AN ACCOMMODATING CONCEPT

Cover story

AN ACCOMMODATING CONCEPT

MONEY speaks to Jean-Luc Micallef, managing director at JL Properties, on his ever-growing platform, which provides landlords and language school accommodation providers a cost-effective means of both letting and reserving accommodation.

"Our business relies a lot on online reviews, so offering high-end, top notch accommodation, coupled with a professional customer-oriented service, is more than vital."

Jean-Luc Micallef sits in his home beside his two Weimaraners eager to spill the beans on his exciting project that is accommodating in more words than one, making short let accommodation less costly and risk-free for both those looking to rent out their individual or batch of properties to him and accommodation providers such as language schools which he sublets to.

With tonnes of experience under his belt in the student tourism industry and short letting business, he has embarked on an ambitious project that is making the international language school accommodation industry in Malta more of a risk-free business.

His skills and experience in both the short letting business and the student tourism industry have helped his business grow from strength to strength and what started as a leap in the dark with a list of only a few properties has, in the blink of an eye, followed with a slew of additions, the number of properties he will manage expected to reach no less than 65 by next year.

So what is it about Jean-Luc’s relatively new platform that ticks all the boxes?

“I have always dreamt of starting my own business and initially started to experiment with my own properties. I decided to expand my business, JL Properties, and was managing some 12 rented properties at once which were entrusted to me by the owners of the properties.

“By managing I mean taking a leading role in the properties I have in hand by providing a full package to clients, i.e. landlords and those I sublet to, overseeing all aspects that involve the management of a property: from maintaining cleanliness at all times to seeing that maintenance issues are resolved that same day where and when possible.

“But what really entices international language schools to rent out the properties from me in batches is the fact that I also manage the allocation of student bookings and schools are not tied down if they don’t have enough students to fill the properties as they only pay for the properties their students occupy, making it risk-free and cost-effective for language schools. Even when it comes to shoulder months, I’ve got them covered.

“In this way schools needn’t worry about the accommodation aspect any longer as this is all taken care of by myself and the human resources aspect is also heavily reduced from their end.

“Some schools we already have on board, for instance, have certain preferences and restrictions such as having students of the same nationality live in separate apartments or blocks in a bid to ensure that students do practice their English-language skills and not end up speaking their native language instead. Such tailor-made bookings are done by using an advanced technological system we recently invested in,” he says. But this is only one of the many facets of the business where student allocations are concerned.

“My platform has many advantages for landlords and the clients I sublet to. Things like electricity bills, cleaning expenses, maintenance fees and any issues that may crop up from time to time are all taken care of. The owner of the property and the tenants or schools using my services to accommodate their students have peace of mind when using our platform,” Jean-Luc assures.

According to Jean-Luc, his platform provides cleaning services on arrival, departure and once weekly during stay. “We deliver on what we promise and spot checks are welcome by those using our services. And if a client

has some maintenance-related issues and a customer complaint on such issues is filed by 3 pm on the day, we ensure that the issue is resolved that same day.”

What’s more is the fact that the apartments he manages have all been installed with energy-saving appliances and his company has invested heavily in coin-operated meters and tenants are provided with recycling bags, helping promote the separation of waste.

He explains: “The reason for these ‘green’ forward looking initiatives is two-fold: a sustainable business and sustainable environment.”

Jean-Luc highlights the fact that today’s competitive landscape calls for those running his sort of business to stay ahead of the game as “our business relies a lot on online reviews, so offering high-end, top notch accommodation, coupled with a professional customer-oriented service, is more than vital”.

Jean-Luc had only words of praise for Dominique Pace Vincenti "who is my right hand and who has been with me from the start of the business".

Every year, Jean-Luc’s platform also pitches in a sum of money for charity or cause and this year it was ‘The Bubble’.

To learn more about Jean-Luc’s platform, email him on jl@jlproperties.com.mt or simply call 7928 0154.