Home and away
"if you opened an apartment hotel today, I could fill it for you tomorrow," so says Charles McCrow, managing director of London's Apartment Service agency, who believes Britain's apartment hotel sector is a shadow of what it could - and will - be.
A well-established market in the USA, booming in Germany and France, momentum is gathering for serious UK expansion.
A snapshot of current UK activity would look like this: French serviced apartments giant Orion, buoyed by the success of its 120-studio Barbican operation launched last December, has purchased a property in Piccadilly to turn into serviced flats; French developer Sofap has contracted Ellis Construction, builders of Orion's Barbican property, to build a £6.6m multi-storey serviced apartment project in Gloucester Road; Friendly hotels has converted some of its properties into part apartment hotels; McCrow is talking to companies keen to develop properties in Edinburgh and other major UK cities. "There are a lot of people buying short-stay accommodation," he says. "Even in the dead months of 1991 and 1992, a lot of this type of property changed hands."
Serviced apartments in the UK are nothing new. Begun in grand style when the Victorian aristocracy enjoyed taking rooms in London for "the season", the practice eventually disappeared, though you can still find aged plaques declaring "luxury serviced apartments" on doors in Mayfair back streets.
By 1992, the first time in 10 years, the concept had revived sufficiently to warrant an appearance in Egon Ronay's guide. Then it was on a small scale, it is now showing signs of growing popularity.
The signs are particularly evident in a growing number of professionally run, lushly furnished and well-appointed apartments coming on to the market. It's not enough to only offer cheaper, self-catering alternatives to hotels, competition is now based on comfort, amenities and diversity in apartment design.
What is the appeal? Colette Langan, general manager of the Ascott Mayfair apartment hotel due to open in London this month, has a solid hotel background and feels serviced apartments offer "very good value for money by comparison. Basically, hotel rooms are designed to sleep in. Serviced apartments are generally much bigger. They have a sitting room, so you can invite people round without the embarrassment of having to say ‘come up to my room'. And it's flexible, the amenities are ideal for the business traveller. We find a lot of people who use them on business return as tourists."
The Ascott sports a sleek, 1930s-inspired style, courtesy of US-based designers Hirsch Bedner. Owned by the Singapore Jumabhoy family, its company Scotts Holdings has several luxury serviced apartment blocks in the Far East, but this is their first in Europe. Prices range from £3,250-£8,250 per month.
Design is a key element in the marketing of the Ascott. "There are a lot of very beautiful apartments in London decorated in traditional English country house style. We are aiming for something different," says Langan.
According to Sandra Courtner, Hirsch Bedner's main designer for the project, the brief was to make the design appropriate to the 1930s building. Soft beiges and neutral colours emphasise the individual detailing. Original artwork for the lobby area was commissioned from British artists Guy Noble and Simon Black, hand-woven Persian rugs are in the lounges (bought direct from Iran) and each suite has its own unique artwork. Lighting has also played an important part. "We use ambient lighting and spotlights to highlight certain design elements," says Courtner.
Langan hopes the Ascott Mayfair will represent "quality accommodation and facilities". A fully-equipped gym with steam room and sauna is provided, as well as meeting rooms, a bar and an eating area where complimentary Continental breakfasts are available. These facilities are unusual among stand-alone blocks.
As in most apartment hotels, visitors will comprise a substantial number of Americans. But the Ascott will obviously trade on its Far-Eastern reputation - servicing both the business community and ex-pats. According to Langan, the Far- Eastern outlets operate at 98% occupancy.
Though unseen, it sounds as though the Ascott could rock the boat of London's only seriously stylish apartment hotel, Fountains, which opened in 1992. Its striking, contemporary interiors were designed by Christopher Neville and incorporate the best in British design.
With furniture from the likes of Mark Brazier-Jones, Justin Meath-Baker and Tom Dixon, lighting by Charlotte Packe and original artwork in every room, it has carved out a very lucrative niche for itself among the arty set, style-conscious members of the financial world and visiting foreign dignitaries. The 16 suites and one penthouse are often block-booked by film companies, advertising agencies and banks. Regular guests range from Meryl Streep to the prime minister of Western Samoa.
Fountains is owned by London's largest serviced apartment company, the Vienna Hotel Group, which previously established itself in the budget and two- or three-star niche. Fountains was a departure into the upper echelons - in price, service and design - the brainchild of Vienna group founder Peter Lowy's daughter Tracy. Ms Lowy's belief that there was a demand for good, contemporary British design in this sector has paid huge dividends.
Although the interior design budget was modest, it has more than paid for itself with the publicity it generated. Fountains has been featured in various English, US, Spanish and German interior design magazines, and was considered sufficiently stylish to warrant a four-page spread in the US-based Travel & Leisure magazine. Its sleek lines often appear as the backdrop in fashion shoots and interviews featured in UK newspapers and style magazines.
Significantly, not one piece of contract furniture was specified for Fountains.
"I told the designers that everything had to be solid, and there was to be no veneer - which means it can take the knocks," says Neville. Fabrics chosen were fire treated, and glass was toughened. Lowy, who buys furniture for the Vienna group's other properties - often from large contract furnishings firms - says the furniture in Fountains has lasted better than contract equivalents elsewhere.
The small, individually run design companies chosen by Neville also responded to an impossibly tight deadline. "We gave them seven weeks and we had a really good response from everybody - even the rugs were custom-designed and made within that time."
Because the designers were fresh to the hotel market they came up with some ingenious design solutions. Mark Brazier Jones's dressing table, with matching chair, is covered with raw silk - highly impractical one might think, but the loose silk covering is designed to wrap around the furniture and ties in a bunch underneath. Untie the bunch, and it simply lifts off for dry cleaning.
The budget (Neville jokes that it was around £5.50 per room) did not allow for new bedroom cabinets. The existing wood cabinets have been customised, adding designed finger plates and handles which incorporate the Fountains logo.
Headboard covers are unconventional but practical. Fitted, wavy-edged covers can be removed for cleaning, as can the headboard material. It's a showcase of British talent which Lowy and Neville hope one day to incorporate in a bigger hotel.
Longer-established apartment hotels are not taking this competition lying down. The Athenaeum Hotel and Apartments recently underwent a £10m transformation, with the help of London consultancy Peter Inston. Yet the tone remains traditional "country house" - floral fabric canopies over beds, marble bathrooms - with a contemporary touch displayed in the striped upholstery and bold carpet colours.
While hotels, burdened with heavy staffing budgets and countless other extra expenses, play safe by keeping to their traditional appearance, serviced apartments' running costs and overheads are relatively light.
And, as Fountains has shown, and the Ascott hopes to, there's a large, broad-ranging market for those who wish to live, albeit temporarily, in a glamorous, contemporary and original space.
