Sign in to view
member only content

Consumers becoming participants is one of the big evolving themes for 2006, so we thought it fitting to highlight UK based Guest Invest, who offer individuals the opportunity to own a fully managed, luxury London hotel room, ranging in price from GBP 140.000 – 300.000 (USD 243-520K / EUR 204-436K) for a 999 year lease. The revenue is split between the indvidual and Guest Invest, and owners enjoy the added benefit of being able to stay in their own room for a maximum of 52 nights a year for a small fee. Currently, Guest Invest has hotels in Cheltenham, Exeter, Manchester, Brighton, and London, with Liverpool to follow soon. Guest Invest hotels in India are apparently also in the works. Springwise knows that the concept of customer-owners has been around for a while, and relatd spottings continue to pour in: check out London’s uber premium M1NT club on prestigious Sloane Street, which is owned and frequented by 250 shareholders, who all share in the bar’s profits. Or re-read earlier featured Brewtopia in Australia, a beer label handing out shares in their brewery with every purchase customers make. All great excuses for customer-owners to travel and party more often.

Opportunities

From Australia to China, consumers across the board are obsessed with owning their homes, while prosperous boomers in North America and Europe are snapping up pieds-à-terre from New York to Amsterdam, fully equipped second homes in the South of France, or condominiums in Miami. In this new Owner Society, and with stock markets still too volatile, owning a piece of anything solid, while enjoying ‘dividends’ that are fun and relevant, should create an entirely new market for customer-owned concepts. What part of your business can you sell off to your customers?