Paul Revel talks to Guy Nixon, CEO of serviced apartment provider Go Native, about the company's latest plans and why the sector is becoming more prevalent withihn travel programmes
What are your corporate buyer clients looking for from the serviced apartments sector to help them manage a successful travel programme?
A key concern is online accessibility to serviced apartments (SAs). People want to be able to book as easily as they book a hotel. I think because SA emerged from medium-term product and is now beginning to merge with the hotel market, the lines are becoming quite blurred. It was corporates’ global mobility teams who booked SAs, it’s now moving into the remit of travel teams, and they want to see it working like the hotel sector. Another demand is flexible stay rates, with the ability to cancel without penalties – so we and other providers are now offering this.
Are travel buyers putting more serviced apartments into their mix?
Increasingly, yes. For example, one big global client has two divisions, mobility relocation and the travel side, working entirely separate programmes. But they’re now looking at bringing those programmes together and leveraging the economies of scale of their consolidated demand.
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Can you update us on your online booking developments?
Go Native’s online booking tool is going live in Q1 this year. Initially the tool will be for booking our stock, available either via our website or via a client portal on client’s own intranet. And in Q2 we will start adding our network partners’ stock [GoNative has 630 branded apartments in the UK, and around 25,000 partner network apartments in EMEA and India].
What’s currently the biggest challenge for your sector?
One of our big challenges is that we don’t have a recognized brand in the marketplace. If you asked Jo Bloggs in the street to name a serviced apartment brand could he answer? This reflects the immaturity of our market. We want to reach the level of recognition that the hotel brands have. For that to happen the sector has to grow. Our latest research with Savills shows London has 1.1 apartment units per 1,000 business visitors, compared to 5.1 in Hong Kong and 5.7 in New York. That is a chronic undersupply. This is the challenge for the London market. There’s no quick fix, it involves a lot of investment – and showing the institutional investors, through our research, that there is good return on investment for them in this sector.
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