Germany: Last week saw the German speaking serviced apartment sector gather in Berlin for the 2016 So! Apart conference.
Organised by Berlin-based Apartmentservice – which was celebrating its 15th anniversary – the conference attracted around 170 delegates from Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This year the participants were composed of approximately 35 per cent operators, 34 per cent developers and investors, as well as 26 per cent suppliers and service providers. More than 30 industry speakers addressed attendees, and the event also included a gala dinner to celebrate the winners of the 2016 So! Apart Awards.
Anett Gregorius, the founder and owner of Apartmentservice, said: “In 2001 it was a vision and the firm belief that temporary housing is a topic with a future”. She presented the latest figures for the segment and confirmed “enormous growth potential and the prospects for serviced apartments” in the region. “2016 was an incredibly strong year for the industry,” she said.
“Up until 2018 there are more than 10,000 serviced apartments in the pipeline for Germany, which will lead to a 40 per cent increase in supply, with more being planned,” said Gregorius.
After a keynote from Gerriet Danz, who asked delegates whehter they wanted to be dinosaurs – stuck in the past – or flamingoes – unique, innovative and modern – a session on the apartment of the future looked at the findings of a think tank of the same name, which is led by Apartmentservice, Hotelkompetenzzentrum, JOI-Design, Adina Apartment Hotels, iHaus and G&S Planwerk and was initiated at So! Apart 2015.
Other session looked at employee recruitment and retention, finance, benchmarking, and the launch of an industry definitions charter for the German sector.
The gala dinner started off with a review of 15 years of Apartmentservice, followed by the 2016 So! Apart awards. Vision Apartments was particularly successful: the company won two awards for its flagship development in Zurich, Militaerstraße: the “international” award in the jury and the “the popular big ones” in the audience category.
There was also a double for Serviced Apartments IM Lebendigen Haus, in Dresden, which won the “new and different” and “grand and great – classical apartment house” categories.
Amano Home in Berlin won the “small and precious” category; Adina Apartment Hotel Hamburg Michel won “grand and great – aparthotel”; and the Quartier M in Leipzig took the audience award for “the popular little ones”. For the first time this year and to the surprise of all the jury gave a special award and honoured the team performance and storytelling of the Gästeresidenz PelikanViertel in Hanover.
Gregarious said: “Our special thanks goes to our partners and our awards jury, without whom the event would not have been possible. Thank you for the relentless commitment. Here’s to a good 2017!”
www.so-apart.de/en/</p
