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Long stays are future for business travel
InterContinental Hotels Group is making a bid for the long-stay business travel market by launching a brand dedicated to stays of over five nights. The hotel group is sticking with a current brand, Staybridge Suites, for the long stay product. Staybridge Suites are currently only operating in the US but from late next year the brand will be launched in the UK with two London hotels – one in Brentford close to Heathrow and one near Waterloo. The all-suite hotels will have an upmarket feel, but hope to offer travellers a homely feel with freshly baked cookies, an open kitchen where guests can help themselves to breakfast and drinks receptions for a chance to meet hotel staff and other guests. According to Staybridge Suites EMEA vice president, John Wagner, extensive research by the company found that increasing project-base work, relocation and outsourcing means business travellers are away from home for weeks, sometimes months. “Current hotel choices represent a compromise of what they really want,” he said. And what they really want according to Mr Wagner is larger living space, a home- from-home, a place to socialise, proximity to work and leisure facilities, and a place to prepare their own meals. According to the InterContinental Hotels Group, a total 13.9 million room nights were taken in the UK in 2003 by overseas and domestic travellers who stayed at the same hotel for more than four nights. There are plans to open up to 52 properties in the UK’s major cities and in the US the brand continues to expand from a current 79, to 179 over the coming years. Report by Ginny McGrath
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