Private accommodation also popular with celebrities
The bed and breakfast sector is booming in Stuttgart – suppliers urgently required!
Too many guests and not enough beds? A situation the hotel trade can only dream about! But this is a "problem" facing many private accommodation agencies. The bed & breakfast business is booming in Stuttgart.
VON ALEXANDER HETTICH
Anyone looking for accommodation in Stuttgart is spoilt for choice. Around 140 hotels, guesthouses and boarding houses with over 13,000 beds all compete for custom in the provincial capital. With a little luck, visitors can find a hotel room for 30 Euro upwards. And if that's still too much, Stuttgart offers an inexpensive alternative now that the British bed & breakfast trend has caught on in the city.
"Simple private accommodation is available from 17 Euro", reports Markus Urban, proprietor of Night&Day, one of over 20 agencies now also offering its services via Stuttgart Marketing's internet site. "Demand has increased steadily in the past few years", comments Urban proudly. "In fact we urgently need more suppliers because we can't handle all the enquiries."
The plan to set up an accommodation service was hatched by 35-year-old Markus Urban and his wife Claudia over the breakfast table one morning back in 1997. After a humble start in Nürtingen, the business has since become a market leader in Stuttgart, employing six members of staff and on the move again to even larger premises in the Feuersee area. Over 770 privately owned properties with 1700 beds in the area are currently registered in the agency's files – properties ranging from modest guestrooms with shared shower, where guests are treated as part of the family, to furnished flats and even elegant houses.
Accommodation can be rented for one night, four weeks or six months. "Customers are flexible", comments Urban, plugging his business idea. Labourers on construction jobs, travelling salesmen, trainees and visiting lecturers are the typical kind of customer looking for inexpensive board and lodging. But celebrities evidently also like the more private alternative. "We found a nice temporary apartment for footballer Fernando Meira when he first came to Stuttgart", says the Night&Day boss, "right opposite team colleague Soldo". Actor Volker Brandt and the Portuguese consul general also rank among the agency's clientele, which is as mixed a crowd as the landlords or property owners.
"Some people just need the money, others enjoy the company", explains Andrea Gilliar-Klee, who has managed the Ludwigsburg offshoot of the Bed & Breakfast chain since 1999. When children move out and rooms become free, renting part of a house is a pleasant way of earning some extra cash – even if English-style bed and breakfast has not quite caught on in the country (tea in bed is not usually part of the service!).
"But one of our hosts is an 85-year old lady who leaves her guests a piece of cake in the room every day", smiles Markus Urban. Many of our hosts were put off by the commitments of rigid tenancy laws and like to be able to use their property themselves whenever the need arises. "Without us," claims Urban, "there would be many more empty apartments in Stuttgart." Like his colleague Gilliar-Klee, the Night&Day boss is convinced that an end to the trend is not yet in sight: "The market will continue to grow."
Source: Stuttgarter Nachrichten