Will the corporate housing industry find it needs an iPhone app to run more efficiently?
Who’s building the first corporate housing app for the iPhone? Apparently someone is, according to this job listing. They want to build an iPhone app similar to mynewplace.com or apartments.com but for corporate housing only. Hmmmm… A good idea but perhaps a better one for, say, TalonPro or maybe a division of Salesforce would be to build an iPhone app for corporate housing operations managers and sales professionals to stay on top of utilities and furniture deliveries while they are on the road. Any takers out there?
How will staycations affect vacation rentals?
Perhaps it was 9/11 that began to the slow descent of what was once a nation of xenophiles. For whatever reason, the age of the staycation has begun. What is a staycation? Wikipedia defines a staycation as a vacation taken close to one’s home. A quick search on google will tell you, that as gas prices rose to historic highs last year, the staycation became more and more prevalent. The question is how did this affect the vacation rental market?
Bill Furlong, in his blog Escapia, compared vacation rentals from 2007 and 2008 by region. Some regions saw losses of up to 30%!
While the vacation traveler only makes up a small percentage of sales for the average corporate housing provider, it’s still a sale nonetheless. What’s more, as retirement accounts crashed with the stock market over the past year, retired couples who travel for extended periods of time have shortened their usual trips. This means that corporate housing has lost out to the hotel industry in areas that see a lot of vacation rentals, like Florida.
Top-of-the-line furnished executive apartment providers are constantly pitted against each other to find the most cutting edge interior design. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the new movement in interior design is called “Rough Luxe” and focuses on found objects, reclaimed materials, and imperfection in general. In a previous blog, I discussed shopping at thrift stores for finds in furniture– no I wasn’t kidding. In the future refurbishing a unique item will go a lot further with the jet-setting executive crowd than cookie cutter design. Major designers in the field of Rough Luxe include Bill Sofield and Raw-Edges. Miami’s Art Basel this year awarded its top prizes to designers who, in the words of the Journal, created works that “drew attention to the maker’s hand.” Top design stores in Manhattan such as Matter and Moss are carrying elements of the design.
Business Travel News Online recently reported that in an economy that has seen a drop in business travel by almost 10% in the past year (source: NBTA), extended stay hotels are aggressively constructing new hotels. Richard Flores, marketing director for Larkspur Hotels and Restaurants, was quoted as saying , “In 2006 and 2007, you could get away with having one major account, and you were running 80% occupancy with a good rate. You can’t count on Google to fill them up anymore.”
This brings up a number of interesting points. One is that internet referrals, when gleaned from a single source, will fail us in this economy. What is needed is a more innovative way of bringing in internet referrals, and that’s where Shop Corporate Housing comes in. The website allows all providers to compete for a single lead, which in the end means that the prospect is more likely to find the niche provider who is best able to serve their needs.
The other quote from the article that caught my eye was this: “Robert Radomski, vice president of brand management for InterContinental Hotel Group’s extended stay brands, said the down economy also has increased certain types of business travel to extended stay properties. ‘We are seeing growth in liquidations, and those liquidation teams are the sort of thing that brings more extended stay business,’ he said.” Liquidation teams are teams of consultants who are asked to manage the liquidation of large inventories, such as when Circuit City liquidated its inventory across the country earlier this year. What this means to me: now is a time to pursue new markets, and to open up sales into a new clientele. Liquidation teams could be one of them.
It’s a common question that comes up these days, especially when it comes to housing interns. More and more, people have been requesting two twin beds in one bedroom as a way of cutting costs on corporate housing. CHPA has a discussion thread on the topic and The New York Times has an article on the subject. What are your thoughts?
In a recent discussion thread on CHPA’s group on LinkedIn, Jim Drass discussed negotiating lower rents with your property. As discussed in a previous blog, hotels are slashing their rates by as much as a third, and in order to keep up the corporate housing industry had better adjust to the current market as well. The New York Times reported that as the real estate market has cooled, many buildings are seeing more vacancies and making more concessions to attract tenants. As Drass says, it’s an excellent time to negotiate a drop in rent or an increase in concessions.
The BBC recently reported that home construction is on the rise in the United States. This means that a powerful segment of your sales–the group of people who use corporate housing while their home is being constructed– will once again begin to flourish. As the housing market loosens up again and people regain their faith in the economy, the relocation segment of your sales will also begin to see improvements. The end of the recession may finally be near.
