Coffee “hits all the notes” at Staycity

Caffeine Ltd helps staff make “the best coffee” in Staycity Heathrow’s new coffee lounge

With sites in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam, Staycity is an expanding serviced apartment provider offering commuters and travellers a ‘home from home’ experience. An alternative to hotels, Staycity apartments all come with kitchens and range from studios to two bedroom flats with living rooms.

One of its more recent bases in Heathrow, London, has just set up a coffee lounge area, operating 24/7.

“The idea was to provide guests who don’t wish to spend all their time in their apartment a relaxing, casual space where they can have light evening meals and breakfasts, as well as fantastic ‘London Calling’ coffee,” says Keith Freeman, Staycity’s Chief Operating Officer.

Keith and his team opted for the Schaerer Coffee Art Plus, distributed in the UK by Caffeine Limited. This bean-to-cup espresso machine is capable of making a variety of coffee drinks without requiring specialist training. Its simplicity makes it ideal for the lounge’s 24/7 operation, as both the day and night staff can easily operate it.

“It’s very simple to clean, very simple to operate. It makes consistently good coffee no matter who serves the guest,” says Keith.

Staycity Heathrow has over 269 apartments and up to 800 guests, so the Schaerer’s ability to cope with high volume and heavy usage has proved vital.

“We can use it 24 hours a day and not have to worry about its reliability. Its operation is brilliant,” says Keith.

“While we wanted to get a machine that could deliver us quantity and quality, we also wanted the ‘barista’ effect. The Schaerer machine hits all those notes.”

When deciding which coffee to use, Keith and his team looked to local suppliers.  Caffeine Limited recommended London Calling Coffee, which proved the perfect match.

“We wanted to have some localisation, but the London Calling coffee made the decision easy. The taste, the texture; I love my coffee and it’s just a great product. We did a taste panel and everyone chose it.”

As well as supplying and installing the machine, Caffeine Limited has provided Keith and his team with comprehensive before and after sales support, making sure all the staff were not only confident in using the Coffee Art Plus, but were getting the best out of the coffee, too.

“The before and after service was fantastic,” says Keith. “From ordering the machine to getting us trained and bringing in the product, they were adaptable to all our team members and managers. There’s a real passion at Caffeine to make sure that we get the coffee right.

Caffeine Limited also advised Keith to purchase the chocolate option for the machine. Although he was reluctant at first, it has proved more than worthwhile.

“The hot chocolate is lovely. I wasn’t actually going to go for the chocolate option and I was very much talked into it. I’m glad we did because it’s a big part of our sales.”

Staycity is opening new sites in York and London Covent Garden.  “We intend to keep using Caffeine Limited because of their great service, delivering great machines and great coffee.”