Savvy hotel operators could harness the remote working trend and adapt their space to deliver a 'hybrid hospitality' concept to generate an additional source of income says Colliers International.

The global real estate advisor predicts that where hotels provide office space to enable co-working and interacting, turnover could be increased by up to 20 per cent.

In addition the provision of more flexible work space in the predicted hybrid hotels trend could deliver an "amenitisation" model, to create greater benefit from and value to the hospitality industry.

Independent ventures including Zoku, which has pioneered this hybrid hospitality concept, Hoxton/Ennismore, Accor, Ace Hotels, citizenM and Kerten Hospitality focus on the mix of work and overnight stays and have had huge success over the last few years. According to Colliers, many more hotels are going to mix these functions in the future.

"Hotels creating a place not only to sleep and eat but also to rent out space to meet, collaborate, socialise and work is a key way that underperforming areas within the building can be optimised from a revenue and income perspective. You can use hotel space twice while traditional work space only once. Not only could this concept appeal to institutional investors but I would not be surprised if this becomes a permanent new form of hospitality in the future," said Dirk Bakker, head of hotels for the EMEA region at Colliers International.

He added: "However it is important to highlight there are big differences when it comes to the flex office models across the EMEA region. For example in the Netherlands, before the COVID-19 pandemic, around 14 per cent of people worked from home while in Germany this figure was only five per cent.

"Naturally, the COVID-19 crisis accelerated the flex office trend but the significant cultural differences will remain. This can also be observed in the approach of the hotels themselves. For example, the Hilton hotel in Amsterdam has already implemented the hybrid flexibility concept while the Marriott is still keen to retain its traditional business model."