Even if it is far from being systematic, there is a phenomenon that we have noticed for a few years and which is not necessarily to our liking: it sometimes becomes difficult to work properly in a hotel, for lack of an appropriate office.

More and more chains are skipping the desk

One complaint that comes up quite regularly in our hotel reviews, which was not the case 4 or 5 years ago, is the lack of a proper workspace.

Let’s take the most caricatural example with the Moxy hotels where the desk generally looks like this. Here at the Moxy Lyon Airport.

Acceptable for checking a few emails in a hurry, not for spending a day at work.

You are going to tell me that Moxy is a “liftestyle” and leisure chain?

This is what I got at Le Méridien Split.

So maybe Le Meridien is not a 100% leisure chain but Split a leisure destination?

This is what a suite at the Mercure Centre Gare in Nancy offers.

Apart from the fact that one can discuss the fact that this room deserves the name of suite, I do not believe that its customers are 100% leisure. Can you see yourself working for hours in there? I can tell you that it couldn’t be more uncomfortable.

Don’t tell me that a hotel like the Renaissance Bordeaux only welcomes people who don’t need to spend a few hours in decent conditions in front of their computer?

Yes, the office area is the little table in the corner.

Examples like this abound and our verdict is clear: these are pleasant rooms for those who don’t have to take their computer out during their stay or just check their email for an hour a day but it’s a deterrent for those who have to work more or less normally.

We could be told that not everyone is forced to work a lot on the move like we are, but that would be a false view of current trends.

A trend against the real needs of customers?

It’s easy to understand what hotels are thinking: what guests want most is space and comfort, so sacrificing office space for a small lounge area is a good trade-off. Well, no.

Because the problem with a trade-off is that it only satisfies customers who are in the middle of the spectrum. It does not satisfy everyone by half, it completely satisfies a small part of the clientele and dissatisfies all the rest.

In addition to this, there are a few observations:

The business/leisure distinction is dead

We can no longer continue as we did 10 years ago to think that there are chains and destinations that are more leisure oriented and others that are business oriented. The business traveler needs to work but also likes his comfort and the leisure traveler disconnects less and less from his work.

It is not for nothing that we are witnessing the rise of “bleisure”, but bleisure does not mean half business and half leisure but both business and leisure. Not almost each but totally both.

Remote work and workation

We are not going to go back over the rise of remote work, but we must be aware of its impact: people leave for a few days, or even a week, in a destination where they will work remotely for most of the day and take advantage of evenings and weekends to do some tourism.

These people need appropriate working conditions.

This is what surprises us the most about Moxy, which is a chain truly designed for digital nomads.

Bottom line

As far as we are concerned, and regardless of the reason for our travels, it is now a criterion that we look at carefully, no longer tolerating to leave half a day’s work with a broken back!

And it’s even worse if the room is occupied by two people and both need to work at the same time at some point.

By playing more and more the comfort and lifestyle card, some chains and properties are depriving themselves of a business or bleisure clientele that they would like to attract, but to whom they are unable to offer the bare minimum: a real desk and a chair!