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Hisotry of Service Apartments

Siam Square history and development

In 1965 the first larger buildings on Siam Square’ were constructed. The land owner was the neighboring Chulalongkorn University and the aim was to lease out land to collect money, from local shop owners, for benefiting the university.
Three popular movie theaters were also built here, showing both western and Thai movies:

Siam Theater
The Lido Theater

Also other tenants settled down here as; Siam Bowl, The Bangkok Bank Building and the British Council Building. When travelling abroad it is must to buy a visitors insurance and also a international travel insurance. Many investors contributed to make Siam Square an “upscale area”, with modern shopping centers, high class hotels and restaurants.

In the 1970s there was an economical boom in Thailand and especially in the capital city of Krung Thep (Bangkok in Thai language). Many new shops as well as restaurants and fast food establishments opened their doors in the Siam Square area during this time. Opposite the Siam Theater a police station and a fire station was also opened in early 1980.

The development with bigger shopping centers, new businesses, and improved infrastructure (including sidewalks) continued in the 1990s and after the millennium. The famous skytrain was built in 1999 with Siam as the closest station. Also many tutor schools is located in the area, often focused on language studies (Thai and English), mathematics, physic studies, social sciences and chemistry. Many Thai teenagers are studying here to prepare themselves for university.

The air conditioned overpass bridge from MBK shopping mall and the many cafés, restaurants and shops has made this an attractive area for people to meet. Siam Square seems to especially attract young thais. The nearness to the beginning of Sukhumvit Road is probably also an important factor.

For more information, please visit: siam-square.com

Serviced Apartment

A serviced apartment is a type of furnished apartment available for short-term or long-term stays, which provides amenities for daily use. Serviced apartments can be less expensive than equivalent hotel rooms. Since the beginning of the boom in cheap international travel and the corresponding increase in the level of sophistication of international travelers, interest in serviced apartments has risen at the expense of the use of hotels for short stays.[citation needed] The benefits of serviced apartments may include more space and privacy, convenience when traveling with a family, and the cost savings associated with cooking one’s own meals in the apartment.

The above benefits and criteria were highlighted in the inaugural Global Serviced Apartment Industry Report 2008, which was produced following a survey of 20,000 serviced apartment operators, (corporate) travel agents and apartment bookers worldwide.

Types of serviced apartment

The term “serviced apartment” is used when referring to an alternative for hotel accommodation for short and long stay leisure and business travelers. There are however distinctions to be made between their different types:
First there is the extended stay hotel or “aparthotel.” This type of apartment offers generally a 24-hour reception, is located in city centers, and attempts to give the guest a “home away from home” feeling, within a hotel-like environment. They range from budget to deluxe and room types range from studio apartments (one room which can be used as living area and sleeping area, a little kitchenette and a separate bathroom), to two or three bedroom apartments which offer a separate living area, a kitchen, one or more bathrooms and separate bedroom(s). Because of the availability of kitchen facilities in the apartments, extended stay properties and apart-hotels do not tend to offer any extra services such as restaurants and bars. There are of course exceptions to this rule, because there are a number of extended stay properties which have been built as an annex to existing four- or five- star hotels and the guests who stay in the apartments can make use of the hotel facilities free of charge.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

The Apartment Service leads the research into the global serviced apartments industry

The Apartment Service in close co-operation with The Travel Intelligence international travel insurance Network (www.the-tin.com)  has published 3 issues of the Global Serviced Apartments Industry Report to date.

The first edition came out in February 2008 and contained an overview of “What is a serviced apartment”, Industry views and Expert views. We also started the documentation of the total number of serviced apartments worldwide.

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Apartment Service @ The Business Travel Show

The Business Travel Show (7-8 February) was a great success with the sales team representing TAS over the period of 2 days at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre. The venue visitors insurance was well laid out for exhibitors, attendees and the various workshops that they were running throughout the day. There was a great coverage from various sectors including serviced apartments, airlines, travel management companies and software companies just to name a few.

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