Hospitality Meets Real Estate, the Future of Working

As a founding member of citizenMI was able to see the concept of a social lobby come alive. I watched the concept of social lobbies come to life. This was the first experience I had of hospitality’s transformational power to become a part of the local community.

15 years later, I founded a company with my co-founder. Denizen With a team consisting of hotel operators and technologists, we built the hotel lobby sans rooms. The ground-floor spaces were designed to serve the daily productivity of building residents as well as local neighbors. We learned the essence of hospitality, warmth, flexibility, intentional design can bring life to under-utilized space.

Now, we are partnering with Aroundtown Denizen, a team of real estate professionals from one of Europe’s biggest companies has launched ATworldA platform that allows members to access a network consisting of hotels, coworking space, and restaurants through a single seamless membership. This is similar to Urban Sports Club, or ClassPass. One login. Dozens of unique spaces, experiences and services. The right environment for every task.

Rethinking Office Real Estate

The office space market remains siloed and lease-defined despite the rise of flexible-space operators. But the main lesson to be learned from hospitality is that each square metre in a building can sell as a “consumable product”. The dynamic pricing, distribution through direct and indirect channels and consumption in minutes or hours are all part of the strategy. Workstations, focus areas, and collaboration space can all be priced according to occupancy, segmentation, length of stay and booking channel.

Brands such as citizenM Motel One Penta The Social Hub and The Social Hub, have proven this concept on a micro scale by activating the ground floor as a social lobby. These ‘social living rooms’ blend café service, casual seating and ad-hoc workstations—monetizing their ground floors through day-pass usage and community events. Each brand has done so in isolation behind their own loyalty program or app, forcing users to manage multiple memberships.

The value of a networked model is multiplied as venues join the platform. This facilitates connectivity and productivity at just-in-time in urban areas. Three types of operators are likely to be the most influential in shaping this new, hospitality-infused, office ecosystem over the next decade:

Landlords are Platform Builders

Office landlords will move from being passive space-renters into becoming active platform-builders. Instead of leaving lobby areas idle after 9 am, they will retrofit them with IoT sensors and modular furniture. They’ll also use open APIs. Each booth, table, or seat becomes a “live” “node” The network will broadcast real-time information on the occupancy, weather conditions, and service readiness. Imagine walking in a lobby, and seeing “Quiet Focus Booth—Available” You can also find out more about “Collaboration Lounge: Two Seats Open” On your corporate booking portal you can see the status of coffee machines and lighting filters. This shift requires CapEx for sensor rollouts and furniture pilots, but it unlocks new revenue streams—charging premium rates for high-value slots and offering off-peak discounts to drive consistent utilization throughout the building.

Brandlords Working End-to-End

Real estate owners may decide to run their own office spaces with a hospitality-grade. Derwent White Collar Factory, located on Old Street in London is an example. “Factory Pass” Credits can be earned by attending events or booking meeting rooms. Members redeem their credits for hot desks, private booths or wellness pods. They are supported by a concierge on site who takes care of coffee orders, technical support and networking events. A dedicated team of data analysts tracks footfall, customer satisfaction scores and ancillary spending, feeding back insights into pricing algorithms and future amenities planning. Brandlords are in charge of the guest relationship. They capture every touchpoint, from initial bookings to post-visit reviews, and use this loyalty data to fine tune service bundles and predict off-peak demand.

Hospitality Operators running entire office buildings

Hotel groups can operate entire office buildings under the same service principles they apply in their hotels. Imagine Accor managing an office tower under its MGallery brand, complete with branded reception, housekeeping-level cleaning, on-demand F&B, and loyalty-driven workspace credits. Marriott could transform a downtown highrise into JW Offices, where Bonvoy members can redeem points to book private meeting rooms or team workspaces. They already know how to staff, maintain brand standards and engage guests. By extending this playbook to office operations, landlords can tap into proven distribution channels, loyalty programmes and expertise in perishable inventory, all while providing a consistent and hospitality-grade experience across the building.

Real transformation occurs when landlords, brands and hospitality operators connect their spaces into a cloud-based system. Office Network OS This model allows for seamless coordination of availability, personalization, and on-site fulfilment across the entire eco-system. This model is based on three technology pillars.

1. Holistic Connectivity IoT sensor, smart lock, environmental monitors, API endpoints and other IoT devices turn every desk, suite, booth or booth into a data stream. Floor plans are becoming more dynamic. “service canvases,” Users can filter the results by noise, natural light or proximity of amenities.
2. Intent-Driven Matching: The user declares their intent to do certain things when they log in: “deep focus,” “team brainstYou can also find out more aboutm,” or “client pitch.” The platform combines this with loyalty profiles, corporate entitlements and environmental data in order to recommend instantly the perfect venue and service bundle. AI-driven algorithms are used to predict surges in demand (such as for a product launch or trade show in Paris). They then adjust seating arrangements, pricing and staffing levels in advance.
3. Federated orchestration A rules engine orchestrates bookings between landlords and brandlords by balancing corporate budgets and loyalty tiers with dynamic pricing rules and SLAs. The network can be plugged into by each host with minimal proprietary integration if they adhere to the open federation standards. These include availability, booking confirmations, parameters for personalization, and service fulfillment. Interoperability creates a network effect. As more venues join the network, the value for each member increases, resulting in continuous discovery and use.

Already, early signs of a federated future have emerged. CitizenM Motel One Penta Hotels The Social Hub and The Social Hub opened their social lobby for day-use to prove the concept. ATworld built upon that foundation. First activating Aroundtown’s hotels and office across Europe. Then bringing in external partners for hotel, coworking and food. Through a single app, members can search hundreds of unique venues, each offering its own style and services. In Berlin, for example, you might start your morning in a Moxy lobby, switch to a nearby café workspace for the afternoon, and end the day at an event in a Mindspace, all on the same membership.