Management

TLJ Security Systems Celebrate Excellence

From humble beginnings TLJ security systems have come a long way in the 10 years since the business was incorporated, with the team having built a solid and diverse customer base across the construction industry. In excess of 1,000 builders, contractors, architectural practices, facilities managers, hotels, student accommodation and residential

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GuestReady to Become Leading Airbnb Management Company

GuestReady, a global short-term rental company, has acquired BnbLord, the largest Airbnb management company in France, to form the GuestReady Group. The combined company will be the leading provider in Europe managing more than 2,000 properties with a wide range of services to property owners, agents, and developers. GuestReady has

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Platinum Facilities Maintenance gets seal of approval as it joins British Engineering Services Association

Hamilton-based Platinum Facilities Maintenance which employs twelve people in the Lanarkshire town and carries out work throughout the UK, has been accredited as a member of the British Engineering Services Association, (BESA). BESA is a leading trade organization for building engineering services contractors which represents the interest of firms active in

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Metrus: Personal, Proactive & Professional

“Property may be about product, but it’s also about people,” argues Adrian Sayer, Managing Director of Metrus, a company dedicated to defining both the meaning, and importance of property management in the present day. Oft described as a “modern classic”, Metrus is one of London’s leading property management specialists, offering

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Latest Issue

BDC 321 : Oct 2024

Management

TLJ Security Systems Celebrate Excellence

From humble beginnings TLJ security systems have come a long way in the 10 years since the business was incorporated, with the team having built a solid and diverse customer base across the construction industry. In excess of 1,000 builders, contractors, architectural practices, facilities managers, hotels, student accommodation and residential developers have specified TLJ for their access control needs. They install and service tens of thousands of electronic locks every year in the UK. A true British success story, TLJ has been family owned and run since the very beginning. From its base in East Yorkshire the company designs, manufactures, installs and services its own range of electronic locks and access control products. They’re especially proud of their service proposition, enhanced by keeping their installation and aftersales operations fully in-house. Things move quickly in the access control industry, and the past 10 years have seen many changes. This has been reflected in TLJ’s product range: less reliable biometric ‘fingerprint’ locks and older magnetic keycard technologies have been replaced by up-to-date contactless electronic locks and access control readers, all for security. Becoming increasingly popular is TLJ’s Mobile Keys system: replacing physical keys with the end user’s smartphone, opening locks via secure mobile app. This cutting-edge tech is especially popular in student accommodation developments where residents stay for the longer term. However, many leading hotels and ‘collective living’ projects are also adopting this technology as part of a ‘mobile first’ approach for their customers. Looking ahead, TLJ will be expanding their security range with design-led electronic locks tailored for high-end residential developments and, ingeniously, locks suitable for non-standard doors such as those often found in the leisure industry. “I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe that TLJ have been around for 10 years. From our very humble beginnings we’ve grown into a business that all of us here can be truly proud of. Sure, it’s been hard work but overall there have been many more hits than misses. The team has grown and continues to do so, but we’re in no rush to expand our numbers for the sake of it; I firmly believe in quality over quantity when it comes to employing really talented people,” said TLJ Managing Director, Luke Martin. “We’ve punched above our weight and continue to do so, and this is in no small part down to our ethos of managing every stage of the process, from product design to aftersales. We keep everything in-house at TLJ and know that service is king, something which is reflected in the frankly superb feedback we receive from clients. But we’re not resting on our laurels: we know the marketplace is changing and technology moves apace so we’re ‘future proofing’ our product and service offering to better meet our customers’ needs going forward. Here’s to the next 10 years!”

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GuestReady to Become Leading Airbnb Management Company

GuestReady, a global short-term rental company, has acquired BnbLord, the largest Airbnb management company in France, to form the GuestReady Group. The combined company will be the leading provider in Europe managing more than 2,000 properties with a wide range of services to property owners, agents, and developers. GuestReady has been setting an unprecedented pace in the property management industry quickly rising to the top in the complex area of short-term rental management. Since its launch in the summer of 2016, GuestReady acquired three competitors with BnbLord marking the last and largest acquisition to date. Founded in 2015, BnbLord operates across several cities in Europe with a dominant presence in France and Portugal. Last year the company generated more than EUR 10M in revenue for its clients. This acquisition follows the deals announced by GuestReady last December when the company acquired Oporto City Flats, the leading short-term rental operator in Northern Portugal, and took over the management of the portfolio of French Airbnb manager We Stay In Paris. Switzerland-based GuestReady Group now serves more than 2,000 properties through its brands GuestReady, BnbLord, Oporto City Flats, and Easy Rental Services. The offered services include everything that is required to turn a vacant home into a thriving listing on Airbnb, online and offline. Since this year, GuestReady is also offering business-to-business services to property developers and property agents, allowing them to tap into this fast-growing market. “We are extremely excited about this acquisition because it allows GuestReady to propel forward and become the largest service provider in the vacation rental industry. Since we started, we have been very focused on operational excellence and building a property technology system that allows us to automate non-core processes. We can run our large portfolio of properties efficiently thanks to a sophisticated tech platform that we have built in-house over the past years. Without much additional added complexity we can scale our portfolio multi-fold over the coming years,” said Alexander Limpert, Co-founder & CEO of the GuestReady Group. The whole team of BnbLord will join the GuestReady Group and all jobs will be maintained, with the founding team of BnbLord taking senior management positions at the GuestReady Group. “We have been friendly competitors of GuestReady for the past couple of years and we are excited to now join forces. The industry is maturing quickly and we are happy to become part of the technology leader in this space. With our shared experience we will be able to further accelerate growth,” said Léo Bonnet, Co-Founder & CEO of BnbLord.

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Platinum Facilities Maintenance gets seal of approval as it joins British Engineering Services Association

Hamilton-based Platinum Facilities Maintenance which employs twelve people in the Lanarkshire town and carries out work throughout the UK, has been accredited as a member of the British Engineering Services Association, (BESA). BESA is a leading trade organization for building engineering services contractors which represents the interest of firms active in design, installation, commissioning, maintenance, control and management of engineering systems and services in buildings. “Membership of BESA is a recognized badge of quality within the industry and we are delighted to have been admitted to membership” said Colin Chambers, MD of Platinum whose business provides regular facilities maintenance programmes for a range of customers in both the public and private sectors. “BESA acts to gain agreement from a wide range of specifiers, clients and insurers to ensure that membership is a requirement in a high proportion of future tenders”, he said. Platinum deals with a range of building compliance issues from ventilation cleans, kitchen canopy and extract cleans, water hygiene and legionella testing and plant room maintenance for all types of buildings, including hotels, restaurants, leisure and shopping centres, nursing homes and housing associations. Its specialty lies in bringing water, heating and ventilating systems up to the legal standard. The company was presented with its BESA membership certificate at a Scottish Vent Hygiene Forum earlier this year by Rab Fletcher, BESA Scotland Chair, and Iain McCaskey, Head of BESA Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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Metrus: Personal, Proactive & Professional

“Property may be about product, but it’s also about people,” argues Adrian Sayer, Managing Director of Metrus, a company dedicated to defining both the meaning, and importance of property management in the present day. Oft described as a “modern classic”, Metrus is one of London’s leading property management specialists, offering a synthesis of traditional values within a modern framework, and thus allowing the company to offer a cutting edge service on a personable, interactive and thoroughly transparent level. Established some 35 years ago, Metrus toes the line of being large enough to offer a comprehensive property management service, yet still of a size where a friendly, more personal approach can be offered. Able to fill the gap in the market left by the departure of a number of middle-sized firms, Metrus leads the way in offering this balanced, flexible and yet incredibly professional service required by firms seeking something of a more personal touch yet unavailable from some of the larger, international agency firms. Metrus offers a complete commercial and residential property management service, with about 90% of its current portfolio made up of commercial property. Yet, increasingly the company has been approached by residential clients seeking a like-service and, as such the company has recently laid the foundations for a highly specialised residential department to target this demand. Across these two arenas Metrus offers a vast number of complementary services including: agency, retail, office, lease advisory and asset management service for specific refurbishment and development projects; effectively, the whole package. Originally created from the internal perspective of managing its own property interests, Metrus was born out of the perspective of the client itself and, as such has a profound understanding of both where property management can go right, or wrong. Over the years, this understanding has since been built upon through the acquisition of further, external clients and the diversification of the business out into offering a fully comprehensive service portfolio for clients; yet, to this day, it is this understanding from the customer perspective of what a property manager can offer which defines the organisation’s service to this very day. Building further upon Metrus’ understanding of customer needs is also the way in which the company both sources, nurtures and supports its property management teams. Through the predominant recruitment of individuals possessing extensive experience within the property arena, combined with the company’s ability to retain such individuals, Metrus maintains a position in the industry unlike any other: a position whereupon clients can develop a mutual understanding, a relationship and a cooperative partnership with the team itself. As an industry plagued by low staff retention and fluid career movement, the ability to develop a working relationship with the property manager is one unique to Metrus’ clients. Bringing with it a whole host of benefits such as a pre-emptive, not solely responsive, property management service which can plan for the future needs, expectations and requirements onto and into the future. This enables for a far more collaborative property strategy which goes above and beyond the bare management of an asset, and instead pursues a strategy for maximising the efficiencies and value of the asset itself. As Sayer attests: “Due to the majority of us either having worked in property companies or owning property directly, we understand what clients are seeking and we can fulfil their expectations as well as grow with those clients organically as the business grows forward. It’s absolutely essential and, mostly on the surveying front, many of our clients have also been with us for many many years and they like coming back to the same people who have an increasingly intimate understanding of their properties and needs. “Similarly, on the accounting side it’s a crucial part of property management which always needs to be done well, but often isn’t with other companies. The understanding of what the client needs in terms of day-to-day reporting, wider bank reporting and providing flexibility to the client is also key to how we try to differentiate ourselves from the masses.” Of no surprise, given the company’s approach to working alongside clients, is that much of Metrus’ work comes from recommendation and repeat business with existing clients, going so far as to step on the toes of some of the big agents in offering a service which can offer a solution to many of the challenges its clients have found in past experiences with other property agents. The company’s reputation has also gone so far as to attract quality staff, and quality product to further enhance its own ability to deliver an increasingly competitive service. Retaining such clients, alongside the retention of these key staff members also adds to the quality of the service which Metrus can offer yet further, as Sayer illustrates: “You do need to know your clients, their backgrounds and the types of properties that they’re dealing with. For example, we look after Burlington Arcade and we have a particularly experienced manager who is able to understand a lot of the interaction of the individual operators who, many of them, have been situated in there for many decades now. They need that personal touch, the caring approach but they also need the understanding of the commercial perspective that the client is trying to achieve – it’s trying to achieve that balance between personal approach and also the business side as well. Finding that balance is really important and is one of the key considerations when we’re placing people on individual jobs.” And further adding to the proud reputation of the company is the way in which Metrus increasingly promotes corporate responsibility values across the property portfolio. Having achieved 14001 most recently, Metrus is keen to display its own commitment to sustainability and environmental best practice, whilst simultaneously pushing that process out to clients and encouraging engagement in the process at every possible level: “While, as the landlord, you’re in control of certain resources in the operation of a building, the occupiers are utilising as much, if not

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