As the traditional office becomes obsolete, Ethos Remote Habitat offers both entrepreneurs and companies the opportunity to work together from paradise. Sam Ballard reports
Ethos, a start-up originally founded as a hotel and members club concept for entrepreneurs, has pivoted during Covid-19 to offer companies “work from anywhere” (WFA) retreats with events, fitness classes, co-working facilities, accommodation, three a la carte meals a day, weekly “family” dinners, housekeeping and wifi.
The WFA trend, which has been written about extensively by Globetrender, is likely to be one of the longer lasting effects of the pandemic as employees and employers realise that they no longer need to be tied to traditional workplaces.
Now, both individual entrepreneurs as well as companies can relocate to their own Ethos Remote Habitat co-working campus for between one and six months, with rates starting from US$1,450 a week. It has even partnered with fintech platform Partial.ly to allow for payments in installments.
Ethos says: “There are many benefits to remote work for employees but there are also some of the same detriments that many individuals are already feeling but magnified. Employees are experiencing a loss of company culture, isolation and mental health from lack of work/life balance, and an overall absence of benefits that help with retention (after-work beers, group dinners etc).
“The intention of Ethos Remote Habitat is to bring the future of work to companies by giving them this unique opportunity to set up their own campuses for their employees to live/work and rejuvenate in nature.”
Ethos recently ran a retreat in Tulum, Mexico, which included a programme of events for “mind, body and soul” including yoga, workouts and sound meditations. It is actively looking for owners of properties that are “located in nature or a beautiful location” to sign up.
Ethos says that the benefits for entrepreneurs include increasing employee satisfaction and productivity and giving business owners an opportunity to reinforce company culture. It also ensure that its retreats are “Covid secure”.
Co-founder Janko Milunovic says: “We have created Ethos Remote Habitat – a family-style quarantine living – to battle isolation and create experiences that people carry with them long after they return home. The future of work includes companies having remote sites where their employees can go to live and work remotely. We are making that happen by reactivating lodging impacted by Covid-19 to facilitate remote live/work for companies and individuals with a focus on physical and mental wellness and community building.”
Ethos was co-founded by Janko Milunovic earlier this year with the plan of opening its first space in Manhattan in spring/summer 2020. In a post on Medium, Milunovic wrote of why he has made the move to launch Ethos Remote Habitat.
“Running our regular hotel business Ethos was not possible but what was possible (and much needed!) is to help people to leave the poisonous cities to live a family-style life, working from stunning places in nature,” he said.
“We have put everything we had into it and made Ethos Remote Habitat a tremendous success. Our MVP in Maine has achieved and exceeded all our expectations (and set business goals). But what is most important to us is that we have positively impacted and changed people’s lives during one of the most difficult times in history.
“This is just a first in many locations to come as we have onboarded many stunning properties to offer to companies with a distributed workforce that want to set up their own campuses to send their remote workers to live-work and rejuvenate in nature.
“Our dream is to help people to break free from isolation and mental struggles and to enjoy lovingly crafted programming focused on the wellness of the body, mind, and soul.”
It’s not just start-ups that are jumping on the trend for working from anywhere. The Caribbean islands of Bermuda and Barbados are both offering year-long visas for digital nomads seeking to work in sunnier climes.
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