Extended stay- America is very much new to this term as more and more people are now being driven towards this concept of holiday destinations and relaxing in a very secluded sort of place. Unlike normal hotel and holiday routine, where you check into a hotel and the rest is taken care of by the hotel management, which includes meals and all the room service you can possibly eat, extended stay in America is becoming the new by-word for DIY kind of vacations; much like a motel, you book a room or rent an apartment-esque place to live in and the meals are your responsibility.
Also called ‘apartment hotels’ due to their unique style of housing and booking, extended stay hotels are called so because they provide a more semi-permanent housing type; meaning that while people don’t usually stay at hotels for more than a month, extended stay hotels provide housing options that are very much similar to a permanent housing solution. These include laundry options and more personalized services that you would get at home rather than at a hotel.
What is an extended stay hotel?
An extended stay hotel therefore is a sort of hotel accommodation that more closely functions and resembles a permanent housing solution than a temporary vacation escapade. The most important differentiation is that while you have to book a hotel room and provide check in and check out dates and details, extended stay hotels or apartment hotels don’t require the latter one, since they are by large used for semi-permanent housing solutions. As such, unlike hotels who charge the customer on a daily basis, extended stay hotels charge customers at a weekly basis and operate much like a homeowner who rents out their property to people who pay rent on a weekly basis.
What facilities are provided by an extended stay hotel?
Nearly all facilities that you would expect from an ordinary holiday resort or destination. After all, it is a hotel and must cater to its customers. However, there are a few basic things different than a regular hotel, the major one being the absence of meals (as provided by the hotel). Much like a motel, you simply pay for lodging and/or any other extra services that come with it. Since they are styled like individual apartments, therefore, they come with kitchens and other requisites necessary for the occupant to cook for themselves. As such, you only pay for lodging in an extended stay hotel, and the rest of the amenities are to be managed by the tenant themselves. The apartment hotel will only be responsible for what a homeowner or landlord can be responsible for: the equipment, the houses’ or apartment’s upkeep and utilities.
Extended Stay America- the pioneers of the niche
Extended Stay America is the biggest and largest-operating chain of such apartment hotels and extended stay hotels in the country. They are essentially the pioneers of this niche, this idea and are successfully and continuously serving the people who look for affordable but respectable housing options for longer-than temporary solutions.
What do they provide?
They provide a number of services for a different number of people, most importantly, they are the pioneers of this whole concept of an apartment hotel. They provide lodging and accommodation for,
- People transitioning from and to a new job
- Families moving across state or within a city looking for an extended stay
- People going through separation or divorce
- Retirees looking for a change of pace.
But that’s not the total representation of the clientele that uses apartment hotels. From a wide variety of professionals to people going through transitionary periods, whenever a home isn’t available, you can all Extended Stay America your temporary home and live there for longer periods of time than you would normally at a regular hotel.
Which is exactly why Extended Stay America charges at the rate of weeks lived, not days. Because the people usually using these hotels stay for a good period of months, sometimes even years, that is why for a more streamlined payment procedure and to ensure that the tenant gets the most out of their stay, they charge for stays as per week.
And since there isn’t a limit to how much you can stay (provided you pay your dues every week without fail), therefore, unlike regular hotel stays, where you have to specify a checking-in date and time and checking-out particulars, the tenant does not need to provide a definitive date of leaving the premise or does not need to enter into a contract binding him/her to spend a specified amount of time within the premises. The tenant can leave anytime, to their liking and are totally free to operate and use the apartment hotel as they would use their own home or lodging.
Because it is a motel-esque lodging and living solution, therefore no meals are provided by the hotel. Instead, within each apartment hotel is a fully furnished and stocked kitchen, which you can use to cook as you like and eat as you please. This gives people the financial ease of eating at home and gives them the freedom to cook and eat whenever they want, whatever they want. Most of the apartment hotels that come under the Extended Stay America come stocked with a kitchen full of daily-use items that are used for meal-prepping, so it is an added benefit of staying there. They can also be doubled as a cheap and a more personalised way of spending vacations rather than at a typical hotel.