The Ins & Outs of Corporate Housing

When I first coined the words, “corporate housing” back in 1980, my definition was to combine the comforts and convenience of luxury apartment living with some of the services and amenities of the finer hotels.

Today, corporate housing can stand for almost anything. Someone who wants to rent their furnished apartment on a month-to-month lease calls it a “corporate apartment.” However, within corporate housing the offerings, regulations, flexibility and quality runs from one extreme to the other.

A number of the larger corporations had one person that was responsible for housing its new employees or consultants, and they were usually in the travel or human resources department. As a multitude of them retired, the major corporations outsourced their jobs to relocation companies. As temporary housing is such a small part of the relocation package, the relo companies hired the national housing companies to provide housing in the U.S. and now on a global scale.

Of course it is much easier to go to one point of contact for your housing needs around the U.S. However, as with any company, there are always two sides to every coin.

Owning a boutique temporary housing company in Chicago–Manilow Suites, I may be a bit bias, but after 31 years of being in the business I have learned and definitely seen a heck of a lot.

The downsides to a national housing company are:

1) Inconsistency of quality and service  2) Paying a higher rate than a local company who may have more to offer  3) Flexibility

This is certainly not true with every national housing company, but I would say it is mora of a rule than an exception. Stay tuned for next week’s blog where I will explain the downsides in detail.

-Francine Manilow