UK: One in every eight (13 per cent) European corporate travel buyers booked more serviced apartment accommodation in 2014, according to a Business Travel Show survey.
Among the survey’s findings were:
• 13 per cent of the 179 European buyers surveyed booked more, or significantly more, serviced apartment rooms this year compared with 2013.
• 80 per cent booked the same amount.
• Serviced apartments now account for more than 26 per cent of room nights for four per cent of buyers and between 11 and 25 per cent of bookings for a further 12 per cent of buyers.
• 84 per cent of buyers’ accommodation programmes include up to 10 per cent of serviced apartments.
Nearly half of all buyers insist travellers stay in serviced apartments when their stay exceeds a certain duration. For 11 per cent this is three nights or more, for 22 per cent it’s for stays of over one week, for eight per cent policy kicks in at a fortnight and for six per cent it’s one month or more. Thirty per cent of all respondents had more money to spend on accommodation this year and 39 per cent will book in excess of 5,000 room nights during 2015.
James Foice, managing director of the ASAP, said: “It’s fantastic to see corporate travel buyers reporting such a strong increase in demand for serviced apartments from their clients, which mirrors the strong expansion in our sector. There has been a 10 per cent growth in new apartments opening this year. Between them, our 82 members have opened in excess of 1,300 apartments bringing our total stock in the UK & Ireland to over 14,000 apartments in 2014. Our members will be opening a further 500 apartments next year and occupancy levels continue to be very high with the average occupancy for the UK as a whole is 88.4 per cent for Q3 this year.”
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