Hotelification: blurring the lines between work and leisure

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What is ‘hotelification’?

The role of the hotelier is to make a guest feel welcomed, to look after them well and ensure their needs are anticipated, and ultimately making them feel like they want to come back. In the new workscape, where employees often have the option to work from home, ‘hotelification’ is the concept of applying these same principles to attract them into the office. By redefining the office through the lens of hospitality, and offering service, comfort, convenience and even a touch of luxury, progressive employers are creating spaces that make ‘going into the office’ much more of an event.

What does it look like?

Of course, one might say, ‘this is a business, not a hotel’. But taking elements normally found in hotels and blurring the lines between work and leisure can really boost morale and motivation. The best hotels offer warmth, comfort, style and a range of services that make life easier and/or more enjoyable. Many businesses already have places to relax, dine, socialise and exercise, but they might be a little more utilitarian than they need to be. With a little attention to detail, these can be transformed into vibrant and engaging employee-centric spaces that people choose to come together in.

In this piece, we explore the lessons that can be learned from the hospitality industry and the ways that planting can be used to help hotelify the workspace!

Enhancing the dining experience

Grabbing a coffee with colleagues or sharing a lunch is much more of an enjoyable occasion when conducted in pleasant surroundings. Hotels really know how to enhance dining experiences, thus creating memorable moments for the guest. And at Vantage Spaces we have also completed quite a few transformations of utilitarian canteen areas! This is often just a case of knowing how to blur hard lines, hide unwanted features and create a sense of atmosphere.

For example, who hasn’t enjoyed the experience of sitting on a bar stool at a buzzing coffee bar surrounded by lush planting? The hospitality sector will often add potted plants to dining tables and the surrounds, and this is a powerful starting point. But many will go further, striving to create a dining environment truly immersed in nature.

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Our EnviroGrid system can be tailored for any setting, creating beautiful planted ceilings and walls, enabling workers to spend time surrounded by greenery, enjoying all the positivity that being close to nature brings. Similarly, dining areas become much less sterile or austere when adorned with planting – more restaurant, less school canteen! They become places to gather and catch up, an event rather than a quickly snatched sandwich.

Prioritising the needs of the end-user

Hotels cater for all sorts of guests with a diverse number of needs, offering different spaces for different activities – places to people-watch and soak up the buzz of a busy hotel as well as quiet relaxing spots where privacy can be enjoyed, or even a bit of both. Pre-empting the different preferences of guests and catering for them is the prime role of the skilful hotelier.

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We are all more opinionated about our working preferences these days. In addition to this, it is becoming increasingly apparent that people’s brains work in different ways, and what might be a very productive environment for one, might be completely disruptive for another. A neurodiverse workspace caters for this difference by providing a variety of space typologies to create a compatible and welcoming environment for all. Planting is an ideal way of doing this as it can be used to create subtle screening without the sense of it being a solid barrier.

Our EnviroZone planted furniture can be used to create zones and provide privacy from walkways in open-plan areas – it also helps to reduce noise levels. For even more focused work, booths can be enhanced with freestanding planting so that they are more of a green oasis of productivity than a cell of isolation!

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First impressions count

In the hotel industry, ‘front-of-house’ is of paramount importance – it’s the point of arrival and the first opportunity to convey welcome, style and personality. More to the point, it’s often the brochure photo that prospective guests will use to inform their booking choice.

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Traditionally, reception areas in the commercial world have been kept clean and uncluttered but this can mean they sometimes look cold and sterile, not somewhere you want to linger or wait for an interview or meeting.

Using dead space

Hotels are adept at making the most out of every inch of space at their disposal, because space is at a premium and must always generate some sort of benefit. The reception area is a prime example and often one of the largest areas in a hotel. Here, many hotels have a mix of soft seating, places to eat and drink, and touchdown points to plug in a laptop or read a newspaper. In hotels, dead space is quickly repurposed so that it offers the guest something.

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The same lesson can be applied to the commercial world, where space must also earn its keep, especially where a business might have downsized due to hybrid working. Thinking out of the box and adding different functions to existing areas can make the most of even nooks and crannies, such as an unused space nestled in a stairwell. Innovative planting can be used to transform small or obscure unused spaces into private retreats for focus work, or welcoming havens to connect and interact with colleagues. Nothing has the power to change the atmosphere and dynamic of a space like live planting.

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The hotel industry is adept at creating inviting and appealing spaces that cater to a diverse range of needs. The world of workspace design is cottoning onto this and biophilia is a key part of this transformation. When going into the office is no longer the default option, it makes good business sense to reshape it into a space where memorable moments are worth travelling in for. For case studies and ideas of how we can do this for you, please get in touch with one of our design experts.

For case studies and ideas of how we can do this for you, please get in touch with one of our design experts.

Images used of impressive hotel spaces are those publicly available on the websites of
those venues and are not representative of spaces that Vantage has supplied biophilia for.