When planning a getaway, the accommodation options often seem to be binary: hotel or Airbnb. But there is a delightful in-between: the apartment-hotel — also known as an aparthotel, extended-stay hotel, or serviced apartment.
Team Hotel will extol the virtue of services (housekeeping, concierge, 24-hour front desk), amenities (restaurants and bars, gyms, spas, pools), and the reassurance of security and maintenance.
Team Airbnb praises local living, the comforts of a temporary home, and the ability to maintain (your rigorous ketogenic) routines without compromise. Rental apartments can be especially cost-effective and convenient for groups, with multiple living spaces and bedroom doors you can close when the group becomes … too much.
Hotels give you service without space; Airbnbs give you freedom without reliability. Apartment-hotels give you both.
For travelers spending more than a few nights in one place, apartment-hotels can be invaluable. They’re larger than typical hotel rooms and usually have kitchens, dining areas, separate bedrooms, and living spaces that allow you to spread out and even entertain. Families can prepare the endless snacks kids demand, and anyone looking to save a few dollars can skip the breakfast buffet entirely. Additional amenities like washing machines, stocked refrigerators, and homey atmospheres make longer stays practical — and pleasant! Sometimes the apartment-hotel is an option within a traditional hotel, but we’re primarily talking about newer brands that only offer apartment-hotels (like Roost, for example). Finally and not insignificantly, unlike booking with Airbnb, VRBO, or Onefinestay, you don’t have to contend with a host’s personal effects. The apartment-hotel is blissfully anonymous.
The bottom line is that with an apartment-hotel you can have independence when you want it, service when you need it, and a lifestyle that feels more local.
You’ll be seeing this accommodation hybrid more and more. The hotel-as-home trend may have gotten off the ground at the boutique hotel level, but, once again, the multinationals are following in boutique footsteps and hopping on the bandwagon. As we first reported in our 2025 trends report, everyone wants a piece of this action, especially in the luxury sector — Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Maybourne, Waldorf Astoria, Rosewood, Banyan Tree, The Ritz-Carlton, and Park Hyatt among them. The big guns have upped the ante, hiring starchitect designers, adding club-style membership programming like wine tastings, up-branding the category as “Residences,” and jacking up the price tag accordingly.
Head to our Substack for the inside scoop on well-located micro-brands along the east coast, drop-dead gorgeous pied-à-terres in NYC, chic apartments in the heart of Lisbon, cute stays in European city centers, and so much more.