Comfy apartments at your service

BANGALORE: Today, it is fashionable to rent out a serviced apartment rather than a 5-star hotel room. And it easily scores over a room - there''s more space to stretch one''s legs, friends can come over for a party, one can brew a cup or dish up some dinner.
To top it, apartments come at almost half the price of star comfort. With a lot many services.
In essence, it is a home away from home, though temporary. Business visitors to Bangalore prefer this new trend, which began in May last year.
Typically, serviced apartments are fully furnished homes, with one to three bedrooms, kitchens with utensils, laundry, maids, cooks, breakfast, a swimming pool...
Says Kabir Bhasin of US-based Trignosys. "Recently, I invited friends over for drinks. A chef on call took care of the cooking."
It is restriction of both space and freedom of a hotel room which is driving travellers to these apartments. Besides, Bangalore also has a problem of plenty - star hotel rooms are few, just 1,343, while the IT and BPO waves are washing ashore thousands of corporate visitors.
Bangalore, hub of IT activity and biotechnology, apart from being a garment business centre and with a growing coffee industry, needs such a service.
In the business of providing ''instant'' offices, DBS Corporate Services interacts with many such travellers.
"Bangalore is a skewed market and hotel rooms have become very difficult to get. With BPO, people are visiting for as long as four months. Many people also use these when conducting a recce for a real home," Priya Chetty of DBS said.
Rajat Kumar from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, staying at the Melange service apartments (Vittal Mallya Road), seconds this.
"Bangalore has developed a major hotel problem. Rooms are just not available and are too expensive. This time, I have chosen this apartment. It''s private, small and fine for me," he said.
According to Reji Thomas, director, Halcyon Apartments in Koramangala, business travellers to Bangalore have started coming in very frequently. "Especially those who stay more than two nights. The average stay has now increased to four days."
Rex Mossmin from New Zealand checked into Homestead on Lavelle Road recently with wife Robin.
"I would stay in a serviced apartment anytime. Home in my country is 15 acres of orchard. But, this is as close to home as I can get. We have friends coming in and we do the cooking," he laughs.
Customers state many other reasons too, like cost. Relocating from the US last year, Glaxo Smithkline India liaison office-in-charge Ashwini Mathur admits, "It cost me Rs 60,000 to stay in a serviced apartment, compared to the roughly Rs 1.5 lakh I would have had to pay for a hotel."
The rate for apartments ranges from Rs 1,700-3,500 vis-a-vis star hotel rooms which cost over Rs 5,000 per day.