Anyone familiarized with the industry already knows how things were done before the digitization of Corporate Housing. The lack of real time information on apartment availability and the many friction points during the booking process have always been main business pains.
Who doesn’t remember how obsolete communication used to be between all players involved? Accommodation agencies and providers exchanged information almost exclusively via phone calls and emails to request quotations, agree on reservation deadlines and verify apartment availability at the destination.
Travel Managers have always had to deal with long waiting times to obtain the necessary documentation to formalize their employees accommodation, in addition to managing the billing and invoicing processes.
Under this premise, the sector was crying out for a different way of doing things, one that would simplify procedures and speed up the work. Apartool was born to make life easier for travel agencies, travel managers and relocations agencies, introducing the technology to facilitate this process.
The Pandemic: Driver of digitization
The pandemic marked the beginning of big changes for many industries. For the Corporate Housing sector, it was the drastic reduction in temporary accommodation demand and the ban on travels, which left both clients and apartment providers in serious trouble.
This encouraged the search for innovative solutions to respond to the new way the demand and supply of the temporary accommodation industry were behaving. We witnessed the development of a digital infrastructure that, among other things, simplified the management of apartment requests, now more demanding and specific.
The Corporate Housing’s latest technological resources
The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought permanent digitalization changes to the new century. These changes have helped us improve our performance at Apartool. Technology has allowed us to save time, become more cost-efficient, and simplify procedures.
Consequently, we have been able to automate the majority of our apartment search process, which has exponentially expanded our catalog.
Due to this development, a high density of work has been streamlined. Our team is now able to focus on what matters most: The one to one experience we give our clients during the booking process and the personalization of our services.
What to expect from the Corporate Housing industry
Digital implementation is a mandatory process for all companies in the Corporate Housing sector looking to succeed in the big challenges of the future. Companies will constantly improve existing services and create new ones without losing sight of the quality in the personal relationships with their clients.
Furthermore, there’s a main component that has not changed, and does not seem likely to change in the long run: Social networks and personal relations among professionals in the sector. This is one of the reasons why senior executives, travel managers, travel agencies, and accommodation providers, among other professionals, meet each year at conferences or annual events.
Conclusion
At Apartool we’ve implemented changes to our platform that provides the best service to both customers and suppliers. Together with our IT team, we are working hard on automating reservation management processes internally between all parties involved.
Corporate Housing is ambitious and ready to face the rising curve of recovery. Currently, we work to achieve maximum integration and interconnection between our clients and, in turn, with their own clientele. For this reason, we dare to imagine how the world will be transformed: A neural network between people automated by technology.
If your team needs temporary accommodation, contact us at info@apartool.com and let us help you.
