Whether you’re coming to London on secondment, or because you’ve found a new role in the capital, you’ll want somewhere to live that’s comfortable, cosy, and cost-effective. And the reality nowadays is simple: Serviced apartment living is a cut above staying in a hotel.
In this article, we’re going to introduce five things that will transform your accommodation from passable to perfect. These tips are based on our years of experience in helping working professionals in London to find a place to live that hits all of their needs, personal and professional.
Five things to consider before choosing an executive serviced apartment
You’ve no doubt done it before: Opened up an accommodation search website, set out a few criteria, and hit “search”, only to be greeted by hundreds of variations on an expensive, boring theme. Rooms designed to cash in on people passing through our fine city, rather than with any consideration of comfort, aesthetics, and enjoyment.
It doesn’t have to be this way, though. Here’s what to look for to make sure you get the very best.
1. On-site guest amenities
If you’re looking at serviced apartments, you likely place value on convenience and inclusivity: One price to pay that covers myriad aspects of your stay. Picture the scene: You return from a particularly busy day at work, and you don’t feel like cooking, cleaning, or sorting out the laundry.
What if you could pick up the phone, arrange for your clothes to be cleaned and pressed for the next business day, then head downstairs to a welcoming and atmospheric dining room, replete with fine wines and high-class British cuisine?
What if all this was topped off with a cleaning service that made your living space spic-and-span twice a week? With a gym on-site to burn off that excess energy, and a fully-equipped spa with massages and all manner of inviting treatments?
Sounds ideal, right? Well, these options are available to you if you choose the right place to stay. Transform your time in London from feeling bored in an uninspiring cube hotel room, to a period of luxury that covers your every need.
2. The option to extend your stay
Work-life is, by its very nature, prone to unpredictability. This is especially true on secondments, temporary contracts, or other commitments with unknown timeframes.
The last thing you want when things change at short notice is to have to hurry through a new accommodation arrangement. Booking, packing, moving, and unpacking again into a new space is a whole new set of stress which, realistically, you could do without.
That’s why we recommend choosing somewhere with flexible terms. Somewhere that lets you extend your stay when necessary, to accommodate whichever uncertainty comes your way.
Oh, and wouldn’t it be even better if those flexible terms also allowed family and other visitors to stay at no extra cost?
3. Billing inclusions
There’s no worse feeling than budgeting to pay a certain amount, then receiving a bill on checkout that’s peppered with extra charges, fees, taxes, subsidies, and so on. In the best case, this is frustrating. In the worst case, however, it can be genuinely damaging to your finances.
That’s why you should set out from the outset to understand which costs are included, and which will be billed as extras. Are you just paying for the room, for example? Or does the price you pay cover the room, the cleaning service, the internet (very important if you’re working from home!), and other utilities?
When you rent a Dolphin Square serviced apartment, you can rest easy in the knowledge that all bills and utilities are included. Housekeeping is included. High-speed WiFi is included. We do our best to avoid unpleasant surprises at checkout time because we understand that being able to plan around expected costs is an integral part of enjoying your stay.
4. The transport links
The best accommodation in the world can suffer from one simple issue: Awful transport links. Imagine it: You wake up feeling refreshed after a night in a huge, cosy bed. You take a hot shower while your coffee is brewing, then head downstairs to the grounds to drink your cuppa in the glorious morning sun.
Then, after a hearty breakfast at the on-site restaurant, you return upstairs to put on your freshly pressed suit. You feel like a million bucks, but then you step outside, and it all comes crashing down.
First up there’s the forty-minute walk to the nearest station. There are cabs, but the traffic is so bad that walking is quicker. At the station, the train is inevitably delayed, crowded, and overpriced. You arrive at work feeling hot and haggard.
Thankfully, this is not the case at Dolphin Square! Our transport links are convenient and numerous. We’re five minutes from the London Underground: The lifeblood of the city. We’re on bus routes, cycle routes, and riverboat routes. In short, London is quite literally your oyster when you step out of our front door.
5. That “home-away-from-home” feeling
All of the factors above pale into insignificance if your accommodation lacks that certain je ne sais quoi. That hard-to-define feeling of home when you walk through the front door. That feeling which, incidentally, hotels struggle to achieve.
In an apartment, though, it comes much more easily. The space is welcoming and homely in a way that your presence only accentuates. As you unpack and unravel into the space, you’ll find yourself feeling relaxed, cosy, and rejuvenated. And this is a feeling we take extra special care to nurture at Dolphin Square.
Because the truth is simple: The more at home our guests feel, the more likely they are to enjoy their stay, and the more likely they are to come back in the future.
We do what we do because we love to help people squeeze the most out of their time in London, whether they’re tourists passing through, or working professionals like you, looking for a new base of operations for their working life.
A Dolphin House serviced apartment has everything you need
If you haven’t gathered by now, all Dolphin Square accommodation offers the five aspects outlined above, as well as so much more.
We have crystalised decades of accommodation experience into delivering the very best executive serviced apartments on offer. Our bywords are comfort, convenience, and cost-effectiveness, and you can be assured of all three on your stay.
So, next time you come to London, whether on secondment or anything else, we invite you to come and stay with us. It will be our pleasure to provide a base for your work commitments, whatever they look like. Whether you plan to work from your apartment, or just to use it as a place to get some R&R after a busy day in the city, we’ve got you covered.
To conclude...
Dolphin Square serviced apartments are tailored to the varied and individual needs of any guest. We welcome visitors from all over the world and help them to hit the ground running when they arrive in our fine city. By continuously developing and refining what we do, we have positioned ourselves as one of the most sought-after addresses in London, and you can take full advantage of this.
As a person in business you know that actions speak louder than words, so why not book a viewing now? We’d love to show you what’s on offer and to hash out the terms of your visit.
