At SilverDoor we've been telling people about the many benefits of serviced apartments for 10 years now. We believe that compared with staying in a hotel, serviced apartments offer a genuine win win. You save money, get more space and facilities, your own kitchen, you control the air-con/heating, open your own windows, and so on. But what about catering? What if you want a cooked breakfast like you get in a hotel and you don't want to cook it yourself? Well you can choose a serviced apartment building with a restaurant, or with a cafe nearby, which there almost always is. Alternatively, you can order breakfast or anything else you fancy from companies such as Room Service (www.roomservice.co.uk) or Deliverance
While we love extolling the virtues of serviced apartments, it's a real boost for us when people in the media help to publicise the short-comings of hotels. In the Guardian last week, Simon Hoggart wrote: "We grumps like election campaigns, because we can travel round the country finding things to complain about. Many of them are in hotels. For example, it's almost impossible to find a bedroom window that opens, so you have a choice of being suffocated or listening to the aircon whirr all night. Worst of all are those staff-saving buffet breakfasts, or "our bounteous breakfast buffet" as they sometimes put it. Chewy bacon, eggs fried hard, microwaved hash browns, soggy mushrooms, sausage made of bread with a little meat put in as binder, all cold and swimming in grease."
We understand Simon's frustrations, and hope that he contacts us to find him a serviced apartment next time! While a cooked breakfast is an occasional treat, most people do have a very specific breakfast preference or dietary requirement, whether it's a particular sugar-free or gluten-free cereal, marmite on toast or poached eggs. It is much easier and quicker to do your own thing in a serviced apartment where you have your own kitchen, fridge, stove, microwave, cutlery, crockery etc. In addition, it is more relaxing and a better use of your time if you can eat your breakfast cereal in your dressing gown in your own serviced apartment while you catch up with the weather forecast (and so decide what to wear) or latest election news, compared to getting dressed and rushing down to the basement breakfast room of a hotel. Furthermore, if you're one of the 35 per cent of people who skip breakfast, why should you still pay for it, as you would with an "all-inclusive" hotel rate?
