The Increase in Apartment Hotels
Traveling in style used to be so easy. You told the butler to call the Ritz. He'd run off and get the booking sorted while you retired to your den to smoke cigars with your pals and argue as to whether we should go back to the gold standard. Well, times change.
Now there is a new, cool, modern upstart on the hotel luxury scene: apartment hotels. Apartment hotels, also known as ApartHotels, are a new way of vacationing. They operate on a niche that runs between an apartment complex and a hotel. Guest book their apartment in the same way they would book a room in a hotel, but the experience is much more like renting an apartment, than staying in a hotel. However, there are no fixed occupancy periods, large deposits or other such hassles. Guests can check out when they wish.
The Benefits.
So what are the benefits to this style of accommodation? Why should I not just book a hotel like I always have? Well, the apartment hotel grew up out of the need for families to stay as a unit in accommodation blocks. The rules and regulations of a hotel proved inflexible to the demands of family life and the trend for renting out villas or apartments was seen as a more favorable alternative than booking hotel rooms.
Pretty soon however, more people began to discover the benefits of staying in a space that was essentially a home away from home. Apartment hotels began to grow and have become the choice of vacation accommodation for independent types. They contain all the benefits of a hotel and an apartment, with few of the drawbacks. The apartment includes all the amenities of a home, with cooking and laundry facilities and amazingly they are also often cheaper than hotels. Imagine landing in a city and picking up the keys not to a room, but to your own plush pad. You are free to live as you please.
Hotel Luxury.
Worried you'll miss the hotel luxury that you have become accustomed to? Not a chance of it my friend. True, you will have to get used to a world without a concierge desk, bell boys and a gourmet restaurant an elevator ride away.
But in terms of the standard of living, think hotel luxury all the way. In fact many of the best known hotel chains are now expanding into serviced apartment hotels. Cleaners will clean the apartment usually on a weekly basis, other than that you are left on your own in complete privacy. Apartment hotels are increasingly becoming the common choice for young travelers looking to stay in a city for a while. They are similarly attractive to their initial users - families. Especially families which don't want to part with their beloved pooch. If you balk at the thought of leaving the dog in the kennels for two weeks and think that family trips should involve every member of the family, even if they happen to have wagging tails and furry faces, then try apartment hotels as many are pet friendly.
Amsterdam Luxury Hotels.
If you are thinking of going to the top tourist destination that is Amsterdam then perhaps you'd like to look into apartment hotels. In Amsterdam, luxury hotels are very popular and very expensive. Some of them exhibit the work of great Dutch painters in their lobby and are in the grounds of great stone buildings. This may set your heart racing or it may leave you cold. If you like the idea of luxury but find the hotel set up staid, restrictive and not private enough, then you'll understand the steady rise in the popularity of apartment hotels.