Shaun Hinds
Serviced apartments are increasingly attracting more attention from corporate buyers. Mobility and HR teams have understood the benefit of apartment-living over hotels for extended stays for many years. Now travel buyers are joining the party and are including serviced apartments alongside hotels in their travel programmes.
The serviced apartment sector is growing fast and going mainstream. The sector grew quickly, predominantly led by the physical property attributes rather than the hospitality aspect of serviced apartment living. In the absence of a conventional star rating, the industry defaulted to the staple categories of price, bedrooms and duration as it sought to appeal to the widest possible audience in its early stages.
But there's a problem. You see, not all serviced apartments were created equally, yet as an industry we have done a great job in reducing this breadth of offer down to the lowest common denominator, namely a number of bedrooms.
Travellers that use serviced apartments usually have multifaceted needs, and directly addressing these needs should be a top priority from the onset of the booking process. However I frequently come across tenders or RFPs where the requirement is a price per bedroom quantity and duration. In some cases this gets further simplified by asking for a city-wide price. We're all guilty; our clients make the request and as good industry suppliers we comply. I argue that this oversimplification and commoditisation is a disservice to our clients, travellers and ourselves.
The solution is clear: categorisation across a variety of attributes rather than just quantity of bedrooms. As the industry matures, there is an increasing need for clarity and so identity and branding are becoming essential to differentiate and highlight different value propositions. Last year we launched a family of brands to break through the category clutter and ASAP launched its Quality Accreditation programme to help buyers understand the different service and quality standards.
A single-minded focus on price and bedroom quantity may seem beneficial to company expenditures, but the experience between units can be hugely different. Every preference should be taken into consideration to pair the traveller with the best accommodation for their needs, whatever the reason for stay. For the traveller the resulting experience could have far more value than the cost of the additional £10 or £15 a night.
Matching location, the building itself and the size of the apartment with guest needs are key elements that contribute positive experience for every traveller. It is now time to clearly communicate the full advantages of the serviced apartment experience.