Oakwood Worldwide, which manages 20,000 serviced apartments across the globe, has debuted in India, with the soft launch of its first product, a residence, in Pune.

Oakwood operates four brands, a premier, Residence, apartments and corporate housing, positioned respectively as full service five star, full service four star, limited service four star and fully furnished flats.

Regarded as the world’s largest provider of serviced apartments, Oakwood has plans to open in other Indian cities. “We will open an Oakwood Premier in Mumbai followed by one in Bangalore later this year.

In January ‘08, a Residence in Hyderabad, and in ‘09, a premier in Pune and a residence each in Bangalore, Gurgaon and Chennai. We have signed contracts for eight properties across the country and are looking at more properties in the country including Kolkata, Goa and more in Delhi,” Veronique Sirault, general manager, Oakwood Residence Naylor Road, told reporters.

Both the Pune properties are owned by Panchshil Realty. The opening of the 84-room service apartment property is adding to the pool of rooms in a city which is very short of hotel rooms, with five star hotels hiking their room rates every six months. The city already had three other service apartments with the two Seasons service apartment properties being run on a management contract by Vithal Kamat for Naiknavare Associates, a firm of builder-developers.

The third, BelAir, is owned by a local builder, Subhash Sanas. The rates at the Oakwood Residence in Pune range from Rs 10,000 per day to Rs 14,000 per day. Ms Sirault added that they usually have guests staying for a minimum of a week going all the way to six months. “We have tied up some companies for long stays and we provide short stays only to fill the gaps between long occupancies,” she explained.

Industry observers said that the Oakwood model allows discounts for up to 80% for long stays. “The longer the stay, the higher the discount for Oak-wood, which is a global trend. Moreover, they get their bookings, internationally, they are not dependent on domestic Indian companies.

Indian players in this segment of service apartment give discounts up to 30% and do not usually have such long stays; their average is 10-15 days with the longest stay being eight months,” an industry insider said. 
  
Source: The Economic Times

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