Once a handy term for tacking a few leisure days onto a business trip, *bleisure* has been welded into our lexicon and has already attracted many an eyeroll as ‘so last year’. However, as the boundaries between work and life continue to blur, driven by convenience culture, technology and changing workforce expectations, the hospitality industry still needs to grasp just how important this bleisure blur is and adapt to serve a new type of guest: the always-on traveller seeking experience as much as efficiency.
Blurred Lines and Business Burnout
In today’s convenience-driven world, we’re never truly off the clock.
This shift doesn’t mean the death of downtime—but it does call for a new kind of balance. Travel is no longer segmented into business or pleasure. It’s both. The rise of remote working and digital nomadism has normalised working from anywhere, while younger professionals increasingly view business trips as a chance to explore new places with family or friends in tow.
What Does This Mean for Hotels?
A 2025 TravelPerk Business Travel Trends report indicated 82% of bleisure travellers will opt for the same hotel for the entirety of their trip. Similar findings are echoed by GBTA/Hilton insights and hotel-tech analysts all citing that around 82-84% of bleisure travellers will remain in the same property for both work and play.
A business-focused hotel without adjoining rooms, flexible spaces, or family-friendly options risks being left behind. Hotels like those in the Clermont Hotel Group are leading the way, investing in AI itinerary tools like OBVLO to personalise guest stays based on whether they’re visiting for work, leisure or both.
At Foxhills Club & Resort in Surrey, MD Tej Walia MI notes that full-day corporate meetings with built-in leisure activities like padel, pilates or golf are now seen as not just enjoyable, but essential to productivity and wellbeing. Their research shows 72.1% of corporate guests believe mixing business with light leisure makes for a more effective and engaging experience.
The Challenges: Boundaries and Blended Stays
The appeal of bleisure is clear: it’s cost-efficient, climate-conscious (fewer flights), and culturally enriching. But it comes with risk. Without clear boundaries, employees may find themselves emotionally exhausted, even while soaking up the sun.
Hotels have a role to play here. Beyond offering a comfy bed, great food and strong hospitality, they must recognise the need to support mental wellbeing—think flexible check-in/out times, serene workspaces, wellness amenities and clear, advanced communication options.
Bleisure isn’t just a passing phase—it’s an opportunity to rethink how hospitality supports today’s professionals, and especially the corporate traveller.
Victoria Poole, director of sales at The Milner York, sums it up well: “We’re a city that blends business and leisure effortlessly.” And that’s the goal for hotels across the UK—not just offering add-ons, but embedding bleisure into their core brand identity.
PR Takeaway: From Pitch to Practice
The bleisure bloom is more than a story, it needs to form part of a comms strategy. To make it work:
- Move past cliches about mixing work and play. Instead focus on personalisation, wellness and purpose
- Position your hotel with purpose as being available as a solution. Promote family friendliness, digital convenience and downtime opportunity
- Offer media a fresh take – experience-led campaigns prove that experiential storytelling lands, especially when tied to broader social trends like wellbeing and work culture
- Lead with purpose – integrating ESG into corporate travel elevates and supports your brand values and creates emotional connections that last
So, bleisure is no longer a bonus, it’s firmly becoming an expectation. As travellers demand more from every trip, the hotel sector must shift from seeing business and leisure as separate markets to designing experiences that merge the two with meaning. The future lies not in drawing a line between work and life, but in creating space for both—with boundaries that support real balance.
As Custard continues to explore the blending of travel, wellbeing and brand storytelling, we’ll keep championing hotels and venues that lean into these trends with thoughtfulness, innovation and purpose.
