Months of closure for restaurants and hospitality are added to the very low influx of tourists and professional visitors to the city. A panorama that, far from scaring away the scarce 120 hotels that are open (compared to the 580 existing ones), has offered new horizons to acquire clientele and conquer Barcelona residents. And more specifically, a new vital philosophy that has galloped into our lives in a few months: digital nomadism.
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Coliving, the preferred format for digital nomads, is spreading
Inspired by a model born in Silicon Valley, coliving is a new trend being adopted in many cities to offer alternative housing options that adapt to nascent social realities. In essence, they are complete buildings where common spaces are promoted so that tenants can socialize and share: barbecues, gym, 24-hour doorman, office area… Many millennials with liberal professions have opted for this model inspired by student residences that allows them to enjoy a lifestyle more open to neighbors, thus creating a community with ties, like a small big family united by similar interests and profiles.
Coliving has arrived as a plausible opportunity for many hotel establishments, offering the chance to attract new customer profiles. Profiles that, in turn, have adapted to unprecedented work and personal situations in their lives and find in a hotel the perfect model to enjoy comfort, independence, and tranquility. The spring lockdown was a real test for the coexistence of couples and flatmates, forced to meet teleworking demands for which neither they nor their living spaces were prepared.
The Gallery Hotel, for example, presents an umbrella concept, Gallery Homtel, which includes various modalities designed for a professional teleworking context, among them coliving: for a one-month stay, for €950, the client has access to all facilities and includes daily breakfast, two weekly laundry services, and cleaning twice a week. "Just as we are professionals in making our visitors feel at home, our coliving proposal aims to offer all the comforts and cover all the needs of our clients, personalizing for each one of them to ensure they enjoy their stay," explains Lourdes Grau, its director. Numerous clients who opted for this way of life, says Grau, remain lodged after the month, contracting directly for six months. The price, then, is more adjusted: €700 per month.
In this same price range (€700/month), the Axel Hotel has activated a very similar coliving experience, ensuring that "living in Axel is cool." This monthly fee includes a work and meeting area, access to the solarium and pool, as well as cleaning service and linen change twice a week. Gym, bar, breakfast, parking, and laundry would have to be contracted as extra services.
For those looking for premium options in a luxury hotel, the W Barcelona offers the possibility of making many people's dream come true: living and working from the hotel, with a luxurious and modern environment and, in addition, with all the services of a 5-star Grand Luxury hotel in one of the best locations in Barcelona, with Mediterranean views from the Wonderful rooms and direct access to the beach. The Long Stay program is aimed at all digital nomads and entrepreneurs who want to change their routine and telework in an exclusive and safe environment. Parking and breakfast are included in the €1,300 monthly fee. For its residents, a 25% discount is offered on all restaurants and extra services such as meeting spaces.
Already with a focus on luxury apartments, Suites Avenue, from the Derby Hotels Collection group in the central Passeig de Gràcia, has focused its 41 apartments of between 54 and 60m² on the classic coliving model for those clients looking for location and exclusivity at extremely adjusted prices compared to those offered before the pandemic. The attraction is to enjoy a private space full of amenities in an emblematic location (in front of La Pedrera), with personalized attention and premium services included in the price (€1,500 per month): gym, sauna, two outdoor pools, solarium, terrace, and parking.
Teleworking to break the routine
Given the impossibility for many to return to their usual offices or workspaces sine die, it has been a priority to reform or adapt living spaces to house an area for teleworking. Not a few claim that it has been more of an impossible mission. For all of them, hotels are presented as places to work safely, comfortably, and for as long as needed, either individually or with the intention of holding meetings there.
The same Gallery Hotel, with its Homtel concept, has ten Professional Rooms, rooms converted into workspaces for one or two people, in which beds and superfluous decorative elements have been removed. They are rented by the day and within the price, €55, the hotel services that its guests and residents also enjoy are included. Anyone who needs a space by the hour can settle in any of the 4 tables arranged in the coworking area, on the upper floor, with total tranquility and comfort for €5/hour.
The Hotel Duquesa de Cardona focuses its offer on including food within the teleworking context, or as a plus for work meetings. Thus, from €50 there is the possibility of renting a room for half a day or a full day and enjoying a delicious snack in its restaurant for a break. From €150, if you are looking for a comfortable and discreet place to hold meetings for 2 to 6 people, the hotel offers its private lounges, including lunch in the price.
Common areas, libraries, lobbies, or relaxation zones in hotels like The Serras (in Le Nine or its rooftop), Casa Bonay (in Libertine), or Yurbban are also accessible to walk-ins who need a space to work, concentrate, or simply think and seek new approaches. The only requirement for access is to consume and, logically, that the 30% capacity limit indicated by law has not been exceeded.
Just 26 km from the city, the luxury eco-resort Mas Salagros, in Vallromanes, wants to recover the influx of national clients lost due to weekend municipal lockdowns, enticing them with weekday combos that add a gastronomic experience in its 1497 restaurant and a thermal circuit at AIRE Ancient Baths to the ability to work surrounded by nature. Its price is €76 per person.
Is it a new business model or a momentary patch?
Views like those of Lourdes Grau, director of Hotel Gallery, confirm positively and state that she is convinced that coliving and the various options to meet the needs of the digital nomad are here to stay. "And to ignore this reality is a mistake, when it is an opportunity to develop a new business model based on excellence. Which, furthermore, allows us hoteliers to extend the concept of feeling at home beyond overnight stays or leisure environments," assures Grau. The development of a proprietary business approach with the creation of the Homtel proposals are a true declaration of intent.
Cautiously, other voices are more skeptical, not so much due to a scarcity of demand but rather due to the uncertainty of the post-pandemic future. Núria Garcés (Duquesa de Cardona) trusts more in leisure-focused formats, which are working very well today, and Pedro Martínez (Casa Bonay) and Marta Parera (Yurbban) agree that the boutique format of their hotels is not designed to embrace coliving. Making the leap implies very profound business decisions that are not based on a reality, not even on a future assumption.
In a middle-ground stance, Mariona Mallafré (Mas Salagros) assures that its privileged location in the heart of nature (and so close to the city) is a natural draw for clients seeking leisure and relaxation. But it also offers an opportunity to enjoy the peace of the surroundings to work with high concentration or hold corporate meetings and events, including spa sessions and organic tasting menus served in the gastronomic restaurant 1497, along with overnight stays with promotions of three nights for the price of two.
On the contrary, the Hotel Alma, the 5-star Grand Luxury hotel located in the heart of the Eixample, contemplates a different scenario in which they have not planned offers, packages, or price reductions: "although demand is very limited because international clients represent between 80% and 90% of our clientele --- explains Leire García de Araoz--- we continue to receive those who seek a context of normality, with the same services, attention, and exclusivity as always." García de Araoz, commercial director, comments that the opportunity for Alma has been to reinvent itself with an even closer service model, in which the owner and executives personally attend to their clients as perfect hosts, having coffee with them when the occasion arises. The client feels a closeness, a comfortable home-like sensation in line with their needs, which has even led them to extend their stay beyond what was necessary because they feel at home. This positioning has allowed the hotel not only to retain its recurring guests but also to attract new ones, who have arrived at the establishment (whether for professional, leisure, or health reasons) because the ones they regularly frequented were closed.
Be that as it may, hotels were already seeking, before the appearance of covid-19, to break down that invisible barrier that hinders the access of walk-in or local clients beyond the lobby of their establishments. The need to keep their structures and staff afloat, even if at a minimum, provides the opportunity to reconnect with the local client, to win over the Barcelonian who, after all, is the one who has answered the call of the hotels. Whether for leisure or work, the comforts and services of hotels are now part of the mental universe of a good part of Barcelona's inhabitants. A true conquest.