Australia: Serviced apartment brand Quest has reported that its rates have surged back above 80 per cent with nightly rates reaching more than $200.
Quest’s rebound is being led by managing director David Mansfield, who was appointed by parent company The Ascott Limited in mid-2021.
Mansfield said that average rates have increased from $180-$185 in pre-pandemic times to $207 a night. Compared to last year, revenues are up by 14 per cent – driven by a 20 per cent rise and 10 per cent rise in leisure and business travellers respectively. “We’re doing numbers we’ve never done before,” Mansfield said, reported by The Australian Financial Review.
The rebound comes as Quest plans to increase its portfolio of aparthotels from 157 to 200.
Five new hotels will open this year, including the recent launch of an 83-room aparthotel in Collingwood, Melbourne. The property was developed in partnership with Peter Wu’s Centreland Group.
Later this month, another 86-room apartment hotel at QIC’s Watergardens Shopping Centre in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne will open, followed by a Quest Woolooware Bay in Sydney’s southern suburbs. Two Quest apartments, in Geelong and Cronulla, complete the 2023 openings.
Three more hotels are due to open next year including Quest Blacktown.
Inner city, suburban and regional growth corridors are to be the focus of new Quest developments, according to Mansfield. “We’re more clearly targeting our customer with a focus on the extended corporate stay offering. But we also know we need to fill our hotels on Friday, Saturday and Sunday through an appropriate leisure offering,” he told The Australian Financial Review.
“It doesn’t serve our future plans to be in the top floors of a high rise. We want to get down among the neighbourhood and businesses we operate and be local,” he said.
