The arguments for corporates to put serviced accommodation into their travel programmes are increasingly compelling. Simply put, they provide the flexibility and home comforts that a growing number of road warriors require. 

“Serviced apartments, aparthotels and other extended-stay concepts are firmly on the radar of travel managers and procurement teams looking to control costs, improve traveller wellbeing and provide flexibility in their accommodation strategies with a sustainable, bespoke product,” says  Jo Layton, CEO of CAP Worldwide. 

But the sector is complex and fragmented and travel buyers need to understand the different types of accommodation. 

Serviced apartments are residential in style and are ideal for the longer stays, for those working on projects or relocating for a year or more.  

Aparthotels provide the space to work and live comfortably but with hotel services such as food and beverage, fitness and laundry. 

The choice is widening further as hotel companies such as Marriott, IHG and Hyatt move into the extended-stay market with their own branded products. 

“We are also seeing more dual brand properties, where Marriott offers a Moxy hotel with Residence Inn, for example,” says Richard Dawes, Director at Savills Hotel Capital Markets. 

Meanwhile, blended real estate has entered the fray. “Players like The Social Hub are constructing larger buildings with student, hotel and extended stay accommodation, communal space, and F&B, and they host wine nights or book clubs in that space,” says Dawes.  

Trust issues 

While the demand is strong, serviced accommodation is sometimes difficult to source and book alongside traditional hotels, and without a single rating system there’s a lack of standardisation.  

Steve Lowy, CEO, AES and The Residence Apartments, also warns: “Aparthotels, in particular, are adopting dynamic pricing, taking bookings direct and through Online Travel Agents (OTAs). To incentivise them to work with travel management companies, aparthotels want to see the long-term benefits, either by getting bookings for longer stays or by paying lower commissions than they pay the OTAs.” 

The move towards dynamic pricing was one of several trust and transparency challenges raised in mysa’s The State of Corporate Accommodation, alongside Last Room Availability (LRA) caveats and blackout periods. 

“The sector is complex and fragmented and travel buyers need to understand the different types of accommodation”

Channel inconsistencies are distorting booking behaviour and weakening programme performance, says the report, blaming this on systems, structure and behaviour that no longer align with how modern programmes must operate. 

The way to mitigate this bumpy territory, it says, is to use the expertise of a travel management company or agency, which can create and verify programmes on behalf of corporates, ensuring bookings always comply with company policy and meet health, safety, security and environmental requirements. 

Rules and regulations 

Corporates should also be aware of the imminent introduction of a registration scheme, driven by a desire to understand and mitigate the impact of short-term rentals, such as Airbnb, on accommodation.  

The C1 (short stay) aparthotel product is regulated through brand involvement and legislation in building development and the C3 residential model offers extended stay for 90 days or more to the corporate travel world. 

“But since lockdown, business travellers tend to make fewer trips and stay away longer, so operators are having to find ways to plug gaps and many are reverting to OTAs. The serviced apartments end of business travel has largely been long stay, that is where the industry has built up its reputation and product. It was not about short letting,” says CEO of ASAP James Foice.  

“Now, because they are letting via OTAs, many of our smaller owners and operators are being caught up in legislation aimed at second homeowners and local authorities are charging them double the amount of council tax when they are bona fide businesses. There are tremendous challenges facing the residential housing model and there is a lot of work to be done to raise awareness in government; it’s never been more important,” he says. To that end, ASAP is lobbying government through the Tourism Alliance. 

This increasingly applies to many destinations and SilverDoor advises buyers to keep abreast of changes to immigration laws, tax rules, temporary housing and rental regulations. “Take a flexible approach when working with your accommodation supply,” says Robert Wyatt, SilverDoor Senior Vice President Account Management. 

Tech developments 

Companies in the serviced accommodation sector have invested heavily in booking technology and to considerable effect.  

As a result, procurement processes have improved significantly in recent years and traditionally manual processes are now supported by specialist sourcing platforms for short, mid and extended stays, with clearer rate structures for longer bookings, improved visibility and reporting for procurement teams, centralised billing and simplified invoicing.  

Adagio’s platform reflects this and enables customers to book long stays directly on adagio-city.com, including offers for stays of 91 nights or more.  

The brand promises enhancements in automation and personalisation, and deeper integration with corporate booking tools will continue to make sourcing and managing long stay accommodation faster, easier, and more intuitive for travel managers and travellers alike. 

“Managing larger accommodation programmes is being transformed by easier reporting that helps manage budgets, and sustainability metrics will soon be integrated into booking tools as a matter of course,” says Senior Content Manager Situ, Rosie Thapa. 

Extended-stay accommodation is finally catching up with the wider travel and luxury sectors. “It is being revolutionised by cloud-native platforms, modern booking engines and integrated distribution ecosystems that make serviced apartments as easy to discover, compare and book as a hotel room,” says Mustafa Gokcen, Global Head of Information Technology for Cheval Collection. 

Cheval is pushing the boat out. “We are transforming our digital and operational stack, including a new website, booking engine, guest experience platform, cloud PMS with payments, workforce management and loyalty integration,” he says. 

“Extended-stay accommodation is finally catching up with the wider travel and luxury sectors”

The aim is to provide faster sourcing, clearer policy alignment, fewer manual steps for bookers with real-time availability and personalisation from booking to check-in, access, billing and post-stay engagement for travellers. The next phase is to have booking, CRM, loyalty and payments in one ecosystem with AI to recommend, price and package extended stays according on traveller intent, length of stay and behaviour.  

SilverDoor is investing in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which powers a digital worker to extend online live rate and inventory content and increase the reporting capability of its OBT for clients and supply chain. RPA harvests, processes and tests live rates 10 times faster than a human.  

“Our investment in robotic process automation will not only rapidly expand our online portfolio of instantly bookable apartments but it means we can ensure that our OBT only ever presents the most accurate, competitive pricing,” says Chief Technology Officer Hanish Vithal.  

Real-time availability is available on City Retreat’s platform, with pricing and photographs, digital contracts, secure payments, and multi-building blocking for accommodating teams.  

Dwellworks has a live sourcing platform and its suppliers respond within an agreed deadline based on the client’s criteria. 

“Sometimes we receive work directly from the corporate or an RMC makes the selection and that is automated,” says Director of Operations for EMEA Corporate Housing Jake Bone. “And if clients want billing to be consolidated through the agency so that it goes to the right cost centre, we manage that as well.” 

Dwellworks is investigating ways AI can support the team to improve that. The company also has a pre-inspection app for property partners to upload live images as they are walking round to show the condition of the unit before it is rented, and for guests, an explore app that gives information about the market moving into, such as restaurants or where to exercise.