The idea started when Decathlon was relocating a growing number of international employees to the Netherlands.
Many employees had limited housing budgets, while they often needed accommodation immediately after arrival. Permanent housing could take time to secure, but hotels and commercial short stay apartments in Amsterdam could easily cost between €100 and €200 per night.
At a glance
Challenge
International employees often needed accommodation immediately after arrival, while hotels and commercial short stay apartments in Amsterdam could cost €100 to €200 per night.
Approach
Talcom rented and furnished a two bedroom apartment close to Amsterdam Central Station for €2,100 per month excluding VAT and used it as flexible overflow accommodation at cost price.
Results
More than twenty international employees used the apartment, giving employers a lower-cost fallback while permanent housing was secured.
The challenge
Temporary accommodation was consuming relocation budgets
International employees often needed somewhere to stay immediately after arriving in the Netherlands, while permanent housing could take time to secure.
Hotels and commercial short stay apartments in Amsterdam could easily cost between €100 and €200 per night. For an employee staying for several weeks, that meant temporary accommodation could quickly consume a significant part of the relocation budget.
The challenge was to create a more practical fallback: somewhere employees could land, start work and continue searching for permanent housing without the same level of cost pressure.
Our approach
Creating our own temporary housing solution
Talcom secured a two bedroom apartment close to Amsterdam Central Station for €2,100 per month excluding VAT, including gas, water and electricity.
We furnished it simply and initially used it as overflow accommodation for Decathlon employees arriving in the Netherlands.
Talcom rented the apartment directly and provided the accommodation at cost price.
The objective was never to generate revenue from the apartment. It was to have a reliable place available when an international employee needed to arrive before permanent housing had been secured.
Making the structure work financially
Because the apartment was rented on a business basis, VAT applied to the rental costs.
Instead of passing those costs directly to the employee, Talcom could invoice the accommodation through Decathlon. This allowed Decathlon to process the accommodation costs within its own payroll arrangements and recover the relevant amount excluding VAT from the employee where applicable.
This helped keep the effective accommodation costs lower while providing a clear structure between Talcom, the employer and the employee.
From a Decathlon solution to a Talcom relocation solution
The apartment proved so useful that we did not limit it to Decathlon.
Whenever the apartment was available, we could also use it for international employees relocating to the Netherlands for other Talcom clients.
Over the full period, the apartment was used for more than twenty international relocations.
Employees could arrive in the Netherlands, start their new role and search for permanent housing without immediately facing the costs of a hotel or commercial short stay apartment.
As one employee moved into permanent accommodation, the apartment could become the temporary home for the next arrival.
A relationship that still works today
The arrangement also worked well for the landlord.
The landlord appreciated the purpose of the apartment and the way Talcom managed the accommodation. At the same time, the property was not suitable for having the same long term resident continuously occupying it.
That created a model that worked for both sides.
Even though we no longer rent the apartment continuously, the relationship remains in place.
Today, we can still rent the same apartment on an ad hoc basis when an international employee needs temporary accommodation and the property is available.
What started as a solution to a Decathlon housing problem therefore became a flexible housing option that Talcom can still use for other clients.
More than twenty relocations supported
Over time, more than twenty international employees have used the apartment.
At €2,100 per month excluding VAT, including gas, water and electricity, the economics were very different from repeatedly booking temporary accommodation at €100 to €200 per night.
A thirty day hotel or short stay booking at those rates can cost between €3,000 and €6,000.
The apartment offered two bedrooms for €2,100 per month.
More importantly, it gave us time.
An employee did not have to accept the first permanent property available simply because a hotel booking was becoming too expensive.
The result
A housing solution originally created for Decathlon became a reusable part of Talcoms relocation operation.
More than twenty international employees from Decathlon and other Talcom clients have stayed in the apartment.
Employers reduced their exposure to hotel and short stay costs. Employees received an affordable place to land. Talcom gained a fallback option that allowed us to continue searching for suitable permanent housing without unnecessary time pressure.
And because the relationship with the landlord continues, we can still use the apartment on an ad hoc basis today.
Why it matters
Relocation costs are not fixed simply because the market charges a certain price.
Sometimes the better solution is to change the way the service is organised.
In this case, we identified a recurring cost problem, rented and furnished an apartment ourselves, provided it at cost price and subsequently used the same solution for more than twenty international relocations.
The result was not another housing product.
It was a practical solution to a recurring problem: giving international employees somewhere to land without spending their relocation budget on expensive hotels while they search for a permanent home.
