(From top): A guest at The Residence; the well-stocked delicatessen at the Taj Wellington Mews; a view of the Marriott Executive Apartments; residents in an apartment at Best Western-The Emerald; a bathroom at Qutab Apartments; a kitchen at one of the Lutyens’ Bungalow Oxygen Zone apartments

Brian Wertschnig is tired of living out of a suitcase in an impersonal five-star hotel room and yearns for a home ? or at least the comforts of one. The 30-year-old World Health Organisation executive, who is on assignment to Delhi for the next few months, has packed his bags and moved into a service apartment. It?s not sprawling but it gives him more elbow space with his own living room, a king-size bedroom, a luxurious bathroom and a fully equipped kitchenette where he can whip up an omelette just the way he likes.

And what?s more, hotelier Arun Kukreja?s apartment block is smack in the midst of green space in Delhi?s smart Sunder Nagar area ? so he can go for a pleasant evening stroll.

?I had the option of moving into a guest house but it would have been pretty close to the experience of staying at a hotel. I wanted the feel of being back home, so I opted for a furnished apartment,? says Wertschnig.

When you?re far away from home on a training programme, working out a two-year contract, or simply visiting friends in a new city, living in the luxury of a five-star hotel can be tempting. But how long before the cold perfection of a hotel starts to pall? Not to mention the fact that you end up spending a big chunk of your per diem on laundry and, face it, who really wants to eat out every single night?

Service apartments represent an easy and affordable solution to this housing dilemma. You get more space, more privacy and usually a pretty nice neighbourhood where you can feel like a resident of the city for at least a few weeks or months. And where else can you have your own kitchenette with a micro-wave oven and stocked packaged foods, a DVD player and more combined with services that hotels offer?

?The market?s ripe for service apartments with long-stay guests looking for furnished flats where they can put their feet up without going through the hassles of maintenance. The IT boom is fuelling demand for long-stay facilities,? says hotel consultant Homi Aibara.

Growth in the sector has been exploding and looks set to expand further with many service apartments reporting eye-popping occupancy rates of 95 per cent to 98 percent. Considering how quickly they are catching on, it?s hard to believe the first service apartment in the country ? the 177-unit Marriott Executive Apartments, Mumbai ? only opened its doors in 2000. ?Service apartments are a boon for corporates, expatriates and non-resident Indians working far from home and for long periods,? says Ramesh Aidasani, GM, The Residence, a select 27-apartment address in Andheri East of Mumbai.

Big names include The Taj Group of Hotels which has Wellington Mews in South Mumbai. International names such as Grand Hyatt Residences and Best Western are also entering the fray with luxury apartments in the heart of Mumbai. The capital has big players such as Edenpark Hotels? Qutab Apartments and Savoy Suites owned by McDonald?s CEO Vikram Bakshi.

Urban hotspots in the sector include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Pune. ?These are the places you?ll find the expatriate community and transient business travellers,? says Uttam Dave, president and CEO, InterGlobe Hotels. But service apartments are also mushrooming in tourist centres like Jaipur.

So how much does it cost to stay at a service apartment? Surprisingly little compared to hotels. In fact, you can get a small studio for just Rs 7,000 a month in cities such as Jaipur. It will cost over Rs 1 lakh a month for plush three-bedroom pads in the big cities but think what it would cost for three five-star hotel rooms for a month. ?You can walk into an apartment with nothing but your personal effects and can settle in immediately,? says Deepak Kumar, manager, sales and marketing, Best Western-The Emerald, which has some 21 apartments on offer.

The comforts of home include an apartment with kitchenettes and all appliances, including washing machines, but still with the services of a hotel like 24-hour room service at the push of a button, in case you don?t feel like whipping up that omelette, and daily housekeeping ? who wants to make beds? There?s also dedicated parking and laundry, in the event you don?t feel like putting on the washing machine, and other services. It?s the perfect set-up, in fact it may even be better than home. Many apartments also offer babysitters, children?s play areas and doctors-on-call.

For an idea of the comforts, take a peek into Bakshi?s Savoy Suites in Noida. It offers smart accommodation with deluxe interiors in one and two-bedroom sets that include an attached bath, a living room, and a work area with high speed internet connectivity - joy, no more trips to the Business Centre. The Italian-style kitchenette comes with a frost-free fridge, microwave, toaster, tea/coffee maker, glassware, crockery and cutlery. And if guests need to top up milk, teabags, or other provisions, they can always pop by at the convenience store located in the complex.

The idea of setting up his own service apartments struck Bakshi when he was on one of his frequent trips abroad. He noticed the concept was a huge hit internationally and decided there and then to bring the same idea to Delhi. Savoy Suites opened its doors in September 2003.

To get an idea of the range of accommodation on offer, take a look at the Best Western-The Emerald on the Juhu Tara Road in Mumbai. It offers Studio Apartments, the Jaipur Apartments with ethnic Rajasthani style interiors, and a Presidential Penthouse with three luxuriously furnished bedrooms and a bathroom where you can luxuriate in a jacuzzi.

While some developers limit guest facilities ? as they like to make the apartments more roomy ? others go all out, offering atrium bars, health clubs, rooftop pools and restaurants. Philip Bryson, general manager, Marriott Executive Apartments, says while expatriates adore the concept of self-catering and love cooking up a storm, such notions are not so popular with Indians. So Marriott offers a host of restaurant within the apartment complex.

In fact there is quite a mouth-watering array from the Bistro, Lakeview Caf?, Emperor?s Court which offers Chinese fare and Nawab Saheb which features North Indian cuisine. The bar is open from 11 am to midnight. The deli and pastry shop offers freshly baked cakes, cookies and pastries while the Velvet Lounge dishes out Mediterranean fare and wood-fired pizzas with a DJ playing hip lounge music.

Taj Wellington Mews in South Mumbai, too, has a well-stocked delicatessen, Weli Deli, that offers a range of salads, meats and cheeses. The Qutab Apartments in Delhi has Terrazzo, a restaurant and bar with innovative cuisine.

All in all, it?s not hard to see why the concept of service apartments has caught on. Says Paul Dominick, manager of Home Stead Service Apartments, Pune, ?Besides the cost advantage, it?s a good idea for companies to retain such service apartments in cities where there?s regular movement of personnel within the country. This is good in cases where the company does not want to maintain its own guesthouse.?

A part of the ?extended-stay?sector, service apartments are offshoots of the inn and hotel industry. While industry experts view them as a growth area in India, it is an established global concept. Villas in Spain, flats in the UK, apartment complexes in the US, have all created a vibrant market for those wanting more than just a room in a hotel.

Dave at Mumbai Interglobe Hotel cautions property developers who have the sector on their radar as a way to diversify says there?s still some way to go for service hotels to take off as business models. ?Serviced apartments add value to real estate while giving them a foothold in alternate products,? he says. But to make the projects pay off is tough, he says, ?The apartments are twice the size of five-star hotels rooms and are offered at 50 per cent of the cost. The returns on investment are usually disappointing, though they offer value-for-money to the customers,? he says.

Sandeep Gupta, managing director of New Delhi?s Edenpark Hotels dismisses such negative talk. ?Only when we talk from the real estate point of view, is the investment return disappointing. But since most of the service apartments are backed by hotels, the returns are quite profitable.?

But both say whatever the economics for the backers, the customer is a winner featuring good-value for money all the way.

Photograph of Oxygen Zone by Rupinder Sharma and Qutab picture by Jagan Negi