Not just an apartment, not quite a hotel…

Opportunity: Distributed Flexotel

As a recent arrival in Bucharest I  had the pleasure this past week of bouncing around a bit between hotels and short term apartments offering varying levels of service and amenities. While the concept of short term apartment rental as a cost effective alternative to a hotel is not new, it could be extended. Why not provide a service combining short term apartment rentals catering to business clientelle with a package of other geographically distributed, and perhaps inefficiently utilized, facilities to provide services similar to a hotel at a lower cost?

Such a package could also include flexible shared office space (instead of an overpriced and overcrowded hotel “business center”), short term membership or guest pass at a local gym (instead of the hotel fitness center), a centralized concierge service (mostly by telephone), restaurant delivery (”room service”), a car service or metro pass to connect the pieces, and cleaning and laundry service contracted out to local individuals and businesses. Through one network of service providers and facilities, customers can choose just what they want and need from a menu, reducing costs. Customers can provide addresses for meetings in the city (if not held at the service’s shared office facilities) and the service could optimize the location of residential and office facilities in an effort to reduce travel time.

Written by Peter

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