Corporate Housing in London: A Guide for Companies

Somewhere between a fortnight in a hotel and a twelve-month tenancy sits most of the accommodation a company actually needs: the relocation finding its feet, the project team on a ninety-day engagement, the leadership rotating through each quarter. That middle ground is what corporate housing solves, and it is the part of a travel policy that usually gets the least thought.

• The three options, honestly compared
• What a placement actually needs
• The money, and where it hides
• Stays past 28 days
• What belongs in the travel policy
• How an arrangement with us works
• Questions we are asked most

The three options, honestly compared

Hotels work for days, not months. Past a week the costs compound quietly: breakfast per head every morning, laundry by the item, no way to host a colleague, no way to cook. Past a month you have a senior person living out of a suitcase and slowly losing patience with the assignment.

Standard lettings solve the nightly cost and create administration instead. Deposits, referencing, utility accounts, council tax, furniture to buy or hire, inventory clerks, and a twelve-month term for a ninety-day need. Then nobody to call when the boiler fails on a Sunday.

Serviced apartments sit between the two: furnished, cleaned, billed as one figure, with terms measured in nights rather than years. Ours take stays from a single night up to a hundred and eighty in the case of The William Jessop.

The honest version of the comparison is that each wins somewhere. A three-night visit belongs in a hotel. A two-year posting belongs in a tenancy, with a relocation agent. Everything between about a week and six months is where serviced apartments are simply the better instrument.

What a placement actually needs

From housing corporate guests, the things that decide whether a placement goes well have little to do with thread count.

A commute that does not grind. All three of our own apartments are in Canary Wharf, minutes from the towers, and the Elizabeth line reaches Liverpool Street and Bond Street quickly enough that the City and the West End are also viable. Put someone an hour away to save forty pounds a night and you will spend the difference on taxis and goodwill.

Room to have a life, not just a bed. A kitchen, a washing machine, a table that is not the bed. These are the difference between an assignment somebody completes and one they cut short.

One invoice, one contact. Finance wants a single itemised invoice, not a folder of receipts. The person staying wants one number that always answers. Our AI concierge replies at any hour with the team behind it from 09:00 to 22:00, London time.

A predictable standard. The second placement should look like the first. This is where most of the market falls down, because many providers are listing businesses: the apartments belong to different owners and the standard varies by address.

Somewhere a family can follow. A relocation often starts with one person and becomes three. An apartment that sleeps seven means that does not require a second move.

The money, and where it hides

Compare totals rather than nightly rates, because the nightly rate is the part everybody quotes and the smallest part of the difference.

Our own apartments are The Mellish Residence at £275 a night, The John Cabot at £427 and The William Jessop at £580. Each booking carries a cleaning fee, £80 or £120 depending on the apartment, and a service fee of five per cent. Nothing else. The total is shown in full before anybody pays, which is what finance teams mean when they ask for transparency.

The costs that hide in the hotel column are breakfast per person per day, laundry per item, a second room when a family visits, and the taxi to a restaurant because there is nowhere to eat in. The costs that hide in the letting column are the deposit, the agency fees, the furniture, the utility accounts and the dead months at either end of a term that never quite matches the assignment.

For companies placing people regularly, our corporate membership adds a ten per cent member rate, priority across the portfolio and monthly invoicing.

Stays past 28 days

There is a genuine tax point worth raising with your finance team rather than ignoring.

Where accommodation in a hotel or similar establishment runs beyond 28 continuous days, HMRC's reduced value rule means that from the 29th day VAT is charged only on the part of the payment that is not for the accommodation itself. The rule is set out in VAT Notice 709/3 and in HMRC's own manual.

It does not make the stay exempt, and whether and how it applies depends on the establishment and the way the charge is made. Luxury Experience AI is not a tax adviser and this is not advice: it is the question to put to your accountant when an assignment is going to run past a month, because the answer can be material on a ninety-day placement.

What belongs in the travel policy

Most corporate travel policies say a great deal about flights and almost nothing about stays longer than a week, which is where the money and the grumbling both are. Five lines worth adding.

A length threshold. Below it, hotels. Above it, serviced apartments. Around a week is the sensible line, and it saves every manager from re-arguing the same case.

A rule about totals, not rates. Approvals based on the nightly rate reward the provider who hides the fees. Ask for the all-in figure for the whole stay.

One named contact per provider. Not an inbox. The point of an arrangement is that somebody knows who your people are.

A position on families. If assignments over a month allow a partner or children to join, say so, and book apartments that permit it from the outset rather than moving people midway.

An escalation route out of hours. Ask any provider what happens at eleven at night on a Sunday, and get the answer in writing.

Four questions sort providers quickly. Whose apartment is it, and will you name the operator before we book? What is the total, including cleaning and service fees? Who answers outside office hours? And what are the cancellation terms, in writing, before we commit? Ask us the same four, and ask our concierge to put the answers in an email your procurement team can file.

How an arrangement with us works

Tell us the shape of the need rather than a specific apartment: how many people, how long, which part of London they need to be in each morning, and whether families are coming. Our concierge will put options forward with exact totals, and for anything over a month we quote the stay as a whole rather than by the night.

Two things we will always tell you before you commit. Whose apartment it is, ours in Canary Wharf or one from our curated list elsewhere in London, with the operator named on the booking. And the cancellation terms, which differ by apartment and matter more in corporate work than anywhere else, because projects move.

For someone relocating rather than visiting, our relocation guide covers how a three-month stay is put together, including what the person arriving actually needs in the first week.

Questions we are asked most

Can you invoice the company rather than the individual? Yes. One itemised invoice per booking covering the apartment, the cleaning fee and the service fee, and for members a single monthly statement across placements.

What is the longest stay you can take? Up to a hundred and eighty nights at The William Jessop, and up to ninety at the other two. For longer than that we would talk to you about a different arrangement rather than stretch this one.

Can we hold apartments for a project team? Tell us the dates as early as you can and we will hold what the calendar allows. Availability is first come, first served and dates are held only once a booking is paid for, so an early conversation is worth more than an intention.

What happens if the assignment is extended or cut short? An extension is quoted before it is booked. A cancellation follows the terms on the apartment's page, which generally allow free cancellation up to fourteen days before arrival. Read them at the point of booking, because corporate plans change more than leisure plans do.

Do you cover the whole of London? Our own apartments are in Canary Wharf. Elsewhere in London we arrange one from our curated list, by enquiry, and we say whose apartment it is before you book.

Can the same arrangement cover travel as well as accommodation? We arrange private jet charter as an agent, with flights operated by licensed carriers and paid to the operator directly. It sits alongside the accommodation rather than being packaged with it, which our terms explain.

Start with the shape of the need

If you are housing someone in London in the next quarter, tell our concierge how many people, how long and which part of town, and you will have options with exact totals the same day. If your firm does this regularly, corporate membership puts the whole portfolio behind one point of contact.

Last checked against our catalogue on 23 September 2026. Rates and tax rules change, so we say what we checked and when.