Serviced apartments
Skyline, Ability Place, London BUYER’S VIEW
“We have seen an increase in the use of serviced apartments, but mostly for project-based workers, such as IT teams, rather than for generic transient travel.
“The main reason that transient use is so low is the inability to view rates and book via a GDS/online booking tool. If apartments and rates were displayed with live availability, then I’m 100 per cent sure more people would book them.
“At present, the travel management company has to check availability and rate before reverting back to the booker – which is too much bother for many.”
Head of travel, support services 110
For Silverdoor’s Gee, his agency has already answered the ratings question with its own quality control programme, Silverdoor Verified. “We can pretty much guarantee that when a corporate puts a customer in an apartment, we have already stayed there and checked it out,” he says. “The whole team is involved, getting out and inspecting properties worldwide and making recommendations where appropriate. And if the property owners respond badly to maintenance issues, for example, they do run the risk of being downgraded.” For ASAP’s James Foice, the challenge is rather greater. Having finally unveiled the organisation’s Quality Assurance Programme in December last year – it has been two years in the making – his ambition now is to extend the scheme beyond the UK. Described as “an ongoing mechanism”, the scheme involves an annual check that operators are meeting minimum legal, health and safety and other standards (in which case they are awarded an ASAP quality marque) and the offer of a detailed benchmarking report to show companies if and where
“What we are interested in is not some sort of ‘star rating’ system, but learning how we can raise our game”
improvements are needed. “It’s about how the product is communicated to the consumer, ensuring that the provider is operating legally, and then moving on to the customer experience – the booking process, the arrival process, the physical aspects of the property, the amenities and so on,” says Foice.
Extending the scheme internationally is a tall order. ASAP now has 70-odd member companies, with more than 13,000 units in the UK and Ireland alone. Although only four members had signed up to the scheme by the end of January, Foice is already in talks with ASAP’s equivalents in the US, India and the Netherlands. The trouble is that there are
plenty of countries – France and Italy, for example – where there is
Go Native, Pioneer Point, Ilford, London
no equivalent, so selling the concept overseas could take a while. Foice appears undaunted. “My ambition, my hope and my dream would be for this to be adopted internationally,” he says. There is more than a little scepticism. SACO’s Ben Harper says: “The philosophy – creating some sort of consistency for our buyers and our guests – is absolutely right. But how do you compare an operator with three apartments in Milton Keynes with an organisation like SACO? It’s extremely difficult.” Oakwood’s Claire Barrie is rather more enthusiastic. “What we are interested in is not some sort of ‘star rating’ system, but learning how we can raise our game. We are very interested in a neutral party coming to us and saying: ‘This is what you are like, this is what you could do better.’ That would be very useful to us. Of course we can give our own spin on it, but it is so subjective.” So there you have it. Star ratings are the way forward – or not. Accreditation schemes will work – or won’t. A greater GDS presence is a must-have – or not. With barely three months to go to July’s Serviced Apartment Summit, it seems unlikely that the industry will have reached any kind of consensus. Except, of course, on the state of the market – which, just in case you hadn’t heard, is booming. ■
MARCH/APRIL 2014
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