Feature: Alex Shahabe, President of OWL
“Why and How Technology is Needed to Leverage the Temporary Housing Industry’s New Business Model” As technology expands, the productivity gap continues to widen for booking companies that have not yet implemented a digital solution. As necessity is the mother of invention, the pandemic has pushed us further toward solutions to the challenges related to the traditional housing process. Temporary corporate housing is an industry undergoing a rapid shift toward an online multi-connectivity solution. Ditching the inef cient, time-consuming, and expensive traditional process, new technology platforms lower costs, increase speed and transparency, and leverage local knowledge uniformly. Without incorporating these advances, sourcing companies using the outdated method potentially lose millions. The research and data speak to a uid reality where data must keep up in real-time. The why’s of needing a new business model to adapt and remain scalable and pro table include (1) pace of growth, (2) demand expectations, (3) mobility, and (4) need for digital connection. The how’s and bene ts of incorporating technology are naturally driven by advances in AI and digitally delivered customer-centric services. Why plan and act now? According to SpendEdge, temporary housing has revived and is thriving, with a predicted compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.44 percent from 2021 to 2025. Today’s booking digital transformation provides solid bene ts. With unanticipated growth pre-pandemic, temporary housing players require new levels of ef ciency where mobile access is critical. As we break down the problems that have risen
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26 - The EuRApean Spring 2022
to the top of traditional booking, the solutions are fresh and liberating.
housing process—with their solutions and bene ts covered in the next “how” section.
Temporary Housing is Back and Growing
• Higher fees for middleman suppliers increase costs for buyers. The extra layer is signi cant, estimated to be about $1200 per average reservation.
The pandemic transformed the world of health as well as the workers of our time. As commerce reopens and blossoms, completely different working circumstances have emerged. Workers are steadily returning to the workforce—and often need a temporary place to live while transitioning to new or term positions. When the market dropped during the height of COVID-19, some suppliers were forced or chose to end their agreements with apartment communities. Heather James, CRP, GMS, estimates that the temporary housing inventory reduction was as high as 30 percent in North America. Now, as demand exceeds inventory, temporary housing holders need faster ways to connect new developments and transition locations to the workers hired. The work-from-home movement during the pandemic also increased the demand for furnished housing, leading to unanticipated growth for new entrants into the temporary housing market. For example, the corporate housing company Landing was aiming to operate in 30 cities but grew to 75 cities in response to the pandemic. Why the Traditional Booking Process Costs Money and Time As technology expands, the productivity gap continues to widen for booking companies that have not yet implemented a digital solution. As necessity is the mother of invention, the pandemic has pushed us further toward solutions to the following “why” challenges related to the traditional
• You don't always have access to the local experts. Many temporary housing companies rely on call centers for booking, but if the property location is outside the call center market, the representative probably isn’t extremely familiar with the booking area. They may have to contact another provider to provide local information, and it may not be trusted veri ed. • The traditional booking process is inef cient and time-consuming. The backand-forth communication adds four to ve business days to the booking timeline, sometimes more with time zone and international differences. • Administrators recreate the wheel every time they book a property for a client. There is no easy way to save a pro le or apply it to all inquiries, requiring the administrator to re-enter the speci cations per the buyer's request. • Dashboard reporting is lacking or nonexistent. Any extrapolations or calculations are analog and dependent upon the buyer's time and energy. • Details of local market pricing uctuations get lost or ignored. For example, the price of a one-bedroom property in San Diego increases in the summertime but decreases in the winter, which someone outside San Diego might not know. Without built-in
