Industry Benchmark
By Mark Harris
The Apartment Service estimates that worldwide, in 2008, there are around 452,000
serviced apartments operating in over 7,000 locations, typically with around 60 units
per property. Based on average achieved sector occupancy levels, the annual size of
the global serviced apartment sector is over USD $18.5 billion.
Market drives changing demand
In many organisations, apartments now handle half of all bed nights generated for stays of seven nights or more
Research by the UK & Ireland's Institute
of Travel Management in April 2008
found that the majority of UK corporate
buyers have reacted to rising hotel rates
by seeking alternative content for their
accommodation programmes.
At one end of the spectrum, 71%
of corporate buyers have increased their
usage of traditional budget hotels, whilst
at the other 48% reported greater use of
serviced apartments.
Asked to explain why they are using
serviced apartmentsmore, 38% responded
that there was no change in their use of
apartments for stays of 5 days or more;
35% advised that they were using
apartments to reduce costs across all stay
types and 22% were using apartments as
a direct alternative to hotels The Apartment Service's Global Survey
2008 confirms these trends, and provides
a detailed analysis of how corporates both
in the UK and internationally are using
apartments, and why.
Market share
As the ITM survey highlights, serviced
apartments' share of the corporate
accommodation (as opposed to relocation)
budget is on the up. Inmany organisations,
apartments now handle half of all bed
nights generated for stays of seven nights
or more.
The popularity of apartments for long
stays peaks at 1 - 3 months, where
serviced apartments enjoy 87.1% of the
global market, compared to 24.4% for
stays of 6 nights or less.