Airbnb or a serviced apartment? Start with who answers the phone

The biggest difference between a serviced apartment and an Airbnb in London shows up late at night, when the boiler packs up and you need somebody to answer the phone. The second is a planning rule most guests have never heard of, and it quietly limits what a London host can offer you.

The 90-night rule

Under the Deregulation Act 2015, a whole home in Greater London can be let for short stays (anything under 90 nights in a row) for no more than 90 nights in a calendar year without planning permission. Airbnb has enforced the cap automatically on entire-home listings in London for years. Once a listing hits the limit, its calendar closes until January unless the host can show planning permission.

That matters to you because a host near the cap may not be able to take your booking, or your extension. A flat listed on several platforms can also be over the limit without any one site knowing, which is the host's legal problem rather than yours, though still a shaky basis for a long stay.

Serviced apartment buildings are set up to trade all year, so the cap doesn't shape their calendars in the same way. England's national registration scheme for short-term lets is due to start in March 2027, which should make things clearer on every platform.

Same flat twice, cancelling, and the price

Every Airbnb is somebody's flat, furnished to their taste and stocked to their standard. Reviews help, but your second London stay will be in a different flat, with different knives and a different shower. A serviced apartment residence runs its flats to one spec, the operator can sometimes move you down the corridor if yours has a problem, and across every residence we list you're dealing with management teams who do this full time. Photos are another gap. Airbnb hosts shoot their own flats and a wide-angle lens does wonders for a small room, so whoever you book with, ask for the floor area in square metres and trust that over the pictures.

On Airbnb each host picks from a menu of standard cancellation policies, from Flexible (full refund up to the day before check-in) to Firm (full refund only if you cancel about a month ahead). You're stuck with whatever that host chose, and changing dates means asking nicely and hoping. Serviced apartments set their own terms, usually a flexible rate and a cheaper non-refundable one, and since you deal with the residence's reservations team directly, adding a week is often just a phone call if the flat's free.

An Airbnb total usually bundles the nightly rate, a one-off cleaning fee and a service fee, and nobody cleans while you're there. A serviced apartment rate covers bills, Wi-Fi, linen and scheduled cleaning, and starting prices on this site run from fairly modest to very much not. On a short stay, compare the final totals; on a long one, compare what happens in week two.

Who you call at 11pm

If the Wi-Fi dies the night before a presentation, an Airbnb guest messages the host, and if the host doesn't reply, goes to Airbnb's support team, who can help you rebook but won't turn up with a spanner. In a serviced apartment building with a staffed front desk, and roughly half the residences here have one, you walk downstairs. Elsewhere there's an out-of-hours number linked to a maintenance team. Find out which arrangement you're getting before you book, because that answer tells you what a bad night will look like.

Airbnb still wins on range. If you want a house with a garden on a particular residential street, a design-led flat in an outer borough, or the cheapest bed in zone 2, it has choice serviced apartments can't match. For business trips, families who want to know what they're getting, and stays of a few weeks where something will inevitably need fixing, a serviced apartment is the safer bet, and with either, ask what happens if you need to stay longer before you pay.