The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers – ASAP – will officially launch its innovative new real-time news hub and information portal at the Business Travel Show on 24 February.
James Foice, CEO of the ASAP, comments: “The phenomenal global growth forecast for our serviced apartment sector for the next four years means that now is the perfect time for us to launch our new global news hub at The Business Travel Show to both the media and the corporate travel community.
“The news hub features all the latest breaking news for our sector, not just in the UK but across the world since ASAP is now establishing itself as the leading ‘voice of the sector’, having grown to more than 130 members representing in excess of 100,000 serviced apartments across the globe.”
With the 2015 Savills ‘Extended Stay’ report confirming the sector is set to be the UK’s fastest growing hospitality segment in the next two years, serviced apartments have now ‘come of age’ as a mainstream accommodation choice for both the corporate and the leisure traveller.
The ASAP news hub ensures there is a ‘go-to’ reference point for all interested parties in the serviced apartment industry – operators, agents, developers, investors and consumers – to find out the latest breaking news for the rapidly growing sector, as well as key trends and new developments within the wider travel industry.
ASAP is partnering at the Business Travel Show with 15 of its operator members within the dedicated ASAP serviced apartment pavilion, a sure sign of the significant increase in interest from the corporate travel buyer in this alternative and flexible way to stay.
Foice continues: “We’re expecting an even greater level of interest from the corporate travel buyer this year now that our ASAP Quality Accreditation Programme is delivering the critical duty of care assurances our sector needs. And the scale of new property openings this year has been particularly welcomed by the corporate traveller, who can now find serviced apartments in every key city in the UK. Already in the first six weeks of 2016 we’ve had two significant new openings in Birmingham and Glasgow:
- Staycity opened 170 apartments in Birmingham’s Newhall Street early February – it is are on track to expand from 1,000 to 3,500 apartments in the next 24 months and to 10,000 apartments by 2020. Later this year it will open in York, Marseille and in London – at Covent Garden as well as an extension to the Heathrow property (125 apartments).
- PREM Group just unveiled its new Premier Suites brand and in January opened 45 suites at its new property in Glasgow, the company’s first in Scotland. It plans to open 12 new properties in the next three years, which will include expansion into mainland Europe in key cities in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Foice concludes: “And it’s fantastic to see the strong development pipeline, which means more than 1,000 new serviced apartments will be opened by our members in the UK alone this year.”
