The serviced apartment has a front door, a kitchen, and a washing machine. The hotel room has a minibar, a room-service menu, and a reception desk that will solve your problems. The serviced apartment is the freedom, the separate rooms, the home-cooked meal, and the sense of living in the city rather than visiting it, and the hotel is the service, the breakfast buffet, the clean towels, and the staff who will book the restaurant and call the taxi. The choice between the serviced apartment and the hotel is the choice between the independence and the amenity, and the decision depends on the traveller, the trip, and the city. Here are the pros and the cons.

Serviced Apartments vs Hotels, The Pros and Cons

• The serviced apartment, the pros: The space: the serviced apartment is larger than the hotel room, the separate bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, and the space to spread the luggage, the laptop, and the guidebook. The space is the essential difference for the family (the 2-bedroom apartment, the living room that becomes the children’s bedroom, and the cost that is lower than the 2 hotel rooms), and the space is the essential difference for the long-stay (the 1-week stay in the hotel room feels like the prison; the same stay in the apartment feels like the home). The kitchen: the kitchen is the most important feature of the serviced apartment: the breakfast that costs the €2 of the groceries rather than the €15 of the hotel, the dinner that is cooked, the wine that is drunk on the sofa, and the budget that is the €50/day lower than the hotel. The kitchen is the essential feature for the family (the children, the meal, and the routine) and for the budget-conscious (the 7-night stay, the €350 saved on the breakfast alone). The laundry: the washing machine (the essential feature for the long-stay traveller, the parent of the small children, and the person who has packed the 7 days of the clothes for the 14-day trip). The cons: the service is limited (the reception is not the 24-hour, the daily cleaning is not the standard, and the problems, the broken air conditioning, the lost key, are solved by the phone call rather than the visit to the front desk). The location is often the residential (the apartment building on the street of the locals, the distance from the tourist centre, and the sense of the city that is authentic but the walk that is longer). The booking is the wild west (the Airbnb, the Vrbo, and the independent websites, the quality varies, the photos lie, and the essential strategy: the reviews, the Superhost, and the booking that is made 3–6 months in advance for the best properties). More travel tips →
• The hotel, the pros: The service: the hotel reception is the 24-hour problem-solver: the lost key, the restaurant booking, the taxi, the doctor, and the reassurance that the problem is being solved by someone else. The service is the essential feature for the first-time visitor to the city (the concierge, the map, and the advice), and the service is the essential feature for the business traveller (the time is the money, and the hotel solves the problems in the minutes that the apartment would take the hours). The amenities: the breakfast buffet (the essential hotel experience, the fresh orange juice, the hot food, and the bill that is the €15–25), the gym, the pool, and the bar, the hotel amenities are the features that the apartment cannot match, and the amenities are the essential feature for the weekend break (the 2-night stay, the breakfast, the bar, and the sense of the luxury that is the reason for the trip). The consistency: the chain hotel (the Marriott, the Hilton, the Accor) is the same in every city: the room, the bed, the bathroom, and the service that is the reliable. The consistency is the essential feature for the business traveller and for the person who values the predictability over the adventure. The cons: the space is limited (the standard hotel room is the 20–30 m², and the family of the 4 must book the 2 rooms or the suite), the cost of the extras (the minibar, the room service, and the laundry, the €8 for the can of the Pringles), and the lack of the kitchen (the breakfast is the €15, the lunch is the restaurant, and the dinner is the restaurant, the food budget is the €50/day higher than the apartment). The noise: the hotel room is the corridor, the neighbours, and the street, and the soundproofing is the variable