business housing Archives

If you’re looking to change up your company travel or want to lower the cost of accommodation, you’re in the right place.

Blu Corporate Housing is going to show you how to lower the cost of travel while delivering more to staff while you’re at it.

The corporate travel market has experienced a huge resurgence. Demand is higher now than before the pandemic and shows no signs of slowing down.

Prices are rising too. If you book hotel rooms for staff, you’ll already have noticed how much more you’re paying now than before and typically get less for it too!

There is another way to manage company travel. Use corporate housing.

We’re going to share 5 compelling reasons why corporate housing is the answer to your company travel challenges.

We’ll also explain why it’s so much better than a hotel or using Airbnb.

1. Save money

The first reason to use corporate housing instead of a hotel is the cost savings. Even before hotels began putting prices up, you were already paying way too much for accommodation.

On average, you’ll pay less than half for corporate housing than you will for a comparable hotel room for stays of 30 days or more.

Clients we work with will save anywhere between 40-80% when they use a furnished rental through Blu than if they rented a hotel room of a similar standard.

When money is tight across the board and inflation is eating into profits, savings like this are too good to ignore!

If you manage to get more for less money, even better!

The exact level of savings will differ depending on the location, the length of stay, the number of people being accommodated and other factors, but on average, you’re going to save big.

House several staff within the same property and you can multiply those savings significantly!

2. Higher levels of satisfaction

Most professionals will cope with whatever accommodation you book for them. But it benefits everyone if they are happy with that choice.

The vast majority of staff who stay in corporate housing are happy with the choice.

You get more space to breathe and relax after work. You get more privacy and can fully kick back in your own space.

There is usually less noise too. No noisy hallways or TV noise coming through thin walls.

No queueing for the buffet breakfast, no having to wait for the bacon or coffee to be refilled before you can eat and no having to share the same space with other people.

Happy staff are more productive staff. If they are representing your company, that can have huge implications on future relationships.

It can also help with staff retention. Staff that feel valued and appreciated tend to stay in post longer, no matter the salary.

Feedback from our clients shows overwhelmingly that staff that use furnished rentals are much happier than those placed in hotels.

While hotels are great for vacations, they are much less suited to longer stays.

That is borne out in feedback we receive and is one of the reasons we think corporate housing delivers much more for corporate travelers.

3. Flexibility with bookings and services

Businesses have to be agile if they are to compete and need to react quickly to changes.

Using corporate housing can help with that.

You may need to book ahead of time, but we can help you with any change you might need. Need to stay longer? No problem? Need to accommodate more staff? No problem.

Need to change location or move to a new city? No problem.

We can help with any aspect of your rental and while there are contracts, rental periods and so on, we are flexible enough to appreciate things change.

We work a lot with project staff, construction teams, oil and gas workers and other roles that involve change.

Projects run over, locations change, new oil fields are discovered or construction projects are put on hold. Life happens and priorities change.

Work with Blu and you’re working with a partner who can appreciate change.

Flexibility for services is about being able to arrange housekeeping or grocery deliveries.

We can provide a wide number of value-add or essential services on demand.

Contact our team, let us know what you need and when and we’ll handle the rest.

Need to change a delivery day or increase housekeeping visits? No problem. Need to pause them while your people are indisposed for any reason? No problem.

4. Low effort high reward accommodation

This point is as much about us at Blu as it is corporate housing. We offer a largely hands-free experience to all clients and it is very well received.

Most companies have enough going on as it is without having to manage landlords, utilities and the many aspects of accommodating traveling staff.

Work with us and we take care of the majority of that for you.

Tell us where you need to be and when and we can shortlist suitable accommodation for you.

If you need to be close to somewhere specific, tell us and we’ll select accordingly. Need to house multiple staff in the same property? Tell us and we’ll handle it.

Once shortlisted, select your property of choice and we’ll book it and work with the landlord. We’ll ensure everything is ready for your arrival, including utilities, internet and any extra services you require.

If you need anything extra during the stay, we can arrange it. Need to change dates or the number of people? We’ll take care of it.

Once the rental is over, we’ll handle everything so your people can pack and leave without having to worry about anything.

This approach is also very useful for freelancers, startups and small businesses.

We work with a lot of consultants, contractors and other people who don’t work in large companies or corporations.

They also don’t have the time to handle every aspect of corporate housing, which is where we come in.

It doesn’t matter to us whether you’re a freelance project manager or part of a global multinational.

We do our best by everyone and aim to deliver what you need, when you need it and a superior level of service to every client.

5. Stay anywhere at any time

Blu has access to over 50,000 properties in over 5,000 cities across the country. Wherever you need to stay, we’ll have something close by.

Hotels are also plentiful, but there are times when they are not where you want to be.

Hotels tend to be in high traffic areas, Downtown, tourist areas, by airports or industrial zones.

If you don’t want to stay in these places, you’re out of luck.

Our corporate housing can help with that.

Need to stay close to an oil or gas field? We can help. Want to be close to a military base? We can help. Need to be close to a construction site or in a rural area? We can help with those too.

We have properties close to most larger government locations, military bases, colleges and universities, research centers, manufacturing centers, oil fields, medical districts and anywhere people tend to need to stay.

Work with Blu and you can choose from any of these housing options at any time. It’s all part of the service!

Corporate housing for company travel

As you can see, there are many reasons why corporate housing makes perfect sense for company travel.

Not only do you get more for a lot less, you also get flexibility, happier staff, a wider range of locations and the freedom to change your plans as your business needs.

Are you ready to make the change? Contact one of our team if you are!

The business travel industry has been growing ever since its inception. Aside from a hiatus during the pandemic, it has experienced steady growth.

The growth is mainly down to its inherent advantages of corporate housing over the alternatives and the cost savings organizations can benefit from.

Corporate housing offers more for less, keeps business travel interesting by offering alternatives to bland hotel rooms and adds more space, privacy and convenience.

We all know the main benefits of corporate housing, but there are other equally important ones that don’t always come up in a cost-benefit analysis.

That’s what we’re discussing today.

We’re going to outline some of the lesser-known benefits of corporate housing for business travel.

Live where locals live

When you go on vacation, do you stay in the tourist areas or like to see the real destination? Do you only eat in chain restaurants or want to experience local food that local people enjoy?

We’re the latter and we bet you are too.

So why stay in chain hotels, in predictable areas when you work away?

One key advantage of corporate housing is that it can be located anywhere. You can certainly stay in tourist or business areas and never leave if you want.

You can also live where the locals live to get a much more authentic experience.

It’s a definite upside to working away from home and can go a long way to overcoming the usual downsides of being away from loved ones or having to work in a strange city.

Work from home if you want to

Many hotel rooms will have a desk area and a chair, but they are rarely conducive to working from ‘home’.

While you’re mainly working away to be at the office or workplace, there may be times when you need peace and quiet. That’s when working from home can help.

Stay in corporate housing and you’ll have as much space to yourself as you like. Some rentals will have a den or home office, some will have a dining table to spread out on.

All will have fast internet and the space to relax and breathe while you plan, work, revise or do whatever you need to do.

Share space with colleagues

Traveling with a team or with work colleagues? Need to prepare for an exam, revise or come up with a plan? Sharing a space with them can seriously help.

We often work with teams that will work in a destination office but will then need space to work at home, together.

Hotel rooms don’t usually have that kind of space, but corporate housing does.

Sit around the dining table together. Sit in the lounge over the coffee table, sit in the garden or on the balcony, it’s entirely up to you.

What you get with corporate housing is the freedom to work how you want, when you want, with whom you want.

Do more with less

We often work with consultants, project managers, contractors and others who need to work away from home. They won’t be part of a corporation. They may be freelancers, contractors or work for a small business without an HR or travel specialist on staff.

Working with Blu overcomes that challenge.

You don’t need an HR department or someone to manage your travel plans as we can do it for you.

We can help identify and secure your corporate housing, make the booking, arrange utilities, manage repairs and manage everything about your stay.

All you have to do is get there and arrange the payment. We’ll take care of everything else!

All the comforts of home

Taking nothing away from hotels, they do have their downsides. That’s especially true when you’re staying there for a month or more.

Those four walls soon begin closing in and you lament the lack of space, room to relax, to have friends round and to sit and enjoy the sunshine.

All things corporate housing can provide.

Corporate housing is typically high-end apartments, penthouses, family homes, townhomes and other property types.

They are not single rooms amongst hundreds of other single rooms.

You get all the space that comes with the property. You get different rooms, separate bedroom and lounge, perhaps a dining room, your own kitchen, balcony or even a garden.

All things that can transform the experience.

Break the monotony

If you or your staff travel often, breaking the monotony of the same old hotel rooms can be huge.

The same four walls, the same bland color schemes, the same single serving soaps and shower gels, the same dark hallways and the same sights and sounds every time can get very boring very quickly.

While professionals adapt, if you can mitigate against that, all the better.

You’ll find it much more satisfying staying in different places with a different feel whenever you travel.

The psychological benefits are huge and can make a genuine difference to staff motivation.

Pet friendly accommodation

Not everyone wants to travel with their pets, but if you do, you’ll find corporate housing is flexible enough to work with that.

Very few hotels will accept pets and those that do tend to reserve the oldest, scruffiest rooms for them.

Many corporate housing options will accept many types of pets. There may be size or breed restrictions imposed by the building or development, but otherwise, you can travel with your pet if you want to.

Whether it’s an assistance dog or just some company while you work away, pets are incredibly important to us, so why wouldn’t you want them with you when you travel?

Tag: business housing

5 reasons Blu’s corporate accommodation is perfect for your company travel needs