“A castle life for the price of a studio.
“Admittedly, the slogan is quite exaggerated but it is a little the principle.
And finally, the promise is not far from being kept.
The Happyculture group, which brings together around forty hotels in France, half of which are in Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine, offers Homppy, a tempting formula of a room at 900 euros per month including wi-fi and cleaning twice a month.
In the capital, nearly 600 rooms are still affected until the end of August, then 200 until the end of 2022.
The Covid is obviously at the origin of this change in strategy.
Seeing tourists and professionals disappear from Paris last year, the group had to adapt its offer.
“We benefited from state aid but that was not enough, admits Gaëtan Le Pogam, marketing and sales director of Happyculture.
We therefore had to completely rethink our formulas by showing flexibility and adapting our prices.
"
No selection, no need for a guarantor
As a result, rooms are no longer rented only at night but by the month, by the week… and even by the hour. Very quickly, the group's managers understood that they had a card to play in order to sustainably fill their hotels. "Because of the real estate tension that reigns in Paris, we said to ourselves that by offering prices that could compete with those of a studio while having the advantages of all inclusive such as water, electricity, wi-fi , or even cleaning, we were going to attract people, he continues. We do not make any selection, nor do we need to have a guarantor since the payment is made at the beginning of the month and everything is renewable each month. "
And it works.
Launched in the summer of 2020, Homppy has made nearly 80,000 overnight stays in the capital, 200,000 nationally.
Admittedly, the group had to divide the price of its rooms by 4 or even 5 - they were generally billed between 120 euros and 150 euros per night - but that was the price to (charge) to fill the hotels.
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The formula quickly won over Alexandra, 24, a drama student.
This Lyonnaise began to go back and forth between her hometown and Paris but, very quickly, this organization became unmanageable.
She was then lodged with her sister-in-law but living with an apprentice actress rehearsing her ranges by videoconference quickly proved to be complicated ...
Alexandra enjoyed the experience even though she admits that "doing it all in one room can get a bit overwhelming".
LP / Sébastien Thomas Sébastien Thomas
In February 2021, her mother came across Homppy's offer.
“A room for myself, in a three-star hotel, right in the middle of the Marais, for only 900 euros, it was unexpected,” she enthuses.
I have all the shops nearby and three metro lines within a radius of 500 meters.
"
She is not the only one to be on a “long stay” at the hotel.
A shared situation that brings people together.
"I got to know my roommates, we sometimes eat together, I even run with one of them, it's a way to break the isolation, I who come from the provinces", she emphasizes .
The young woman is also reassured at the idea of being in a place where the staff is present 24 hours a day.
There remains one black point: catering.
Without a kitchen, the hotel only offers breakfast (8 euros).
"I had to go through the delivery which, in the end, gives a fairly large meal budget," she regrets.
And then, living in 15 m2, even if it is very comfortable, it becomes a little stuffy.
"
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Céline, 26, was also tempted by the adventure in her hotel in the 9th arrondissement.
Last year, she landed a job as a digital manager in the Paris region.
The young woman lives for a time with a friend of her mother's but does not want to impose herself.
The fact remains that in the midst of a pandemic, between more or less prohibited visits and the lack of time, the search for an apartment becomes very complex.
Until the Homeppy offer in March 2021.
"I thought it would be quite cold and impersonal, with hidden charges but not at all," she smiles.
There was even a room that the hotel had turned into a gym that could be reserved for free.
And above all, it gave me time to look for something that I really liked.
"
Everything in the same room, "it ends up becoming heavy to manage"
And she ended up finding it.
She will therefore be leaving her room next month.
“The formula is really great but after 4 months, sleeping, eating and working in the same room, it ends up becoming difficult to manage,” she breathes.
With large-scale vaccination and the gradual return of tourists, Homppy will no longer become the norm.
However, the managers of Happyculture do not want to abandon it either.
Thus, gradually, the rooms will return to their original price but 600 of them (out of 1,000) will still keep the price of 900 euros per month until the end of August, then it will be 200 until the end of 2022. The formula also exists on the twenty or so hotels that the group owns in the provinces.
The hotel sector had to show imagination for lack of tourists
The 15 months that have passed since the first confinement have been very complicated to manage for the hotel sector despite the establishment of solidarity funds. "We lost 33 million tourists in 2020 alone," deplores Franck Delvau, president of the union of hospitality trades and industries Paris-IDF. It was therefore necessary to show imagination and flexibility to face the crisis. To attract customers, hotels, equipped with spas, have given their customers the possibility of free access, others have transformed rooms into offices. And then some, with restaurants, have offered packages: a night at the hotel and a meal served in the room. This formula was very popular with Ile-de-France residents who were in need of restaurants. "
Read alsoTourism: the Covid crisis caused the loss of more than 15 billion euros in Ile-de-France
The professional expects an evolution from the start of September.
“For leisure tourism, it may still be a little early even if we feel a thrill thanks to the establishment of the health pass and the gradual reopening of museums, he explains.
But above all, we are counting on business tourism, which should pick up much faster.
"
Another source of optimism: the sudden end of seasonal rentals. "Airbnb-type platforms, which in our opinion constitute unfair competition, will take longer to return to the market, or even stop for some, which should give us a little air," explains Franck Delvau. The town hall also wants to strengthen controls. And then Paris remains the most visited city in the world ”. Hoteliers are also relying heavily on two major events to boost tourism: the Rugby World Cup in 2023 and the Olympic Games in 2024.