The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers
ASAP
 |
|
About us The ASAP – (The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers) - was first conceived in 2002 by a small group of serviced apartment operators and relocation agents in London – England. In 2004 the ARA (The Association of Relocation Agents) decided to broaden its scope and embrace all the individual components involved with both the relocation and travel of the business professional and in so doing changed its name to the current ARP – The Association of Relocation Professionals. With a large overlap in client base and similar membership objectives it was decided to create ASAP as a division of the ARP and in December 2005 the ASAP was officially launched by its serviced apartment members The Purpose of the Association The main aims of the association are: To establish a UK set of standards for serviced apartments and their operators. To monitor and audit the performance of its members. To promote corporate housing and serviced apartments to both to corporate buyers of accommodation and agents both directly and via ARP members through education and communication. To establish, promote and maintain an acceptable code of conduct for all providers of serviced accommodation. To attract membership amongst all serviced apartment providers. To raise awareness of serviced apartments as the preferred choice of the business traveller for stays in the UK of greater than 5 nights. To promote and encourage travellers and travel buyers to work with our member companies for their own security, in the knowledge that our members are committed to assessable quality.
Where Quality Counts The ASAP now represents all the main service apartment operators in the UK – which in turn manage and control in excess of 3200 units across the country. The standard of apartments inevitably varies significantly both up and down the country and across the many different providers. The ASAP is working with both Quality in Tourism – the organisation responsible for the main “star” rating system for hotels and serviced accommodation in the UK - and Visit Britain (the new name for the British Tourist Board). A quality program has been agreed and will be benchmarked in the next few months across all members. This will be the first standards program for the industry in the world and given the unprecedented growth of this sector over the past two years, it is not before time.
The purpose of developing a quality standard is to enable comparison and selection of serviced apartments by corporate travel buyers. The quality standard will not only ensure that the minimum legal standards are achieved and maintained – compliance to health and safety regulations – appropriate liability insurance – accurate representation in marketing materials, it will also differentiate between the varying specifications and facilities of the properties - Washing machines – Dish washers – internet access – concierge – entertainment systems etc. This will allow the corporate buyer to compare like with like and select the appropriate level of property according to their requirements.
Membership Criteria The criteria for operators to qualify for membership are as follows: An apartment is a room or set of rooms fitted especially with housekeeping facilities (individual kitchen, bath, etc.) which can be leased as a separate dwelling. Operators must have direct control over the majority of the apartments they provide – i.e. they must be the freeholder or leaseholder of the property – not and agent taking a fee for providing someone else’s property. Operators must have at least 25 apartments under their direct control. All properties must be open for rating under “The Quality Standard for Serviced Apartments” Operators must offer the facility for all guests to provide feedback to the association. Benefits for Everybody This all represents a massive step forward for an industry that is growing exponentially not just in the UK but around the world and it arrives at a time when the corporate travel buyer more than ever is looking for quality, value, accountability and flexibility. The professional operators in the service apartment industry are in a position to provide all of these - the ASAP is a step towards ensuring that they do and that they are recognised for doing so. External associations It is the intention of the ASAP to forge links with serviced apartment providers worldwide though their respective association and in that vien The ASAP is now partnered with The Corporate Housing Providers Association (CHPA) in the US. The two bodies look to work together to ensure that guests travelling between our two countries always receive a better service than they are expecting.
Contact Information Telephone: 08700 702402 Email: asap@arp-relocation.com The fledgling website is at www.theasap.org.uk The ARP website is www.relocationagents.com Founder members of the ASAP - in alphabetical order: BridgeStreet Worldwide 020 7792 2222 – www.bridgestreet.com Executive Committee Lorna Keen - Chairman & liaison representative to the ARP committee - LornaK@clarendonuk.com |