Hotel offers luxury workspace, at a price
CLEVELAND — Working from home got you down? Trade in your dull home-office digs for something decidedly more upscale — a room at Cleveland’s swankiest hotel.
For the first time, the Cleveland Ritz-carlton is offering a day rate for one of its 209 rooms, with packages geared toward guests who are working remotely and families with kids going to school online.
The packages are part of a global hospitality trend, with hotels trying new ways to attract guests in the midst of an historic downturn in tourism.
Laurel Keller, a hospitality analyst with Cleveland’s Newmark Knight Frank, said she wasn’t aware of other local hotels offering day rates to locals. “But I also wouldn’t be surprised to see it,” she said. “Most hotels have excess inventory due to unusually low demand right now. I do think the program could work, and I admire the creativity.”
The Ritz-carlton packages are not for those pinching their pennies during this time of economic uncertainty. An eight-hour stay at the Ritz will run you $199, plus tax.
Here are the options:
• The “Your Space” package includes a room for eight hours, $20 dining credit, valet parking and high-speed internet.
• “Luxury Learning” includes a room, high-speed internet, valet parking, cookies and milk, plus a Ritz-carlton notepad and Cleveland fun-facts worksheet.
Either can be upgraded to an overnight stay for an additional $200.
Elizabeth Faler, general manager of the Cleveland Ritz-carlton, said the new packages were created to accommodate guests’ changing needs.
“More families are opting this year to take road trips rather than air travel and, due to many school districts delaying reopening, those adventures will likely extend into the fall months,” she said. “We wanted to offer those traveling with children a fun, innovate way to combine travel and education.”
Hotels in northeast Ohio continue to struggle, according to figures from STR, a travel data firm. Occupancy in the sixcounty Cleveland region was 42.8% for the week ending Aug. 1, compared to 48.9% for the United States. For hotels in downtown Cleveland, the numbers were even worse, with just 33.1% of hotel rooms occupied that week.
The Ritz-carlton packages are part of a growing trend, with numerous resorts and destinations hoping to capitalize on the current work-from-home movement during the coronavirus pandemic. If an employee can work from anywhere, why not somewhere exotic, or at least fun or different.
MGM Resorts in Las Vegas recently announced its “Viva Las Office” package, promoting remote working at its Bellagio and Aria properties. Playa Hotels and Resorts in Punta Cana, Mexico, is offering a similar “Work & Learn from Paradise” package.
The trend also capitalizes on another movement in the hospitality industry — an attempt to fill hotel rooms with nearby residents who are eager for a staycation getaway. Locally, the Kimpton Schofield and Drury Plaza hotels have offered package deals for local residents in recent months.
In addition, Destination Cleveland last week launched a new Rediscover CLE campaign, hoping to get greater Clevelanders to support the local tourism economy.