US: Dwell Optimal, a company offering apartments to corporate clients will launch in late summer, in the New York City metropolitan area.
Clients will come from the financial services industry, a sector where founder Craig James spent more than 20 years of his career, on Wall Street and in Hong Kong. He then spent the past five years at Delos, a real estate wellness company.
While in Hong Kong, he spent five years living in corporate serviced apartments, an experience which inspired the company launch: “You didn’t have to deal with utilities, cable, all the monotonies of setting up your own unit, and it had a lifestyle equation that made sense,” James told BTN.
The units will be in “Class A doorman buildings from top rental developers” with the target use cases being relocation and project-related travel, with stays of 30 days or longer.
As the company expands it is looking to open in Austin, San Francisco and Chicago by the end of 2020, and shorter stays could also be on the agenda if they are allowed within the constraints of city ordinances.
“Others are advertising inventory on OTAs,” James said. “We don’t do that. If you go to our website, you won’t see a booking engine. We set up units only in gateway cities where we are in contract with a corporate. We work directly with companies for one- and two-year leases in partnership with them.”
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