Staying a month? Here's why a flat beats a hotel

About two weeks into a London hotel stay, the shine comes off. You're eating out every night, paying hotel prices to have shirts washed and living out of a suitcase in a room designed for three nights, and a long-stay serviced apartment fixes all three problems at once. For a month or more it's usually the sensible choice.

The rate drops the longer you stay

Serviced apartments price for length in a way most hotels don't. Plenty of residences quote a lower nightly rate once you pass a week or a month, and a handful of the residences we list won't take anything shorter than four weeks. Headline rates start somewhere around the low hundreds a night and go up a long way from there, but those are starting figures, and the long-stay quote for your actual dates can look quite different. Ask for it with exact dates, and say at the outset that it's a long stay.

Compare like with like, too. A hotel rate buys you a room, while an apartment rate buys a flat with a kitchen and usually a washing machine, so part of the saving only shows up later, in meals and laundry you aren't paying for.

You get a normal week back

A kitchen changes both the cost of a long stay and the mood of it: breakfast at the counter, a supermarket delivery on Sunday, dinner in on a Tuesday because you fancy it. If you actually cook, check for a proper hob and oven rather than two rings and a microwave.

Space is what people underrate. With a separate bedroom and sitting room the video call doesn't happen from the end of the bed, and a visiting partner or colleague has somewhere to sleep; two-bedroom flats aren't hard to find. Laundry is the other one. For a month you want a washer-dryer in the flat or a service in the building, and a lot of residences offer neither, so ask before you book.

Getting around gets cheaper once you've a routine. Contactless pay-as-you-go on TfL is capped Monday to Sunday, so a heavy week on the Tube costs no more than a weekly ticket, and there's nothing to buy in advance.

You live like a local

A month is long enough to become a regular at the café that knows your order, the dry cleaner and a running route. Pick a neighbourhood with a high street you'll actually use, not the postcode that looks best on paper. Marylebone High Street and Kensington High Street are both good for this, with supermarkets, chemists and places to eat on your own a few minutes away.

If you're unsure about an area, there's a trade-off. A short first booking lets you test the street before committing, but you may lose the long-stay rate and the flat you wanted, and for most people a morning spent walking the neighbourhood tells them enough.

Healthcare is simpler than most visitors expect. The NHS lets you register with a GP as a temporary patient for up to three months, visitors from abroad included. Surgeries can say no, though, so do it in the first week and not on the day you feel rough.

And you get the weekends: Saturday at Portobello Road's antiques stalls, Sunday in Hyde Park, and a Monday that doesn't start with checking out.

Before you commit, read the cancellation terms. Long stays are often booked on different terms from short ones, sometimes with a bigger deposit or a longer notice period. Ask what the rate covers (Wi-Fi, utilities, how often housekeeping comes and the linen is changed), whether you can extend and at what rate if the project overruns, and what the rule is on extra guests if family or colleagues will visit.

Post is the small thing that catches people out. Check whether reception takes parcels and signs for deliveries, and get the full address with the flat number, because a month of online orders going to the wrong door makes for a long month.