Skip to Main Content
What Is Bleisure Travel and How Does It Impact the Hospitality Industry?

Bleisure Travel
What Is Bleisure Travel and How Does It Impact the Hospitality Industry?

While on-premise dining, leisure travel and other pre-COVID practices have returned in the travel and hospitality industry, business travel has yet to recover. But that doesn’t mean it’s gone.

It’s just morphed into a different form, often referred to as “bleisure travel,” or the combination of business and leisure travel.

According to Publicis Sapient’s 2022 Generational Travel Survey, millennial travelers (ages 26-40) can complete almost 50% of their workload remotely.

About ⅕ of this age group has planned to take four or more leisure trips in 2022, with the average being 2.5. However, the average number of purely business trips planned for the same time frame is just 1.6.

With the rise of remote work, pent-up demand for vacations, and new norms for socializing and working, the hybrid business travel trend is allowing travelers to combine vacations and business trips to accommodate their lifestyles better.

How can the travel and hospitality industry capitalize on this growing movement to replace lost business travel revenue, increase loyalty and find new customers? One answer is optimizing travel offerings for corporate retreats.

What is bleisure travel?
Bleisure travel is a term describing a hybrid between business travel and leisure travel.

“It’s gone through several evolutions at this point,” says Ed Vanga, head of product at Publicis Sapient for Homes & Villas by Marriott International. “Now, it’s a verb: I’m going to go bleisure.”

Remote work in exotic locations

In the early pandemic days, bleisure travel was a synonym for digital nomad life. Picture a young, single corporate or startup worker whose company goes remote. People started traveling to exotic locations to simultaneously work a 9-to-5 and travel in their spare time. Slowly, the trend picked up to include families as well.

New patterns are emerging within the bleisure category outside the typical remote work stereotype.

The extended business trip

Extending a business trip to accommodate leisure travel with family and friends has existed since long before COVID-19. Still, it’s become a much more accepted practice in recent years.

Picture a married businesswoman heading to a conference in Paris. After the conference, her partner flies to the conference location to meet up, spending a week together in Paris and the South of France. With limited vacation time and a limited budget, it makes sense for consumers to combine business trips with vacations in 2023.

The corporate retreat

The third category of bleisure travel, corporate retreats, has transformed to take on a whole new meaning in a remote work–fueled world and is quickly becoming a staple of bleisure travel.

Corporate retreats used to describe C-suite executives flying to a luxurious location to discuss big ideas, or on the other end of the spectrum, a day of out-of-the-box brainstorming at the office. Now, they’re a modern combination of vacation and team bonding.

Also known as company offsites, these corporate trips gather teams, departments, intern classes or entire companies together for a vacation in a new destination. Maybe it’s a thriving cultural metropolis like London. It could even be the Grand Canyon.

The goal of these trips is to allow co-workers to meet face to face, which is often a first for many who live on opposite sides of the country, or even the world.

What is a bleisure corporate retreat?
So, what types of itineraries are modern corporate retreats looking for?

The destination

For starters, companies are looking into unique and new destinations to plan trips. The location won’t be limited to hotels next to the home office; they could be looking for vacation spots central to employees, conducive to fun activities, or motivating enough to convince employees to travel.

The accommodation

Many corporate customers are open to different accommodations than the typical hotel block with a partner hotel chain. Depending on the size of the group and the location, they’ll consider local hotels, inns or even vacation rentals—whichever option provides the best value, offers seamless booking and has the most added perks will be the winner.

The activities

Alongside the traditional conference room PowerPoint presentation meeting, many teams want to engage in large group recreational activities, like fitness and wellness workshops, sports, games or cultural experiences.

Millions of employees have entered the workforce or new roles fully remotely and haven’t yet met their teams. While pandemic health concerns have postponed corporate retreats and offsites, companies are now ready to plan future trips.

How can the hospitality industry capitalize on the corporate retreat and other bleisure travel trends moving forward?

“The flawed assumption that a customer is yours for a period of time because they are chasing status funded by their company no longer holds,” Vanga said. “It’s time to make the loyalty experience a bit more interesting.”

— Ed Vanga, Head of Product, Publicis Sapient

Five ways the hospitality industry can capitalize on bleisure travel

According to Vanga, hotel companies can make their offerings more attractive to the bleisure traveler through micro strategies. It’s time to put more thought into those little enhancements around the edges that can keep a customer loyal.

One
Investing in short-term rentals for business and bleisure travel

Home rentals are almost always optimized and advertised for vacations. Still, as business and vacations begin to blend, companies can consider what offerings will make short-term rentals more attractive to business and bleisure travelers.

Some companies are even looking for short-term rentals rather than hotel blocks for company travel and retreats.

Curating homes or villas with the appropriate working areas, Wi-Fi, bedroom/bathroom setups and accessibility is key, whether rental properties are being used for corporate retreats or just remote work.

“This is something hotels wouldn’t have entertained before the pandemic. ‘It’s too wacky. We’re too conservative for that. There’s not enough money in the business,’” Vanga said. “But there’s been a mindset shift.”

Two
Partnering with brands for product extensions

The top concern for travelers planning a trip is getting good value for their money, whether they travel for business or leisure. Companies planning retreats are often looking for perks that will set hotels, restaurants and other experiences apart from the rest.

Hotel chains can partner with brands to offer company swag as part of a retreat experience, like notebooks, clothing, whiteboards, backpacks and more.

“Now, even the business travel coordinators are looking for value,” Vanga said. “It might be the same price, but if we do this, the team gets this extra perk. At the end of the day, they’re buying an experience.”

Three
Creating a hospitality experience ecosystem

Another perk that bleisure travelers are looking for is integrated travel experiences. More than half of travelers are looking to stay in hotels that offer all-inclusive experiences, including food and drink as well as activities, according to Publicis Sapient 2022 research.

Hotels can set themselves apart by offering team dinners, classes, games, activities and more as convenient on-site add-ons through the same booking portal. This upselling will make every single retreat purchase more valuable for the consumer and more profitable for the hotel.

Vanga refers to this as the “experience ecosystem.” “Hospitality companies need to start building solutions for these customer needs. The ultimate goal is to own the entire travel itinerary.”

Four
Renewing the focus on the daily guest experience

While Airbnb has previously dominated the rental and experience space, research shows a renewed interest in the reliability of the guest experience that hotels bring to the table.

Over 60% of travelers prefer to stay in an upscale or budget hotel, compared to just 15% that prefer a short-term rental like an Airbnb.

“One of the major differences between Airbnb and hotels is the guest experience,” Vanga said. “Airbnb makes no attempt to guarantee your experience. It’s ‘guest, meet host.’ With hotels, it’s ‘Can we get you a glass of water while you check in? Here’s a hot towel if your room is not ready yet.’”

One of the biggest concerns that bleisure travelers face when booking trips is getting what they’re paying for. This concern is amplified when it comes to corporate retreats.

Vanga suggests going back to basics when it comes to the experience of a typical guest at a hotel property—from the concierge service, to transportation, to the communication if any issues arise.

These little things matter for the bleisure traveler moving forward as they decide where they’re going to stay.

Five
Optimizing for optionality and bleisure travel

The travelers of 2023 won’t exactly be corporate or leisure; they’ll be both. The optimal customer travel experience will ideally offer optionality for work, play or a personalized combination.

Customers might want to book accommodations for a retreat—and continue that retreat into a vacation. Or, they might be looking to book a workspace and a yoga class for their team offsite. The more optionality, seamlessness and ease of booking hotels can provide, the better.

“The flawed assumption that a customer is yours for a period of time because they are chasing status funded by their company no longer holds, it’s time to make the loyalty experience a bit more interesting.”

Ed Vanga , Head of Product, Publicis Sapient

Read the rest of the series:

Get in touch

  • Ed Vanga
    Head of Product, Publicis Sapient
    Contact