What’s in a name?

• There are some interesting new entrants to the UK capital’s serviced apartment market, companies which nicely illustrate how the sector is evolving and how definitions can mean different things to different people.

Firstly, Rockwell East, a 57-unit aparthotel on the fringes of the Square Mile, is the first aparthotel venture for developer Marldon, a company better known for building and renting new homes. The scheme has a strong emphasis on design and could well be the start of a deeper involvement with aparthotels in the future.

And over on the west side of town, French-Israeli short -term rentals start-up Sweet Inn has marked its entry in to the London market with a portfolio of 27 apartments in location such as Mayfair, Lancaster Gate and Fitzrovia. The intriguing element about Sweet Inn is that it is a vacation rental company predominantly targeting leisure travellers, but it offers added hotel-like serviced and actually describes itself as a serviced apartment operator. If ever proof were needed that the distinction between serviced apartments and vacation rentals is becoming ever more vague, it is provided by Sweet Inn.