Briefing: Business, Leisure, Community – Hospitality for millennials

New hospitality brand Zoku launched this week. This and other brands are responding to the needs of the millennial business traveller. BridgeStreet’s Bleisure Report 2014 found that the line between business and leisure travel is blurring as more people are looking for ways to include leisure activities into their business trips. In the survey ‘Nearly half of respondents (46%) add personal travel days to business travel “every trip” or to “most trips”.’

Young business travellers want to experience the city they are in and socialise and want to stay somewhere that enables them to do this, as discussed in these videos:

BridgeStreet’s survey of 640 international guests shows that instead of only exploring cities on leisure trips, ‘83% of respondents use time on business trips to explore the city they’re visiting.’ The report also states that: ‘The top reason for bleisure travel is a desire to see the world and gain cultural experiences’. This is also shown in TripAdvisor’s Trip Barometer 2015, in which 29% of people said their reason for visiting a specific destination was that they ‘love exploring the area’.

Zoku is aimed at people who need short or extended stay accommodation in a new city for work. The accommodation incorporates social spaces, events, and app to help guests to make connections. Zoku’s launch announcement goes so far as to proclaim the ‘end of the hotel room’. Instead of bedrooms there will be ‘lofts’, which are designed to be living and work spaces rather than just places to sleep, and are intended to be more homely and social in the same sized space as a hotel room. There is a new take on the holiday rep as ‘Zoku Community Managers’ will help make introductions between guests. The first Zoku will open in Amsterdam in autumn 2015.

Services apartment brand SACO is also targeting the bleisure traveller. Their research shows that Millennials are 50% more likely to have travelled for business in the past two years than people over 35. It says that 14% of millennials see travelling as an important networking opportunity (as opposed to 7% of their older peers), and that ‘millennials look for accommodation with shared spaces for socialising in’.

Radisson Red is a new brand from Radisson hotel group which again is promising spaces for Gen Y to work, play and socialise.

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Video clips produced by yBC for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

Gen Y seek freedom from old style management

Generation Y will be the largest part of the workforce in 2015. A new study from Ashridge Business School and MSLGROUP says that Generation Y have a completely different attitude to work. The study shows that Generation Y, also known as Millennials, no longer go into the world of work with the expectation of staying in one organization and working their way up. In fact, 43% of those surveyed worldwide said they intended to leave their current company in the next two years.

Experts from the hospitality industry comment on the Generation Y workforce:

Research shows that Generation Y would prefer to have some freedom to live their lives rather than dedicate all their time and energy to work. On average, 89% of the working under 30s surveyed by Ashridge in India, China, UK, France, USA and Brazil, said that work-life balance was important to them. This tallies with research by PwC in which 71% of their millennial employees said that work demands interfere with their personal lives. This report also found that: ‘Millennials do not believe that productivity should be measured by the number of hours worked at the office, but by the output of the work performed.’

Generation Y also wants a new type of manager. In the Ashridge survey, overall, less than a third (31%) felt the role their manager played fitted what they want. They consistently said their ideal manager would act as a friend or mentor. In their working lives, a sense of achievement, feeling valued or respected, and job security were also highly valued.

This week’s videos feature comment from:

  • Nicolas Mayer, Partner, Industry Leader – Lodging & Tourism, PWC on how to maximise your Gen Y workforce.

  • Karen Friebe, Partner, Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP on increasing flexibility in work.

  • Ömer İsvan, President, Servotel Corporation on working with a new generation of talent.

  • Wolfgang Neumann, President & Chief Executive Officer, The Rezidor Hotel Group on company leaders connecting with Gen Y staff on social media.

If you’ve been sent to this page and you’re not yet on the circulation list to receive these regular briefings and you would like to sign up, you can do see here. It’s free.

Video clips produced by ybc.hpgcms.wpengine.com for the Hospitality Channel, including interview from industry conferences such as the IHIF conference as well as specific Hospitality Channel shoots.

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