Tag: BeMate

Sidorme To Trial Tourist Flats on c/Fuencarral In Madrid

4 April 2016 – Cinco Días

The arrival of summer will see a 180-degree turnaround in Sidorme’s strategy. The hotel chain, which currently manages 12 properties located in Madrid, Albacete, Granada, Valencia, Girona and Barcelona, will move into the tourist flat sector in June. In recent years, this segment has seen tremendous growth in Spain thanks to online platforms such as Airbnb and Homeaway and numerous hoteliers have declared war (on players in the sector) accusing them of unfair competition.

In the case of Sidorme, the property in question is located at number 46 on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid, just a few meters away from a hotel owned by the company. The building is owned by the company Bawar Real Estate, which is responsible for renovating it, and will contain 20 apartments.

“Our idea is that the apartments will be located within a 3-5 minute radius of the hotels that we have in the centre of Madrid, so that we can provide a personalised service from the hotel reception”, says the CEO of Sidorme, Jairo González (pictured above). In addition, the company is finalising a second building containing apartments, which will be located close to the hotel that the chain plans to open after the summer, on Calle Montera, very close to the Puerta del Sol. With this second project, in which Sidorme will invest €2 million, the chain will operate 40 tourist apartments in the centre of Madrid.

Through this initiative, Sidorme hopes to differentiate itself from BeMate, the online platform operated by Room Mate, which also markets tourist flats close to its hotels. After these two buildings, which will form the company’s testing ground, González says that Sidorme will add between 40 and 50 apartments per year, which will ideally be located in buildings dedicated exclusively to this activity. Sidorme is cautious about other cities, “if we do not already have a hotel there, then it will not work”.

Alongside this activity, Sidorme will continue with its growth plans for the hotel segment. It will open its first establishment in San Sebastián in June and its second property in the centre of Madrid in September. The company has halted its plans to dives hotels that it owns, after it failed to receive any financial offers that were in line with its expectations, set at around €30 million. It does not rule out a capital increase or the incorporation of new partners to accelerate its growth plans and it is open to growth through hotels in Madrid “if that is appropriate”, as well as in other secondary cities.

Original story: Cinco Días (by L.S.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Room Mate, Pioneer in New Concept of Vacation Rentals

18/09/2014 – Expansion

Recently, the hotel sector has taken a legal action trying to fight activity of such web pages as Airbnb, which mediate on holiday rentals between travellers and apartment owners. Their main argument was that there is neither control over quality of the rented properties nor over the service.

Room Mate, led by Enrique Sarasola (pictured), launches new on-line platform BeMate allowing tourists to find an accommodation in holiday apartments in city centers and enjoy some of services of a nearby hotel of the Room Mate chain. The BeMate community is born with a database of 2.500 dwellings located in ten cities in five countries: Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga, Salamanca, Granada, Florence, Amsterdam, New York, Miami and Mexico DF. They are one to four-room apartments offered for rent at prices ranging from 80 to 400 euros.

The flats, supervised by the Room Mate team, are found a 15-minute walk away from the hotel chain establishments in these cities. Moreover, guests of the apartments dispose of a 24-hour concierge surveillance, key delivery and luggage storage. Likewise, BeMate offers other paid services like airport shuttle, daily room cleaning or ticket purchase for events.

Philosphy

The project, driven by ‘demand for a new way of travelling‘, has been developed in the last two months and half. Mr. Sarasola assures he is ready ‘to share BeMate with other independent hotel owners‘.

He particularly means finding partners in the citites where Room Mate has no establishments. The chain would charge a commission on each booking, 5% from the apartment owner and 10% from the tourist.

Expectations of Mr. Sarasola, who holds 56% in BeMate, is to reach 200 cities (50.000 flats) by the end of 2015. The businessman already eyes the markets of Seville, Istanbul, Lisboa, Rome, Milano, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Singapur, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Room Mate, set up in 2001 and holding the remaining 44% in BeMate, currently operates 19 hotels. Within the following 15 months, the chain is going to add 10 establishments more and it hopes to cross €200 million of capital gains by 2017.

 

Original article: Expansión (by Yovanna Blanco)

Translation: AURA REE