UK: The PKF hospitality group has launched the Future of Hospitality Institute, a think tank for the hotel, living, tourism and leisure sectors, with former BridgeStreet development director Paul rands at the helm.
The aim of the institute is “to bring together a community of industry stakeholders to cooperate to identify important changes and innovations that are relevant for the future of the industry on a global scale”. Its first research project will be called Future Living”. Project partners will be brought together to “define feasible serviced living concepts on the basis of applied research and shared experience”.
PKF defines serviced living as including serviced apartments, aparthotels, coliving, student accommodation, branded residences, micro living, and senior & assisted living.
Michael Widmann, global CEO of PKF hospitality group, said: “Globalisation, urbanisation and digitisation influence our daily lives. In the last ten years, we have seen a dramatic change in our everyday world. The advent of remote working, the development of a sharing economy and socio-demographic changes are just a few examples that will have a significant impact on our future living spaces and our lives as a whole. This leads to the common intersection of residential and hotel in the area of ‘serviced living’, and developers, investors, operators, architects and suppliers will have to follow these developments and react quickly to them. In order to shed more light on this field, we founded the Future of Hospitality Institute and are pleased to have Paul Rands as its managing director.”
Rands has 25 years´ experience in hospitality. After graduating in Real Estate from Nottingham Trent University, he started his career with Allied Domecq, followed by CBRE and various development roles with operators including Premier Inn, and hotel fund start up Quant Capital Partners. In 2013, he joined BridgeStreet Global Hospitality, where he led development and real estate in EMEA/APAC and was a member of the global senior leadership team.
He said: “I am delighted to have joined PKF to lead the Future of Hospitality Institute and our wider involvement in the field of serviced living. There is already great appetite for innovation in this sector, which is becoming acknowledged as a viable investment alternative. Combined with rapid changes in user trends and demand, it has huge growth potential. It is therefore perfect timing for us to launch the future living project and over a 24-month period seek to identify key future trends and solutions.”
Widmann added:”The focus will be on user experience, digitization and technology, architecture and planning as well as sustainable operations. In doing so, we can draw on valuable know-how from the hospitality sector.”
