In two months time, world football championship will start in Russia. 1.7 mio tickets have been sold by now. Half of that was bought by foreign nationals. Russia’s host cities get themselves ready for accommodating visitors. Association of Tour Operators of Russia is sure there should not be any problem with availability of rooms in both hotels and private facilities. The problems may emerge though a bit later, and those will not be the problems of sports fans, but of the hotels owners, since in the near future one may hardly expect a comparable tourists inflow in, say, Saransk or Rostov-on-Don.
Moscow’s Artel Agency’s architects believe that the problems of the hotels investors may be avoided. They have come up with a mobile microhotel wich may be assembled and disassembled within an hour. This way, it helps to arrange a temporary accommodation for either visitors or participants of grand public events. The team is guided by the MMM principle, that of mobility, modularity and minimalism. It is certain the concept may be implemented as a component of microhotels located along highways, at airports or at large tourist camps.
The smaller the better
Pavel Chvilev, Artel Agency’s founder, invented the concept of manufacturing modular hotels in 2017. Until that, the company for five years operated as a developer at various fora and festivals such as Usadba Jass Festival or Startup Village. The team offered modular wooden structures for adequately arranging space at markets or food courts. While implementing those projects, it became clear that for the festivals lasting many days, the need for prefabricated housing always exists.
“It is quite often, visitors at such events are housed at tent sites. In foreign countries, modular solutions have gained a broad proliferation, and they provide a better comfort. We though, in our market nothing like that was offered, so we decided to come up with such a solution, especially since we had had some experience of dealing with modular structures as our company manufactures office and residential premises of former sea cargo containers”, Pavel Chvilev says.
So, on the verge of two sectors, event industry and innovation construction, the ПАØN mobile microhotels project emerged. That is an applicative cubic space styled in minimalism and measured 4 by 6 meters. The structures are erected out in the open area. Various modules, such as a bedroom, a parlor or a study may be combined. Modularism is the main benefit of such a hotel since its size may keep up with a growing accommodation demand. For the basic solution though, no utilities are envisaged and the conveniences are to be taken care of by the festival organizers.
“We promote minimalism since it is a global trend in architecture. Worldwide, people strive to get rid of an excessiveness including excessive residential areas and excessive costs”, Artel Agency founder says. “Another significant issue is the environmental friendliness. We only use natural materials which cause no damage to the environment and urban infrastructure”.
The project’s architects regularly visit major European festivals and architecture fora, looking for their own image and aiming to Russify their products.
Earning on sleeping
By now, the company has invested RUR 1 mio ($17K) in the project. The startup had had its own production facilities and staff. Artel Agency is exploring several business models for production and sale of ready-made solutions and lease of modular hotels for various events lasting two to four days. The events sector aims at both Moscow-scale festivals and large-scale events all around Russia and, subsequently, around Europe.
According to Pavel Chvilev, festival movement is better developed in Europe than in Russia. The largest events such as Sziget Festival in Budapest, are attended by some 500,000 visitors. For them, annually there are five to seven various accommodation offers. Prefab wooden structures are in fact sleeping berths within a 1.5 by 1.5 meters area and they are in demand. Chvilev believes that once the company comes to the European market, it will be able to make dozens and hundreds of millions of rubles.
“Among hundreds of thousands of festivals visitors, there will always be 100 to 200 people who would prefer spending the nights at the events comfortably. This season, our team intends to practically test this idea”, Artel founder claims.
Artel has got some experience in leasing modular retail solutions, i.e. booths where entrepreneurs can exhibit or sell their products. This way, profits are made by the solutions manufacturers, festival organizers and entrepreneurs. With microhotels, money may be made, at best, by the manufacturers and festival organizers, while the prices will be significantly lower. The venture is commercially viable if microhotels are leased at RUR 3K ($50) per night.
Artel has manufactured its first microhotel sample to test the technology and to demonstrate it to the prospect buyers. Pavel Chvilev says, that many companies are showing their interest, but no contracts have been signed so far since the market has yet to reach the right state while Artel has to establish itself. But he expects that in the very near future there will be many both customers and competitors.
Artel has capacities to manufacture accommodation facilities for 2018 FIFA World Cup. It can produce 50 to 100 accommodation modules a month.
The same approach may be applied in installing microhotels by highways for drivers to sleep there. Later, an automated system may be employed which uses an e-key access and a common information database.
Another scenario for the solution is recreation areas at airports. In summer 2017, the first in Russia sleepbox hotel was opened in the sterile area of the international flights at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow. Twelve capsules were installed there for passengers to have a chance to sleep while waiting for their flights. Chvilev believes that interest towards such solutions will keep growing.
Scandinavian fashion
Modular hotels are customary practices in Europe and US with their technology and design history. Not long ago, Green Magic Homes from the US started building modular buildings styled as Hobbit-holes in Middle-earth. The structures are covered with soil and in a while turn into green hills. Such small modular homes and offices are most fancied in Scandinavia where they are made of all sorts of materials, including wood and used containers for sea and railroad transportations.
In Russia, modular residential and office buildings are yet less popular than fundamental edifices, even though their construction requires much less time, money and approvals.
“Even though modular hotels may seem quite interesting investments due to the short term of their construction and the limited funds needed for that, it should be noted that demand for such accommodation is quite limited, especially in the major cities of tourist attraction such as Moscow and St Petersburg where minihotels enjoy advantages of good services and convenient infrastructure nearby”, Evgeny Rudman of NFP (Meltzer Group) believes. “Constructing modular prefab hotels would be feasible in southern areas by the sea, in Krasnodat Territory first of all, or for temporary use during World Football Championship in the cities hosting matches. Otherwise, Russia’s market is not yet ready for such residential buildings due to the lack of quality guarantees and infrastructure”.
In the opinion of Evgeny Rudman, due to their small size and low price, modular hotels find themselves in the same market segment as hostels. Their amenities are also those of economy class, so such hotels are suitable for a very short stay only. Still, a right approach may turn deficiencies into advantages.
By Anna Oreshkina