NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Wherever I Lay My Hat... That’s My Home!

For everyone in the travel business around the world (including travel media like us) all roads in November lead to London for the World Travel Market (WTM), arguably the largest travel show in the world. And this year was no different, if anything bigger than last year, with swarms of travel professionals descending on the city and hotels and restaurants in London doing roaring business. What I noticed though was that while hotels (as expected) received their fair share of business, there were a lot more great deals and value offers floating around on room nights because there was another segment vying for a large chunk of this accommodation business as well. Yes, I’m referring to London’s burgeoning apartment hotel segment, commonly known as ‘service apartments’. Cost-effective, convenient and perfectly adapted for longer stays (normally a week or more), service apartments have certainly made a dent in the traditional hotels’ business as more travellers discover the benefits of this accommodation around the globe. Whether on business travel or leisure, this new segment is certainly here to stay and has caught the fancy of the evolving travel market. India too will soon see a revolution of sorts in the ‘service apartment’ sector with a large number of these properties opening their doors or scheduled to commence operations in the near future, especially in the metro cities around the country. While established players like the Taj and Marriott are already in the fray, business travellers in India will soon have other world-renowned brands such as Four Seasons, Oakwood, etc to also choose from. While the main focus of these ‘apartment hotels’ is to offer business and leisure travellers the feel and comforts of home, most travellers in the sub-continent will soon succumb to the sheer convenience of being able to share fully-furnished apartments, thus making it tremendously cost-effective in normally expensive metro cities. This cover story of feBusiness Traveller features a round-up of the ‘service apartment’ segment to enable you to choose where you would like to set up your ‘new home’ when you take off on your next journey. Maybe Paul Young had an indication of things to come when he sang: “Wherever I Lay My Hat... That’s My Home.”

Sheldon Santwan
EDITOR, feBusiness Traveller
Sheldon can be reached at
editor@businesstravellerindia.com