We talked with Mike Stapley from House of Moli about his business plans for 2014, staff changes and perception of the serviced apartment industry.
What’s the company planning for the year ahead and are there any projects you can tell us about?
Expansion is the main objective for the year. We intend to source more apartments, although we do have a healthy portfolio at the moment, we’re looking to switch the focus to the City and we’re going to affirm our position there. We’re finding that there are certain developing areas in London where new business is emerging and styles of business are changing. It’s in these places that we feel serviced apartments are an appropriate product. We also have international expansion in mind and a few other plans that we’ll unveil throughout 2014.
It sounds like you have a few tricks up your sleeve. We’ve noticed that you’ve undergone quite a few staff changes recently. How are the team getting on?
One big change was Belinda Daw, Head of Agency Relations. She was one of our key contacts within the corporate market and unfortunately she headed back home to Australia, but will continue to contribute to the company and our agency relationships. We’ve also had Oliver Kausar join us on the corporate side to help with business development.
If you could make a few changes to the serviced apartment sector what would they be?
For the whole corporate world to instantly understand how it works and that it’s not a straight-forward hotel product replacement. For people to know the concept is fluid and doesn’t fit in with systems like GDS (Global Distribution System) and that there are certain situations where serviced apartments probably aren't the best solution, such as one or two night stays.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
I did, but I’ve blown them already.
Quick Fire round:
Rain or snow? Snow
Skiing or snowboarding? Skiing
2013 or 2014? 2014, my philosophy is to always look forward.
