Serviced apartments are a great choice for business travellers and their employers because they balance cost and employee well-being. The majority of large organisations use serviced apartments for business travel for longer periods but exactly why are they preferred over a hotel, for example?
For anyone who has never booked or stayed in a serviced apartment let’s take a look at three of the main benefits.
Safety and comfort are assured
Whether you’re away from home temporarily or relocating more permanently for work, or moving around the world for assignments and projects, or managing business travel for important meetings and events, safety is paramount for business travellers staying in unfamiliar locations.
For stays from just one night to a month or even a year, it’s a priority that business travellers feel safe and comfortable in their accommodation.
Serviced apartments are closely vetted to comply with local legislation and best practices, as well as for the standard and quality of the furniture and equipment. Standards are closely monitored in a way they might not be with casual rental bookings.
Service accommodation owners and booking agents also consider more qualitative factors makes a real difference to the people staying in an apartment while away from home on business. Factors such as shower pressure, nearby road noise, comfortable pillows and quality of towels and bed linen.
Serviced apartments are self-contained units where guests can come and go as they please or even work from the apartment with a desk and good wi-fi as standard. People can live in home-from-home comfort reassured of comfort and the latest security compliance. Yet they also have the benefits of regular cleaning and maintenance (for long term stays). This means serviced apartments are the perfect option for all types of corporate guest including those with a disability or mobility issues.
Cheaper but also better than hotels
Serviced apartments are cheaper than hotels so are more cost-effective for business travel, but also provide more home-away-from-home comforts than hotels for the traveller. Firstly, they have full kitchen facilities and cooking equipment in every apartment so people are less reliant on takeaways and dining out during their stay.
Guests can maintain healthy eating habits and reduce expenses while staying in a serviced apartment. They often have private laundry facilities or free communal laundry rooms so guests don’t need to pay inflated hotel prices for laundry during their stay.
Serviced apartments also have more space compared to hotels with living and dining areas as well as the kitchen and bedroom(s). Plus, generous storage space so guests can take all the things they need for a pleasant stay when away long-term.
Even in some locations where serviced apartment nightly rates are similar to hotel rates, overall trip expenses can be reduced on things like food and laundry, while giving the traveller a better experience, especially on longer trips when hotel rooms can start to become claustrophobic and people start to tire of restaurant food.
In the UK there is also a financial benefit from longer stays in service accommodation in the form of VAT reductions for stays longer than 28 days.
A more sustainable choice
Compared to hotels, serviced apartments are a more sustainable accommodation option. Serviced apartments consume less energy than hotels which have excessive energy use from frequent laundry, and large common areas that require heating and lighting throughout the day and night.
In serviced apartments guest can choose to have less frequent cleaning and linen changes, recycle their food and other waste, and continue with the sort of sustainable approach they follow in their own home. This can help minimise how much business travel impacts the environment. It’s not a perfect solution but, when business travel is essential, as it sometimes is, then it is reassuring to know that the environmental impact can be reduced as much as possible.
