It's an idea whose time has come. The concept of serviced apartments has been in vogue for many years in Western countries, but it has arrived in India during the last couple of years and has started catching up fast. And why not? After all, it makes eminent sense both in terms of convenience as well as economy to stay in a serviced apartment than staying in a hotel room. This is because a serviced apartment provides all the amenities, facilities and conveniences that a hotel room can possibly provide, and that too at a much lesser cost! In fact, a serviced apartment can actually provide more than a hotel room can ever provide: if one were to travel with family, it can provide the homely atmosphere which a hotel room cannot! Now, let's take a look at what's on offer at these serviced apartments, where these apartments are located, what are their charges and, most importantly, what makes them such an attractive proposition for both business and leisure travellers.
Home-like Ambience
Serviced apartment is just like your home, with a living room, 1-2- or 3 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, maybe even a balcony and private garden. The kitchen can have everything a person wanting to cook food can ask for, including gas stove, utensils, fridge, water purifier, microwave, electric kettle, toaster, crockery, cutlery, pressure cooker, vessels… the works! With all the kitchen amenities, appliances and gad-gets at your hand, you can brew a piping hot cup of tea or coffee, heat up ready-to-cook food or cook a hot elaborate meal for the family. Even the thought of being able to enjoy home-cooked food is appetizing enough! Of course, if you are short of time and your day is going to be hectic, you can even ask for home-cooked food by informing the staff well in advance." The critical difference between hotels and serviced residences lies in the fact that serviced residences are more comfortable as well as easier on the pocket and are ideal for frequent travellers and guests looking for lengthy stay. They provide a more homely type atmosphere and are an ideal alternative to expensive hotels," says Kalyan Gupta, Director, Anchorage Serviced Residences, Hyderabad.
The rooms are also quite spacious with elegant and clean furnishings, air-conditioning, sofa sets, dining table, writing table, mirrors, cupboard, curtains, TV set, DVD player, iron and iron board, hair dryer, telephone…basically anything and everything you can think of, and more. So, when you are staying in a service apartment, you just cannot miss out on whatever you may have in your own home.
If you are a fitness freak and are worried about missing out on your daily workouts, don't worry. Many of the serviced residences have fully equipped gyms where you can sweat it out on the treadmill or exercycle and pump iron into your biceps with hand-weights. Needless to say, all serviced residences come with round-the-clock security, so you can relax with complete peace of mind.
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Convenient Location
All the serviced residences have the business traveller in mind and are located either in the business districts or close to the airports or centrally located between the two. Hence, their convenient location make these residences easily accessible from the office. For the business traveller, this is a major boon as it saves lot of time and hassles in travelling to and from the office. Even for the leisure traveller (who may not stay in a business district), a serviced apartment located near the airport or between the airport and business district makes his life easier. All airports are normally well-connected to all parts of the city and hiring a cab or even taking a local transport (bus/train) for sight-seeing is that much easier and faster due to proximity to the airport. Residences located between airport and business district offer twin advantage of easy accessibility to both, and are hence well-suited for both business as well as leisure travellers.
Cost-Effective Stay
The most enticing part of staying in serviced residences is the savings in cost. If one were to compare a one bedroom apartment with a room in 5-star hotel, the difference in the tariff between the two could quite steep. For example, a room at the 5-star JW Marriott at Juhu in suburban Mumbai costs anywhere between Rs 15,000-20,000 per night, whereas a serviced apartment at Aura Executive Homes in Powai costs Rs 3,800 to Rs 5,800 per night on a twin-sharing basis. In Hyderabad, a room in Taj Banjara at the posh Banjara Hills locality costs anywhere between Rs 7,500-9,000 per night on a twin sharing basis, while a standard double room at Anchorage Serviced Residences in the same locality costs Rs 1,700-Rs 2,200 per night. According to Gupta, when one stays in serviced apartment, the savings in cost as compared to staying in 3-star, 4-star, and 5-star is 300 per cent, 400 per cent and 600 per cent, respectively. "Currently, a good serviced apartment property with all the desired amenities is equivalent to any 3-star hotel. The furnishings are similar if not better. The services are more personalized as compared to a typical hotel. Hence, a good serviced apartment property is easily comparable to a 3-star hotel property," says Gupta. Evidently, there is huge difference (about 4 to 5 times) between the costs of hotel room and serviced apartment, which makes staying in a serviced apartment such a cost-effective proposition. Clearly, the cost factor is the single most important factor which makes serviced apartments an attractive proposition.
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Spacious Living
Serviced apartments are larger than a room in a hotel so, unlike the hotel room where one feels cramped and cannot move around much in the single room, in a serviced apartment, one can move around all over the place – in the living room, bedroom(s) and kitchen. The expansiveness of the apartment gives the resident the ambience of a home and the feel and comfort of spacious living. For a family of husband, wife and children, a serviced apartment is a much better option than staying in a hotel room. Hence, serviced residences are a boon for family and small groups of people.
Doorstep Service
Most of the serviced residences have a doctor and an attendant at your beck and call round-the-clock. The residences provide all services at the doorstep, including daily maid service, home delivery of household items such as groceries, etc., laundry and dry cleaning service, meal service, among others. All these services come at an extra cost, but the convenience of getting everything delivered at the place of residence far outweighs the extra cost that one has to pay. Of course, most of these services are also available at hotels at a cost.
Your Office at Home!
Serviced residences offer all kinds of services required to conduct business for an executive. These services include wi-fi and broadband internet access, fax, basic secretarial services, air ticketing and car rentals, assistance for organizing meetings and parties, arranging foreign exchange, etc. These business services are chargeable extra. In any case, even if one stays in a hotel, all these services come at an extra cost and probably at a higher cost than what one would have to pay in serviced residences.
Considering the numerous advantages offered by serviced residences, it would not be an exaggeration to say that serviced apartments would become popular in days to come. "The future of serviced apartments is very bright as it is a good alternative to expensive hotels. Serviced apartments are being used by most companies across various domains as they result into substantial cost-saving without compromising on quality. They have already eaten into the market share of hotels," says Gupta.
Presently, such apartments are available only in few cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Gurgaon, among others, but in future these residences are bound to come up in many more cities and maybe even tourist spots in India. So, next time around, when you plan a trip in any other city with your family, friends or office colleagues, you can stay at one of these residences and save on costs even while you feel at home!