I have gone back and forth between apartments and hotels for about a decade and have finally worked out my own rule, which turns out to depend mostly on how long the trip is.

The crossover is around four nights

Below four nights, hotels win almost every time.

Check-in is immediate and staffed. There is no key arrangement to coordinate. Anything that goes wrong is somebody else's problem. Breakfast exists. And the marginal benefit of a kitchen you will use twice is close to nothing.

Above four nights, the calculation reverses. Laundry becomes necessary. Eating out for every meal becomes tiring and expensive. Space to spread out starts to matter. And a room you are in for a week benefits from being a room rather than a bedroom.

At exactly the crossover it depends on the trip, and I generally take the hotel because the administrative simplicity is worth something.

The factor nobody mentions

Whether the place is managed professionally or by an individual.

This matters more than the apartment-versus-hotel distinction and is harder to determine in advance.

A professionally managed apartment behaves like a hotel: reliable check-in, somebody contactable, problems fixed. A property managed by an individual who has a job may or may not, and when it does not go well there is no fallback.

My worst accommodation experiences have all been apartments where the host was unreachable — a broken boiler that stayed broken, a key that did not work at eleven at night, and an arrival where nobody answered the phone for two hours.

Indicators: the number of properties listed by the same host, response time in the listing, and whether the reviews mention the host by name in a way that suggests they were present.

Where apartments genuinely win

Beyond length. A few situations where they are clearly better regardless.

Travelling with children, where separate sleeping space transforms the evening.

Any dietary requirement that makes eating out difficult, where a kitchen is not a convenience but the thing that makes the trip possible.

Groups, where the per-person cost gap becomes large and where a shared living space is the point.

And anywhere you want to shop at markets, which is one of the better things about travelling and is pointless without somewhere to cook.

Where hotels genuinely win

Arriving late or at an unpredictable time, which is most of the time with flights.

Anywhere you do not know, because a hotel desk is a source of local information and an apartment is not.

Anything where you might need to change plans, since hotel cancellation terms are usually more flexible.

Business travel, where the reliability is the point and the kitchen is irrelevant.

And anywhere with a language barrier, where a staffed reception solves a whole class of problem.

The hidden costs on both sides

Apartments frequently add cleaning fees that are substantial and are disclosed late in the booking process. On short stays these can be a large proportion of the total, which is another reason the crossover exists.

Some also charge for linen, for late arrival, or a local tax collected in cash on arrival.

Hotels have their own version. Resort fees, charges for facilities, parking, and breakfast at a price that assumes you will not compare it to the cafe outside.

The comparison to make is the total including everything, and both sides make that harder than it should be.

The regulatory situation

Worth knowing because it affects reliability.

Many cities have introduced restrictions on short-term letting, with registration requirements, limits on nights per year, and enforcement.

The practical consequence for a traveller is that unregistered properties can be removed from platforms or shut down at short notice, occasionally between booking and arrival.

Where a registration number is displayed in a listing, that is a meaningful signal. In cities with strict rules, I have started treating its absence as a reason to look elsewhere.

My rule

Under four nights, hotel.

Over four nights, apartment, provided the host looks professional and the total cost including fees is genuinely lower.

Arriving after ten at night, hotel regardless of length, because a self check-in that goes wrong at midnight in an unfamiliar city is the worst version of any of this.

And for a first visit somewhere I know nothing about, hotel, because the information at the desk has been worth more than the kitchen would have been.

The neighbourhood effect

One difference I did not expect and now weigh heavily.

Hotels cluster in hotel districts, which are generally central and generally have a particular character — a lot of visitors, restaurants priced accordingly, and not much ordinary life.

Apartments are distributed through residential areas, which means staying somewhere people actually live, with the shops and cafes that come with that.

For a short trip the central location wins. For anything longer, being in a normal neighbourhood is a large part of what makes a stay feel like a stay.

The check-in problem, solved

The single practical improvement I have found is asking, before booking, exactly how check-in works and what happens if the flight is late.

Hosts who answer that clearly and specifically have thought about it. Hosts who answer vaguely are the ones you will be standing outside a door phoning at midnight.