Standby Apartments And Other New Long-Term Lodging Options You Need To Know

16.09.2023 - 11:55 / forbes.com

Scott Kelly was looking for accommodations as flexible as he is when he found a standby apartment. Actually, make that standby apartments.

Kelly, who is the CEO of an accelerator that helps startup companies, didn't need to be anywhere in particular. That's when he found a new program from Landing called Standby that let him hop between rental units in Orlando, St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park, Florida.

Landing apartments are fully furnished and stocked with the essentials for a long-term stay, including kitchen utensils, linens and towels. But the best part of its Standby program was the price: Kelly says the subscription service saved him a bundle by going with Landing’s Standby option.

"I save an average of $2,000 a month," he says.

Standby is at the vanguard of new flexible lodging options designed to appeal to digital nomads, retirees and location-independent entrepreneurs.

"The extended stay category is one of the hospitality industry's fastest-growing categories," says Tim Hentschel, CEO of HotelPlanner.

How fast? Extended-stay lodging is growing by 11% each year and will reach $132 billion by 2032, according to CBRE, a real estate company.

Hentschel has had a front-row seat to the growth. He's seen a 19% year-over-year increase in bookings of more than a week, which is the traditional definition of an extended stay. In many of those cases, customers are locked into a hotel contract. But that's changing.

The idea behind Standby is that in exchange for a lower price of between $1,195 and $1,995 per month (not including the $399 annual fee), you get to choose from apartments that would otherwise be unoccupied in one of 375 cities. It's a little bit like flying standby back in the old days of air travel.

"People today have more freedom in where they work and live than ever before, and they don't want to be locked into a single location with a long-term lease," explains Bill Smith, Landing's CEO. "For those with the highest level of flexibility, Landing Standby unlocks the ability to take full advantage of this newfound freedom by moving around and exploring new places – at a highly affordable cost."

There are some restrictions. For example, Landing excludes some California and New York apartments from the Standby program. And there are terms and conditions that you don't usually get with a standard lease. Standby members may have to relocate with a 72-hour notice, and they may need to go to a different city where there's available inventory.

Customers like Kelly are part of the nomadic, location-independent class of workers who are looking for new experiences and don't mind moving. For those who want stability and certainty, Standby's standard corporate housing membership is probably a better fit.