to earn revenue by offering their rooms as well as their meeting rooms as coworking spaces. 

How can Hotels Implement a Coworking Culture?

It’s time to address the elephant in the room – how to start a coworking space in hotels. Here are some steps you need to implement at your property.

1. Turn your hotel’s meeting room into a coworking space

Turning your property’s meeting/conference room into a coworking space is a great idea. There’s a reason behind it. 

These days, business meetings have taken a different turn. What used to happen face-to-face has been taken over by virtual meetings and zoom calls. Even the seminars are replaced by webinars. 

In such cases, the need for conference rooms by organizations has reduced drastically. And this has led to hotels’ meeting rooms staying vacant most of the time. 

By converting conference rooms into coworking spaces, hotels can earn a subtle amount of revenue. Since the meeting rooms are already designed to cater to working professionals and corporates, this strategy would be easier to implement with minor tweaks. 

2. Invest in important services and assets

Hotels are already accustomed to providing services like housekeeping, maintaining stocks and inventory, administrative tasks, and so on. Hence, this part gets covered without any issues. However, I will recommend appointing a couple of dedicated staff members who can take care of the services part. 

When it comes to assets, there are various things that need to be available in the allocated coworking space in hotels. This again can be divided into 3 different categories, which are:

1. Stationeries
2. Consumables
3. Comfortables

As far as the stationeries are concerned, they are similar to the ones required by the front office department, such as printers, blank papers, staplers, pen/pencil, files, and other likes. 

When it comes to consumables, the most important thing is a coffee vending machine along with the required raw materials. Alternatively, you can place a TCM (Tea Coffee Maker) if you don’t want to go for any heavy investment. 

Also, keep a minibar for the guests. If possible, keep food materials like wafers, biscuits, or other such light snacks. Any guest looking for consumables can purchase them by paying to admin staff. 

Comfortables are basically the equipment and accessories that make a workplace complete like recliners/chairs, tables, whiteboards, projectors, etc. You can also opt for luxurious and fancy items like bean bags.

3. Provide a high-speed Wi-Fi

We all know that food, water, and shelter are three basic necessities of humans. However, there is a new addition to this list. Yes, the internet. 

Whenever you visit any place, the first thing you check is if the place has a proper internet connection. And at the workplace, an internet connection is a MUST. 

That’s why, when you create a coworking space in hotels, you need to focus on this factor. A high-speed Wi-Fi connection with 5Ghz bandwidth is a can’t-miss facility.

Pro-tip: Check with your internet service provider for setting up LAN cable connection too.

4. Maintain cleanliness and hygiene

This goes without saying that cleanliness and hygiene are important in the workplace. No one likes to work in a shabby and unhygienic environment. 

In fact, special care is supposed to be taken with maintaining the public washrooms, since they would be used by every guest availing hotel’s coworking space. Also, sanitize the area you are providing for coworking regularly. 

5. Keep feasible rates

As I said earlier, one of the prime reasons for professionals to adapt to coworking is flexible and feasible rates. The provision of paying as per usage is what sets coworking apart from the traditional office. 

If you are offering your property’s conference room as a coworking area, then go with per seat per day pricing. In case you are converting rooms into a coworking place, then charge as per the expected tariff from that room (only if the room is accessed by guests for 24 hours). 

You can introduce day-use tariffs if the space is occupied from morning to evening. In any of the cases, keep affordable rates. Don’t keep extremely high prices as that would defeat the whole purpose of creating a coworking space in hotels. 

How can Hotels Market their Coworking Space?

Now that you are ready with the coworking space in your hotel, it’s time to market it for generating leads and business. 

1. List the space on online platforms

Start by listing the coworking space on different online booking platforms. You can Google which ones are prominent in your region, such as My HQ and Coworker.

Whilst you list your property as a coworking hotel on these sites, ensure that all the facilities and services are highlighted using high-quality pictures and videos. 

2. Offer discounts to students and freelancers

These days, students and freelancers are looking out for a proper working environment under a specific budget. So, you can cater to those people by providing certain discounts.

For students, you can provide a flat rate on a per-day basis. Or else, give a discount coupon after verifying their IDs.

As far as freelancers are concerned, the pricing has to be on the bare minimum side.

3. Promote on social media platforms

It’s no secret that social media is one of the best ways to promote any business. This goes for coworking space in hotels as well.

You can showcase your hotel’s coworking space on your social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so on. All you need to do is create posts that would highlight the features that are most sought by working professionals and share it with your audience.

This post could be in the form of a photo or video. Whilst you are creating a post, try to use relevant hashtags to reach out to a wider audience. Also, try using high-quality photos or videos for leaving a maximum impact on viewers.

4. Invest in ads

Ads are one of the effective marketing strategies that can be used to promote your hotel’s coworking space. You can create both online and offline ads for the same.

Talking about offline ads, they are a part of traditional marketing strategies, such as print media advertising (newspapers, pamphlets, brochures, etc.), TV ads, podcasts, and so on. In fact, they are quite effective in area with connectivity issues.

On the other hand, online ads can be updated on various social media platforms, Google, and on YouTube in the form of videos. For that, you need to create targeted ads based on the kind of audience you would be catering to. It’s based on factors such as location, age group, gender, and so on.

Also, ensure that the post you are promoting as an ad is intriguing enough to capture the guests’ attention.

5. Partner with coworking space providers

Last but not the least, partnering with coworking space providers. There are various organizations that can assist you with setting up a coworking space at your property. In fact, there are certain companies that take vacant space on lease, renovate it, and market the same on their websites.

Here are some of the well-known coworking space providers you can tie up with:

1. 91 Springboard
2. Regus
3. Smartworks
4. Innov8
5. WeWork

By working in cohesion with such coworking space providers, you can improve your reach among customers.