SERVICED APARTMENTS
The Global Serviced Apartments Industry Report estimates that
there are in excess 1,022,984 apartments worldwide – an increase of 23.7 per cent in the past 18 months and that the global sector has doubled in size over the last eight years.
Staff preferences are changing – and so is technology “Serviced apartments continue to be integrated into corporate
travel and mobility programmes,” says Darin Karp, founder and CEO of ReloQuest. “The majority insist on being more involved in the procurement process, preferring to research their accommodation.” ReloQuest provides an independent online platform to global
mobility clients and individuals in need of sourcing temporary housing, service apartments, and hotels, worldwide. Mr Karp says there has been an increase in employees travelling
overseas more frequently, and it makes smart business sense for companies to seek less expensive ways to accommodate them. Also, when families travel with the assignee, their preference is to choose a different environment than that which hotels offer.
Business or pleasure? Airbnb has led the expansion of the short-term rental market,
disrupting business models and alerting both leisure and business travellers to the benefits of staying somewhere other than a hotel. “In recent years, the serviced apartment sector has grown more
The Four Seasons Residences 10 Trinity Square
crucial gateway cities (London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Belgium). The Annual Global Report & Forecast by the GBTA Foundation,
the education and research arm of GBTA, predicts global business travel spend to advance 5.8 per cent on average over the next five years reaching $1.6 trillion in 2020.
The global workforce In a global marketplace, the best employee for the role may not be
located in the same country, or even the same continent. As companies search overseas for new markets, launch new
products and learn to operate in leaner, more agile ways, the way they deploy talent is changing, and so are the solutions for accommodating their staff on assignment. PwC predict that by 2020 there will be a 50 per cent increase
in overseas assignments undertaken. Its data shows that assignee levels have increased by 25 per cent over the last decade, and by 2020 multinational companies will have, on average, assignees in 33 different countries. “There will be more assignees, more business travel, more
virtual tools, and especially more quick, short-term, and commuter assignments,” it says in its report, Talent Mobility 2020: The next generation of international assignments. With this shift comes additional responsibilities for companies, and
in particular, HR and business travel departments. Managers have a duty of care to their employees – in an insecure world, staff security and being able to locate and evacuate people with very short notice is essential. So too is personal security, particularly when pushing into new or unexplored markets where the local culture may be unfamiliar.
than any other temporary accommodation class in Europe,” says Darin Karp. “A new trend which has been receiving attention within the sector is the growing ‘bleisure’ market – an evolved segment of the travel industry. The bleisure market is where business travellers extend their business trips into a leisure holiday. Millennials in the workforce are said to be driving the bleisure trend popularity, as they seek more flexibility.” Joyce Cawthorpe, marketing and media manager of, the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP), says that
in the UK the sector is showing strong growth, with 2,000 new units this year in the UK in spite of Brexit. For business travel and HR departments, apartments provide security and a way to control costs.
THE FOUR SEASONS RESIDENCES AT
TEN TRINITY SQUARE
The luxury apartments include views overlooking the Tower of London and Tower Bridge from their private terraces, with interiors featuring London’s top designers, including Martin Kemp Design, LINLEY, Richmond International and Fox Linton. No 41 (pictured) is the largest apartment with an internal area of 447 square metres over two floors and an external area of 175 square metres. Aimed at the corporate sector, high net worth individuals, the entertainment industry and diplomatic staff, the Residences show that London is in demand despite worries over Brexit.
18 | Relocate | Summer 2018
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