How did Outsite come about?

Emmanuel Guisset: I needed it myself. I started remote working long before the pandemic. I was doing this in California at the time, where distance working already quite prevalent. I often used Airbnb, but it was an experience that varied a lot. I was looking for a place to work that had good Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, hotels were too expensive for stays of duration of a week to three months and they are also pretty impersonal.

I tried youth hostels too. The problem was that I was in work mode, so I didn't want people partying next to me. I was somewhat familiar with the concept of co-working and I had the idea of creating a concept that blended accommodation with the community aspect of co-working.

It's more profitable all year round because we achieve high occupancy rates. We're not just dependent on holidaymakers, who book mainly in local towns and seaside resorts in July, August, Easter, and maybe Christmas. We have customers who stay all year round. We also need far fewer services for our customers, which means very few staff. Our spaces can be as small as 10 rooms, going up to 50 rooms with three times less staff than a traditional hotel.

Bertrand Pullès: We have two assets. The first asset is, of course, the hotel or the site in which we invest. The second asset, which is extremely valuable, is the partner we work with. We often forget that, regardless of the SME, we invest in people, we invest in teams, and that's part of our revenue. We are fortunate to work with just under 70 partners who today manage their hotels, which are also in a way our hotels, in collaboration with us.

How did this first partnership come about?

Bertrand...