Part hotel, part self-catering: how SeaSpace is capturing the lifestyle aparthotel market

For home and away

The 10-acre SeaSpace is opening with 56 self-catering studios, starting at £100 a night, and two- and three-bedroom apartments with kitchens, dining/worktables and lounge areas. A further two apartments and 14 lodges have planning permission. 

The strategy is to maximise the facilities by opening them up to 400 local members, thus creating a site that stays busy year-round. The Italian-style restaurant-bar, café and deli are designed as a social hub for locals, while facilities include a health club, gym, 19 metre swimming pool, kids’ pool, hot tub, fitness classes and even a five-court club for the burgeoning sport of padel tennis.

“Community is at the heart of the brand,” says Harper. “It’s a big site so we need to build experiences with our community who can use the facilities.”

“We are heavily going after the family and groups of friends markets – people coming to surf, run, walk, cycle or hang out together”

As for attracting holidaymakers, Harper says the staycation market remains vibrant: “We’re ahead of where we were pre-pandemic, but the post-pandemic surge is normalising. However, I believe a brand-led, design-led interesting, authentic, innovative solution will incentivise people to come to Cornwall. And SeaSpace is a good example of something new in the domestic space.”

By positioning SeaSpace as an accessible brand that adds value for the mass affluent market, he sees it competing with the likes of Center Parcs, where people have become “used to the eco-system of hospitality and leisure experiences”.

“We are heavily going after the family and groups of friends markets – people coming to surf, run, walk, cycle or hang out together. The beauty of SeaSpace is that it can target different segments and demographics outside the school holidays,” he says.

The concept will also be chasing niche customers, such as the relocation and corporate markets that urban aparthotels serve.

“It’s not big in Cornwall,” Harper concedes, “but people do come into the county for work or to relocate. The rental market is difficult, so the idea you can take a three-bed aparthotel for a month or so is attractive.”

A more unexpected niche market is the film industry, thanks to a big media production community in Cornwall, with Poldark, Doc Martin and Beyond Paradise in recent years.

“The idea that you can check into an aparthotel [for several weeks] and live, cook, be part of a community, stay in your routine – that offers value at a corporate and personal level. And there is nothing in this market in this region that does it well,” Harper adds.

Big business, small team

Work to redevelop the former Sands Resort Hotel into SeaSpace began last November. The company, which bought the resort in 2022, continued trading at the property during the planning process.

According to Harper, the business plan models an attractive return on the “significant multimillion-pound” investment.

“The fact that it is a big site with multiple revenue streams makes it an attractive business model,” he says. “We have hotel occupancies and rates, but the nature of an aparthotel that makes it interesting commercially is that we need a smaller team. One reason is that the ethos is independent living rather than pure hotel services. Another is that we have partnered with a bar-restaurant operator, who has taken a lease, so we can keep a lean and highly skilled team.”

Certainly, any potential recruitment issues have been headed off. The group as a whole provides team accommodation, with 70 rooms in the area for non-local staff. In addition, many of the Sands Resort hotel staff have remained onboard, testament to the work Harper’s team have done to engage the core team. And with the industry-wide post-Covid staffing crisis starting to stabilise, many new recruits are locals, too.

“This is important to bring the community to life. We’re not just regionally first, but industry first and that is landing well,” says Harper.

“We’re in a good position because we’re a 12-month employer, not seasonal. We have invested in people and culture and are about to be accredited B Corp, so we’re ensuring the cultural nuts and bolts of our business are best in class.”

Expansion is very much on the agenda for the wider business, and a substantial planning application has been submitted over the summer to deliver the next phase of growth, including two large developments and community-shared access of the bay, such as parking, road structure and F&B for the community.

And while all eyes have been on the launch of SeaSpace, Harper believes the brand has legs to travel outside of Cornwall.

“The core attributes of the brand are that it must be coastal, in a community and in a market that is up and coming, where brands like SeaSpace can help locals to build their own eco system. So, we won’t travel to Sandbanks, Salcombe or Rock, but I can see it in Margate or Eastbourne and Hove – those south coast markets are interesting to me.”

He adds: “With a model that is eminently replicable, SeaSpace is a response to the changing needs and aspirations of travellers and a real opportunity to reshape hospitality in the UK.”