Workation: capturing remote-work travellers to fill your calendar
Remote work has created a hybrid traveller: on holiday, yet still working a few hours a day. This segment books longer stays, off-season, and pays for comfort. Setting your property up for workation smooths your occupancy all year round. Here's how to turn it into a real revenue lever.
Why the remote-work traveller is a game changer
The digital nomad is no longer a fringe case: it has become a structural part of demand. Unlike the classic holidaymaker, this guest doesn't think in weekends or annual-leave weeks, but in blocks of several weeks combining work and discovery. For an owner, that's a triple win. First, they book long stays — often two to four weeks — which lower your turnover and cleaning costs per night. Second, they travel outside the peaks, filling the May, June, September and October gaps where your calendar empties out. Third, they care less about price than about the quality of their working environment. Annecy, on the lakeside, and Lyon, a connected, cultural city, tick exactly the boxes this clientele looks for: nature, services, and a reliable connection to stay productive.
Building a workspace that converts
The first thing a remote worker checks on your listing is the workspace. A kitchen table no longer cuts it. They need a genuine setup: a dedicated desk, an ergonomic chair you can sit in for eight hours, suitable lighting and several accessible sockets. Internet is the absolute deal-breaker — state your real fibre speed, ideally tested and shown in the listing, and add a wifi repeater if the property is large. Nail the details that make the difference: a second screen, a laptop stand, a kettle and a quality coffee machine, a quiet corner away from busy areas. Explicitly mention 'remote-work friendly' in your title and description, with photos of the workstation. These items cost a few hundred euros but unlock an entire segment of long, loyal bookings.
Pricing and calibrating long stays
Workation means rethinking your pricing grid. Over multi-week stays, the guest reasonably expects tapered rates: a weekly discount of 10 to 20 % and a steeper monthly one still works in your favour, because it secures nights that would otherwise go unsold in low season. Work out your net break-even, factoring in the cleaning and platform-fee savings spread across the stay. Watch the regulations, though: beyond a certain threshold a stay can shift into a different lease regime, and some towns cap duration. Check your insurance and your property's rules too. The right trade-off is to keep July-August weeks for full-rate short-term lets, and open the quiet periods to long remote-work stays — maximising revenue across the whole year.
How SmartStay captures this market for you
At SmartStay, we build the workation segment into the strategy for every property we manage in Annecy, Savoie, Haute-Savoie and Lyon. We audit your home to identify the remote-work equipment worth adding, optimise your listing with the keywords and visuals that speak to this clientele, and calibrate smart tapered pricing that protects your net revenue. Our channel manager opens quiet periods to long stays while reserving the peaks for full-rate short lets. We handle guest welcome, communication and hotel-grade cleaning tailored to the rhythm of longer stays. You get occupancy smoothed across the year and a demanding but loyal clientele, without managing a thing yourself. Hand us your property and turn empty weeks into steady income.
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