How is flexible office space adding to the hotelification of new developments?

Experience is at the heart of modern life, forming a fundamental part of how we live, work and play. As a result, we have seen a clear direction of travel from landlords and developers to maximise and activate the ground floor space in offices and mixed-use developments, recognising that the experience of those arriving, be that staff or guests, is directly connected to the way they feel about that particular place. 

The experience from a customer’s perspective will create loyalty and loyalty is vital for any landlord looking for long term income retention. The best hospitality spaces, such as a hotel or even a restaurant, provide a warm and friendly welcome where you as a customer feel valued. Your experience as you walk in, from the initial greeting, the smell, sounds and ambience, the service provided and the amenity at your disposal, creates a feeling that this is somewhere you belong and importantly would like to return to.  

For a long time the ground floor reception of an office represented quite a clinical and bland space with little to no atmosphere where you are greeted and directed on with minimal interaction. For mixed-use developments, many new sites or refurbishments are often squeezed hard on financials for ground floor space and, as a result, are usually allocated in full to a retail or leisure unit with no further consideration of how this space could be best utilised to maximise the building and user experience. That’s not to say that retail or leisure shouldn’t be a part of the mix, but the key may lie in variety and how each one is able to interact with the other.  

We are seeing a shift in approach to how we interact with our customers, employees and guests and much of this is being taken from the hotel world, via flexible offices. To some extent the serviced office market led the charge on the hotelification of ground floor office space with WeWork, TOG, FOR A and Uncommon setting the bar for customer experience and ground floor activation by creating vibrant and buzzing spaces that people want to be a part of. It therefore makes sense for landlords to utilise this insight and expertise in other buildings.  

An entrance that offers a vibrant and dynamic atmosphere is a very different experience to one that offers only an expanse space or very little diversity. The activation of the space is therefore a great sales tool for landlords and developers to embrace, particularly when thinking about retaining and attracting staff and customers of the potential clients looking at a lease on those upper floors.   

So how can flexible office space play a part in this? We’re now beginning to see more landlord’s partner with a flexible workspace operators in order to deliver this activation, which allows them to combine the ground floor unit incorporating a café, lounge, co-working and meeting space, alongside private office suits on another floor. This combination helps landlords provide an appealing arrival experience, whilst also generating revenue, allowing them to enter into a lease or management agreement with the landlord. Typically the management agreement gives the landlord significantly more control in the design of the space, the services provided and the overall experience, as well as the revenue. This, in turn, allows the landlord to create a much more cohesive customer experience within their building, where the core elements of the reception, café and general services work together and provide that seamless experience for customers.  

Flexible office operators are also increasingly adding event and meeting room space within this ground floor element to help further activate and bring people from outside-in, at the same time helping to bring in additional revenue. 

Beyond being a sales tool, one of the most important aspects is the ability to provide your customers and their guests with a seamless experience – from the moment they walk into the building to the moment they leave they feel part of something, they feel looked after by the space throughout. We expect to see further growth in operators to managing more and more of the building amenity for landlords to create a seamless customer experience with that hotel level of service.