Business travel accommodation decisions tend to follow the path of least resistance. The hotel is familiar, the booking process is understood, the expense system has a category for it and nobody has ever had to explain to their finance department why they stayed in a hotel rather than something else. Serviced apartments, despite offering a demonstrably better experience for stays beyond a couple of nights, sit outside this default – and a set of myths about what they are and how they work keeps them there.
Let’s deal with the myths properly.
Myth one: Serviced apartments are more expensive than hotels.
For a single night, the cost of serviced apartments may be the same as a hotel room. However, for three nights or more, serviced apartments will likely be cheaper. For the business traveller, the ability to buy ingredients for breakfast, do laundry, and order in rather than eat out can save money. Corporate travel managers who have performed a cost comparison between hotels and serviced apartments for extended stays report that serviced apartments are the better value.
Myth two: They are harder to book and less reliable than hotels.
The process of booking serviced apartments through established operators is no more complex than booking a hotel room, and the standards and quality of these establishments are comparable to any hotel brand in the same tier. The assumption that serviced apartments represent a somewhat unknown quantity between a holiday let and a hotel is a relic of a previous era. The industry has professionalised considerably. For Serviced Apartments Birmingham City Centre, visit https://birminghamservicedapartments.co.uk/
Myth three: You give up hotel services.
What you lose is the bar, the concierge, and the daily housekeeping that most extended-stay guests do not find necessary. What you gain is the amount of space that you will need to be comfortable in your stay, as well as the ability to prepare your own meals with the fully equipped kitchen that many of these suites include.
Myth four: The only people who stay in apartments are those who are staying in them for long periods of time.
Three nights in a space with a kitchen, sofa, and more space to spread out compared to a hotel room is enough to feel the difference between these two spaces. The calculation of these two spaces changes when the stay extends beyond a single overnight.
Serviced apartments were created for the same type of people who are now choosing to stay in hotels. The myth is that there’s a reason to keep doing so.