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Booking serviced apartments is becoming easier thanks to new entrants and tech innovations

The ability to book all types of extended-stay accommodation online is a long-held dream among travel buyers but Marriott’s entry into the sector with Apartments by Marriott Bonvoy, bookable via the group’s reservations engine, will up the ante.

“Recognised consumer brands can only help lift us all,” says Senior Marketing Manager at Situ, Tamara Edgar. “Extendedstay has long suffered from low brand recognition and associated standards, and established names from the hotel industry help promote the whole sector.”

Cycas calls for collective action. “To drive growth in line with user behaviour, it’s vital that global brands work with booking agents connected via Global Distribution System (GDS) providers to evolve their systems, which are fairly inflexible,” says Group Director of Sales, Martin Hird. “I’d love to see them allow hotels to offer tiered pricing to business guests.

“Our corporate customers and agents crave the ability to access up-to-date pricing and the facility to book directly on any chosen platform. Further investment in supporting technology is required to meet these needs and this will make serviced apartments more competitive in the crowded marketspace,” he says.

Driving data

Since 2021, bookers can use the Mansley website as a self-booking tool via an app. Access to bookings past, present, future, plus statements and invoices, has proved particularly useful. “We are exploring enhanced functionalities and hope to make them available soon,” says Head of Sales and Marketing, Clive Dlima.

Situ continues to refine its pricing tool. This lies in booking software Core, which provides live connection to availability and pricing, a bidding platform (reverse auction) and smart request-to-book inventory search. “We have fed historic and real-time data into our systems to improve speed of response, quality and best pricing. The results are excellent and there are further opportunities to explore,” says Product Manager, Jenny Brace.

AltoVita predicts that revenue optimisation technology will help ensure intelligent pricing, whilst monitoring portfolio performance and studying booking patterns to make informed strategic decisions.

"With this, operators can take the guesswork out of the pricing, increase their revenue and scale operations," says Vivi Cahyadi Himmel, CEO and co-founder. It is no mean task to deliver a winning solution to procurement departments, mobility managers and employees that helps manage costs and keeps guests happy. “3Sixty brings disparate data together in a single hub for metrics and reporting. Users can create detailed custom reports with geographical, financial and partner insights in one place to help them make smart business decisions,” says Chief Revenue Officer, Carrie Hartman. res:harmonics is a property management system (PMS) for operators in co-living, serviced apartments and BTR. It has seen an increase in activity, especially for extended stays, via direct booking portals.

It uses AI and humans to get best results for users and the 3Sixty service team is available 24/7. The organisation relaunched 3Sixty in August 2022, providing faster technology to collect more information.

Duty of care has not gone by the board and in a new partnership, Dun & Bradstreet Risk Analytics sweeps the 3Sixty supply chain weekly to identify hazardous areas of safety, security, financial health and business practices.

“We’ve found that business travellers searching for a month-long stay might find an apartment on an OTA but prefer to book directly,” says Managing Director Giles Horwitch-Smith. “That’s because direct booking tech has made the whole booking process slick, speedy and secure.”

Artificial intelligence

Technology allows providers to consolidate guest and accommodation data, and create dashboards from which to extract useful insights. Advances in AI are likely to improve this further. Integrated portals let employer, relocation professional and employee share information and regular updates.

“There has been a huge growth in such technology, and HR software development is in the final throes of joining up the dots to include all aspects of managing a global workforce, including the complexities of assignment and business travel. Expectations are high and systems are expensive,” says VP Operations for STAY, Sam Ghosh.

MYSA provides a platform for buyers to interact with operators of serviced apartments and short-term rentals, as well as management companies that provide experiences – now increasingly in demand.

It digitally audits all accommodation. “We provide complete transparency by displaying the outcome of the audit to the buyer through the platform to help them meet ISO 31030,” says Founder and CEO Gary Hurst.

“It gives buyers access to information they require to meet duty of care requirements. It allows them to do due diligence to the level they could with hotels and lets suppliers demonstrate their credentials,” he adds.

But buyers are still hampered by inconsistent technology offerings.

“The challenge we have to include serviced apartments in an accommodation portfolio with hotels is access to the distribution network,” says Jan Jacobsen, Accenture Global Procurement Director for Travel Mobility. “When big players like Marriott create an accommodation portfolio, it becomes more accessible for people like me; that happened with Ascott. But smaller independents either need to join the club or rethink who their customers are,” he says.