The room with kitchen, the new concept preferred by hoteliers

It’s been three months since the B&B Home hotel in Saint-Ouen opened, and in the communal kitchen decorated with plants, vintage dishes and industrial chairs, the situation is serious: the refrigerator is much too small. Tupperware is piling up. “We didn’t think customers would use it so much! We’re going to install a giant fridge. And a sticker system to identify forgotten leftovers,” comments Vincent Quandalle, one of the managers of this group of 700 hotels, which is in full development.

A shared kitchen in a chain hotel? This is a first for B&B, which will open three other establishments on this model by the end of 2024. Guests of this 3-star hotel can also opt for a room with a kitchenette – around forty are equipped with them. In addition, there are communal spaces, like those in a youth hostel: dining room, games room, sofas, etc.

The idea comes from an intuition: that customers do not necessarily want to dine at a restaurant every evening, for reasons of means or convenience, particularly for stays that exceed two or three nights. “This responds to new behaviors. Customers go shopping at the supermarket next door and come back to dine at the hotel.”observes Vincent Quandalle, who hopes to launch “about thirty” B&B hotels with this concept in the Ile-de-France region. It is particularly aimed at tourists, thanks to the new metro lines that make it easier to reach the centre of Paris. In Saint-Ouen, the average price for a night is 120 euros.

Growing

This opening reflects the growing interest of hotel chains in the aparthotel concept, which is nothing new but is enjoying a new lease of life. The two French leaders, Adagio (a joint venture between Accor and Pierre & Vacances) and Appart’City, which each own around a hundred residences, are growing rapidly. The latter, a subsidiary of the Uxco real estate group, saw its turnover jump by 55% between 2021 and 2023, thanks to a series of openings, an increase in its prices and a better occupancy rate.

The real change is that these apartment hotel chains are attracting more and more tourists – and not just salespeople or executives on the move. For example, at Adagio, 60% of customers are holidaymakers, compared to 40% are “business” travellers. The ratio was the opposite in 2019. This is due to the Airbnb effect, which has popularised the convenience of accommodation with a fitted kitchen and several rooms, which are very useful for families. “Airbnb has made it desirable to rent not a room, but a studio or apartment. The kitchenette, once outdated, is now desirable, notes Vincent Compagnon, the president of Appart’City. We are betting that aparthotels will continue to gain popularity, because they offer more services and more security than Airbnb-type furnished accommodations.”

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