Last month, I shared an article from Fast Company that claimed the office of the future is outdoors. According to the piece, “In buildings across the country, new and renovated offices are being designed to include more options for workers to get away from their desks and go outside.” The article cites reasons such as access to daylight, fresh air and a competitive advantage for those actually renting the spaces out to various businesses. And it’s not only social settings that offices are moving outdoors; conference rooms and work spaces are being moved outside, too.

So what makes a good outdoor office? Here are a few aspects that could set your office’s outdoor space apart from the pack.

This month, I had the pleasure of speaking with Afar travel media’s co-founder, Joe Diaz, on Independent Lodging Congress’s Instagram Live series. Here’s what we learned:

Afar’s future is all about experiential travel:

To sum it up, in Joe’s words, what is experiential travel? He says, “it means getting your ass off the tour bus and sitting at the kitchen table with people… When that happens, we can leverage that to have a beneficial impact on the planet… and on the communities.” Travel, he adds, is the best form of education.

Let’s be real, custom anything on any project is difficult and requires specialization, expertise, and focus. Custom furniture, specifically in hotels, is nothing new, but for the hotelier just now beginning to furnish their spaces, the idea of a custom project might seem intimidating. After all, it’s so much easier to simply go online, pick out some furnishings that match your hotel’s color scheme and aesthetic, and then wait for it to arrive. It’s convenient for sure — but it also could be the same thing your hotel guests have already seen a thousand times, at a thousand other hotels - and it probably won’t last the rigors of your hard-charging guests. That’s why, for many discerning hoteliers, a custom furniture project is worth the extra work.  Afterall, we’re in the business of delivering experiences.

As the hospitality and travel industries have undergone quite a lot of changes over the last year, newcomers to the scene have paid close attention to some of the most in-demand amenities and services that travelers are currently after — among them being stylish, comfortable and unique outdoor spaces where they can relax and social distance in safety. As such, many of the new hotels that have opened their doors since the beginning of 2020 boast amazing outdoor spaces. Here are a few of our favorites.

Each year, Pantone and the Pantone Color Institute announce a Color of the Year. And this color is no easy pick. The Pantone Color of the Year isn’t chosen at random or on a whim. Instead, Pantone’s experts thoroughly study the last year’s trends in a range of industries, from travel to fashion, cinema to social media. All of their studies help them arrive at what truly is the Color of the Year — and in 2021, Pantone announced dual Colors of the Year: PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating, the former a strong, steely gray and the latter a bright and cheery yellow.