London Serviced Apartments

A serviced apartment is a flat in a block, which has a separate bedroom, sitting room/lounge, fully equipped kitchen, your own private keys to own door. Serviced apartments can be in the form of a studio flat (all in one room with a kitchenette), one, two or three bedrooms.
All apartments enjoy maid service, utilities and a management team to help you just like a hotel. Guests only pay for a nightly rate and can live in a flat with everything they would have in their own home.

More value for money and cheaper. In a hotel, no matter which star rating, you pay per night for one room which will have a TV, bathroom, sofa and a bed. This is similar to a studio apartment! In an apartment there is a separate bedroom, kitchen, sitting room, bathroom and dining table (exception is studio)

Pay per apartment and not per person. An example would be paying £250 per night for a two bedroom apartment, which could accommodate up to 4 people, that works out at £62.50 per person.

Freedom and privacy. An apartment is like being in your own home and there is plenty of space. You have your own keys to your own door.
Booking is easy, just like hotels. The majority of apartments require a credit card to guarantee, pre-payment before you arrive and that's it. No deposits, no tenants' contracts.

Apartments lacks the buzz and services of a hotel such as restaurants and Room Service. Albeit some apartments are owned by hotels and offer you the use of their restaurants and other services.

No 24-hour service around the clock. The apartments are ran by a small team who work Monday to Friday 9:00am - 6:00pm, so you are on your own during the weekend. There are emergency numbers to call should you suffer an electric cut, but no 24-hours hotel Duty Manager to run to your room.

No pool, massages, saunas like hotels

Quality of the apartment - make sure you find out if they are clean, well furnished and well maintained. How? Check the photos, and ask if you can book an appointment to view the apartment. This is very important if you are staying over a long period of time.

Do they have a friendly and efficient management team? If you need the comfort of a welcoming face to greet you on arrival, then ask for an apartment with a reception. Some apartments provide key boxes, so you can arrive any time, but there is no-one to meet you. A friendly and small team will be able to give you a very personal touch.

Opening time of the apartments office - doesn't sound important? Well it is because the majority of apartments' operations team open Monday to Friday 9:00am to 6:00pm. If you arrive at your apartment during office open hours, then fine, but any other time and weekends will mean that you will need to pick up the keys from a different location.

Key delivery by car at the airport? - If you are flying from abroad to London, and do not fancy traipsing throughout London at night to pick up keys, the majority of apartments will hire a taxi to deliver your keys to the airport upon your arrival. Convenient for a small charge.

Payment procedure and cancellation policy - every apartment vary in their guest terms and conditions. All will accept a credit card as a guarantee of reservation, some will ask for 100% pre-payment at least 7 days prior to arrival and cancellation can range from 12:00pm on the day of arrival to 28 days. So, before you confirm the reservation, be very clear about the terms and conditions. Ask your apartment agents to explain the procedure to you and read the terms and conditions on your confirmation emails. It will save you a great deal of trouble and headache later.

Apartments are always allocated on arrival. This policy is the same as any hotel, so unless you are a regular guest to a specific apartment, apartments are on allocations. In the same breath, some apartments only have a small number of flats, so if you are reserving the only 3 bedrooms penthouse in their collection, then you are guaranteed that specific apartment.

Rates become more competitive the longer you stay. In this, we mean you have more bargaining power if you are staying for one month or longer. This is when your apartment agent can really help you by negotiating with a variety of apartments to get you the best deal.

Using an apartment agent will also save you time searching, but most importantly they will work with your budget and negotiate a great deal for you. Of course, you also need to be realistic about what you can book, don't expect to spend £80 per night for a luxury apartment. For example, one of our clients had £300 budget per night for a two bedroom apartment and he wanted something luxury. For those readers who know London well, also understands that this budget is actually very small. Despite that, we booked him and 3 friends into the Victoria Park Plaza luxury apartment (£150 per night less than the usual price) for £300 per night with free breakfast, gym and access to the executive lounge. Any apartment agent worth their salt can and will move mountains to help you.

What if I don't like the apartment when I get there?

If you really feel that you have been hard done by, tell the apartment management team and ask to be moved to another apartment. All of the apartments that we work with are very customer focussed and try to help guests enjoy their stay. If this does not work, talk to your apartment agent, if that is how you booked. Best advice though, is to ask all the right questions before you book a London apartment.

Your appetite for apartments is now whetted - how do you find London apartments?

As already explained, you can choose a free search and book service of an apartment agent or go direct to a specific apartment that you know. Both methods are absolutely fine, dependent of your knowledge of London apartments. Using an agent will mean that they will search far across their portfolio and present you with a variety of choices all within 10-15 minutes. Agents are impartial and will only (good agents anyway) recommend the quality apartments for your needs.
You can use search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN to find apartments. Type in keywords like 'London serviced apartments' or 'quality London apartments' and so on.
Stating the obvious but, ask for a recommendation from friends and acquaintances.
Check on Tripadvisor and other customer review websites.

Summary
If you have read this far, then thank you for your time. I have tried to make this article clear and as helpful as possible, but I welcome your comments and any further information that you feel is very important.

For the uninitiated to the world of London serviced apartments, let me explain what a serviced apartment is.

Serviced Apartment

A flat that has a separate bedroom, living room, fully-equipped kitchen, bathroom and can be rented for short stays from 1 night to 3 months or even longer. There are hotel benefits such as a maid service, reception. For an even more in-depth explanation please read our former post entitled 'Everything you need to know about choosing a serviced London apartment.

What is a standalone apartment?

This is a term I have coined to try and differentiate between apart'otels and apartments. Standalone apartments are serviced apartments ran by a small team within a block of flat. Staying in these apartments, you will enjoy maid service, reception help, but no Room Service or Health Club. A number of the standalone apartments' team work Monday to Friday 9:00-5:00pm, so anyone checking in outside of these hours will need to pick up their keys to the apartment at another location.

What is an apart'otel?

Apartments within this category also enjoy all the benefits of the standalone apartment such as maid service. The main difference is that these apartments are managed by hotels and are either located within one (usually on top floors) or just external to the hotel.
Guests staying an apart'otel can enjoy the privacy and independence of their apartment and the hotel services such as Room Service, 5pm and restaurants all for a charge.

Apart'otels are opened 24 hours, so checking in at any time of the day is easy. Payment for the apartments are usually upon check-in.

So which one is better? Standalone apartments or Apart'otels? Read more about London apartments to make up your own mind>>