Holiday Velvet enters the serviced apartment market

Holiday Velvet, a holiday rental agency with over 45,000 vacation rentals and hotels in their portfolio in locations including Rome, London, Paris and Berlin has announced it will add aparthotels and residencies to its portfolio.

"Adding serviced apartments to our portfolio opens up availability to our clients, " says James Burrows, co-director of Holiday Velvet. "As well as benefits such as security and cleaning whilst still remaining 'independent'. And the price-per-night cost to them will be about the same." Burrows adds that as well as serviced apartments, Holiday Velvet are on the search for quality residencies to add to their cache.

Whilst the difference between a self-catering and serviced apartment is self-explanatory, Burrows explains the difference between a serviced apartment and residency; "Serviced apartments are more akin to a hotel and have a 24 hour concierge. Residencies on the other hand are generally smaller, family-owned and many only have a concierge on duty for 12 hours a day."

Holiday Velvet is currently negotiating with serviced apartment and residency owners across the globe and have already added over 100 Sydney serviced apartments, but Burrows says they are particularly focussing on Asian and Australian locations. " The serviced apartments market in these countries is more mature," he explains. "And Asia is an area where our competitors are not as strong. By becoming associated with quality serviced apartment and residency brands, we are also building Holiday Velvet's own brand."

Whilst Burrows and his team are negotiating with serviced apartment companies and agents, Holiday Velvet's technical team and internet engineers are getting ready for the company's leap into this new market by working on seamless, user-friendly interfaces that will accommodate easy booking and all the information that clients interested in booking serviced apartments need to know.