Serviced apartments have recently come into the spotlight, especially in the corporate housing sector. The growing popularity of these apartments in recent times leads us to questions such as, why are serviced apartments being preferred by corporations to house their frequent fliers? Why do individual travelling businessmen prefer them over traditional hotel rooms? Let’s look at the answers to those questions.
Massive Cost Savings without Sacrificing on the Luxury
Last year, Tom Smyth Belfast, the MD of Dream Apartments invested over £2.6million in building nine luxury penthouse apartments in Liverpool. This stands as proof of the fact that serviced apartments are extremely popular among business executives who have to spend significant time in the city often. This popularity stems primarily from the fact that serviced apartments, especially the luxurious properties, actually cost less than what it would cost to rent a hotel room with similar facilities.
If we look at the facts from a business perspective, it seems like businesses would be able to save thousands of pounds per quarter by housing their employees and executives in appropriately facilitated serviced apartments, instead of hotel rooms in the same class. Depending on how big the corporation is, how many employees will be travelling frequently, and how often, the difference could be hundreds of thousands of pounds per year.
Opportunity to Seamlessly Extend
If there is one constant in business, it’s inconsistency! Business operations cannot always be predicted with 100% accuracy, which can create a problem for the traveling businessman/employee/executive, since hotels usually have packed and booked schedules. Chances are the day one guest is vacating will coincide with another taking up the same room. If the company has history with the hotel, it’s possible that the manager might place them in another room, but that presents a bunch of problems.
- Moving from one room to another wastes time and is quite disturbing when guests are travelling due to work
- The other room may not be up to the mark, or at the same level as the original one
- On the flip-side, the new room could cost more, which would stretch the original budget even further
- In busy seasons, there simply may not be a single available room to provide
Serviced apartments, on the other hand, do not come with any such bindings. Guests can extend their stay for as long as they would need to, which makes them a perfect fit for the inconsistent nature of business travel.
Business with the Family in Tow!
Although serviced apartments do have particular suitability for corporate guests, it should be noted that personal accommodations are available as well. What it means is that if someone needs to stay in Belfast, London or any other major city in the UK often and for long periods of time, they can just bring their family with them too on some of the trips. Since serviced apartments are essentially apartments with fully equipped kitchens and sincere privacy, they are perfect for housing families of the corporate guests as well.
In many ways the shift towards serviced apartments that we are seeing from the business community is kind of an evolutionary step. If an accommodation facility provides ample space, complete privacy, luxurious facilities and more at a lower price than a comparable hotel room, the choice just feels obvious.
