Workcation - The Future Of Business Travel

Just the other day I was talking to my class mate, Ram, now a Senior leader in E&Y, who travels the world over on business and was currently visiting Gurgaon from Bangalore. I told him he just had to visit us at "Cinnamon". Though he was on a tight business schedule, the offer of a complete home made meal closed the deal. 

 

Our “catching up” went on till the wee hours of the morning and we asked him to retire in the spare room. We told him that he could stay with us as long as he wanted, which he denied since he was already booked in a hotel for the whole period that he would spend in Gurgaon. Later that evening I received a call from him asking if he could make our place his permanent “business” stay. I was more than happy to have a buddy around. My curiosity piqued and I asked him what made him change his mind. Why a home stay when he could be put up in the best of the hotels? To this, he rattled off a few points that I thought I could share with you!

1.  Feeling of being home - Ram and many others who travel between cities, between continents and between different time zones are always missing “home” and their family. An evening spent at Cinnamon, Ram realized that whilst he did feel relaxed in hotels, it never gave him the feeling of being home. The informal set up, the home made meal, he never felt this close to home in any of his business stays before.

2.  Shut out from the office - According to Ram, whenever he travels, he seems to find himself working in the hotel at the end of the day. That, he says is very tiresome so much so that he doesn’t feel fresh the next day. He shared that the other evening, he was able to relax and partly shut out his mind from work that has no end. Even though he hardly slept for a few hours, he was fresh the next day. He felt that the shutting himself out from work environment can happen only when you are at home.

 

3.   Live with the locals - Being a pucca Bengalurian(read south Indian), Ram said that people at work and at the hotel were forever making him feel comfortable with the kind of food that he ate everyday or assisting him at shopping. Ram felt he never could sense what it was like to be a Dilliwala. Having spent time with us, he interacted with our caretakers and other staff and he had a jolly time trying to understand them and they him. Hilarious anecdote this, but we can keep that for a different time. 

4.  Real recommendations - A business travel is also an opportunity to look around the city you go to. Post work, there are times when one can look around and explore the city. Whilst a hotel gives you all the “must do” things, many a times, one misses out on the “experience” of the city. Thus a real time recommendation is a must. Which, in fact, is given mostly by the people who live there! Home stays with their expertise can provide you with the exact recommendations as per your need and interest.

5.    Long stays - Staying long in hotels can really be just that…very long!... a hotel gives you the pleasures of being pampered and live luxuriously yet it can be very exhausting to come back to a small room especially when the business stay is more than a week. At this time a home stay provides you with the space, the comfort and the luxury of being yourself while at work.

6.  Family can join in - Having the family on a workcation really works wonders! A homestay can provide the best place for the family to be together in a new place. The routine remaining the same!..its a home just in another city.

7.    New friendships - A homestay can open the doors to new friendships and networking with the people who you stay with. At times they are known while at others, it may lead to forging new relationships and friendships that can last life long.

So, next time you are travelling for business, you could give a homestay a try. Actually, a homestay geared towards a proper Workcation - one that offers the productive space of a hotel but the comfort and relaxed atmosphere of a home. “Cinnamon Stays” in Gurgaon is one such option.


Picture Courtesy - #Cinnamonstays #Gurgaon #No1onTripadvisor