Aparthotel or serviced apartment? Here's how to tell

Walk into an aparthotel and it looks like a hotel, with a lobby, a desk and key cards. Go upstairs and the room turns out to be a small flat, usually a studio or one-bedroom with a kitchenette. Most people looking for an aparthotel in London are weighing it against a hotel room on one side and a serviced apartment on the other, and it sits squarely between the two.

What you're actually booking

An aparthotel is a hotel building, run like a hotel. There's a 24-hour reception, often a breakfast room and a small gym, and the rooms have been designed as compact flats, mostly studios or one-bedrooms built to the same plan on every floor. You can book a single night, and the rate works like a hotel rate.

Aparthotel and apartment hotel are the same thing, and the best-known brand is Adagio, the European chain, which currently lists four London properties: London City East near Tower Bridge, Stratford, Brentford and Sutton Point. None of them is in the West End, which says something about where purpose-built aparthotels find sites big enough.

A serviced apartment is a different animal. It's usually one of a set of individual flats, often inside a residential or period building, run by an operator who may or may not keep a desk on site. The flats run bigger, and the kitchen is normally a full one with an oven and dishwasher rather than a kitchenette.

Size, kitchens and rates

Aparthotels are built around studios, which is great for one person or a couple and starts to creak once there's a child on the sofa bed. Some do have two-bedroom units, but they're the exception. Serviced apartments go the other way. Of the hundred and fifty-odd residences on our books, well over a hundred offer two-bedroom flats and about half do three-bedrooms, so if you need two bathrooms and a door between the parents and the kids, that's where to look.

Aparthotel kitchens range from a proper galley to two rings, a microwave and a fridge under the counter. That's fine for breakfast and a simple supper, and frustrating if you mean to cook every night, so look in the photos for an oven and a dishwasher and ask if you can't see them.

Aparthotels take one-night bookings as a matter of course, and most drop the nightly rate as the stay gets longer. Serviced apartment residences set their own minimums, often a few nights, and a small number only take monthly stays. Breakfast in an aparthotel is usually extra, so compare like with like: a room-only aparthotel rate against a hotel rate with breakfast for two isn't quite the saving it looks.

Which one when

An aparthotel makes sense for two to six nights for one or two people, especially if you're landing late and want someone on the desk at 1am, or you collect hotel points. It's handy near an office, stadium or exhibition centre outside the centre, too. For a night or two a hotel room is simpler, while families, groups and anyone staying a fortnight or more are better off in a serviced apartment, as is anyone who wants a particular neighbourhood (Marylebone, Kensington, Mayfair) rather than a particular brand.

A couple staying ten days who want a desk downstairs and a proper kitchen upstairs can have both in a serviced apartment building with a staffed reception, so it's worth filtering for one.

If central London is the priority, check the postcode before the brand. An aparthotel billed as central can be a Tube ride from where you'll actually spend your evenings. Serviced apartments are easier to judge on this, and nearly all of those residences are within about ten minutes' walk of a station.

Ask how often they clean, since plenty of aparthotels switch to weekly housekeeping on longer stays. And book early for July, August and December; Adagio itself suggests three months ahead for summer and the holidays.