Bianca Tachdjian, Franchise Owner, and David Ridgeway, General Manager - Franchise Operations, joined us for a brief chat at the Melbourne Franchising and Business Opportunities Expo, April 2022.

We covered some of the key aspects of the franchise business including the type of people that are best suited, any common misconceptions about the brand or industry, as well as advice or guidance for anyone looking to get into business for themselves, and more...

What is your business?

Bianca: "We're from Quest Apartment Hotels, where the leading service departments group in Australasia, with over 170 locations globally.

Where are you located?

David: We're located on St Kilda Road (Melbourne). I work for the franchisor (and) we've got 122 locations around Australia and over 175 across Australia, New Zealand, UK, and Fiji.

What do you love about the business and what you do?

Bianca: I love the people, I love going into work and meeting different people from all walks of life. I love my team, the location.

Quest is a great brand to work for and now I can represent my own property.

What do you look for in the right-fit person to be a franchise owner?

David: That's a really big question. 

From our point of view. We want to look for someone who likes to lead people, who's a really good manager, and who's very focused on the guest experience.

For us, delivering that guest experience is actually our purpose as a brand, but also someone who's got self-accountability around very driven, focusing on sales and revenue, and also had the ability to actually build up a financial position to actually afford one of our businesses.

So it's quite a well-rounded person and ultimately they need to be able to be a good networker. We want ambassadors in the community a bit like the anchor, fantastic ambassador in the community.

So you need to have that real ilk in you that you want to get out and network as well.

What’s a common misconception you believe people have about your brand or niche?

Bianca: The common misconception is that they can't own a Quest. It is a Quest franchise, so they do have the opportunity to own a Quest property, but also that we only service for long-term accommodation or residential. 

We actually do service for short term, long term and beyond.

What would be your advice for people looking to get into their own business?

David: Look, I think probably I mean, firstly, the FCA has a great website when it comes to getting information about the things you should look for when buying the franchise or whether it's a Quest franchise or any franchise for that matter.

But I think the due diligence, I think it's really important that somebody who wants to be a business owner really spends the time to do their due diligence. 

Due diligence has a definition it's quite varied for people. And what I found is the ones that spend more time in that space actually make the better investments, the better decisions. 

And then the other part is, which surprises me a lot - if you're going to buy a business, you should immerse yourself in the business.

So in our business, come and stay at accessed apartment, hotel experience it a customer. See what it's like to actually spend three or four nights at a property so you get a really good understanding of it.

And then obviously the normal things have good accounting advice, legal advice, business advice. 

It's really good to have that external independent advice when you're making those decisions. But it's actually good fun. You just need to take your time.

What is your key focus for the next 12-18 months?

David: Well, look, the last two years has been really tough, you know, going through COVID in 2020 and 2021.

For us, it's about growing the business. And the first one is our existing network, growing the revenue, the accommodation revenue to make sure they're in a really good position going forward.

So that's our number one focus. We've also got a lot of opportunities and developments in the pipeline that will come up in the next two, three, or four years.

That'll be new locations around Australia as well. 

And then the third part is for us, it's very much around the guest experience. You know, our purpose is to make corporate state effortless. 

So everything we're doing around our innovation and our focus is about how do we deliver that as a brand around the country? 

And it's a massive focus for us, particularly in 2022."