Quest celebrating 35 years of corporate travel success

Back row: Bianca Tachdjian Quest Ivanhoe, Cat Mapperson

 Quest St Kilda Rd & Quest on Dorcas, Teresa Arcuri Quest

Moonee Valley, Gazal Kamali Quest Watergardens, Natalie

Bui Quest Caroline Springs, Amy van de Ven Quest Orange,

David Mansfield, Managing Director Quest Apartment Hotels

Front Row: Stephanie Robertson Quest Collingwood, Sophie

Sun Quest Griffith and Liz Galea Quest Preston

Through capitalising on corporate travel trends like work from anywhere, leisure trends like comfortable staycations on a budget, and universal travel trends like the growing demand for local connections over box ticking tourism, Quest continues delivering effortless guest experiences as a trusted brand that’s stood the test of time.

2023 marks 35 years of making corporate stay effortless for Quest Apartment Hotels, a member of the Ascott Limited, and there are more milestones on the horizon this year as Australasia’s largest serviced apartment brand continues to evolve its offering.

While June data from NAB, Westpac and ANZ highlights flagging consumer and business confidence, Quest is perfectly positioned to capitalise on the growing corporate hunger for value and reliability as Australasia’s largest serviced apartment operator.

With 159 hotels and 13 additional properties in development, Quest will open 6 more properties by June 2025, representing an additional 469 rooms and bringing Quest’s room tally to over 9,400 spacious serviced apartments nationally.

Quest’s success in adapting to changing market conditions remains a key driver of the brand’s success. With a focus on incorporating ESG into day-to-day operations at properties across the country, to strategically locating new properties in emerging suburbs with strong growth prospects, Quest continues setting franchise business owners up for future success.

The recently opened Quest Watergardens and the upcoming Quest Woolooware Bay are both located within emerging suburban town centres to deliver a home away from home experience for the corporate clients who continue choosing Quest for their accommodation.

Design elements have evolved to incorporate local architecture and mixed-use developments. The first Quest was a 55 key red brick property that opened in 1988 in the inner-city Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. The 83 key Quest Collingwood, the first of 4 properties to open in 2023, marked a full circle moment in terms of geography and architecture, with the new aparthotel just 15 minutes from the original site and incorporating red brick into the façade.

Quest Collingwood exemplifies Quest’s commitment to suburban sites, with Quest corporate office set to occupy the office space above the new aparthotel once the lease on the current St Kilda Rd premises expires.

At Quest, ESG activity goes beyond the boardroom and is being led by Quest’s dedicated 146 local business owners. The network’s community support umbrella, Quest for a Cause, is now incorporating hundreds of charitable initiatives across the country in which local teams continue supporting the communities that support their businesses.

At a network level in 2023, Quest is accelerating its ESG activity through purpose led partnerships. Since 2020, through the partnership with the Sony Foundation’s You Can Stay program, Quest has provided over 13,000 room nights at no cost to families of regionally based youth with complex cancers who require ongoing treatment in capital city hospitals.

This year Quest is also working to address the housing affordability and rental crisis in the country through additional partnership activity with the Housing All Australians charity.

Quotes attributable to Managing Director at Ascott Australia, David Mansfield:

“Our extraordinary success would simply not have been possible without the ongoing support of our partners and clients, our guests, and our local business owners.”

“Our people and culture are key to Quest’s success. The local knowledge and inherent intuition of Quest local business owners means they continue to provide the safe pair of hands and elevated service our guests expect. That hasn’t changed in 35 years.”

“We continue to evolve our brand in line with changing guest expectations without losing sight of who we are — Quest is a network of local business owners and teams who go the extra mile for our guests. A sense of community is precisely what we all want from post-pandemic travel, and with authentic local experiences top of mind for guests, Quest is perfectly positioned to meet this demand through our spacious serviced apartments.”

Quotes attributable to multi-site Quest Business Owner of 19 years, Andrew Clarke:

“I was introduced to Quest in 1996, and my wife Angela and I were granted the franchise for Quest West End in 2004 and Quest on Rheola in 2005. From my perspective we’ve stayed with the brand because we believe in the brand. Faces, preferences and designs may change but the brand’s core promise remains. Quests guiding purpose is to make corporate stay effortless through the provision of spacious serviced apartments, and while the model changes, we’ve never strayed from that.”

“Quest has continued evolving to ensure we have a proven business model that gives us everything we need to build our own successful small business, which we then tailor to suit our respective local market conditions.”

“As always we’re looking forward to the Conference this year because it gives us the opportunity to connect with other business owners while learning and exploring different strategies for success.”

* Andrew Stewart: astewart@alphaconsulting.global