By Rebecca Lo International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/02/news/reservice.php
The concept of a furnished apartment with cleaning services is nothing new. Picture a college dormitory room with mismatched chairs and second-hand table lamps - most people’s first taste of living on their own.
But over the past decade, the serviced apartment and the features that come with it have become increasingly more luxurious and sophisticated, particularly in Asia.
“When I go away for extended periods of time, I want a place that doesn’t feel like a hotel,” said Oscar Llinas, vice president of Bilkey Llinas Design, who recently created some of the interiors for Four Seasons Place in Hong Kong. “Serviced apartments are ideal for people who don’t have the time to make a new home. They want a clean house, but don’t want to see anyone cleaning it.”
Four Seasons Place is a 60-story tower devoted exclusively to serviced apartments. It stands next to the Four Seasons Hotel at the mammoth International Finance Center and was the luxury hotel company’s first project to include serviced apartments.
But the Toronto-based company already is planning a similar component at the Kuala Lumpur Four Seasons, scheduled to be completed in 2008.
The Australian photographer Geoff Letchford and his wife, Rebecca, a graphics and interior designer, both globetrotters because of their work, have stayed at a lot of apartments and hotels. They made their first reservation at Four Seasons Place almost a year before it opened last fall and plan to return this month.
“We enjoy catering for ourselves and the space available in a serviced apartment,” Letchford said. “We carry a lot of computer equipment and normally get a two- or three- bedroom apartment, because we have staff who travel with us.”
Hoteliers also have reasons for liking the concept. “It is easy, quick and convenient” for guests,” said Scott Woroch, senior vice president of Asia Pacific development at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
And for the hotel, he added, “The main advantage of offering a service apartment alternative is, it allows us to leverage the existing infrastructure in our hotel operation.”
For example, the general manager can oversee both operations, the property’s marketing can be broadened and the use of facilities like restaurants and spas can be maximized.
Woroch acknowledged that the Asian market is most comfortable with the formula. “Particularly in Hong Kong, there is high proportion of expatriate personnel and the population is very transient,” he said. “The demographics lends itself well to serviced apartments.”
Woroch was quick to distinguish between serviced apartments, which involve short-term leases, and private residences within hotels, which the Four Seasons had sold in key locations throughout North America for years.
“A number of our private residences are resorts, such as Whistler,” the ski resort in Canada, he said. “Or, in the case of San Francisco, they appeal to homeowners who live outside of the city but also want a city place.”
Four Seasons Place has 519 units, many with panoramic views of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon on the opposite shore. Monthly rentals start at 28,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $3,600, for a studio totaling 547 square feet, or 51 square meters, and rise to 150,000 dollars for an 1,867-square-foot, three-bedroom suite.
Every apartment has features like 42-inch, or one-meter, plasma screen televisions and customized Four Seasons three-layer pillow mattresses; residents also have use of the hotel’s rooftop pool, health club and lounge.
Letchford said his staff members, particularly, enjoyed the amenities. “They enjoy going to the gym and find the view very inspirational,” he said.
The suites designed by Bilkey Llinas include ebony wood inlays and a selection of original Asian art, while the penthouses offer private lap pools and aromatherapy Jacuzzis with the Hong Kong skyline as the backdrop.
Four Seasons Place is relatively new, but Hong Kong has a long history of serviced apartment operations. Two of its most prominent - de Ricou Serviced Apartments and Pacific Place Apartments - date to 1989, when a lot of multinational firms were opening offices in Hong Kong and sending executives from around the world to staff them.
De Ricou was built at Repulse Bay, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, as an alternative to the high-rise jungle of the Central district, according to Martyn Sawyer, general manager of properties and clubs for Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, which owns the property.
It has 68 two-bedroom duplex suites, with views of Hong Kong’s outer islands, ranging from 2,020 square feet to 2,243 square feet and with monthly rents of 65,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars.
The formula has worked so well that the company will include serviced apartments in its Shanghai mixed-use complex, which is expected to open in 2009. “High-end serviced apartments are a global trend, and not restricted to gateway cities such as New York or London,” Sawyer said.
Swire Properties, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent corporations, built Pacific Place Apartments to complement Pacific Place, its office and retail complex, which covers 5 million square feet in the Admiralty neighborhood.
The site now includes three hotels - Conrad Hong Kong, Island Shangri-La and JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong - and Swire’s partial ownership of all three helped to secure hotel-style services like complimentary memberships at the Conrad Hong Kong’s swimming pool and fitness center for apartment residents.
The apartments are in two towers, Parkside and The Atrium, and range from 606-square- foot studios to 2,650-square-foot, three-bedroom suites. Rentals are 42,800 dollars to 176,300 dollars a month.
Last year, as competition at the top end of the serviced apartment category was expected to heat up with the opening of Four Seasons Place, Pacific Place decided to renovate and began a new marketing campaign to trumpet the changes.
AB Concept, an interior design firm based in Hong Kong, added such features as the ubiquitous 42-inch plasma TVs, Bose home theaters and Siemens countertop appliances.
The lead designer, Ed Ng, also added Asian touches to the decor, like the abacuses that are displayed as pieces of art in the living rooms.
Jeremy Lamburn, the apartments’ leasing manager, said the renovations had been a good investment.
“In general, demand for luxurious residences has improved since the beginning of 2005, and has remained consistent,” he said, noting that about 90 percent of the residents were corporate clients and both the economic recovery in Hong Kong and the growth in trade with mainland China had been good for business.
Sandy Higgins, a partner in a marketing consultancy called The Tank, divides her time bewteen Hong Kong, Manila and New York.
She has been staying at the Parkside tower in Pacific Place for one- to two-month stretches since 2003, sometimes alone and sometimes with members of her family. She believes a combination of factors has produced that loyalty. The most important of these are comfortable surroundings that feel like a home rather than a hotel.
“For those of us who travel, it is very important that we find a place that we like,” Higgins said. “The standards of accommodations has become a major factor.”
And, Higgins noted, “We are very spoiled in Asia” when it comes to service.
She described what had happened when her brother was expecting a delivery that turned out to involve an additional charge.
She had just tipped a staff member and he was prepared to use the money to pay for the extra charge.
“It was extraordinary!” she said. “It goes to show Swire’s attitude towards providing a high level of service. Even the van driver was surprised.”
HONG KONG The concept of a furnished apartment with cleaning services is nothing new. Picture a college dormitory room with mismatched chairs and second-hand table lamps - most people’s first taste of living on their own.
But over the past decade, the serviced apartment and the features that come with it have become increasingly more luxurious and sophisticated, particularly in Asia.
“When I go away for extended periods of time, I want a place that doesn’t feel like a hotel,” said Oscar Llinas, vice president of Bilkey Llinas Design, who recently created some of the interiors for Four Seasons Place in Hong Kong. “Serviced apartments are ideal for people who don’t have the time to make a new home. They want a clean house, but don’t want to see anyone cleaning it.”
Four Seasons Place is a 60-story tower devoted exclusively to serviced apartments. It stands next to the Four Seasons Hotel at the mammoth International Finance Center and was the luxury hotel company’s first project to include serviced apartments.
But the Toronto-based company already is planning a similar component at the Kuala Lumpur Four Seasons, scheduled to be completed in 2008.
The Australian photographer Geoff Letchford and his wife, Rebecca, a graphics and interior designer, both globetrotters because of their work, have stayed at a lot of apartments and hotels. They made their first reservation at Four Seasons Place almost a year before it opened last fall and plan to return this month.
“We enjoy catering for ourselves and the space available in a serviced apartment,” Letchford said. “We carry a lot of computer equipment and normally get a two- or three- bedroom apartment, because we have staff who travel with us.”
Hoteliers also have reasons for liking the concept. “It is easy, quick and convenient” for guests,” said Scott Woroch, senior vice president of Asia Pacific development at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.
And for the hotel, he added, “The main advantage of offering a service apartment alternative is, it allows us to leverage the existing infrastructure in our hotel operation.”
For example, the general manager can oversee both operations, the property’s marketing can be broadened and the use of facilities like restaurants and spas can be maximized.
Woroch acknowledged that the Asian market is most comfortable with the formula. “Particularly in Hong Kong, there is high proportion of expatriate personnel and the population is very transient,” he said. “The demographics lends itself well to serviced apartments.”
Woroch was quick to distinguish between serviced apartments, which involve short-term leases, and private residences within hotels, which the Four Seasons had sold in key locations throughout North America for years.
“A number of our private residences are resorts, such as Whistler,” the ski resort in Canada, he said. “Or, in the case of San Francisco, they appeal to homeowners who live outside of the city but also want a city place.”
Four Seasons Place has 519 units, many with panoramic views of Victoria Harbor and Kowloon on the opposite shore. Monthly rentals start at 28,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $3,600, for a studio totaling 547 square feet, or 51 square meters, and rise to 150,000 dollars for an 1,867-square-foot, three-bedroom suite.
Every apartment has features like 42-inch, or one-meter, plasma screen televisions and customized Four Seasons three-layer pillow mattresses; residents also have use of the hotel’s rooftop pool, health club and lounge.
Letchford said his staff members, particularly, enjoyed the amenities. “They enjoy going to the gym and find the view very inspirational,” he said.
The suites designed by Bilkey Llinas include ebony wood inlays and a selection of original Asian art, while the penthouses offer private lap pools and aromatherapy Jacuzzis with the Hong Kong skyline as the backdrop.
Four Seasons Place is relatively new, but Hong Kong has a long history of serviced apartment operations. Two of its most prominent - de Ricou Serviced Apartments and Pacific Place Apartments - date to 1989, when a lot of multinational firms were opening offices in Hong Kong and sending executives from around the world to staff them.
De Ricou was built at Repulse Bay, on the south side of Hong Kong Island, as an alternative to the high-rise jungle of the Central district, according to Martyn Sawyer, general manager of properties and clubs for Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, which owns the property.
It has 68 two-bedroom duplex suites, with views of Hong Kong’s outer islands, ranging from 2,020 square feet to 2,243 square feet and with monthly rents of 65,000 dollars to 90,000 dollars.
The formula has worked so well that the company will include serviced apartments in its Shanghai mixed-use complex, which is expected to open in 2009. “High-end serviced apartments are a global trend, and not restricted to gateway cities such as New York or London,” Sawyer said.
Swire Properties, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent corporations, built Pacific Place Apartments to complement Pacific Place, its office and retail complex, which covers 5 million square feet in the Admiralty neighborhood.
The site now includes three hotels - Conrad Hong Kong, Island Shangri-La and JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong - and Swire’s partial ownership of all three helped to secure hotel-style services like complimentary memberships at the Conrad Hong Kong’s swimming pool and fitness center for apartment residents.
The apartments are in two towers, Parkside and The Atrium, and range from 606-square- foot studios to 2,650-square-foot, three-bedroom suites. Rentals are 42,800 dollars to 176,300 dollars a month.
Last year, as competition at the top end of the serviced apartment category was expected to heat up with the opening of Four Seasons Place, Pacific Place decided to renovate and began a new marketing campaign to trumpet the changes.
AB Concept, an interior design firm based in Hong Kong, added such features as the ubiquitous 42-inch plasma TVs, Bose home theaters and Siemens countertop appliances.
The lead designer, Ed Ng, also added Asian touches to the decor, like the abacuses that are displayed as pieces of art in the living rooms.
Jeremy Lamburn, the apartments’ leasing manager, said the renovations had been a good investment.
“In general, demand for luxurious residences has improved since the beginning of 2005, and has remained consistent,” he said, noting that about 90 percent of the residents were corporate clients and both the economic recovery in Hong Kong and the growth in trade with mainland China had been good for business.
Sandy Higgins, a partner in a marketing consultancy called The Tank, divides her time bewteen Hong Kong, Manila and New York.
She has been staying at the Parkside tower in Pacific Place for one- to two-month stretches since 2003, sometimes alone and sometimes with members of her family. She believes a combination of factors has produced that loyalty. The most important of these are comfortable surroundings that feel like a home rather than a hotel.
“For those of us who travel, it is very important that we find a place that we like,” Higgins said. “The standards of accommodations has become a major factor.”
And, Higgins noted, “We are very spoiled in Asia” when it comes to service.
She described what had happened when her brother was expecting a delivery that turned out to involve an additional charge.
She had just tipped a staff member and he was prepared to use the money to pay for the extra charge.
“It was extraordinary!” she said. “It goes to show Swire’s attitude towards providing a high level of service. Even the van driver was surprised.”
Serviced Apartments in Hong Kong include:
Eaton House in Village Road is closed to Happy Valley Racecourse and Causeway Bay. It is accessible to supermarkets, banks, post office, bus stops and mini bus stops to the Causeway Bay MTR .
Hanlun Habitats offers professionally managed, fully furnished and serviced Studio and one-bedroom apartments in four quality buildings: Lily Court Tower I (Brand New), Lily Court II, Daisy.
Eaton House Blue Pool is next to Causeway Bay, one of the largest shopping districts in Hong Kong, makes this location a perfect place for shopping and experiencing the hectic life.
Eaton House Wanchai Gap is a 24-storeyed luxury apartment building located in the charming, historically attractive area of Wanchai, just a few minutes walk from public transportation.
Hong Kong Serviced Apartments: Listing
Ovolo - A Home2Home Lifestyle is an ultra-chic Manhattan-style suites, each exquisitely designed occupies an entire floor giving you ultimate privacy.
V happy valley provides fun, zen and luxurious serviced apartments.
Erba - A Home2Home Lifestyle have New York style apartments for those who enjoy chic and luxury apartment living in the heart of the city. Apartments feature ultra-contemporary design, elegant furnishings and high-tech facilities.
At Rent-a-Room we have fully furnished studios, centrally located and with all facilities. Rent-a-Room`s studios are big, fresh, clean and attractively decorated. All our studios have air-conditioning.
Abeo - A Home2Home Lifestyles is a new Luxury Boutique hotel/serviced apartment property.
Shiu King Court is conveniently located 2 minutes from lan kwai fong 4 minutes from SoHo 6 minutes to the landmark.
Bel Mount Garden is a luxury living feather down duvet and pillows deluxe queen feather bed (the ultimate in comfort).
Hong Kong serviced apartments offer hotel-style living
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