These Pop-Up Hotels Are a Solution for Tough Rental Markets

06.12.2023 - 04:32 / skift.com / Srividya Kalyanaraman

What do you do when you’re a short-term rental operator during peak travel season in a busy market with regulatory restrictions?

London-based Altido, which typically provides hospitality management for homes, serviced apartments, and hotels, has a solution: It operates pop-up hotels, temporary, seasonal accommodation for cities that need it.

And it has a straightforward source to acquire these properties: student accommodation. 

“We started doing this in 2019 with student homes in Edinburgh, and it was called Altido affordable,” said Francesco Morgante, head of sales and distribution at Altido.  “The idea is to take advantage of great locations that are completely empty in July and August.”

Morgante called it the “win-win-win” situation where the landlords are happy that their asset isn’t sitting empty for two months, tourists are happy they get three-star hotel-like lodging at affordable rates and Altido is glad to operate and manage these rentals. There is another win: The city isn’t offended as the arrangement doesn’t take inventory away from long-term housing. 

Certain premises like these purpose-built student accommodations are exempt from short-term rental licensing in Scotland.

When the company started doing this in 2019, the same year it was founded, it ran only one pop-up hotel in Edinburgh, and today it has five. And it’s a profitable proposition. 

Less so in other markets like York, UK, or Dublin, Ireland. 

“We monitor the market and do our research to see if we are hitting our break even point, only then we go ahead and do it,” Morgante said. 

For instance, hotels in Dublin were full last year housing Ukrainians fleeing the war. That directed hotel demand towards rentals. This year Dublin isn’t doing so well for Altido, thanks to the weather. 

Next year Altido will operate similar pop-up accommodations out of student housing in Madrid, Spain, and Venice, Italy. 

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