Hello everyone! In this post I will talk about StayCity Aparthotels which is a part of the hospitality industry. StayCity is a hotel brand made of multiple apartment buildings offering a comfortable and affordable long stay option for travelers. An aparthotel combines the best features of a hotel being the maid services, concierge, and safety with the best features of an apartment such as a full kitchen and laundry. They have multiple locations major cities in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Ireland.
StayCity has been able to maintain its success in Europe due to its customer and employee focused business model. The customers are the reason StayCity is still around even after Covid-19 and the main goal is to make sure each guest is satisfied with their stay. The company also treats its employees well as happy employees provide positive experiences to guests. As the hospitality industry relies very much on reputation, a key strength to being successful is to be a people-person. I have already heard my colleagues talking about the ratings StayCity locations have online; even though we do not work directly with guests, they are still concerned with the company image. The rise of the internet allows for people to share their options to a mass public and influence their decisions. Gaining positive feedback on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and more directly impacts the success of StayCity.
Another key strength for success in the hospitality industry is to be different. This industry is not necessarily one where there is a top brand or chain that maintains the highest degree of attention (think cell phone brands with hardcore fans). Travelers typically are looking for any place that is clean, close to where they want to be, and reasonably priced. In order to secure long time customers, StayCity needs to stand out from the other hotel options. They do this in a big way by the type of stay they provide. It’s targeted at long term guests and provides much more than the average hotel. Guests do not have to spend a fortune on a reputable apartment on Airbnb, worry about eating out every night, or finding a place to do laundry. StayCity is a safe, reasonably priced option that provides amenities that make guests feel as if they have moved to their location. That alone is already appealing to people who wish to experience a new country rather than be on a vacation. Additionally, having positive employees and a customer centric business approach builds trust with guests who will continue to choose StayCity over another hotel.
Moving on to strengths for working in finance, as I post this it is officially my 3rd day of interning with StayCity Aparthotels. So far, the team has been amazing. They are welcoming and eager to teach me all about finance and how StayCity operates both domestically and internationally. I work in the accounts payable department where we process all the invoices from company business activities. That means every time the company must pay for something it comes to us. I am mostly surprised at how complex it is to manage all these payments; it truly takes a whole team to manage the accounts.
Therefore, to be successful in the finance department it is just important that I am a pleasant, team player as I must rely on my co-workers to complete tasks. We all work together for the common goal of making sure the accounts are paid and updated all the time. Otherwise, the company would fail or be in serious legal trouble. The work is not distributed per person as there is a constant flow of new invoices and issues that must be addressed. It is important that to take care of the most urgent cases first; one person may need stop their work to pick up something that takes greater priority. Another person must then resume the unfinished task. That brings me to other core competencies which is to be a quick-learner and adaptable. It’s not simply busy work or pouring over excel sheets (well there are A LOT of excel sheets), one must be a problem solver as well since it quite often happens that a complex issue arises. I will save the stories of the how finance handles those issues for another day.
I will close this post with something I think is unique to the Irish workplace. While we are doing serious work, it’s important to be light-hearted and open to your team. It is a close group and most of the team is comfortable around each other enough to joke and send gifs in the chat about work. Americans can hold back on the friendliness in the office, but here it is essential to “getting on” (as the Irish say) or connecting with your co-workers.
That is all for this post, let’s hope for a progress update in the next one. Bye for now!