My ideal work travel hotel

I have been traveling for work more than half my career. The amount of travel has varied over the years and there was even a two year stretch I was on the road close to 70% of the time, a rough period. Over the years I used many different strategies for travel to see if I could make it any more palatable or less stressful. What I came up with isn’t novel by any means so I won’t go into detail, but I will say my favorite was an airport lounge pass. That pass had the most positive impact on my travel and made the difficult part of dealing with the airports disappear.

What I never found was the perfect work travel hotel. I tried every brand out there and none of them had the accommodations I really wanted for my style of travel. My style of travel is fueled with good and always available coffee, access to a water bottle fill station, free and fast internet, a fully equiped fitness center, and a good in-room workspace. Some nice to haves include an on-site restaurant, outdoor seating for morning coffee, and a room patio or operable windows for fresh air. It’s not an exhaustive list and I have found many hotels with many of these features, except one - an awesome in-room workspace.

My requirements for an in-room workspace include an adjustable standing desk, top shelf chair, whiteboard, and a projector. The room should have all the things I need to conduct work and prepare for presentations. The projector will help get me prepared for customer or conference presentations by allowing me to get my slides and timing right through practice. I am always working through something or having ideas I want to capture and that is where the whiteboard comes in. Yes, I have some digital tools but sometimes you just need to go old school and get it up on a board. The chair and the desk go together. A comfortable chair that can adjust up/down, tilt back or lock, and is large enough to swing and tuck a leg under - not asking for much. The desk is probably the most important - if I had to choose one of these it would be this. The key is the desk needs to adjust up and down to allow me to stand or sit while I'm working - it can be manual or electric I don't care. If I really wanted to push the envelope I would include a large monitor for the desk, heck why not!

I'm know it seems odd to be requesting what appears to be an office in a hotel room. But why not? I've stayed in my share of rooms with a jacuzzi in the middle of the damn thing, fire places, 15 person dining tables, and suites with kitchens. Why not design a room for the work traveler? Not every room in the hotel needs this setup, just designate several and see how it goes.