Apartment-style accommodation provider Mint
House's CEO and co-founder Will Lucas announced at the Business Travel Show in
London last week that the company has partnered with American Express Global
Business Travel.
The goal is to collaborate with GBT on building the
"guest experience of the future" based on what the TMC's client's travellers want from the guest experience and have it delivered through
technology, said Mint House chief customer officer Shane Berry.
Mint House will participate in Amex GBT's
Business Extras programme and the Rest
Assured Solutions programme, which was announced earlier this week, and work
one-on-one with the company and its clients, Berry told BTN Europe.
The companies began discussions about four months ago.
GBT chose to work with Mint House, which is
one of several apartment-style accommodation providers that have entered the
market in recent years, because of its exclusive focus on the business travel
market, Amex GBT's VP of hotel strategy Wes Bergstrom told BTN Europe. The company was
founded in 2017.
Berry noted that Amex GBT research has
shown that 74 per cent of millennial business travellers have stayed in a
vacation rental for work, while fewer than 10 percent of travel managers
include them in policy. "There is a conflict there which creates a perfect
opportunity for Mint House to solve that problem by bringing the inspiring type
of accommodation options to business travellers while respecting the corporate
travel manager requirements, processes, duty of care, etc," Berry said.
"I've had the pleasure of meeting safety and security professionals at
large corporations and walk them through our buildings and our suites, and
we've been given the seal of approval by those that have taken the time to do
that."
Over the past six months, Mint House has
spent time conducting in-depth conversations with corporations to
understand what they need and which distribution channels the company needs to
be on. It has been building global distribution system connections and getting
on preferred consortia programmes across the TMC network, Berry added. The
company also has an advisory board that includes a major health care company,
global management consulting firm, major technology company and other large
corporations.
The company focuses on leveraging
technology to streamline the lodging process. Before arrival, a guest will
receive information to access their suite, and guests can pre-stock the kitchen or
set the temperature of their rooms prior to arrival. Coming soon are Amazon Echos with the Alexa voice-controlled personal assistant in every suite
"so you can access the concierge by saying 'Alexa, call Mint House
concierge'," Berry said. "What we are intent on doing is to bring to
the customer the best of the Airbnb model without any of the drama that can be
associated with that shared platform, and then the best of the hotel model
without any of the downside of the hotel model," such as long waits to
check-in.
In addition to helping Mint House determine
what types of accommodations and amenities to provide guests, the Amex GBT partnership
also will help inform where the company should grow. Lucas is currently
scouting real estate opportunities in London because "it is one of the top
travel destinations that we've identified through the collaboration with Amex GBT,
so we're very focused on London," Berry said.
The company takes over apartments – sometimes
entire buildings, sometimes inventory within a building – and currently is
located in 13 cities in the US, including Denver, Miami and
Philadelphia, and is looking to double its footprint domestically to places
like Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Seattle, as well as expand globally.
In addition to London, Mint House is looking internationally at Paris and
Toronto.
minthouse.com