The history of serviced apartments: from apartment hotels to today

When were serviced apartments invented?

No source identifies one inventor or one opening date. The history of serviced apartments is easier to read as overlapping developments. The sector grew from at least three overlapping developments: urban flats with shared services, hotels that housed permanent residents, and later purpose-built extended-stay and serviced residence brands. Each fits part of the modern definition.

The table below sets out the dated milestones that sources support. It is a selection, not a complete record, and some dates come from company or encyclopaedia accounts that differ slightly between sources.

What were the Victorian roots of serviced living?

The first thread is the mansion block. Wikipedia describes mansion blocks as prestigious apartment buildings of the Victorian and Edwardian periods and says that in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, renting a modern mansion flat became increasingly popular, particularly for bachelors and unmarried women. London examples listed there date from the late 1860s.

The appeal was a modern flat in place of a house of one's own. That idea of renting a ready home instead of running a household sits behind every serviced apartment since, even though the early mansion blocks were ordinary rented housing rather than short-stay accommodation.

A modern reader may notice how familiar the pitch sounds: less to manage, a central location and a ready-furnished home. The history of serviced apartments is partly a history of that bargain being offered to ever shorter-stay guests. London remains a good place to see the result today; see aparthotels and serviced apartments in London.

How did apartment hotels develop in New York?

The second thread is the apartment hotel. A New York hotel-history site says that during the 1880s apartment hotels catering to people who maintained residences outside the city began to be built there. Their suites were serviced by hotel staff, so guests did not need servants.

The same source says apartment hotels were designed to house both transient guests and permanent tenants, in furnished or unfurnished suites and single rooms, and that by 1905 there were almost one hundred in midtown Manhattan. A separate hotel-history article records an 1881 to 1882 apartment house converted into a hotel by 1887, showing how fluid the line between flat and hotel already was.

These buildings generally lacked kitchens: meals came from hotel restaurants and breakfast rooms. That is a major difference from today's serviced apartments, which usually include a kitchen or kitchenette. Browse serviced apartments and aparthotels in New York for today's version.

What is the origin of the aparthotel?

The word aparthotel points to a third thread. Wikipedia says apartment hotels were first created in holiday destinations as accommodation for families who wanted to live rather than stay, and that they later became full homes. The same article gives the length of stay in apartment hotels as anywhere from a few days to months or even years.

That description fits a resort-style origin: a family wanted kitchen, space and a base for a longer holiday, and operators supplied apartments under hotel-style management. The city-centre business version followed. Today the same format appears in cities from Paris to Tokyo, with many names. For the present-day distinctions see aparthotel vs serviced apartment.

How did extended-stay hotels and serviced residences emerge?

Wikipedia traces the Residence Inn chain to 1975, when a Wichita developer converted struggling apartments into monthly rentals. It describes a concept aimed at stays of five nights or more, so guests did not need daily maid service, and says the chain was sold to Marriott International on 7 July 1987. The article says the founders invented the term extended-stay. See Residence Inn for the brand today.

In Asia, serviced residences developed on a different track. Wikipedia reports that Ascott opened in Singapore on 14 August 1984, and describes it as the first international-class serviced residence in the Asia Pacific region. A 2009 law-firm paper adds that serviced apartments are common in Asia and that the market was historically dominated by a few large operators, naming Ascott and Fraser. Explore Ascott and Citadines for the brand pages.

Extended Stay America followed in the US: Wikipedia says it was founded on 9 January 1995, although its infobox gives a different year, and that its first two hotels opened in August 1995. Where sources conflict, the safer wording is that the company dates from the mid-1990s.

How did the sector grow into its modern form?

Consolidation and branding shaped the most recent chapter in the history of serviced apartments. Wikipedia records that Ascott bought a half share in Citadines, a pan-European serviced residence chain, in 2003 and the remainder in 2004. The 2009 law-firm paper observes that the market for serviced apartments expanded to serve budget consumers and also those wanting the standards of hotel operators higher up the chain scale.

A 2015 white paper from design firm WATG describes the sector as no longer an unglamorous hospitality sub-sector, notes the rise of the bleisure traveller and reports that corporate travellers averaged around 70 percent of guests across its sample of leading operators. Those figures reflect that sample and date, and the mix varies by operator and market.

For the benefits that have driven this growth, see benefits of serviced apartments. For how quality is judged today, read how aparthotels are classified and rated.

What does the history mean for guests today?

The history of serviced apartments also explains the vocabulary. Terms reflect where and when a product developed, so a US extended-stay hotel, an Asian serviced residence and a European aparthotel can look alike but differ in service and expectations. That is why the same words do not guarantee the same experience.

One lesson is that the format keeps changing. Early apartment hotels had no kitchens and mixed permanent tenants with transient guests; today's serviced apartments are built around the kitchen and the extended stay. Another lesson is that growth has come from several directions at once, from resort families to business assignments to relocating households, which is why guests now use the same buildings for very different reasons. That variety is a strength, but it also means the label tells you little about any one property.

In practice, judge a property by its details: kitchen, size, cleaning schedule, facilities and minimum stay. Aparthotel vs extended stay hotel compares two of the formats that came out of this history, and aparthotel vs hotel covers the relationship with standard hotels.