Quest sets focus on Australia first
Quest Serviced Apartments announced its exclusive $500 million partnership with The Ascott Limited yesterday, which will see 100 new hotels built in Australia over the next five years.
The partnership represents Quest’s intentions to take its franchise brand global, however CEO Zed Sanjana insists that “finishing the story” in Australia is its first concern.
According to Sanjana, serviced apartments is a “strong and growing industry, but there’s traditionally been a number of challenges in terms of bringing new supply to market,” stating that before turning their focus to the international stage, Quest wants to “fill the gap” in the supply in Australia.
With around 60 of its 114 apartments in Australia located in Victoria, Quest is still very much a Victorian brand, basing its business on serving the customer demand that exists in the region.
“That demand [also] exists in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, where we are relatively underrepresented, so we certainly think we’ve got the opportunity to grow and network to well over 200 in Australia,” Sanjana told Travel Today, citing these regions as the grounds for new properties supported by The Ascott Limited.
The partnership came about after Quest began seeking out a partner who would both support and accelerate the company’s growth, with exclusive negotiations with Ascott beginning in June.
“Some of the other parties we were looking at in terms of partnership were purely from a capital perspective, purely property, so it wouldn’t have had the ability to support our aspirations to take the Quest brand global,” Sanjana told Travel Today.
“In the next five to ten years, the brand has to go outside this country, and I think the brand was always created to be a transportable brand globally, so for us it’s a tremendous opportunity to be able to take this brand global.”
But the advantages swing both ways for the partners, with Ascott benefiting from the franchise element of Quest.
“Franchising globally in our industry is probably one of the key growth segments and most of the major brands are looking at using franchising to be able to expand their business, and Ascott is no different,” Sanjana explained.
The partnership is solely focused on newly built properties, which excludes the 16 Quest properties currently underway, set to be completed within the next 24 months.
“The deal is not around acquiring properties that already have commenced construction, or already have a Quest flag on them,” Sanjana said.
“It’s about new growth, true growth, and it also allows us to be able to compete in some of the markets we’ve traditionally found difficult, [because we’ve] lacked the strong capital base.”
Sanjana also stated that it is unlikely that any Quest properties will be converted to one of The Ascott Limited’s other hotel brands of Citadines, Ascott and Somerset.
The Australian event sector will continue to be a major space for growth of the company, with large corporate events key to driving new customers to the brand.
“We’ll put inventory aside during those times, those peak event periods, to make sure we can accommodate those corporates that, for whatever reason, at their usual place can’t get a room, and that’s really our focus,” Sanjana said.
“We like the corporate customers as opposed to leisure because its non-discretionary, so it’s a bit like supermarkets, at the end of the day people have to eat,” Sanajana told Travel Today, explaining the strategy behind Quest’s target corporate market.
“Ultimately corporates don’t have a choice whether they travel or not, if their boss tells them to travel they have to travel, and in good times and bad times, corporates still need to travel and we like it because they are repeat referral guests.”
With a strong capital support and a lucrative market to work with, Quest is gearing up for an exciting next phase of its development.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
corporate domestic partnership quest quest serviced apartments the ascott limited zed sanjanaLatest News
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