You are the director of brand management for Pathways Property, a corporate apartment building that contracts with businesses in the area to provide temporary housing for employees relocating to the area. Pathways Property is a 10-story building that has eight to ten apartments on each floor. The fully furnished apartments range from one bedroom/one bath to three bedroom/three bath. Each apartment has a kitchen with full-size appliances, a living area, dining area and office space. Each apartment also has a washing machine and dryer and Wi-Fi. Underground parking is available for Pathways tenants.
Daily housekeeping is not provided at Pathways Property, however each apartment is fully cleaned and sanitized when a tenant vacates. There is a maintenance team on call for repairs.
Businesses in the area house employees that are relocated to the city at Pathways for temporary housing. Oftentimes new employees need a month or two to find permanent housing or to wait for real estate sales to close. Pathways also provides some area businesses with housing for semester or summer interns or for employees that are contracted to work on a project temporarily.
Since the pandemic, Pathways Property has lost almost all corporate clients. The pandemic made remote work common and videoconferencing software allowed companies to broaden employee interaction even while being remote.
The owner and manager of Pathways Property is keeping the top two floors, 16 of the largest apartments, for corporate clients. There are still contracts for intern housing and corporate event housing. However, the owner wants to use the rest of the apartments for general lodging. Given the flexible-use asset class, the property is allowed to be used for apartment housing and for hospitality use.
To provide an excellent hospitality experience, the owner wants you to determine what additional services and amenities would need to be added to the Pathways building and to each apartment to make it more marketable and conducive to guests visiting the city and looking for lodging. The owner also wants you to list the types of staff that would be needed for this transition to traditional lodging. In addition, the owner wants you to identify the advantage Pathway lodging will have over other hotels in the area.
