Workation:
Adding Value to Hotel Properties

 With new connec­tions between remote work­ing and a holi­day feel­ing, an addi­tion­al, promis­ing trend is emerg­ing for the hotel prop­er­ty asset class. But which char­ac­ter­is­tics are impor­tant for marketing?

New prop­er­ty class­es or usage concepts require market­ing approach­es that tran­scend more famil­iar cate­gories. As we did for data centres, we have compiled infor­ma­tion and argu­ments in this Valdivia expert tip that may be useful for market­ing a hotel as a ‘work­place with a holi­day feeling’.

Rooms with a view of returns

Hotels are a success­ful real estate invest­ment. Rising demand and grow­ing inter­est in specialised concepts, such as boutique and well­ness hotels, have driven a notice­able upturn since the end of the pandem­ic. For instance, a Bulwienge­sa study² already record­ed annu­al growth in overnight stays and trans­ac­tion volumes in 2023, with returns expect­ed to range from 4.5 to 5.5 per cent.

Even beyond the recov­ery effect, the asset class has proven stable: a Bulwienge­sa report compiled in collab­o­ra­tion with Union Invest­ment shows a 1.5% increase in the value of the invest­ment-rele­vant port­fo­lio for 2024. The total value reached €64.3 billion by the end of the year, mark­ing a 3.7 per cent increase compared to 2023. Accord­ing to Immo­bilien­man­ager⁴, the posi­tive trend remained stable until the end of 2025, as confirmed by sever­al stud­ies by CBRE and JLL, among others.

Busi­ness is no longer ‘as usual’

The reasons for overnight stays remain large­ly unchanged: holi­days and leisure trips, busi­ness trips, visits to friends and rela­tives, and special occa­sions such as pilgrim­ages. Howev­er, busi­ness trav­el in partic­u­lar is chang­ing. For around ten years, a sub-segment known as ‘bleisure’ (busi­ness + leisure) has been grow­ing. This port­man­teau of ‘busi­ness’ and ‘leisure’ describes busi­ness trips that are extend­ed with private stays based on the motto ‘while I’m here’.

The spread of remote work­ing, accel­er­at­ed by the pandem­ic, has given rise to further combi­na­tions of work and holi­day. One of these is the ‘worka­tion’, a port­man­teau of ‘work’ and ‘vaca­tion’. This describes tempo­rary mobile work­ing from a loca­tion typi­cal­ly consid­ered a holi­day desti­na­tion, offer­ing a special atmos­phere, whether that be nature and land­scapes or urban life. Thus, worka­tion is more than just a tourism trend; it is a complete­ly new way of using hotel properties.

Worka­tion is motivation!

To date, there have been no precise stud­ies on the actu­al number of worka­tion cases and turnover volumes. Howev­er, vari­ous sources indi­cate a clear and grow­ing inter­est in this type of trav­el: a survey of remote work­ers revealed that, by the end of 2023, 35 per cent had taken at least one worka­tion last­ing two weeks or more per year – compared to 28 per cent in 2022.

The results of a PwC study exam­in­ing the topic from the perspec­tive of employ­ees also indi­cate the increas­ing signif­i­cance of workations:

• 57% of respon­dents (and 80% of 18- to 29-year-olds) cited a worka­tion option as an impor­tant crite­ri­on when choos­ing a job.
• 30% (and 45% of 18- to 29-year-olds) would even turn down a job offer if the compa­ny did not allow workations.

There­fore, employ­ers who do not allow their employ­ees to work remote­ly from abroad are reduc­ing their pool of poten­tial appli­cants by almost a third. For hotel prop­er­ties, this devel­op­ment means more reli­able and predictable demand beyond tradi­tion­al season­al patterns.

The hotel as a work(ation) place

Market­ing the hotel as a worka­tion desti­na­tion can offer good occu­pan­cy and return oppor­tu­ni­ties, even in loca­tions that primar­i­ly appeal to tourism and already have a high bed densi­ty. Howev­er, not every hotel is auto­mat­i­cal­ly suit­able There­fore, employ­ers who do not allow their employ­ees to work remote­ly from abroad are reduc­ing their pool of poten­tial appli­cants by almost a third. For hotel prop­er­ties, this devel­op­ment means more reli­able and predictable demand beyond tradi­tion­al season­al patterns.
for worka­tions. In order to be success­ful in this new market, the prop­er­ty and its facil­i­ties must take into account the specif­ic needs of remote workers.

It all start­ed with hotels offer­ing a busi­ness centre and free Wi-Fi in the rooms. Today, much high­er stan­dards are expect­ed if a hotel is to be suit­able for an extend­ed worka­tion. It should be just as possi­ble to work stably and quick­ly in differ­ent scenar­ios as it is to relax. In order to be truly suit­able for a worka­tion, a hotel prop­er­ty needs the follow­ing struc­tur­al and equip­ment features:

1. A choice of work­spaces, not just in the room
   The work­space in the room natu­ral­ly plays a central role. This includes an ergonom­i­cal­ly opti­mal desk and chair as well as glare-free light­ing. For vari­ety and team­work, addi­tion­al work options should be avail­able: quiet lounge areas and a co-work­ing area or busi­ness centre with tables, chairs and power connections.
2. Modern tech­ni­cal infrastructure
   A basic require­ment is high-perfor­mance Wi-Fi through­out the build­ing, which remains stable even when multi­ple video/conference calls are in use. Other require­ments for work­ing guests include a suffi­cient number of power sock­ets, good mobile phone cover­age, air condi­tion­ing that is as quiet as possi­ble, and the option to borrow or use addi­tion­al moni­tors, print­ers and meet­ing equip­ment (projec­tors, screens, confer­ence cameras).
3. Rooms for differ­ent forms of teamwork
   As a basic require­ment, the hotel should have at least one semi­nar or meet­ing room equipped with modern presen­ta­tion tech­nol­o­gy (projector/screen, whiteboard/flipchart, presen­ta­tion mate­ri­als). Small­er, screened-off rooms or alcoves for confi­den­tial calls and concen­trat­ed collab­o­ra­tive work are also very welcome.
4. Struc­tur­al design for special service requirements
   Indi­vid­ual service process­es in a worka­tion hotel can differ signif­i­cant­ly from those in conven­tion­al hotels. For exam­ple, some rooms are used contin­u­ous­ly during the day and are only avail­able for clean­ing at the end of the day. This requires not only flex­i­ble house­keep­ing, but also good sound insu­la­tion. Addi­tion­al dining rooms are also useful – for exam­ple, for a snack buffet that can be used at any time outside of main meal times.
5. Consis­tent sustainability
   Sustain­abil­i­ty is now an almost indis­pens­able factor, espe­cial­ly for younger target groups. The hotel should there­fore be ener­gy neutral, furnished with sustain­ably produced mate­ri­als and offer guests simple options for waste sepa­ra­tion and ener­gy saving. A new build­ing could score addi­tion­al points if it is construct­ed at least partial­ly from recy­cled mate­ri­als or wood.

In addi­tion to such struc­tur­al features, it is recom­mend­ed that services and rates are tailored to the purpose of ‘worka­tion’. Websites such as workation.de or futurestays.ai provide an overview of hospi­tal­i­ty offerings.

Conclu­sion:

Worka­tion expands the use of hotel prop­er­ties to include a segment posi­tioned between tradi­tion­al tourism and busi­ness trav­el. The option of remote work­ing has creat­ed demand that extends beyond season­al peaks. Owners and investors can capi­talise on this by tailor­ing their hotel concepts specif­i­cal­ly to this market and appeal­ing to addi­tion­al target groups. This also includes compa­nies, for exam­ple as part­ners in frame­work agreements.

This requires facil­i­ties and organ­i­sa­tion that support produc­tive work, relax­ation, and high-qual­i­ty service. Not all hotels are equal­ly suit­able as a ‘work­place at a holi­day desti­na­tion’; the decid­ing factors are the prop­er­ty’s conscious orien­ta­tion, its infra­struc­ture and the services it offers. From a market­ing perspec­tive, worka­tion contributes to the func­tion­al differ­en­ti­a­tion of hotel prop­er­ties, stabilis­es occu­pan­cy rates, and makes usage concepts more sustain­able, partic­u­lar­ly where tradi­tion­al demand is declin­ing or reach­ing its limits.

Sources:

1. “Earn­ing money while you sleep”, immobilienmanager.de, 17 July 2025
2. “The 5% study – where it’s still worth invest­ing”, Bulwienge­sa 2024
3. “German hotel indus­try on the rise,” Bulwienge­sa, July 2025
4. “Hotel invest­ment market 2025 around 60 per cent above previ­ous year”, immobilienmanager.de, 9 Octo­ber 2025
5. “105 Crit­i­cal Busi­ness Trav­el Statis­tics: 2024 Spend­ing & Concerns Analy­sis,” financeson­line, June 2925
6. “Worka­tion: The Future of Work and Trav­el in One Concept,” Wired White Plat­form for Engi­neer­ing Services and Learn­ing, May 2025
7. “Busi­ness Trav­ellers Survey Q1 2023”, U.S. Trav­el Asso­ci­a­tion, April 2023; “Worka­tions Campaign 2026 — Reimag­in­ing tourism for the remote-work­ing era”, Career Gappers, 2026
8. “Worka­tion between desire and real­i­ty 2024”, Price­wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers May 2024

(Image source: istockphotos.com)