Nobody chooses a home well from an airport hotel. The people we host who are moving to London for a new role, a fellowship, a posting or a family decision tend to arrive with the same plan: sign a lease in the first fortnight, get the boxes in, start. It is a plan made under pressure, and the flats it produces are often the ones people leave a year later.
There is a better sequence. Arrive somewhere finished. Live in the city for a month. Then choose.
What the first month is for
The first month in a new city is for orientation, not commitment. Which side of the office the good streets are on. Whether the commute that looked fine on a map survives a wet Tuesday. Where the children will go to school and how far that is, in practice, from anywhere you would want to live. None of this can be learned in a viewing.
A monthly apartment turns that month from a problem to be solved into a period to be used. There is nothing to set up, nothing to furnish, nothing to return. Wi-Fi works on the first evening. The kitchen has knives that cut. The bed is made.
Fitzrovia and Marylebone as a base
Our London apartments sit in Fitzrovia and Marylebone, which is a deliberate choice for arrivals. Both are central without being loud, walkable to the West End and the City by different routes, and well placed for the mainline stations if the new job turns out to involve the rest of the country. Regent’s Park is close for a morning run or an afternoon with a pushchair. The clinics around Harley Street are a short walk, which matters to more relocating families than expect it to.
From either neighbourhood, most of London is a straightforward journey, which means the search for a long-term home can range widely without the base itself being a compromise.
Designed for a month, not a night
Our apartments are furnished for people who live in them. Full wardrobes, because a relocation arrives with luggage. A real desk with daylight, because the new role starts before the office does. A kitchen equipped for four weeks of proper cooking, because a family cannot eat out for a month and should not have to. Materials that are calm and honest: oak, linen, stone, wool. Quiet bedrooms, because jet lag and a new job are a poor combination without sleep.
For families, a two- or three-bedroom apartment means children have a room, parents have a room, and the living space is not a corridor between the two.
Who we host
Professionals arriving for a new role, often with a partner following a few weeks later. Academics and clinicians on fellowships and placements. Families relocating between countries who need a base while schools are settled and a longer lease is found. Founders and their teams landing in London for a season. The common thread is a month or more, and a preference for a home over a hotel.
We have return guests, and we work with individuals and the people arranging stays on their behalf. One contact, one invoice, self check-in at whatever hour the flight lands.
The practical case
A month in a serviced apartment is usually cheaper than a month in a comparable hotel, and considerably cheaper than a hasty lease that has to be broken. It also removes the hidden costs of arriving unfurnished: the deposit on a flat chosen in a hurry, the furniture bought to fill it, the weekend lost to assembling it.
More importantly, it changes the quality of the decision that follows. People who choose a home after living in the city for a month choose better. They know the neighbourhoods. They have walked the commute. They have found out what they actually want, which is rarely what they thought they wanted before they arrived.
Oxford, too
Relocations to Oxford follow the same logic, whether for the university, the hospitals, the science parks or the schools. Our Oxford apartments give an arriving family or professional the same soft landing: a finished home, a month to look, and a decision made well.
If you are planning a move to London or Oxford, write to us with your dates and the shape of your household. If your first month looks shorter than a month, reach out and we will see what we can do.
Stay with The INVITED — design-led monthly apartments in Fitzrovia, Marylebone and Oxford. Get in touch.
