MEA: Ascott says it is seeing increased interest in serviced apartments as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vincent Miccolis, Ascott’s regional GM for Middle East, Africa, Turkey and India, said: “The good thing about our group and our business model is that we are focusing on extended stays so we’ve been more resilient. A lot of hotels have closed and some maybe won’t reopen soon. Thanks to our long-stay and extended stay business we’ve managed to stay open.”
Miccolis said that owners, investors and developers have noytcied the resilience of serviced apartments and are adding to their a long-stay element into their projects.
He said: “I’m not saying it’s been a blessing (Covid-19), of course not. It’s been a big crisis, but we’ve managed to weather the storm better than hotels because of our long-stay component. We are seeing owners, investors and other hospitality groups as well coming to us, asking for more details, really willing to see how we work.”
“It really depends on the region you’re in and the products, but overall our margins are always much higher than hotels. The cost efficiency of a serviced apartment is much better than hotels. When you have a long-stay component, an extended stay, your overall cost gets lower because you don’t necessarily do a cleaning every day. You don’t need to get your towels changed every day. There’s a lot of things you don’t need on a daily basis because it’s like an extended lease, like a rental concept, but you have the service of the hotel. The developers and investors are seeing that now for sure.”
