Working practices have changed drastically in the last two years following the pandemic, with going to the office five days a week now seen as a disadvantage by many companies and most employees.
Working from home has undoubtedly brought benefits for those who can do their job remotely and do not need constant supervision or face-to-face training. The net effect of this has been for some companies to downsize or even quit their offices.
That’s a big cost saving in most cases, but frequently now firms operate from premises that cannot physically fit all their staff at one time, with employees rotating when they are in the building and reserving hot desks. This is an advantage for most, but what happens when you want to gather staff together if there is not enough space to assemble them?
Office suites offer their own meeting rooms at an additional cost, but these are often not big enough to accommodate everyone – and are not an option for companies that have given up their office altogether. In these cases, as Morrissey might have put it, Meet can be Murder.
Demand for teambuilding, brainstorming, and town hall meetings is at an all-time high now Covid is not a factor in scheduling gatherings, and this has led to a jump in the number of meeting room bookings in hotels.
Perhaps another reason for this leap is the desire to impress – downsized offices generally do not boast as grand a meeting space as a good hotel, something which might be a factor, for example, in securing a contract with a client. Another significant positive to using a hotel is that the IT setup will be top-notch and done for you, with someone on hand if it goes wrong.
One entry-level example is Hilton’s basic meetings package, which includes space for up to 35 people, wi-fi, flip chart, and all-day beverage service. Meals, audio/visual equipment, and guest rooms can be added to this.
“One definite trend is a rise in demand for meeting room packages because a lot of companies still have staff working remotely,” says Tony McDaid, Meon Valley Travel’s Head of Sales Account Management.
Figures back this up, Coworker.com found global meeting space demand up 73% year on year in November 2021.
McDaid adds: “There’s a growing need for meeting rooms in hotels where, for example, there are new people joining a company; plus, with working from home, staff aren’t bouncing ideas off each other, so the remote meeting concept is becoming more popular. We’re seeing a surge in this from our clients.”
Some issues have already emerged with this boom in demand. Unsurprisingly, most bookings are for midweek, which can cause issues with supply. Workplace platform specialist Envoy found 70% of bookings were for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with demand spread evenly through the three days. Unsurprisingly Friday was the least popular day at just 12% of the total, while Mondays were also predictably unpopular, at 17.5%.
Getting staff to commit to meetings on Friday has become an issue since Working from Home became the new norm, but hotels at least give scope for an after-meeting dinner or drinks – and given the renewed appreciation for human interaction that we all discovered during lockdown, that might just be a clincher.
