1. How important is community for temporary living concepts and their residents?
Rincón: At ipartment, there is no community manager in the serviced flat segment because the community does not fit in with the objectives and the hotel-like concept. Our guests are classic business professionals, often in management positions, who have little interest in community, even if they do enjoy socialising in our multifunctional lounges or attending occasional events in our properties. As a rule, however, this clientele wants a quiet evening after work. Community can certainly be very successful with coliving concepts that focus on young professionals, for example. For the guests of our properties, on the other hand, we offer a Guest Service Agent The residents are looked after individually, i.e. not as a community, and are looked after in a special way.

Löwe: The Guest Service Agent ensures that our guests feel at home and takes care of their individual wishes so that they are happy to return at any time. We deliberately focus on the individual, not the community. In this respect, a personalised approach on site is very important and significantly enhances the hospitality qualities of a hotel.

Rincón: Another very central aspect is the complete digitalisation of the hotels, which offers our guests a great deal of convenience before and during their stay and supports the Guest Service Agent.

2. What are the tasks of a Guest Service Agent (CM)?
Rincón: With us, a guest service agent no longer deals with invoices or administrative tasks. All these processes have been digitalised. Since the processes in our hotels, from check-in to 360° guest care, have been completely digitalised, more capacity has been freed up for personal guest care. Our Guest Service Agents focus almost exclusively on this. They advise our guests on leisure activities and are all-round problem solvers. Sometimes they simply sit in the middle of things, in the lounge, and are simply present as the contact person and "soul" of the hotel. Otherwise, the Guest Service Agents carry out their organisational tasks such as checking room cleaning or occupancy management.

3. What qualities should a guest service agent have? (character, person from the region, what must he be familiar with, etc.)
Rincón: Guest Service Agents should be socially intelligent, have empathy and be good with people. It takes a lot of tact, organisational talent and pragmatism to find a really good solution even in difficult situations.

4. Why is a Guest Service Agent so important for your concept?
Löwe: As a personal contact person on site, they not only convey our corporate philosophy, but above all give our guests the feeling of being welcome and valued - or of feeling safe and secure. Just how important the personality of a guest service agent can be is demonstrated by our hotel in Frankfurt's railway station district, which achieves excellent occupancy rates despite coronavirus and its difficult urban location. Our guest service agent has decided to pick up guests personally from the station and provide them with very personalised service. He has made this ipartment location his 'own project' and sales have skyrocketed since he took over the role.

5. Are the individual CMs of the different properties in dialogue?
Löwe: We have 1-3 Guest Service Agents per property. Our Head of Operations, Romina Stolz, and her five-strong management team support and coordinate all our Guest Managers in the various properties.

6. If so, why?
Löwe: Management is very important in order to constantly optimise our services and to be able to react quickly to new problems or requirements. We need standardised solutions that can still be implemented at the various serviced apartment buildings in line with their location.

7. What are the objectives of the Guest Service Agents at your locations?
Rincón: Guest satisfaction: The aim is to satisfy every single guest so that they are happy to extend their stay and tell their colleagues about it.

8. Ist ein Guest Service Agent immer eine Person? Wenn ja, warum?
Rincón: Für uns ja, weil eine noch so hilfreiche und effektive digitale Begleitung, wie wir sie mit unserer 360°-Journey anbieten, das Persönliche nicht ersetzen kann. Das Verbindliche entsteht im direkten Kontakt. Und für alle, die das grundsätzlich oder nur zu bestimmten Zeiten nicht möchten, sind unsere Häuser voll digitalisiert und gänzlich kontaktfrei nutzbar.

9. Everything is becoming increasingly digital, but a CM is often a person. How do you think the demand for guest service agents is developing in the temporary housing market?
Rincón: That's difficult to say. Unlike a hotel, temporary living requires far fewer staff and can function entirely without direct contact if necessary. However, the temporary living segment continues to grow rapidly, particularly in the coliving and serviced flat sectors. This could increase demand and make the guest service agent increasingly important as an integration figure. This would certainly also have an impact on the labour market in this area.

10. What makes a CM so important in the long-stay segment despite digitalisation?
Löwe: In the long-stay segment in particular, the aim must be to maintain guests' well-being. The longer a stay, the greater the desire to stay at home. In this respect, the guest service agent, who offers continuity and a personalised approach, has a central role to play here in particular.

11. Due to the current situation, encounters in the community sector tend to be avoided. How do you think community management will develop in the future, also in view of the current coronavirus pandemic?
Rincón: The coronavirus crisis has driven digitalisation in companies. Providers of temporary accommodation have also developed processes and communication enormously and made them more flexible during this time - an important step forward for the industry. At the same time, however, corona has also clearly shown how important interpersonal contact is. In this respect, the new digital communication channels are a central component of operations, but they are no substitute for personal customer relationships. Our Guest Service Agent has become even more firmly established as an essential part of the properties. Depending on the provider and accommodation concept, however, the tasks of the guest service agent will certainly vary greatly and become more differentiated.

12. How have the tasks of guest service agents changed due to the pandemic and increasing digitalisation?
See above