Half hotel, half housing, the hybrid Bikube project led by Vinci Immobilier opens its doors

In Lyon, the Bikube project led by Vinci Immobilier has just opened its doors, a stone's throw from the Part-Dieu station.

"It's a project that has been in the works for 5 years," Emilie Schlageter, director of Bikube, told AFP. "While developing the concept, we realized that the product was hotel-based, so we developed it to offer our apartments by the night," she explained.

Of Bikube's 146 apartments, ranging from studios to three-room apartments, 55 are reserved for long stays, between one and eight months, and they are fully booked, she said.

Prices vary according to the duration: from 120 euros per night and 940 euros per month, for a service equivalent to a four-star hotel.

"Today there is a lack of supply of this type of service," she believes, "between the difficulties in finding accommodation in the city, the growing demand for services but also a need to break the isolation."

"Animate the place"

Like other concepts of this type, Bikube offers spaces for meeting and working but also common rooms (kitchen, living room) with careful decoration. A bar-restaurant open to the outside is also part of the project.

"It is important in the concept to bring the place to life for the residents but also for the outside world, and to combine the two," underlines Emilie Schlageter, specifying that Bikube means "hive" in Danish.

The customers? "Many foreign interns or researchers who appreciate not having to put together an administrative file to find accommodation, as well as professionals on assignment in a company in the sector," according to her.

Vinci Immobilier is aiming to open another Bikube this summer in Montpellier and then in 2026 in Suresnes, in the Paris region.

Following the same model, its competitor Bouygues Immobilier launched the Nomo brand with a project of 141 apartments which should open at the beginning of 2025 in Bordeaux, followed in 2026 by another in Saint-Ouen in the Paris suburbs.

"A concept at the crossroads of the aparthotel and traditional rental accommodation", for stays of "3 days to 9 months", boasts the group.

Hoteliers are also on the case, like the Singaporean giant Ascott, owner of the Citadines aparthotels, which offers a similar concept called Lyf.

In Europe, after Vienna and Frankfurt, the next Lyf is planned for April 2025 in Paris and two other projects are underway in the United Kingdom.

"Digital nomads"

"We are targeting 'digital nomads', customers looking for community and services," sums up Philippe Mettey, vice-president of sales and marketing Europe for Ascott, testifying to a "good enthusiasm" for this brand.

From around ten today, the group would like to have 150 worldwide by 2030.

And it is bringing its Citadines residences into the dynamic, with a renovation program that focuses both on an upgrade of the common areas and on the different lengths of stay "to target all clientele".

Because there is only one step from these new hybrid concepts to aparthotels, assures Vincent Compagnon, president of Appart'City, a chain which has around a hundred establishments in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

"The aparthotel is not new but it has never been so contemporary and perfectly meets new expectations by offering the best of both worlds: the flexibility of Airbnb-type rentals and the level of service of the hotel industry," said the manager during a round table on urban accommodation in mid-December.

Analysis shared by François Bellanger, a sociologist present at the same event: "real estate plans have not changed since Haussmann, while lifestyles, family structures and working methods have been completely turned upside down. The hotel industry is responding with new forms of housing."

"15 years ago, we hid kitchenettes in a cupboard. Today we are making them more beautiful, it is a strong marker. In the past, our offer was not assumed, not finished, our ambition is to modernize it", concludes Vincent Compagnon.