The serviced apartment sector would benefit from a united front, says Marcus Angell
GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY to pen this column, I was tempted by the editor’s offer that I could express my personal viewpoint – even have an “out-and-out rant”. I’ll try not to rant, but there are plenty of issues in our business travel sector that leave me feeling hot under the collar.
For instance, why is there still so much inconsistency in business process, service delivery and operational standards between the many established and new serviced apartment operating companies and agents? Silverdoor has been acting as an independent agent for the past 12 years, and now represents properties from several hundred business partners. But even back in 2000 there were already a good number of specialist serviced apartment operating companies.
How long will it take for a genuinely inclusive serviced apartment trade association to be formed? We need one with a clear and equitable membership policy, a distinct purpose, strong leadership and meaningful goals. It surely can’t be beyond the combined abilities of the Hotel Booking Agents Association, Institute of Travel & Meetings and Association of Serviced Apartment Providers to find a way through the maze of petty politics and personal agendas. Or can it?
Issues with serviced apartments that directly affect the business traveller today include matters that corporate hotel booking agents collectively sorted out for hotels years ago. Giving in-house guests a right to automatically extend their reservation, in preference over regular clients with pre-confirmed and paid-for reservations, still seems bonkers to me. So does imposing more onerous cancellation and payment terms on corporates the longer they stay, particularly when most decent serviced apartment agents will happily re-sell any spare availability created when their client’s reservations are unexpectedly curtailed or cancelled, ensuring the operator suffers no financial loss.
It still makes me smile wearily when operators issue weekly or monthly rates instead of nightly rates, particularly when those weekly rates are not exactly divisible by seven. If a corporate client wants to stay in a serviced apartment for seven, 14 or 21 nights then fine, but what about nine nights, 19 nights or even 69? Serviced apartment buyers, whether booking direct or through their agent, should demand rates be quoted on a nightly basis, excluding taxes, and insist that those rates decrease appropriately the longer the stay.
However, as much as I could probably write for days about specific issues within the serviced apartment element of the wider business travel sector, I’d also like to draw your attention to the significant inconsistencies I see in the ways corporate travel buyers and travel management companies (TMCs) approach it – in particular, to the sourcing and booking of serviced apartments.
As the years roll by I become more and more conscious of the vast difference in sector awareness between those many corporate travel managers and TMCs at the top of their game, and those who struggle to understand the intricacies of the industry.
For the sake of clarity, it should be said that booking a serviced apartment is not always like booking a hotel room, and should not be treated as such, particularly for any stay of more than five nights. Anyone who thinks that global distribution systems (GDSs) are the answer to all their potential serviced apartment needs is simply wrong. Yes, there are a small number of serviced apartment operators that are able and willing to upload a proportion of their short-stay, last-minute availability, but it is, by and large, an insignificant proportion of the total, and the quoted rates are not always the best available.
If you are a travel manager, buyer or TMC and just need a two- or three-night stay in a top- five UK business destination then fine, go to your GDS-linked system and book what you can. But if you are staying for longer than five nights or need to be location-specific, even in a major destination like London or New York, you really ought to be doing a lot better than that for your travellers.
Enlightened travel buyers and managers treat the sourcing and booking of serviced apartments as a similar process to sourcing, managing and booking meetings and events. Enlightened TMCs treat the provision of serviced apartments to their existing and potential corporate client base as a specialist value-added service, and seek out those best-in-class specialist serviced apartment agents and property partners to work with them. I’m a firm believer in the ability of two companies to reach a commercial agreement when both put the needs of the end-user first.
I also remain enthusiastic about the future of the serviced apartment sector, and still firmly believe that any corporate traveller staying for five nights or more would be significantly better off staying in a serviced apartment than in a hotel.
MARCUS ANGELL is the founder and managing director of Silverdoor International Serviced Apartments. The company has a turnover of around £30 million, with 70 staff based in its offices in Chiswick, west London, and partners over 80,000 serviced apartments in 58 countries. Silverdoor was recently placed 17th in The Sunday Times’ list of the 100 Best Small Companies to Work For. Marcus is responsible for long- and short-term business planning and growth strategies, and on a day-to-day basis he says his job is mostly about negotiation, peacekeeping and discipline.