June 23rd, 2009
London is one the of the world’s most expensive cities and therefore, whatever your reason for visiting the UK’s capital, be it for a holiday, sightseeing or for a business trip, monitoring your expenses to ensure that you stay on budget is extremely important.
Likely to be at the top of your list of expenses is accommodation. In London, the price of accommodation can vary wildly, and in most cases you get what you pay for. However, apartments buck this trend. Compare a Think Apartment to a hotel room and you will be amazed at the extras you get (and the expenses you don’t); a fully-fitted and equipped kitchen, a lounge, complimentary WiFi, lounge, and of course the independence and freedom that you don’t find in a hotel. But also, because you’re not paying for tipping, room service, mini-bar and the like, the ‘little extras’ that soon add up in a hotel don’t exist in a Think Apartment. The price you pay is actually what you pay.
But an apartment can actually save you more. After accommodation your food will more than likely be your largest bill; a breakfast can easily cost over £10 and don’t even start on the price of room service. In an apartment, you can have the breakfast you want, you can prepare meals and for some, if you fancy takeaway, just order one and all at ‘normal’ costs that you would expect at home!
It’s simple, if you want to save on your visit to London, Think Apartments.
Tags: Budget hotels, cheap hotels, saving in London, Saving on travel, stay for less
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June 3rd, 2009
This time not the MP’s expenses but business travellers’ expenses. An amazing £500,000,000 is unclaimed each year by Britain’s business travellers which equates to an awe-inspiring £373 each. Apparently there is a sense of inertia, or more correctly laziness, but also there is a sense of embarrassment when claiming for smaller (sub £20) amounts.
What’s the solution?
Well, a centralised system or wise use of corporate credit cards are suggested by the authors of the report, Barclaycard (not surprisingly). However, there are other alternatives that may also help. What about a strongly managed mandated travel policy, that way travellers only stay at ‘invoicing’ hotels or apartments. Strongly mandated travel policies are becoming increasingly more common given CSR and ‘green’ issues; where travellers must also keep a wary eye on their ‘planetary’ expenses.
How can Think Apartments help?
Firstly, like a normal traditional hotel, we can become part of a mandated travel policy, we can offer corporate rates and discounts and we can help your travellers enjoy (or at least hate less) their travel to London. And secondly, we eliminate the extraneous expenses which can easily, and expensively, accrue in traditional, cheap and even budget hotels. There’s no minibar, no tipping; nothing extra to appear on your bill.
For an interesting take on the story have a look at what Management Today have to say.
Want to know more, or would like to discuss, then leave a comment.
Tags: Budget hotels, cheap hotels, Green travel, Mandated travel, Saving expenses, Travel policy
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May 26th, 2009
When we originally started changing to Think Apartments, we carried out research amongst both leisure and corporate travellers to ascertain their understanding of serviced apartments and whether they would use our apartments as an alternative to traditional hotels.
It was soon clear that serviced apartments, particularly when used as a short-term option were misunderstood by a large majority of the people we spoke with. There were many barriers to preferring us to traditional hotels, but the major themes were repeated over and over.
- Is linen provided, how about towels?
- Do I need to make a deposit?
- Do I pay need to pay the electricity, gas and rates?
All slightly different, but they are all answered simply.
A Think serviced apartment is exactly like a hotel, pay like a hotel, check-in and check-out like a hotel, in fact it is exactly like a hotel, except that you have the freedom and independence of your own apartment together with a kitchen and lounge area.
What’s also interesting is that these are the same questions that our reservations team are asked on a daily basis…
Is there anything that you want to know about Think’s apartments? Leave a comment and let us know.
Tags: Advantages of a serviced apartment, Budget hotels, cheap hotels, luxury hotels, What make serviced apartments different
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May 21st, 2009
Even the most news-phobe and isolated individual on the planet must now be aware that in the past few months the world has seen the economy take a dramatic downturn. There may be green shoots, we may be at the bottom; but I do know that serviced apartments and aparthotels like Think Apartments have yet to see this down turn. Many articles in the business press have reported that the number of business travellers have reflected this downturn. I must disagree.
What has actually happened is that businesses still need to conduct meetings, but extraneous ‘on spec’ meetings have been reduced as well as extraneous costs. This has resulted in business travellers and their bookers thinking differently about where they stay and thus ‘booking momentum’ has been broken.
This has been to Think Apartments’ advantage. We don’t provide surprisingly expensive bills, no mini-bars, no ridiculously expensive room service. What we do provide is a sanctuary for the business traveller; one where he or she can unwind after a full day and do exactly what pleases them; order a takeaway, cook, work or just relax in front of the TV. It is this sense of freedom and great value for money that has seen our occupancy shoot up.
Is there another reason why serviced apartments are seeing a boom whilst a great deal of the hospitality industry suffers? Let us have your thoughts.
Tags: Advantages of a serviced apartment, Business Traveller, Relax in an apartment
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May 15th, 2009
Dear Member of Parliament
You are certainly under fire at the moment, expenses claims are more fiction than truth and political back-stabbing is on the increase, and will only rise given the impending general election which is looming within the next 12 months.
Now we here at Think Apartments cannot help you with your own standing in the party, nor can we help you deal with troublesome debates; but we can certainly help you with your expenses.
Stay with us at Think Apartments and start saving money, but also your face. You will not need to buy a house, as you can use our apartments as your home, come and go as you please (very important for those late night debates), relax, cook for yourself AND all within just a few moments of ‘work’, from either Tower Bridge or our Earl’s Court location. In a hotel, you will just have more of those naughty expense, stay with Think.
We save thousands of pounds in travel expenses for our corporate guests when they stay with us; why don’t you cut down on your expenses and Think?
What do you think; should MPs have to use rented accommodation for their London home?
Tags: Hotel, Relax in an apartment, Saving expenses, Saving on travel
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