subject: Serviced Apartments Are Good Alternativ To Staying In Hotles When You Come To London [print this page] The American comedian Jackie Mason once said I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.
Never a truer word spoken in jest.
In these financially trying times, all budgets, whether corporate or personal, are continually examined and re-examined again to ensure they provide best value for money.
And this is especially important when allowing for an extended-stay in London. Whether its to spend time working for a London-based head office or division, or to relocate back to the capital following a period of working abroad, London can be an expensive city.
When considering temporary extended-stay accommodation options, its important to compare the financial implications for choosing either a serviced apartment or a hotel. But perhaps more importantly for the guest, its important to compare the facilities on offer between them.
An extended stay hotel may be the only option for the visitor with the intentions of staying only a week or two at maximum. They only essentially need a bed for the night, and if the room is too cloying for meetings or working in, the chances are therell be a room off reception that can be rented or a shared workspace in the hotels business centre that can be utilised occasionally. And for a short stay, there wont be the necessity to prepare food on a daily basis, although it is now becoming very much the norm for meals such as breakfast to be optional extras.
For extended stays of a month or more, the practical option is the serviced, extended-stay apartment, which not only offers many extra facilities as standard, but is a much more home-from-home choice.
The choice needs to be based on the length of expected stay, and the longer this is, the more time needs to be spent looking into it in order to make the best informed choice.
But you must ensure you obtain the four fs full facts, figures and facilities. Which is why it makes sense, when spending time making comparisons, to seek out owner-managers, rather than agents. Agents have to consult their owners. Owners will be able to answer immediately, and as they can be taken to task more easily for supplying something they wanted to sell, rather than something you needed, you tend to find that what you see is very much what you get.
The big difference choosing a hotel for an extended-stay is that unless you have an extremely unrestrained budget available for your facilities, you will find that your entire extended-stay is restricted to one room. Thats how hotels are designed!
Youll find that you wont have meeting space or a microwave or cooker for informal meals. Therell be nowhere to wash or dry clothes (usually an optional extra to have the hotel to do them for you). And most inconvenient of all, the bed you sleep in will be in the same room as you work or relax in.
And if work colleagues or family are accompanying you, a second or third room will certainly be required, although there still wont be meeting, eating or relaxation space immediately to hand!
It is certainly worth considering the facilities that are included in an extended-stay apartment. Most importantly, the bedroom (or bedrooms) will all be behind closed doors, and youll have the benefit of a separate reception room for guests or family, with a dining table that will double-up for meetings. The fully-fitted kitchen will not only have a cooker, fridge, microwave and probably a dishwasher, but youll also have clothes washing facilities included.
And your television will sit comfortable in the lounge area (therell probably also be one in the bedroom!), all your utility bills (including telephone and broadband) and insurance will be included. And youll have total privacy, coupled with a lack of hotel procedures for mealtimes or key handling at reception!
And most importantly, youll save money, possibly in the region of 15-20% for a single person, stretching upwards the more people there are!
Hotels simply cant compete for an extended-stay in London, from both financial and practical points of view.
And if you choose a company such as Clarendon Serviced Apartments, with their acknowledged record of almost 25 years in the business, you can rest assured that you most certainly will get what you see.
