Frasers paces with demand

THE demand for serviced residence continues to grow, and it is timely that Frasers, a leader in the hospitality industry, is choosing to expand fast.

The company aims to stick closely to its vision of being an extended-stay hospitality brand globally.

“The pie is big. We have hardly even scratched the surface. The reason is that there are not many pure serviced residence chain companies. There are several individual pockets. In terms of the real chains, there are not that many. The testimony of 90 percent of our properties are in the high 90-percent occupancy. As such there is a great demand for purpose-built, high-end service residence,” said Choe Peng Sum, chief executive officer, Frasers Hospitality.

Serviced residence is now one of the highest and fastest growing sectors in the hospitality industry. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, people are looking at moving their manufacturing cost-control from developed to developing markets and this results in a huge movement of expatriates and cooperate clientele to the region.

Frasers has a customer base that is made up of about 80 percent Fortune 500 companies and Forbes’ list of companies, and this vouches for the high standards that are expected of Frasers.The company is looking to focus on hot markets like China and India.

China is an essential part of Fraser’s expansion, said Choe, “China is a huge market for us. The reason is that cooperate companies are moving into emerging markets and even secondary cities, besides the four main cities of Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen & Guangzhou. It has moved beyond that and that’s why we’re looking into places like Tianjing, Nanjing, Zhendu, Shenyang, Zongjing, Xian, Shuzhou. These secondary cities are growing tremendously. That’s a lot of concentration in China.”

Other North Asian markets that Frasers is focusing on include Seoul and Tokyo, and India.

There is a marked need for full hotel services in India and Frasers is looking into Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi where deals have been signed.

There will be more Fraser properties in South-east Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

“We are expanding in the next 18 months to another 26 properties. That’s a total of 47 properties with over 7,000 apartments by the end of 18 months. And that spans over 21 cities. It’s going to be an exciting and challenging time for us. I must add that these are all gold-standard serviced residence. It’s really top-tier. We would be very strict on this, in this kind of band as well, “ he said.

After a few years of consolidation, Frasers is also aiming to be in North America and has dynamic marketing structure to achieve growth.

Marketing for Frasers is on all fronts. It will facilitate sales through the internet,GDS and CRS. It is also working with travel agents, relocation agencies, and direct sales to clients. Every property has a direct sales marketing team, reaching out to the corporate accounts directly.