You may already know how to draw business visitors to your property for a brief stay, but what about longer stays?
Corporate housing has been a well-known option for companies and their traveling staff for a long time. It provides many more benefits and comforts than a typical hotel stay and frequently works out to be more affordable for the concerned firm.
However, these services offer advantages to more than just business travelers and organizations. Additionally, there are other benefits owners of vacation rentals can enjoy when offering corporate housing options.
Above all, renting your vacation home to businesses can help double or even triple your rental income.
Let’s examine corporate housing, what it is, and how it might help you increase your income from vacation rentals.
How does corporate housing work?
The term “corporate housing,” widely used in the travel industry, describes renting out fully furnished residences and apartments to businesses and other professionals. The terms “serviced apartments” or “executive apartments” may also be used to describe corporate housing. Rates for corporate housing often include all utilities, including gas, electricity, and water.
Similar to vacation rentals, this travel business area has experienced tremendous expansion over the past 20 years. The overall revenue generated by corporate housing in the US market in 2015 was in the neighborhood of $2.93 billion.
How may your vacation rental be used for corporate housing?
It could be challenging for many vacation property owners in some places to acquire off-season reservations. Marketing your property as a business housing option can be a terrific idea to counteract the shoulder season downturn.
What things need to be taken into consideration while marketing your vacation rental as a serviced apartment?
Set a reasonable price.
Your property’s competitive pricing is the secret to producing significant profits from business housing. Start by researching the local average nightly rate for hotels; this will serve as your benchmark. Recall that business housing is typically 40–50% less expensive than a hotel.
Decide on slightly lower costs, such as $80 per person, if a hotel charges $150 per person per night. A two-bedroom apartment would not only still have a considerable earning potential (at least $4,800 per month), but it would also be far more desirable to a company’s financial staff when making budget calculations.
The average corporate housing stay in the US was 84 nights in 2015, therefore, this option can save businesses thousands of dollars compared to hotels without sacrificing any comforts.
Additionally, businesses will incur even lower costs when staff members can prepare meals at home in a fully equipped kitchen, park for free on-site, and even do laundry whenever they choose.
Furnish luxurious facilities
Old appliances and shabby furniture are insufficient while serving commercial clientele. By adding luxurious facilities, you can simply assist your vacation rental qualify for the corporate housing category. But don’t worry, the return on these investments will more than make up for it once you can raise the nightly price to match.
Candidates for corporate housing should at the very least have the following amenities: high-quality furniture and decor, name-brand appliances and white goods, big-screen televisions with cable or other entertainment options, high-speed internet access, fully-stocked, contemporary kitchens with coffee makers, and cleaning and maintenance teams on call for any problems.
You can easily equal, if not surpass, the hotel experience by providing fluffy hotel-quality towels and robes, top-quality Egyptian cotton bed linens, and an abundance of toiletries to last them the duration of their stay. This will guarantee an enjoyable stay and might even persuade a repeat customer.
Provide supplemental services
Go above and beyond by providing extra services at prices that are unbeatable by hotels if you want to make your property stand out to the corporate travel crowd.
Owners of vacation rentals can utilize this as an additional chance to increase their income by offering services like a chauffeur, daily cleaning and laundry, or an on-site personal chef.
Additionally, many apartment buildings or individual homes that provide vacation rentals will have their amenities like on-site fitness centers, swimming pools, or bicycle rentals that you might also promote as an extra.
Make corporate visitors feel at home
One of the main factors driving an increase in the number of long-term business travelers choosing corporate housing is the home-away-from-home atmosphere.
Staying in an area that is popular with residents can especially help employees who are relocating to a new city make the best choice for their future residence (and perhaps that of their family). Employee relocations currently account for close to 40% of the corporate housing rental needs.
You’ll already have the location component checked off because your home is a vacation rental. But you can still make sure it has everything else necessary for a nice stay by checking. This calls for cozy (and brand-new) beds, additional pillows, duvets, and linens, enough dishes for everyone, a variety of plasticware for small children, fans, air conditioners, and fully stocked kitchens with things like spices, oils, pots, and pans.
A novel idea to increase reservations during the shoulder season and bring in extra cash is to offer your vacation rental as corporate lodging. Have you ever had business travelers stay with you? In the comments, please elaborate on your experience!
