Go Native, India Street, London
building. “Clever use of space will produce studios and one-bed apartments, to deliver the price point buyers need,” says SACO sales director Ben Harper. “This is the first of a number of big properties we will be bringing to market over the next two years, both in the UK and Europe.” In Europe, Frasers Hospitality has ac-
quired a property in Hamburg, to operate as Fraser Suites, following the launch of Capri by Fraser in Barcelona. Other ad- ditions will be in Frankfurt (mid-2015) and Berlin (2016). The company plans to increase its portfolio considerably in Germany. “The serviced apartment and hotel market are underdeveloped there and the yield in the main cities is relatively
attractive,” says Frasers chief operating officer Guus Bakker. Frasers is also looking at locations in
several African countries, and has signed up a property in Nigerian capital Abuja. Meanwhile Skyline is opening offices in Johannesburg in April, to cover the whole of the continent.
QUALITY CONTROL ASAP has finished its Quality Assessment (QA) programme and is now considering how to get the message across to users of serviced apartments. “Our biggest priority this year is to talk to people about what it [QA] means – to convey that this measure will give you confidence – and get to
corporates and the leisure community to raise credibility and visibility,” says ASAP managing director James Foice. “Fantastic things have come out of it,” he
adds. “Agents have agreed to differentiate ASAP-accredited operators on their web- sites, which will have our accredited mark against their entry. This is really good news.” Accreditation for agents follows, when ASAP will look at payment terms, how quickly they pay commission and so on. Participants are equally enthused.
“ASAP’s QA is an excellent, rigorous process and we recommend it to our industry peers,” says SACO’s Harper. Oakwood’s global sales director, Claire Barrie, agrees. “We had our properties
ANATOMY OF A BRAND LAUNCH
BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS, CL Serviced Apartments will have revealed that its product brand name is Beyonder. The company has acquired seven properties: two in each of London, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and one in Dublin, comprising more than 750 apartments. Doors open on George Street, Edinburgh, in December and CL is on-site at two other buildings. It has a pipeline of a further 1,000 units in what CL Serviced Apartments’
100 BBT MARCH/APRIL 2015
CEO Max Thorne describes as “fantastic regional locations”. Staff will be employed
directly, to ensure nothing is compromised, and all telephone calls, wifi and on- demand films will be included in the tariff. Rooms will typically be double the size of a hotel room and never less than 30 sqm, with functions such as mood lighting controllable from an iPad. In addition, an orange night light in the bathroom glows
through opaque glass into the bedroom and mitigates against the hazardous undertaking of getting up in the night without turning the light on.
Smart technology features large. “We have an idea for check-in kiosks and are trying to get finger-print access,” says Thorne. Meanwhile, the lobby will harbour a chill-out area for relaxing and working, a business centre and grab-and-go food.
Green credentials also rank high, with a monitor in each apartment to tell occupants whether they are burning up the ozone layer (red light) or conserving it (green), with savings from the latter going to charity. Rooms are graded as ‘Cool’, ‘Really Cool’ and ‘Really Cool Big Room’, and guests may take anything from the apartment they like (such as robes and hair dryers) for which they will be charged at cost.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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