Serviced apartments
Grosvenor House Apartments by Jumeirah Living, London BUYER’S VIEW
“The use of serviced apartments has now become a positive extension to our transient hotel programme. Our serviced apartment programme offers a refreshing and comfortable alternative to a traditional hotel for medium- and long-stay requirements. Tailored towards our business travellers, studio and one-bedroom apartments give the convenient home-like, relaxing environment which seems to appeal to a number of our travellers, given the year-over-year increase.”
Travel manager, global banking sector 102
“Clients are still looking for value for money, and they want a quick response so that they can get on with their jobs. Having pursued the relocation sector very proactively over the last few years, we are doing very good business. “We don’t really go after the transient market, although we don’t enforce a minimum stay requirement – if a client is really stuck [for short- stay accommodation], of course we will help them out if it’s at all possible – but from a technology perspective, the transient business is still very much behind the times.”
TRANSIENT MARKET The accepted wisdom is that travel management companies (TMCs) fight shy of serviced apartment companies because relatively few of them have a presence on global distribution systems (GDSs). For the long-stay relocation business, that’s not an issue,
“With the rise of the online travel agencies and e-commerce, the GDSs are only one of many channels”
but in the transient market, with far greater transaction volumes, speed and ease of booking are important. The yet-to-be-accepted wisdom, at least according to the Ascott Limited sales director Joanna Fisher, is that the GDSs are no longer as important as they might have you believe. “With the rise of the online travel agencies and e-commerce, and with new distribution capabilities, the GDSs are only one of many channels. They’re hanging on, and they still have a role to play, but perhaps a smaller one than in the past,” she says. “People want the freedom to book through whichever channel they want, and for smaller
companies, a GDS presence is really about visibility in the market.” Some TMCs are going with the
flow, and making greater use of serviced apartments, whether they are on the GDSs or not. “There are some that have responded much better than others, and they see this as the next big thing,” says Fisher. “All TMCs have to find new ways to make money, and they are looking for new solutions to offer to their customers. Some of them are said to be taking business from the relocation companies, in much the same way as they have moved into the MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] market. From a total account management point of view, they can see opportunity – and money – being left on the table.”
BOOKING ISSUES At TAS, Jo Layton says corporates have in some cases forced the TMCs’ hand. “Ten years or so ago, that might have been an issue,” she says, “but buyers have become much more willing to include serviced apartments in their travel programmes and are asking their TMCs to find a way to book.” Layton’s new role at TAS puts her in charge of the new TAS Alliance – launched at the Business Travel Show in February – which she believes will help booking issues even more. “What the serviced apartment community has to do is to redefine itself, moving from being seen as lots of small
MARCH/APRIL 2014
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