Travel Company Encourage Brits to Take a “Work-Staycation” – Case Study

With the staycation boom in full swing and a wealth of Brits desperate to shake off their cabin fever, as we take a turn into the Autumn season home swapping site Love Home Swap is encouraging Brits to take a work-staycation.

The new travel trend brings a whole new meaning to slow travel, enabling people to soak in the different areas of the UK without actually using any of their holiday allowance. With home swapping, the price doesn’t go up the longer you stay, so with research revealing that one in five (20%1) Brits now have less money to spend on holidays, this is a great way for holidaymakers to take the time to fully immerse themselves in rural life in Britain during a working holiday, without feeling the financial pinch.

Love Home Swap has brought the work-staycation concept into their own business throughout lockdown, and has seen success as well as financial benefits allowing colleagues to work remotely from Tenerife, Croatia and Wales.

Celia Pronto, MD of Love Home Swap comments of the new work-staycation initiative, “Lockdown has resulted in a lot of businesses having to adapt to more flexible working styles, as the vast majority of us have had to continue our jobs working from home. This got us thinking – you really don’t have to be in an office to do your job well, so why not make the most of this strange time we find ourselves in and explore Britain and beyond without having to take holiday days.

We’ve been letting our members of staff work from their family homes abroad to spend more time with their loved ones, which has worked really well for us, and via home swapping we can really see others being able to use this opportunity to work and see more of the world at the same time.”

CASE STUDIES 

Dimple Gurnani: “Just before the pandemic I was working in London and then suddenly lockdown came and I was allowed to go back to my homeland, Tenerife, to work. I’ve enjoyed spending quality time with my family and friends, and having long walks around the town. It’s really like having the best of both worlds. From 9 to 6, I’m “virtually” in London, but for the rest of the time, I’m having tortillas with my best friend in that old cafe that never disappeared. In the middle of all this chaos and global crisis I never thought this would turn out this way and that I’d be back to hug all of my loved ones. I feel so grateful for Love Home Swap’s flexibility and understanding and think that more people should take a work-staycation.”

Dora Tkalcic: “Being an expat and working in an office five times a week means that the opportunity to spend time with family in your home country is limited throughout the year. It is something you get used to, but of course you wish you had more time. So when lockdown started to ease and the business decided to hold off on bringing employees back to the office straight away, I thought this was a unique opportunity to spend more time in Croatia while continuing to work as usual and luckily, the business agreed! It’s been a really great experience, especially after spending months in lockdown.”

Ellena Morgan: “Having spent the entirety of lockdown in (relatively) busy Zone 2 London, it was amazing to be able to swap my city surroundings for the quiet coast of the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. I’ve found working from a new workspace in a different home has improved my productivity and makes for a refreshing change of scenery after spending the last few months in the same four walls! On top of the change of scenery, I’ve also been able to switch up my end of working day routine – opting for a walk on the beach over grabbing the remote for Netflix. It’s been an interesting and once-in-a-lifetime experience to have this level of flexibility for where I work and it’s been great to take a slower pace to enjoying a summer holiday this year.”