Marcus Angell
Founder of SilverDoor, Marcus Angell discusses the scope of the worlds largest serviced apartment agentproviding accommodation in 79 countries.
In 2000, Marcus Angell sold his house and moved to London to be with the woman who would later become his wife. He started looking at options for his career and came across the concept of serviced apartments. "I didn't even really know what a serviced apartment was," Marcus says. "But I thought it was a logical and sensible alternative to staying in a hotel if your company sends you away on business for any sort of extended length of stay. So, over a gin and tonic one evening, I just went with it".
Marcus borrowed a small amount of funds, set up a temporary office in his spare bedroom and got to work to create SilverDoor. Fifteen years on and the start-up has experienced tremendous success, growing from a staff of just two people in the early days to now over 100.
Over that period, Marcus says there have been numerous highlights and achievements. "I think the biggest is that that we have, over the course of 15 years, changed the company from one which was effectively me, a one-man band in my bedroom, into the largest independent serviced apartment agent in the world. And thats what we are measured by in terms of overall turnover and in overall numbers of staff in this company. We only do one thing and that means we can focus all of our time and effort into being the best serviced apartment agent."
"I dont see another serviced apartment agent that has more overall turnover or employees than us, so I think it is a justified claim to say that we the largest independent serviced apartment agent. That's probably our biggest achievement and we are still growing."