Feature: Serviced Apartments
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we stay connected to that piece of business.” But can you book a serviced apartment easily
on the GDS now? Some providers claim it’s no big deal if they are not on the GDS system, while others say the importance of a GDS presence is growing as more and more corporates ask their travel management companies for serviced apartment bookings. Skyline’s Swift feels the sector has yet to embrace the technology. “There are a few people trying to put something in the works but the sector is not conducive to GDS bookings. We tend to have a more personal relationship with TMCs and travel managers and bookings tend to be done over the phone and by email.” Silverdoor’s Winstone adds:
“The availability of serviced apartments on the GDS is growing. Having said that, it will not replace what an agent like Silverdoor can do offline. The GDS fills in short-term gaps but when someone is organising a three month stay, simply booking it via the GDS is not enough. There needs to be more personal contact.” Select Apartment’s marketing director Adrian England thinks it’s complex. He says, “Some serviced apartments may be booked successfully on the GDS, of course, but we think it’s rarely that simple. “The nature of serviced apartment occupancy planning with a distressed inventory (when the
room-night has gone, it’s gone) means that you have to constantly adjust your exposure to the market based on events and lead-times. So the kind of acute availability that is gold-dust in business travel is simply hardly ever going to be actually booked via GDS – it would have been closed-out long before it became acute, or even marginal,” says England. However, BridgeStreet’s Layton is dismissive
“The availability of apartments on the GDS is growing. Having said that, it will not replace what an agent can do offline”
of claims that the sector is too complicated to be booked using the GDS system. “You can book us online and through the GDS and it is totally not a problem. It’s only a problem for agents who cannot open and close other people’s inventory. It’s not hard to operate on the GDS. You can turn it on and off like any other distribution channel,” she says. And what about that other mainstay of the habitual hotel guest, the loyalty scheme? Right now, only Ascott has a programme, the Link Club, which rewards bookers of its brands of serviced apartments, but not yet the guests themselves. Vice president of operations, Rebecca Hollants Van Loocke, says, “Everyone else is at the stage where they are just thinking about loyalty clubs but
we already have one in place. Now we are looking at loyalty clubs for the actual guest because, not surprisingly, a lot of people have been asking for that.” Next to roll out a loyalty programme will be
Pictured from top: Citybase Apartments, Go Native, SACO
Frasers. Says Bakker, “We are in the process of setting up a rewards scheme which we hope to launch before the end of June. “We recognised that our guests were looking
to be part of a reward scheme and it is a trend in the market that we cannot ignore. People like Ascott have already done it and I know other providers are in the process of coming up with a programme,” he says. BridgeStreet’s Layton is also believes that the loyalty scheme trend is now pushing
➔ 18 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 32
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