With sites in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam, Staycity is an expanding serviced apartment provider offering commuters and travellers a ‘home from home’ experience.
An alternative to hotels, Staycity apartments all come with kitchens and range from studios to two bedroom flats with living rooms. One of its more recent bases in Heathrow, London, has just set up a coffee lounge area, operating 24/7.
“The idea was to provide guests who don’t wish to spend all their time in their apartment a relaxing, casual space where they can have light evening meals and breakfasts, as well as fantastic ‘London Calling’ coffee,” says Keith Freeman, Staycity’s COO.
Freeman and his team opted for the Schaerer Coffee Art Plus, distributed in the UK by Caffeine Limited. The bean-to-cup espresso machine is capable of making a variety of coffee drinks without requiring specialist training. Its simplicity makes it ideal for the lounge’s 24/7 operation, as both the day and night staff can easily operate it.
“It’s very simple to clean, very simple to operate. It makes consistently good coffee no matter who serves the guest,” he adds.
Staycity Heathrow has over 269 apartments and up to 800 guests, so the Schaerer’s ability to cope with high volume and heavy usage has proved vital.
“We can use it 24 hours a day and not have to worry about its reliability. While we wanted to get a machine that could deliver us quantity and quality, we also wanted the ‘barista’ effect. The Schaerer machine hits all those notes.”
When deciding which coffee to use, Freeman and his team looked to local suppliers. Caffeine Limited recommended London Calling Coffee, which proved the perfect match. “We wanted to have some localisation, but the London Calling coffee made the decision easy. The taste, the texture; I love my coffee and it’s just a great product. We did a taste panel and everyone chose it.”
As well as supplying and installing the machine, Caffeine Limited has provided Staycity with comprehensive before- and after-sales support, making sure all the staff were not only confident in using the Coffee Art Plus, but were getting the best out of the coffee, too.
Staycity is opening new sites in York and London Covent Garden, and Freeman said he will look to roll out further coffee equipment. “We intend to keep using Caffeine Limited because of their great service, delivering great machines and great coffee,” he says.
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