The Problem With Keeping Your ’Hush Trips’ From Your Boss

25.08.2023 - 14:20 / skift.com / Matthew Parsons

Remote workers don’t always want to disclose their location to employers, with growing numbers taking so-called “hush trips.”

Who’s to blame them? Hospitality brands are making it easier than ever to work from anywhere, from better equipped desks to attractive pricing. Couple this with rising housing costs across most cities, temptation is just a click away. Forbes even tips them to be the newest travel trend in 2023.

But with the ongoing debate about who should be returning to the office and a recession on the horizon, experts warn the phenomenon isn’t healthy for either party.

U.S. based vacation rental management company Grand Welcome is one of many hospitality firms seeing a rise in hush trips.

“We have guests checking in for unusually long times. The average length of stay in Lake Tahoe was four or five days, but people are checking in for 10 days,” said CEO Brandon Ezra. “In many cases it’s a vacation, in some you can just tell it’s someone checking in, and setting up shop and just hanging out.”

Grand Welcome operates 1,000 properties in 50 locations, but aims to grow to 3,000 properties in 150 locations by the end of the year. Airbnb, which Grand Welcome uses as a distribution channel, has also seen stays of 28-plus days growing the fastest as a segment.

The impetus behind hush trips is the fact that the pandemic gave people the opportunity to taste flexibility and rethink their priorities, according to Sahara Rose De Vore, founder of The Travel Coach Network.

“People are valuing their time and happiness more than ever before, which is reflecting in the workplace,” she said. The pandemic also burned out many employees, so now more job seekers want to find a company that values their personal goals, mental, emotional, overall wellbeing and their time, while also wanting a job that fulfils them.

The onus is being firmly placed at a corporate level, because staff are being made to feel uncomfortable sharing the fact they’re on the move while working.  

“The reason that remote workers are feeling like they need to take hush trips is because they aren’t sure how they’ll be looked at by their company,” Rose De Vore added. “Are they actually working? Are they taking the job seriously enough? Will human resources approve them to work from this lesser-known destination? Will they still be in the running for a promotion?”

She also believes hush trips are linked to why many employees, particularly in the U.S., do not use up all their vacation days.

“What companies should be embracing is the value that travel has on their employee’s mental and overall wellbeing as well as on their personal growth. All of those directly impacts their work performance and company morale,” Rose De Vore said.

As a result, work