Some Hyatts Now Selling Hotel Rooms As Offices

Common in Asia. Have removed furniture from hotel rooms and made them into meeting rooms. Cheaper to do when you need a number of smaller meeting rooms. Hotel meeting rooms are $$$$. Have done this multiple times in India and other south East Asian countries.
I like the creative thinking from the Hyatt though. Clever way to add another revenue stream.

Wow.

Somewhat related, healthcare workers are being offered hotel rooms as a semi-quarantine option to avoid bring COVID home to their family if they are concerned about possible exposure.

I would entertain this option only if it included elite-qualification credit. Otherwise, I could find peace and quiet during the day way cheaper by isolation in my car or the backyard.

On their part it's probably just a last-ditch attempt to get revenue, but I LOVE the sound of this. I like to work alone in a nice room, and I can't stand co-working, open-plan office spaces. If the details are done right and the numbers add up, there could be a new business model lurking in this.

If I ran my own small startup, I'd appreciate the ability to rent as needed, a nicely furnished room (that can function as an office) with a swanky hotel lobby to welcome guests, and take them to lunch/beer as needed. NOT a limited service Hyatt obviously. At least Novotel-grade... In my mind that'd be much nicer than renting Regus-type offices or wework.

This is gonna be something that ladies of the night/day take advantage of.

It’s similar to dayuse.com where they contract with hotels to sell the rooms during the day. I used it when arriving into AMS at 5am and my hotel apartment wasn’t available until 3pm. Got The Renaissance for $90 when overnight rates were $250 or so. Got to rest, take a shower and get some work done so I was ready for conference that kicked off that night.

I don't see this catching on that much without dedicated rooms. Famously, economists used hotel rooms to conduct job interviews. But, that practice has been cut back. Some candidates, especially female, found it uncomfortable to be alone in a bedroom with a stranger.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/09/economists-end-single-hotel-room-interviews-and-historians-end-conference-interviews

A hotel room with a bed just isn't a great place to conduct a work meeting if you're going to have other people working there with you.

I could definitely see hotels converting rooms to be dedicated offices if business travel drops off and they see a demand for these offerings from newly remote workers who need a private space or something. And it wouldn't be that difficult to convert back to a traditional room if there was demand for that.

I also saw DoubleTree SEA selling this kind of rate a couple of days ago, and I suspect there are many hotels from other chains are doing the same.

The conference room comment above reminded me that a friend of mine had been put in an actual conference room with a rollaway bed when the hotel is sold out!

One more thing - I don't see this working in most cities unless parking fees are waived/included as part of the room rate. That Hyatt House Salt Lake City Downtown cited charges $14/day/car. If you book a room to have a meeting with 4 people, that $59 just became $115.

I'm a bit conflicted by this... Isn't the whole point of closing down offices to reduce the overall exposure to the virus? Sure, by being in a hotel room you're alone that day/moment, but what about the people that have stayed before? What about the hotel's workers and other guests? What sort of sanitary measures are going to be taken to mitigate the risks?

I can probably make a bit more sense of it if you don't have a stable internet connection at home and your job is dependant on it, otherwise you're just being selfish. During this time everybody has difficulties and not having the "perfect" short-term working environment at home isn't on the important end of the spectrum. It's a question of adapting to new times and approaching things differently. Everyone should put in the effort to remain at home for as long as possible and avoid this sort of stuff unless it's absolutely essential.

After several replies, doesn't anyone here get the concept of 'Social distancing' especially the 'distancing' part.

Now if these rooms does earn credits and stay, I might do a mattress run and change my "personal" working environment for nominal cost to support my status.

I do see this as an opportunity, but unlikely for office space. This could be a big potential for escort or mistress.

If no elite qualifying night credit, what's the point? I'm more comfortable at home plus saving my money! Regardless, all my local Hyatts are closed until 5/26:

- HR HB
- HR NB
- HR OC
- HR SNA
- HH SNA
- HH Anaheim
- HP Anaheim
- HC Pike LB
- And most LA Hyatt properties ...

If I was WFH with a spouse and kids and had to give an important presentation, etc., this is brilliant.

@Mary

Or just let them in (as long as they behave). I think this is the best time ever to let the 'look professional' guard down and show you peers the softer side of things. There is a time and place to be professional, but personally for me getting stuck at home isn't. Now if the spouse, kids, or pets are really distracting then you probably need some space as you should also respect other people's time too.

The problem is that most U.S. hotels still have terrible WiFi. You're not going to get 100 mbps from a three-star limited-service hotel, like a Hyatt Place. I'd get more work done at a Starbucks where the WiFi works.