T HE BUSY The worker looks at the clock on her laptop and discovers that it is almost 1 p.m. It is time for lunch. So she picks up the phone and asks to speak to room service. A hot meal appears 20 minutes later; no need to worry about cooking or washing up.

If this vision appeals to you, you could be a potential customer for one of the many hotel groups trying to get people to rent a room for use as an office. The idea makes some sense. Hotel rooms are running out of customers during the pandemic; some workers may find it too difficult (or boring) to sit at the kitchen table every day.

The big chains are rushing to test the size of this market. Hilton has launched a new service called Workspaces in America, Britain and Canada, which gives workers the option of using the gym or swimming pool (where available) and renting bicycles for free. The Wyndham chain offers worker packages at hotels in California, Florida and South Carolina.

Hotels have long made a lot of money in the business market, hosting business travelers, conferences and team meetings. They also recognized that they needed a good Wi-Fi signal to attract business people with laptops. But daily room rentals have always been aimed at a rather different slice of the market than the lone desk jockey.

Bartleby wrote part of this column at Sofitel St James, a luxury hotel in the heart of London’s West End. It would certainly be a great bolthole, for those who can afford it – £299 ($388) per day, with breakfast, lunch and cocktails available for an additional £50. Your columnist’s suite offered a living room with a desk, printer, and shredder, as well as a four-seater table, two comfy chairs, and a sofa. Nice little touches included extra pens, tape, scissors and a stapler. All staff wore masks and kept a safe distance. The place was extremely quiet, which made it easy to concentrate.

As beautiful as these facilities are, they would almost certainly be beyond the budget of an ordinary workman who might be looking to escape builders or children during school vacations. A cheaper Sofitel option is available at £199, but that would still require a company’s spending policy to be incredibly generous. If you are fully employed, you can probably retire to the office at no additional cost. And if you’re self-employed, you can just head to the nearest cafe, where seats, subject to social distancing, can be had for the price of a few cappuccinos.

Another option for British workers is the traditional pub, with some trying to do business by offering ‘hot-desking’ packages. A hostel in Warrington, a town in north-west England, is offering a £12 daily package with a meal, unlimited coffee and internet. (Whether a pub would be a good place to concentrate is another matter; an open-plan office looks like a Trappist monastery in comparison.)

Few Britons live far from a pub. By contrast, although Bartleby appreciated the luxurious accommodation, his visit to St James required a long journey. For many workers, the lack of daily commutes has been one of the big benefits of the lockdown. Hotel rooms are therefore more likely to appeal to working people if they are a short distance away, which means they should be in the suburbs rather than city centers. Suburban hotels will also be much cheaper. Hilton is offering a work package at a West London Hampton hotel for £45 a day.

Even then, the market is likely to be a niche product. Being at home allows workers to have all the comforts of their choice (books, snacks, favorite tea) at their fingertips. They will be there if delivery people or repairers come to call them. And sitting alone in a hotel room, as good as it may be for concentration, is more likely to increase a sense of isolation than being in the more familiar surroundings of one’s own home.

Still, on occasion, a bit of isolation might be welcome, much like authors retreat to a cabin to finish their manuscripts. Workers with a big project to finish might appreciate a hotel break, especially if their office doesn’t have covid-19 protocols in place to allay their fears. Hotels can also be a good place to conduct job interviews, provided companies follow government social distancing rules.

For humble drones like Bartleby, however, home will still be the office of choice, even if it means doing the dishes. Indeed, it’s time to stop writing and fill the kettle.

Editor’s note: Some of our covid-19 coverage is free to readers of The Economist Today , our daily newsletter. For more stories and our pandemic tracker, check out our hub

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the title « Luxury with your laptop »