The New WFH: Work from Hotel

Many of us have been working from home for months.

While the benefits of WFH are plentiful, it can be downright soul-sucking to be in the same place every single day.

Luckily, major hotel chains (from Marriott to Hilton) now offer work-from-hotel packages that give an appealing alternative for working remotely. 

So … At Passport Photo Online, we’ve decided to poll 700+ U.S. working professionals and deep-dive into this new work-from-hotel trend to see if it’s here to stay.

For that, we asked respondents how often they book rooms with the intention of using them as their workspace.

That data shows that most Americans (65%) book hotel rooms for work one to four times a month. While it seems a lot at first, we need to remember this includes business travelers, professionals who blend work and play, digital nomads, and more. That’s why 47% of survey participants later indicated they usually pick international destinations when booking hotels for work purposes. (Forty-nine percent choose domestic.)

And workers usually go for multi-day stays (35%), with day-only packages coming in third at 20%. That’s why we don’t see an influx of nine-to-fivers at hotels.

Meeting clients/colleagues in a professional setting is the primary reason to reserve a hotel for working at 23%. The desire to switch up their environment follows at 15%.

The survey found a little over 61% of working professionals rate their productivity levels as slightly higher or much higher when working from a hotel room. Another 60% grow more creative during their stays.

Lastly, we wanted to gauge how likely working professionals are to continue using hotel rooms for work in the upcoming years. After all, 66% of U.S. employees still operate remotely, at least part-time, according to Zippia.

We asked survey participants to rate their most recent experience using a hotel room for work. Positive: 53%; very positive: 36%; neutral and negatives drop precipitously to 5% or less.

We then asked if Americans want their employers to offer a work-from-hotel benefit (e.g., day-only packages) as part of their employment package. Interestingly, only 6% were against the idea and another 6% were indifferent. The rest said they’d welcome the new perk with open arms.

As our final question, we asked respondents directly if they intend to book hotel rooms for work purposes in 2023 and beyond. Yes: 72%; maybe: 26%; no: 2%.

With the promise of improved productivity, creativity and plush slippers, the work-from-hotel trend doesn’t appear to go away soon.   

Max Woolf is writer and travel lover at Passport Photo Online.