The 2020 habits that stuck, and why they suit London

Most of the London serviced apartments that reopened in the summer of 2020 kept the habits that year forced on them, and for a central London stay those habits work better than the old hotel routine ever did. You can arrive late and collect a key without queuing, have housekeeping weekly rather than daily and work from an actual desk, and asking for less contact no longer raises an eyebrow.

Arrival and housekeeping

Many residences now send arrival details by email or message before you land: door code or key collection point, apartment number, wifi password. Some still hand keys over at a desk, and the better ones let you choose. About half have a reception, which means an actual person to deal with if your flight lands at midnight. If you want the no-contact version, say so when you send your dates, because a late arrival is the easiest thing in the world to arrange in advance and the most irritating to sort out from a taxi on the Westway.

Before 2020, daily cleaning was the default and a 'do not disturb' sign was the only way out. Now plenty of buildings offer a choice of weekly as standard, more often for a charge, or just a linen change mid-stay. On a stay of a week or more, weekly is usually plenty, and it keeps strangers out on the days you're working from the apartment. Check the standard before you book, because it varies more than people expect: only a minority of the residences we list show a maid service at all, and the rest may clean at checkout, weekly or on request.

The visible measures, sanitiser by the lift and wiped-down door handles, faded once the rules lifted. What mostly stayed is a turnaround routine between guests with attention on the high-touch points. It's perfectly fair to ask how long an apartment sits between stays and whether linen is laundered off-site, and a well-run building will answer in a sentence.

Working from the apartment

Business travellers notice this change most. A dining table and a sofa used to count as a work area, whereas the better residences now put a proper desk and chair in at least the larger apartments, with wifi strong enough for video calls from the bedroom as well as the living room. Before you commit, find out whether the wifi is shared across the building or per apartment, as per-apartment routers tend to hold up better at 9am when everyone logs on. It also helps to have a second room with a door that closes, so your 4pm call with New York isn't sharing space with someone else's afternoon, and since most residences offer two-bedroom apartments, that spare-room office isn't hard to find. Printing and scanning are worth asking the front desk about; many will do it and few advertise it.

Getting around and looking after yourself

The 2020 advice was to avoid public transport. That no longer applies, and in central London walking or the Tube is usually quicker than a car anyway. Almost every residence we have a postcode for is within about a ten-minute walk of a station, and contactless works across the Tube, buses and the Elizabeth line, so there's nothing to buy when you arrive. If you'd still rather skip the Tube at rush hour, stay near where you'll spend your days, since a Mayfair base for Mayfair meetings makes the question go away.

A full kitchen was a nice extra before 2020, and for a lot of guests it's now the reason to book. Breakfast in, a supermarket delivery on the first evening and dinner out only when you feel like it is the normal pattern on longer stays, and it's the main practical difference from a hotel suite. Laundry matters too: a fair number of residences mention it and many apartments have their own washer-dryer, which on a stay of more than a week counts for more than the size of the bathroom.