Living & Moving — Bangkok roomsIllustrated Guide: How to Rent a Serviced Apartment in Bangkok, and What Separates It from a Hotel and a Condominium
For a stay in Bangkok that runs 2 months, the choice sits between paying a hotel by the night and renting a room by the month. A serviced apartment and a condominium carry similar names, yet the party on the other side of the contract and the unit the money goes by are not the same. The diagrams below show which types are open at a given length of stay, and set out, type by type, who the contract is with, what gets paid, and what comes with the room.
In Bangkok, the length of the stay changes which types of room are open
Say a stay in Bangkok comes to one month. A trip of a few days means booking a hotel and nothing more, but once a stay stretches out, renting a room appears as another way to go. First, where that line falls.
The number of nights changes which types are open
The scale across the page is the number of nights; the 3 bands are the types open at that length.
- Hotel1 night 〜 1 yearOpen from 1 night
- Serviced apartment1 month 〜 1 yearRented by the month
- Condominium6 months 〜 1 yearUsually by the year
01A hotel can be booked from anywhere on the scale. A serviced apartment is rented by the month. A condominium usually goes by the year, and whether a shorter period is rented out at all is set by the building's rules.
What separates a hotel, a serviced apartment, and a condominium is who the contract is with and the unit the payment goes by
1A hotel is stayed in by the day. The contract is with the hotel, and the only step is the booking
A hotel is a place where you stay for the number of nights you choose, in a room the hotel has prepared. The hotel decides what comes with the room, so it is not for the guest to check item by item. Pick your dates on the booking page and the booking is settled.
When I stayed a few nights at a hotel in Bangkok, the cleaning did not come every day. Until then I had taken it that a hotel made the room up daily.
Even when the stay stretches from days into months, the room is still the hotel's to keep up. The days the cleaning comes, though, are set hotel by hotel, and they are not always daily. What gets read before a long stay is how those cleaning days are written in the hotel's own information.
2A serviced apartment is a room you rent by the month. There is a front desk, and you can arrange cleaning
What you rent is a room to live in. There is a front desk, and at most buildings you can arrange cleaning for an extra charge, but you rent by the month. A room like this is called a serviced apartment, and the party you contract with is neither a hotel nor the owner of the unit, but the company that manages the building.
When I rented a serviced apartment for a month, the room had a washing machine, a stove, a refrigerator, and a microwave, and it had no duvet, no towels, no shampoo, and no tableware. The contract's terms sheet carried no line anywhere for the duvet, the towels, the shampoo, or the tableware, and what had no line was not in the room. I went out shopping the same day I moved in, and since Thai labels are beyond me, I picked the bottle that said shampoo in English.
What gets read before the application goes in is the lines on the terms sheet: whether bedding, towels, toiletries, tableware, and internet each appear as a line of their own. On the cleaning line, the reading is not only how often a week but whether laundry is in there too.
3A condominium is rented from its owner. A lease of 1 year is the norm, so why is a shorter period turned down?
The party to talk to at a condominium is the person who bought that unit. It is not the building's front desk or its management company that rents the room out. That is where it parts from a serviced apartment: the contract is not with the building's management company but with the owner of the room.
What gets paid on the way in, and what comes back on the way out
What gets paid on the way in for a condominium and a serviced apartment, and which of it comes back on the way out.
02Of the 3 payments made on the way in, the deposit is the only one that comes back on the way out. It comes back on the condition that the room has not been damaged and that the move-out rules written into the contract have been kept. When I rented a serviced apartment for a month, the deposit came back after the room was looked over on the day I left.
Whether a short-term rental is taken is not settled by the owner's thinking alone. The building's rules sometimes set a minimum number of months a unit can be rented for, and below that the owner cannot rent it out even when willing, so the application is turned down.
The 3 types side by side across 6 items, from who the contract is with to moving out
| Type | Contract with | Unit of payment | Minimum term | What comes with it | Cleaning and linen | Moving out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel | The hotel | Night | From 1 night | Bedding, towels | The hotel does it | Hand back the key |
| Serviced apartment | The building's management company | Month | From 1 month | A washing machine and a stove. Bedding depends on the terms sheet | Often asked for at a separate charge | Hand back the key, settle the deposit |
| Condominium | The owner of the room | Month (lease by the year) | Usually 1 year (depends on the building) | Depends on the owner's property | Done by the tenant, or asked for | Hand back the room, settle the deposit |
5 places where the 3 types get taken for one another
- ❌ What comes with the room is clear from the name "serviced apartment" → What comes with it differs from property to property. It is read not from the name but from which lines the contract's terms sheet carries.
- ❌ The things that go without saying, like bedding, towels, and tableware, are in there → Anything with no line on the terms sheet is not in there. Even in a room fitted with a washing machine and a stove, bedding and tableware with no line of their own have to be bought on the day of moving in.
- ❌ A condominium can be had by the day → A condominium lease usually runs for 1 year, and renting by the day is sometimes barred by the building's rules. Where those rules set a minimum number of months a unit can be rented for, anything shorter than that is turned down.
- ❌ A serviced apartment is heavier paperwork than a hotel → It is an application to rent by the month, and the fields to fill in are close to those on a booking form.
- ❌ When a built-in appliance stops working, the tenant buys the replacement → Who repairs it is set in the contract. Before moving in, what gets read is the clause naming who takes on the repairs.
The fields filled in before renting. A booking form, an application, and a lease differ here
The fields filled in before renting
The fields filled in for a hotel, a serviced apartment, and a condominium.
03Line the fields of the 3 documents up in the same order and what differs is the unit in row 1 and the payee in row 4. The fields for the name of the person renting and the type of room are written the same way in every type.
On a condominium lease, whose name stands in the payee field is what gets read first. Whether it is the owner in person or someone renting the unit out on the owner's behalf settles who the talking is done with once the move is made.
