TRAVEL

A London-based company is making temporary housing more comfortable and hassle-free.

Your boss just told you that you might need to relocate to London for a few months to oversee a project. Not again, you moan.

As much as you like a change of scene, you dread the thought of staying in an impersonal hotel room for long periods of time. It just doesn’t feel like home. And the ridiculous cost involved is taking its toll on your company’s finances, which ultimately means a smaller bonus, and you don’t want that, do you?

In his role as a corporate solicitor and, later, as an investment banker, Guy Nixon spent much of the 1990s travelling around Asia and the US, often for months on end. It made him very aware of the limitations of hotel living. He longed for more privacy, space and comfort and a place in which his friends and family would be welcome to stay.

Unfortunately, there were very few temporary housing solutions available at the time, so Nixon decided to test the market’s appetite for temporary housing in 1997 by placing an advertisement in the New York Times, offering his own London apartment to business travellers while he was away on business himself. Within hours, he was inundated with enquiries from American business travellers.

That was how his company Go Native started in 1998.

“London’s position as one of the world’s most expensive cities has prompted many visitors to explore different ways of cutting the cost of their stay,” says the 46-year-old founder and CEO. “One option that has seen an increase in popularity is the use of alternative types of accommodation, such as serviced or leased apartments.”

Nixon says customers are attracted to apartments because they are available on more flexible terms than hotels or short-term lets.

“These properties are available for one day and up to a year; customers can specify the level of service required, whether it be a daily linen service or a weekly clean; properties can be quickly and easily identified and booked on the Go Native website; and there is no formal check-in process.”

Go Native has over 25,000 properties in their database, offering the largest network of serviced apartments across the UK, Europe, the Middle-East, Africa and India. Their clients include large corporations looking to house staff on a short-term basis, tourists, business travellers, graduates on training programmes, as well as parents of overseas students studying in London.

All of Go Native’s apartments are of three or four-star standard, come fully furnished and feature comfortable interiors complete with a private bathroom, fully-equipped kitchen and broadband and digital TV services.

Many of the buildings also feature free on-site laundry rooms, entertaining spaces and guest lounges with large plasma screen TVs.

Located across central London, the majority of units are studio and one-beds situated close to tube stations, shops and other conveniences, with larger two-bed units also available.

Because of lower overheads, this type of accommodation can offer significant savings for guests, with prices starting from just £59 a night as opposed to the London hotels, which rarely cost less than £160.

“With the current economic climate, our clients are invariably looking to make savings but also want hotel-quality accommodation in convenient locations with a degree of flexibility but with all the facilities of a home. These are things that Go Native offer as standard,” says Nixon.

“We deal with all sorts of requests, and I have personally been involved with sourcing properties suitable for people with disabilities, people travelling with pets and celebrities for whom security is paramount,” he adds.

Based on customer’s feedback, Go Native introduced eco ratings, a guest rating system and video tours of the properties to help the clients decide. Last summer, British Telecom was looking to house 30 MBA graduate interns in London for 12 weeks and wanted a low-cost, centrally located, comfortable housing solution.

Go Native sourced 30 apartments in one location that met all of the criteria and has now been retained as British Telecom’s accommodation provider for three years.

“The property was a large block of newly refurbished studio apartments close to West End. Our interns were delighted with the accommodation,” says Candy Jenkins, MBA recruitment manager, British Telecom. “Pricing was on target, the location was central and secure, the apartments met the expectations of our interns and the overall service was excellent.”

Eugenie Furniss, head of books, William Morris Endeavour talent agency, was also happy with Go Native’s services when he was looking to house three colleagues travelling to Abu Dhabi for four weeks who required space for friends and family, a secure location, easy accessibility and concierge, pool and fitness facilities.

“Go Native was quick to respond with solutions that met our criteria. They understood the market well and helped us negotiate highly flexible terms at competitive rates,” says Furniss.

Nixon expects exciting times for the serviced apartment industry in the next few years as the sector becomes better understood by potential users and institutions.

“I think we will see steady growth in the number and range of serviced apartments available across the country. As the largest agency in Europe, we find that most new operators want to place their properties in our network.”

He says that the response Go Native gets now is very similar to the response he first got with his own flat, but on a bigger scale.

“We housed over 6,500 guests in 2009 and achieved a 96% guest satisfaction rating. People are not always aware that there is an alternative to hotels but when they find out about serviced apartments, they rarely go back to staying in hotels.”

o For more information, visit www.gonative.com.