Aparthotels – What Is a Serviced Apartment?

Hotel apartments are not a new concept, but their popularity is! As most trends we’ve seen surface in recent years, the rise of the aparthotel has been influenced by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Travel habits changed dramatically, impacting what guests seek out and expect in the post-pandemic 21st century.

As a result, we have a pioneering property type that goes by aparthotels or serviced apartments. In this blog post, we’ll dive into more of what aparthotels entail, how they differ from hotels, and how to run a serviced apartment efficiently. Prepare to learn more about a new frontier of property rental with RoomRaccoon.

What Is a Serviced Apartment or Aparthotel?

An aparthotel is exactly what it sounds like – a hotel apartment. This unique offering allows guests a personalised travel experience tailored to their needs. The luxury and convenience of a hotel stay are enhanced by the privacy and comfort of apartment living in aparthotels.

Hotel apartments offer features like daily housekeeping, exclusive bars or cafés and full furnishing. Serviced apartments allow guests to enjoy luxurious time away from home while feeling entirely at home. Business travellers, families and digital nomads frequent this unique property type.

So what is driving the need for aparthotels? While it is largely up for debate, bleisure travel has contributed significantly. With remote work becoming normalised worldwide, business travel has only increased. It has also evolved into “bleisure” travel, where business travellers extend their stay to enjoy the leisure side of their destination.

Apartments VS Aparthotels

Apartments are typically private residences that are rented for long-term stays. Aparthotels blend the best of apartment living with hotel convenience. While hotels offer standard features like free wifi, secure parking and kitchenettes – aparthotels elevate this. Aparthotels will include practical features that improve the day-to-day living of long-term vacations or trips.

Notable Features of Aparthotels

Self-catering

This feature extends past a microwave, kettle and sink. With an aparthotel, you can enjoy a fully functional kitchen. Guests can enjoy their usual cooking routine outside their everyday kitchen. If you’ve splurged on your aparthotel, you can expect luxury appliances and top-tier utensils.

Cleaning services

Guests can enjoy independent apartment living while also receiving daily housekeeping from the aparthotel. General housekeeping can be supplemented with additional services like dry cleaning, laundry or ironing services.

Dedicated restaurants

Many aparthotel buildings have their own “in-house” restaurants that allow guests to enjoy fine cuisine if self-catering isn’t their preference. The onsite restaurants ensure guests have the best of both worlds between apartment living and hotel vacation.

Co-working spaces

Aparthotels cater to business travellers by offering their own co-working spaces on the premises. Workspaces can include meeting rooms, conference spaces and hot desks. These features allow “bleisure” travellers to work outside their leisure space without leaving the building.

Convenient locations

In order to encourage exploration and elevate convenience, most aparthotels are in central locations. A serviced apartment’s central location allows guests to enjoy an authentic and local experience of the area during their stay. A good spot makes the aparthotel experience more genuine than a usual tourist experience.

Hotel luxuries

Although not a typical hotel, guests at aparthotels will benefit from popular hotel services. Some of these services include round-the-clock concierge service, secure parking, high-speed internet at no extra cost, and access to private gyms and swimming pools.

How to Run an Aparthotel Effectively

Aparthotels are rising in popularity, as is their demand. With brand new markets such as Gen Z and Millenials becoming viable customers for travel, the industry has progressed quickly. Travellers long for effortless experiences and have little patience for outdated practices.

So with the heat rising for hoteliers, what is the best way to run an aparthotel? We will explore some innovative tools that can help hoteliers elevate their aparthotel’s performance. The leading aparthotels are technologically savvy and forward thinking. Whatever accommodation you offer, there may be some lessons to learn from this contemporary property type.

1. Maximise Revenue Management

Every property owner wants to sell their rooms for the best rate possible. Rate management can be challenging to keep track of in the busy life of a hotelier. This is why tools like Yield Management and RaccoonRev exist! Hotel software tools ensure you always maximise revenue with dynamic room rates based on supply and demand.

RaccoonRev also allows you to compare your rates with a competitor set to ensure your rates outperform any competitors. When your revenue management is optimised, it will enable you to focus on guest experience and minimise time spent on manual rate management.

2. Organise & Streamline Housekeeping

Since aparthotels or serviced apartments offer cleaning services, keeping track of housekeeping will be of utmost importance. Guests that have opted for an aparthotel over a traditional apartment expect high quality and efficient service. Whether your aparthotel is boutique or large scale, monitoring housekeeping closely with housekeeping software is essential.

While many hoteliers opt for the standard printed checklist, hotel software can automate operations like this. By automating and digitising your aparthotel’s housekeeping, you can ensure that rooms are always clean and guests are happy. A property management system saves you time and resources on housekeeping tasks.

3. Connect & Utilise Key Integrations

Your aparthotel will likely already be using integrations, even if you’re unaware of the terminology! Most common rental property and hotel integrations include online travel agencies (OTAs), point of sale (POS) and room keys. RoomRaccoon lets you connect your aparthotels’ favourite applications and tools to our HMS.

Our integration list is sorted by categories so that you can easily enhance your digital experience with tools. Our comprehensive HMS can elevate your aparthotel while maintaining the connection with integrations that benefit your property management. The performance of your aparthotel will only compound with RoomRaccoon connected to your existing integrations.

Aparthotels Across the World

Aparthotels are on the rise, specifically in South Africa. The tourism update has an exhaustive article on aparthotels in South Africa, with some great statistics on its growth. However, the popularity of serviced apartments is rising all over the world. The prevalence can be attributed to the early conversation about what drives the aparthotel market.

As travellers’ needs and habits change, so do their accommodation preferences. If previous years is anything to go by, we can always expect the unexpected. One of the best ways to understand forecasting in hospitality is by staying on top of trends. Epos Now has an extensive article on Hotel Industry Trends for 2023.

RoomRaccoon for Aparthotels

Do you have any aparthotel you’d like to take to the next level? RoomRaccoon’s all-in-one hotel management system is your key to success. With experience in hotels, B&Bs, apartments and more – we can help you run your aparthotel efficiently.

We want to help improve your serviced apartment’s revenue per available room and occupancy rate! Book a demo today to step into the exciting sphere of hotel cloud management.

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