Jubel is a new booking platform that allows ‘techpats’ to book workations overseas, with add-on activities such as surfing and hiking for periods of downtime. Jenny Southan reports
With a growing number of freelancers and entrepreneurs, and a rising number of companies saying they are committing to remote working for the long-term, the fact that Jubel has responded quickly by launching a dedicated platform for booking workations is smart.
Nicolas Bergengruen, co-founder of Jubel, tells Globetrender all about it…
“We launched Jubel in 2016, focusing on the experiential travel space, first pioneering the concept of ‘surprise trips’. The world has opened up to travellers at an astonishing speed over the last two decades with globalisation and peer-to-peer accommodation facilitating the opportunity for people to go just about anywhere and book all kinds of experiences.
“However with this came an overload of choices online (along with unreliable information) and there was really no reliable way to plan a tailored travel experience without having tonnes of tabs open and over-researching yourself on Google, or alternatively booking with an expensive travel agent.
“We saw an opportunity to democratise the value-add of luxury travel agents by creating a platform that allows you to plan experiential travel in a self-serving, fun way but with a curated and hyper-personalised experience with the assurance of expert advisors handling the bookings for you.
“Jubel makes it easy to plan and book a tailor-made workation. Our platform allows you to design your ideal lifestyle by personalising and combining your remote working needs with experiences in new destinations.
“We are really optimising [the site] for domestic and regional travel as we think it’s going to continue being popular in the near future. We’re seeing a lot of people planning domestically in the US, and regionally in Mexico and Costa Rica. Our European travellers have been very interested in Portugal and Egypt.
“The shift towards remote working, which was already steadily growing, has been dramatically accelerated with Covid and we now inhabit a new reality where millions of people have the flexibility (or necessity) to work from home.
“This has enhanced many people’s lifestyles and companies don’t want to get rid of this normalised perk. The new lifestyle opportunities are very exciting and we’re already seeing people increasingly taking advantage of this despite the pandemic.
“However, working from home can also take a toll on your mental health. People can feel isolated and disequilibrated when it comes to their work-life balance, with more hours allocated to their job than usual.
“While paid-time off is as important as ever, taking a workation (that combines both) to change your surroundings, stimulate your creativity, meet new people, or learn a new language is a valuable possibility that you can take advantage of to immerse yourself somewhere new or hop around to more destinations than you normally could.”
Bergengruen continues: “Let’s say you’ve always wanted to learn how to surf well, which is not exactly easy to do on a typical annual vacation where you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to it repeatedly. Now you can go to an amazing beach and pick up this new hobby, immerse yourself in the local culture and environment with more time, take day trips and explore the region, and finally do all this without sacrificing productivity.
“However planning this is complex and overwhelming, as you need to filter from all the places that you’d be interested to go to and that match your needs and style (among other things) and, on top of all that, figure out where there is reliable wifi so that you can ensure the days that you need to work, you are not dealing with connectivity issues in a frenzy.
“Jubel’s easy-to-use planner lets you share your preferences ranging from your budget to what type of lifestyle you’re seeking (adventure, beach, culture, etc), then choose and customise the plan yourself, share and collaborate with others, and finally book it all with your very own expert advisor.
“Anyone who has the ability to work from anywhere or who’s company has announced a remote working flexible policy now has the opportunity to plan these types of experiences.
“Perhaps this is not sustainable for six months and some people may only be interested in doing this for two weeks, but this unprecedented flexibility now lets you experience a new lifestyle and explore places for longer periods of time like never before.
“Whether you want to relocate to a single destination or plan a workation to multiple different places, Jubel provides a way to seamlessly plan and book these experiences.
“The Jubel team’s first-hand experience in working as digital nomads for the last three years and travel know-how are what makes our customers come back again and again, with experiences they have absolutely loved. We are proud to count on some of the best accommodation partners around the world and ensure that every person has an unforgettable trip.”