Scorziello joins ScottishApartment

START-UP accommodation group ScottishApartment.com, which has generated £10 million in rental income for its clients in its first year of operation, has poached US-born Greg Scorziello from the international real estate giant Global Switch to lead its rapid expansion drive.

The Edinburgh-based company, which specialises in self-catering and serviced apartments, mainly for the corporate market, is forecasting an increase in turnover from a projected £3m this year to £7m in 2008-9.

The company said its optimism was based on the fact that use of quality serviced apartments has grown at four times the rate of growth in the hotel sector over the past five years, adding that it was forging successful partnerships with property development companies and property holding pension funds looking to improve earnings yields.

Scorziello, originally from Boston, Massachusetts, said: "A lot of companies have tried to get better returns on their real estate assets, but their core competence is property development. Partnering with us allows them to benefit from the consistency and service quality that a scale operation like ours can offer. We take away the headaches for them."

"Edinburgh and Scotland are the first phase for us. If we can get the product right, and develop the service, and the messaging and positioning, then we will look at other markets in the UK and beyond."

Self-catering and serviced apartments are increasingly seen as the accommodation of choice for corporate travellers. Currently the sector accounts for only 3.5 per cent of rooms available in the UK, but the serviced apartment sector has grown rapidly over the past five years.

Growth predictions are based on excessive levels of buy-to-let stock on the market, which is driving developers and owners to look for greater rental yield via the apartment hotel route.

Gavin Ellis, Scottish chairman of the British Hospitality Association, said: "The apartment market is an increasingly important part of the business mix serving corporates and families alike, and it needs to be developed in a growing economy.

"It's an exciting market, being basically an evolution of the hotel business, and any evolution has to be a good thing.

"The French are leading the way on this market sector, with enormous brands like Citadel, but the business model is well established in Edinburgh and Glasgow with companies like Dreamhouse."

A spokeswoman for VisitScotland said: "Serviced apartments offer the privacy and space that many leisure and business travellers are looking for."

29 May 2007

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