We talked with Lynn Nguyen and Atanaska Mineva from Metropolitan by COMO about personalising serviced apartments, and what sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.
What can you tell us about your serviced apartments that we don’t already know?
They’re a hidden gem, as not many people know that they exist. The COMO brand encourages health and wellbeing and an organic lifestyle. We handcraft our own unique products such as shower gels, lotions and scents and, of course, all the food is prepared in house. We also have our own spa and a 24 hour gym that’s solely for residents. The food that we produce is a huge part of what we do. In London we have two Michelin star restaurants and we make this readily available for guests staying in our serviced apartments. You can order fresh bento and sushi from the Nobu restaurant, as well as massage treatments from the spa.
Do you think it’s important to cater your apartments to a specific gender or clientele?
Gender specification isn’t as straight forward as you might think. For example, most of the clientele at our spa are male, which people find hard to believe. We can provide guests with what they expect from a serviced apartment by paying attention to specifics and listening to what they want.
What volume of corporate bookings do you receive?
Half of our bookings are corporate and, in the summer months, we have a number of leisure bookings with families coming to London from the Middle East over June, July and August. Our business is mainly fuelled by word of mouth and repeat business from people who’ve stayed with us before. Interestingly, we have one guest who’s been staying in our apartments for at least 5 years, which was booked through SilverDoor. This is the kind of loyalty that’s unfamiliar within the hotel industry.
