Market research 2013 from Apartmentservice: The return of longstay bookings

17.04.2013
Apartmentservice published its annual market research. The results are available in German. For further information, please have a look to our German website. 

Market survey conducted by Apartmentservice:

09.02.2012

Satisfaction among the German operators of serviced apartments: the industry enjoys an undisrupted positive atmosphere. The developments in the past few years allow many apartment houses to expand. Almost the third of the businesses surveyed announced that extension works are planned. That is a central outcome of the recent market survey that has been conducted by the company Boardinghouse Consulting to approximately 100 German operators of serviced apartments.

“The market of service apartments too enjoyed a positive development over last year, not least thanks to the unexpected stable economic outlook”, sums up Anett Gregorius, General Manager of Boardinghouse Consulting and owner of the independent booking platform www.apartmentservice.de. The general trend shows that guests tend to stay longer; the very specific industry of serviced apartments has also showed increased occupancy levels in 2011: 74% of the businesses surveyed declared that those levels improved as compared to the previous year; 66% of them could book an occupancy level of 70% or more.

An undisrupted positive development: 80% of the owners describe their apartment house’s current economical situation as “good” or even “very good”. Further 18% of them declare that the situation is “satisfactory”. The outlooks as to the development of the market over the next two years are also positive: 79% of the interrogates predict a further successful evolution of the market (very positive: 10%, positive: 69%).

Back to longer stays: serviced apartments were originally conceived for long-term stays. However, over the past years, they have been increasingly booked by guests for short-term stays. In 2011, an average of 50% of the total stays amounted to maximum 6 nights. Anett Gregorius: “However, the current booking trends show that the duration of stays has again increased. Whereas customers often book only a few nights at large providers, we find out that it is particularly in smaller apartment houses that stays tend to be clearly longer.” During the assessment period, 17% of the bookings were made for mid-term stays (7 to 27 nights). One third of the overall bookings were made for classical long-term stays (28 nights and more).

Growing offer: The German market of serviced apartments is still characterised by a multitude of small and medium-sized operators. 69% of the surveyed providers offer a maximum of 50 apartments. Large (international) providers and chains increasingly enter the market besides smaller houses that are traditionally present there; indeed, 17% of the surveyed providers offer more than 100 apartments. About on third of the apartment houses want to expand their activities over the next couple of years, be it through offering more apartments in their house or through the acquisition of further properties.

Increasing importance of certification in the middle of an ever changing competition: Certification is becoming a relevant criterion for an increasing number of providers who want to give the guests reliable guidance information when it comes to choosing a serviced apartment. 40% of the houses surveyed have already been certified or seriously envisage undergoing the certification process carried out by the renowned certification body TÜV Rheinland. Among the agreed criteria that are especially laid out for the certification of serviced apartments, the following specific features are being tested: the equipment available in the house and in the apartments, the level of customer service quality and of service quality overall.

Stable prices: The prices of serviced apartments have predominantly remained stable in 2011. That was the case in two thirds of the apartment houses that have been surveyed.

The full results of the market survey of Boardinghouse Consulting will be available from March 2012 for a price of EUR 349,00 excl. VAT. Interested parties can reserve their copy by sending an e-mail to info@apartmentservice.de.

Relaunch of website www.apartmentservice.de

25.01.2011

In January 2011, just in time for the start of its 10th anniversary year, Apartmentservice presents its new website www.apartmentservice.de. Apartmentservice is the largest independent platform for serviced apartments in German-speaking Europe. In addition to the fresh design of the site, high attention was given to up-to-date technical features: Customers can now more easily search and choose from more than 8,000 apartments in the optimized apartment finder.

The apartment finder is now the centrepiece of the site. Using this detailed search mask, business and leisure travellers can quickly find all serviced apartments of partner houses in a selected city. Numerous features help with the detailed search and selection: in the maps the user can locate an additional address, such as a business location. Thus, the personal decision for one or another partner house is much easier. One can also get inspired by browsing the new online anniversary catalogue.

Customers also benefit from a closed registration area where they, for example, have insight into their personal inquiry history and can mark interesting apartments. Shorter stays of up to six nights can partly be booked online, these houses are now labelled. In its usual fast and high quality, the reservation department handles the inquiries for individual long-term stays.

"The new website is a successful start into our 10th anniversary year," says Managing Director Anett Gregorius. "To meet every day our service commitment to our customers and to successfully place the bookings of our serviced apartments is our greatest concern. With the new website partner houses and prospects find each other much easier and get all information quickly and reliably."

Bookers and operators of apartment houses get detailed information about certified houses and certification options: Apartmentservice offers the first - and still only - official certification system for the classification of serviced apartments.

Much appreciated by customers: The close personal contact with the reservation department. "Pictures to the voice" of the employees give a friendly welcome to the customer. The technical implementation and design of the website was carried out by the Berlin web agency e-pixler.

Download

Cooperation with Ecxellent Business Center and APARTMENTSERVICE - Offices and Serviced Apartments on highest standard

13.07.2010

Common target groups, common locations and a joining idea of “Temporary Living and Working” – those are three excellent reasons for a successful cooperation:  Excellent Business Center, one of the leading operating companies of quality oriented business centre within Germany and APARTMENTSERVICE, Germany’s most important independent agent for Serviced Apartments – will offer their clients temporary offices and comfortable and spacious accommodations that feel like home.

The benefits are obvious: a professional and service oriented offer on one side, and offering a representative surrounding on the other side. The interaction of “Temporary Living and Working” produces fun and motivation away from home.

Excellent Business Center offers their clients

• in time flexible office use with up to 20 work stations with office service
  
• virtual office
  
• conference- and meeting space

Excellent Business Center is one of Germany’s market-leading providers for quality oriented business centre. There is only one call necessary and on a short-term basis the offices will be available with the suitable services
. For one day, one week, one month, one year or even more.
Beyond that you can rent a daily office, conference rooms and virtual offices in the most representative locations within Germany.

APARTMENTSERVICE offers their clients

• providing their offers out of more than 8000 apartments worldwide free of charge – especially for business travellers – no matter if it is for days, weeks or month

APARTMENTSERVICE is Germany’s largest and most important independent agent for Serviced Apartments and is already since 9 years a comfortable and time saving way to find the perfect “Home away from Home”.
No matter if there might be an office opening, job employment, job rotation or typical business project – instead of starting a time-consuming and not very successful search the client inquires via phone or in writing and within no time – mostly within one day – he will get several offers considering location, budget and special requests. Even the booking will be steadily taken care of through the capable team.

Helmut Arend, Business Development Manager of the Excellent Business Center and Anett Gregorius, Managing Director of APARTMENTSERVICE agree that with this successful cooperation of both companies there will be additional benefits for the clients – right by their shared philosophy: “representative working – excellent living”.      

Further information about Excellent Business Center and APARTMENTSERVICE:
www.excellent-bc.de
www.apartmentservice.de

Download

Successful certification of the Adagio Berlin Kurfürstendamm

23.06.2010

Berlin, 23rd of June 2010. The independent auditor of the TÜV Rheinland certified the Adagio Berlin Kurfürstendamm after the Apartment & Service Quality Standard. The in November 2009 opened apartment house got the official seal of quality AAAA “Superior”, a classification for Serviced Apartments, for the next three years. Adagio is a Joint Venture of Accor and Pierre & Vacances-Center Parcs and has over 30 houses available in six different European countries. The Adagio Berlin Kurfürstendamm is the first hotel in Germany.

The Apartment & Service Quality Standard was developed by the TÜV Rheinland and the company Boardinghouse Consulting. Intention of the quality system is to get a transparency of the segment Serviced Apartments and help clients to choose the right apartment. Furthermore the branch will be silhouetted against the growing choices of private apartments. Not only the survey of the interior is important, as well the customer focus and the service quality. In the audit more than 200 criteria’s are checked, which have been specially matched to the segment of Serviced Apartments. “We are very pleased that the Adagio Berlin Kurfürstendamm, shortly after their opening, took this challenge” as by Anett Gregorius foundress of the internet platform www.apartmentservice.de and general manager of Boardinghouse Consulting. “To achieve the result AAAA “Superior” - you need a minimum of 80% - and that is for sure a very ambitious aim.”

The certificate of the TÜV Rheinland is valid for three years, but once a year a control survey is taking place. Similar to the stars in the hotel industry the categories AA (for simple requirements) to AAAAA (for upper requirements) give a valuation of the equipment and services in an apartment house.

“The certification system for Serviced Apartments offers since years a reliable orientation for companies, business travellers as well as for private travellers. It gives a security with the neutral audit through the TÜV Rheinland” as by Anett Gregorius.

Adagio is geared on the requirements of the fast growing marked of “Extended Stays”. The Adagio Berlin Kurfürstendamm is an upper middle class house especially for medium and long term business trips, as well as for the weekend tourism. It has 133 high standard and fully equipped apartments – studios for two people up to 2-bedroom-apartments for four people are available. The technical equipment with W-LAN, broad band internet and flat screen TV fulfil the requirements of business and leisure travellers equally. “The brand Adagio is certain about the necessarily of this quality seal for the segment of Serviced Apartments. We want to certificate all our new openings in Germany and we are even thinking further than the German border”, as by Vangelis Porikis, Sales Director Adagio World Wide.

About the Apartmentservice
The Apartmentservice is the most extensive independent reservation agency for Serviced Apartments in Germany and represents currently more than 8.000 apartments in 17 German cities as well as in 19 international locations. 

Further Information:
Boardinghouse Consulting, Anett Gregorius
Berliner Allee 36
13088 Berlin
Tel.: 030 – 96 06 09 49 – 11
Fax: 030 – 96 06 09 49 – 20
E-Mail: anett.gregorius@apartmentservice.de
Internet: www.apartmentservice.de

Download

New Features, Improved Search: Relaunch of www.apartmentservice.de

13.06.2006

Many business travellers know and make use of the platform www.apartmentservice.de to find Serviced Apartments in Germany for years - now it has been improved and offers a number of new and extended features. Especially the long term guest will appreciate the update which will make the search for the most suitable apartment according to his personal requirements much easier for him. ...

complete press release for download (PDF - German document):

Download

Market Survey for Servide Apartments in Germany 2005

01.06.2006

only available in German

Berlin, Juni 2006. Serviced Apartments stellen in Deutschland noch immer einen Nischenmarkt dar, der zwar zu recht unter dem Dach der allgemeinen Hotellerie eingeordnet wird, jedoch hinsichtlich seiner speziellen Merkmale hinsichtlich Ausrichtung, Zielgruppe und Aufenthaltsdauer gesonderter Betrachtung bedarf. Das Berliner Unternehmen Boardinghouse Consulting beschäftigt sich bereits seit fünf Jahren ausschließlich mit diesem Segment der Beherbergungsindustrie und Geschäftsführerin Anett Gregorius ist als Expertin auf diesem Gebiet anerkannt.

Jährlich erfolgt seitens boardinghouse consulting die umfassende Befragung der mittlerweile etwa 80 Partnerhäuser der unternehmenseigenen Apartmentservice, um Marktentwicklungen und -trends zu erfassen und festzuhalten. Im Folgenden werden die Ergebnisse der Befragung zum Geschäftsjahr 2005 dargestellt.

Unter Berücksichtigung lokaler Besonderheiten kann dem Markt der Serviced Apartments in Deutschland auch für das Jahr 2005 eine gesunde Entwicklung mit positiven Wachstumsraten bescheinigt werden. Für die kommenden Jahre darf weiterhin eine optimistische Erwartungshaltung gehegt werden, die Aussichten für dieses besondere Segment der Hotellerie sind anhaltend erfreulich.

In Hinblick auf die Akzeptanz des Produkts ist die Pionierarbeit der letzten Jahre als abgeschlossen zu betrachten, ein gewachsenes Stammkundenpotential sowie die zunehmende Wahrnehmung von Serviced Apartments in den Medien haben das Segment seinem bisherigen Status als Geheimtipp enthoben. Mit dem steigenden Bekanntheitsgrad dieser „Alternative zum Hotel“ geht eine natürliche Vergrößerung der potentiellen Zielgruppe einher, in Überschneidung zur klassischen Hotellerie wird zunehmend auch der Privatreisende als Gast für kürzere Aufenthalte gewonnen. Gelockerte Reiserichtlinien der Firmen erlauben nach den Einbrüchen zu Beginn dieses Jahrzehnts zudem eine erneute Fokussierung auf den Geschäftsreisenden als „klassischen“ Gast vor allem auch im Longstay-Bereich.

Neueröffnungen gab es 2005 kaum - der in den vergangenen Jahren vorherrschende Bauboom ist etwas eingedämmt, und neue Häuser werden nicht mehr innerhalb kürzester Zeit aus dem Boden gestampft, sondern erst nach eingehender Prüfung und Entwicklung der Konzepte an den Markt gebracht.

Insgesamt  kann 2005 als erfreuliche Trendwende nach oben betrachtet werden – der Markt der Serviced Apartments ist in sich gefestigt und sieht einer positiven Zukunft entgegen. Im Vergleich zur klassischen Hotellerie verfügt das ehemalige Nischensegment mit Auslastungszahlen um 70% sogar über erheblichen Vorsprung.

Complete press release in German for download (PDF)

If you require information in English language, please contact us by e-mail: info@apartmentservice.de

Download

New Catalogue for Serviced Apartments in Germany 2006

16.01.2006

With the new guide for Serviced Apartments in Germany the Apartmentservice provides a concise instrument for information and booking within this market segment in the fifth year already...

complete press release for download (German):

Download

Home far away from Home - thanks to APARTMENTSERVICE

01.01.2006

Project managers, consultants, sales officers – many of today’s businesses require extensive travelling. Whoever has to stay more than a few days in a foreign city especially appreciates a surrounding that has been adjusted to the personal needs in every detail. “Serviced Apartments” are the solution for all who neither want to miss the independence and individuality of their own home nor the service and comfort of a hotel.

complete press relase for download:

Download