Mews: Research & earned media campaign
Travel trends and hush "workcations"
Mews, a hospitality cloud system, commissioned a research-led media campaign to explore travel trends and the habit of working while on vacation.
We polled 2,000 employed Americans — gathering insights from an equal split of travelers and hotel workers. This provided us with answers and opinions from people who vacation as well as those who work in the industry.
Is the hush "workcation" the new travel trend? Our online survey found 52% of all respondents would use their vacation travels as a chance to work remotely and 29% have done so without notifying anyone at work.
2,000
Travelers + hotel workers
187
Pieces of coverage
9,700,000
Online coverage views
113
Back links
Research insights
Why are Americans working while on vacation?
Close to four in 10 (39%) explained it was simply because they like what they do for work. Meanwhile, others would work on vacation to hit an important work deadline that overlapped with their vacation time (28%) or to save on their PTO (26%).
Where are they working while away?
While working from the comfort of one’s hotel room is the top preference (69%), a quarter of respondents said they would prefer to work remotely from the hotel pool or spa, and nearly 25% chose a hotel bar or restaurant.
Seventy-nine percent are planning all their travels for the year “as soon as they possibly can” and estimate they’ll take a total of 11 trips in 2024.
Among the trips planned are three vacations and three family trips; alongside three work trips and two “bleisure” trips — combining business with leisure — for employed respondents.
What did we learn from hotel workers?
Hotel workers are prepared — they claimed guests traveling for work or bleisure are the easiest to cater to (83% and 76%, respectively). They anticipate the guests will tip more (39%), extend their stay more frequently (38%), and use hotel amenities more (31%) in the year ahead.
The study also found that hotel workers anticipate guests to use technology more in 2024, with a fourth expecting them to check in more frequently via a hotel website, app or digital kiosk compared to previous years
How did Mews leverage the findings from their research?
Mews gathered valuable insights from American travelers and their expectations and priorities when it comes to hotels.
Nearly a third of guests stated a perfect hotel would have keyless room entry (34%) and in-room smart home devices (43%) and nearly one-fourth would prefer mobile room entry (27%) and digital ordering (24%).
More than 40% of travelers stated they prefer to check in via a hotel’s website, app or digital kiosk, and nearly 80% said they would be willing to stay at a hotel that had a completely automated front desk or self-service kiosk. A third admitted they have turned to AI for recommendations while booking travel.
The survey data formed the basis of a news story for Mews, written and distributed by our news generation arm, We are Talker. Our team also produced visual assets — an infographic and animated video — to bring the data to life.
See how Mews shared the research findings on their own website.
“Technology enables our teams to gather robust guest information before they arrive at one of our locations, which empowers our customer service teams to create unique ‘excite and delight’ opportunities for guests, resulting in powerful moments and lifelong memories for our guests,” commented Ryan Krukar, VP sales & marketing at Gravity Haus.
“Identifying and understanding a guest’s needs before they arrive at one of our locations and going above and beyond for guests is key in delivering authentic hospitality and provides additional value and comfort while simultaneously immersing a guest in the unique culture of the destination they are visiting.”
Data-driven headlines
A snapshot of media coverage
