Article By: Amelia Addor
PAFIA Writer

Imagine you’ve rented a high-rise apartment for four weeks to live in. You just dragged three bags of luggage from the train station to your AirBnB, through a lobby, inside and out of the elevator, and down a long hall. You’re exhausted and ready to relax after a long day. And the first thing you walk into is an apartment with no directions on how to use the facilities. Or worse, there are so many directions taped to the apartment walls that you don’t know what color the wallpaper is. Enter Coral, a Philadelphia-based company that was created to make AirBnB your second choice.

Long-term travel isn’t easy for anyone, especially not a high-profile client or busy business-person. Ken Myers, the fresh-faced and cheerful Co-founder & President of Coral described it best by citing his own experiences living and working in Germany.

“I was on the road a lot. Four to five days a week traveling from country to country­: France, England, all over Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Italy. So I was living in a hotel four or five days a week using different hotel brands, so I was experiencing … what it was like to be an extended traveler on the road, and to have hotels be an extension of your apartment-living experience.”

As anybody who has traveled using AirBnB, hotel, or a hostel knows, walking into a room covered in an array of color-coded post-its is not an ideal situation. And those issues magnify when you are living with a highly demanding schedule. Andrew Carlone of Philadelphia found a solution and in 2015, Coral was created. Coral began as a digital guidebook meant to eliminate the clunky paper guidebooks found in rental units to be made available to guests as a download. And this was just the beginning for Coral. Once Ken Myers came along, things headed into new and rewarding territory.

With his personal experience, Ken helped shift Coral into an experience unlike any other. He and Andrew met through a common business mentor. Together, they melded and molded Coral away from a software business model, heading towards something he described as “next generation luxury accommodations provider”. Imagine a five-star hotel with personalized amenities, tailored local experiences, and ready-to-use facilities fit for a celebrity, which was their goal all along.

These rentals managed by Ken and Andrew cater specifically to high profile clients in the film and television production industry and can be found in Philadelphia, PA. But Ken believes it’s only a matter of time and planning before they expand their scope to the rest of Pennsylvania. Coral has set its sights on expanding into Pittsburgh thanks to its growing popularity with television and movie productions. Actors, actresses, and entertainers are beginning to realize the potential Pennsylvania has for becoming a television and film industry hot-spot.

With the help of PAFIA (Pennsylvania Film Industry Association) who actively supports and promotes the Film Tax Credit (FTC), the film industry has been making its way into the Keystone State since the FTC was signed into law in 2007. Pennsylvania offers a 25% tax credit to film and television productions that spend at least 60% of their total budget in Pennsylvania. The FTC has brought over 155 feature productions to the Keystone State, with over six of them happening this year.

The interview continued with questions about advocating for the FTC in Pennsylvania’s capital, Harrisburg with other PAFIA members. Ken Myers has consistently recognized the positive impact on many people’s lives throughout Pennsylvania with this growth in media-based economy.

“Andrew and I have benefited directly from the film and television production industry as a business and we’ve realized the direct, positive impact of the industry’s introduction not only on the state but local business owners who have nothing to do with production itself. For Coral it’s quite clear: we’ve seen our revenue grow ten-fold from last year just because of the film and television production increase that we’ve had here. That impacted us directly as far as direct bookings are concerned, and as our partners are concerned.”

Lastly, he made it clear that Pennsylvania locals weren’t the only ones benefitting from PAFIA’s hard work, and the work of members like Ken and Andrew.

“It’s good for the guests on a personal level because it enriches their experience. We work with a lot of businesses from around the area since one of our unique added options is that we ‘plug our guests’ into the city they’re located in. If there are a couple actors or actresses here or some individuals from the crew, we really want to expose them to the best of this city because they’re going to be here for sometimes up to six months. The tax credit enriches the lives and experiences of the guests as well as the local businesses. Everyone gets excited to see the small mom and pop shops and experience authentic travel and the shops get to expose their brand, their products, or their services to a new, influential audience.”

Coral is just one of hundreds of businesses that have adapted to the growing film and television industry here in Pennsylvania. PAFIA has hundreds of members who want to share their story and success just like Ken Myers and Coral. Follow Coral’s journey on Instagram and website to see their elite guests, and all that they offer in glossy, enviable photos. And when you visit Philadelphia next, think of how nice it would be to have all your needs and desires taken care of by one fantastic brand catering to the luxury and sparkle of Pennsylvania’s growing glamour.