SERVICED APARTMENTS
Increasingly, there is a trend for business travel to
fall under the remit of HR global mobility. As more HR take control of data analytics, and companies demand a full picture of talent movement, cost and metrics, it stands to reason that business travel is plugged into the data, and that HR mobility takes ownership. The world is changing, and the obstacles in the
way of an international assignment, group move or domestic relocation have to be factored in for business travellers, too. Companies need a steady pair of hands, and global mobility specialists are taking their place as business partners at the top table of decision-making. Volume and risk mean that the computer must say yes to as
BridgeStreet Studyo – Sussex Gardens Online booking, which, for so long, has been the holy grail
many serviced accommodation requests as possible, to keep up with demand and stay first choice in the battle of the brands.
EXPANSION BRINGS BREADTH OF CHOICE
SACO, founded in 1997 in Bristol and well established in the relocation market, merged with Oaktree Capital Management in 2015. In addition to the 980 apartments it operates in the UK, it now offers a further 80,000 across 260 key destinations through partners in 55 countries. At the Business Travel Show, SACO announced a major
expansion of its operated portfolio of serviced apartments and aparthotels with the addition of six new properties across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands by 2020. The new properties in Manchester, Dublin and London’s
Buckle Street will be operated under SACO’s new lifestyle aparthotel brand, Locke. The properties in London’s Fitzrovia and Moorgate will be SACO Serviced Apartments. The property in Amsterdam will be a SACO Aparthotel. Stephen Hanton, commercial CEO of SACO, says that
this marks “a key milestone in the growth we first started planning two years ago to meet the ever-increasing demand for serviced accommodation. This exciting phase in our development will see our inventory double and SACO take its first step into continental Europe with the opening of our Amsterdam property later this year. “Our expansion reflects the marked and ongoing shift in
consumer demand from traditional hotels to stays at serviced accommodation properties that allow greater flexibility and more opportunities for social engagement with fellow guests and the surrounding community.” SACO has chosen its new locations because they are in
major UK and European hub cities which attract a mixture of transient business-traveller stays, extended stays, and demand from leisure travellers, boosted by growing demand from a number of key sectors, including tech, media and creative. Stephen Hanton adds, “With our mix of different serviced
accommodation brands, from SACO Aparthotels and SACO Serviced Apartments to our new Locke lifestyle aparthotels, we offer the breadth of choice to meet the needs of the travellers of today and tomorrow in all of our locations.”
of the relocation sector, has been provided by BridgeStreet, and all the other brands will have to follow suit. Indeed, they are already progressing with the online agenda. Do corporate decision-makers care about online booking?
The answer is, yes, they probably do, because they can’t afford not to. On-demand is expected, and so are security, tracking and due diligence, plus high-quality service and duty of care.
Responding to change The wider question is, do corporate relocation buyers care very much about serviced accommodation? For ten years, we have been charting the rise of this f ledgling industry sector, but now it has nearly come of age. As the market looks for more investors and backers, it has
more to prove. Glossy investment summits and conferences are establishing the sector as a hospitality market to be reckoned with. These are interesting times as the aparthotel model adopted
by the leading players to head off the hotels starts to overshadow the longer-term serviced apartment model. Changes in the marketplace, accelerated by uncertainty with the fallout from Brexit and the change of government in the US, plus the trend to shorter assignments, point to the importance of aparthotels in accommodating shorter stays. It is, perhaps, time to be counted for serviced apartment
providers who want the employer business. If they want the corporate mobility markets, they need to listen to clients’ responses to global change and trends, to be f lexible, and to go with the f low. They also need to be able to take the rough with the smooth – to devote time and energy to increasing supply in unpopular locations where there is little leisure-occupation appeal, as well as in preferred and popular city-centre and business- district locations. Devotion to new infrastructure hotspots or manufacturing
investment zones will be a valuable prize in the changing accommodation landscape, as pioneering project teams pave the way in the brave new world of new trade agreements. In this long-term game, who cares will win, but it won’t be a task for the fickle or the fainthearted.
Fit for the future Serviced apartments company Oakwood Worldwide was recently acquired by Singapore-headquartered Mapletree Investments. This would certainly help with the growth of the company’s branded footprint, explained Tom Meertens, Oakwood’s general manager for EMEA, when I caught up with him at the Business Travel Show. He cited Mexico, the US, Europe, and, in particular, Switzerland and Ireland as high-growth locations.
36 | Re:locate | Spring 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
