London Perfect: A Holiday Apartment Alternative

It’s no secret that we’re not fans of a certain holiday apartment conglomerate. But London Perfect, a boutique London holiday apartment management company, is something entirely different and an excellent Airbnb alternative. Managed and operated more like a hotel where the “rooms” just happen to be lovely apartments located throughout London, we decided to give London Perfect a whirl on our most recent getaway in London.

Hamilton: Our London Perfect Vacation Apartment

Hamilton, the name of the London Perfect apartment we stayed in, is a cozy little 1-bedroom apartment on the ground floor in London’s upmarket Chelsea neighborhood. It’s been recently remodeled, and is spacious enough for a romantic getaway for two (although it can sleep up to four and has a sofa bed).

Located on a quiet street not far off the river in Chelsea, the ground floor apartment has a beautiful private outdoor garden and patio. It was just a tad too chilly to sit outside and enjoy it during our early November stay, but it’s one of those features you absolutely enjoy. We’d love to have a garden like that with our flat in Bordeaux!

A chilled bottle of Cava was a nice welcome to our London Perfect apartment

London Perfect welcomed us with a chilled bottle of Cava waiting in the fridge, which would have been perfect to sit outside and enjoy had it been just a bit warmer.

Hamilton has a fully equipped kitchen

There’s a fully equipped kitchen with a 4-burner stove top and oven, along with all the pots, pans and utensils you need to cook “at home” if you like. There is also a microwave, Nepresso machine with an assorted variety of pods, kettle with assorted teas, refrigerator and dishwasher. Honey, sugar and other condiments are available in the apartment and a little basket with biscuits and some other goodies was left for us to enjoy.

While we only prepared breakfast in the apartment during our stay, we did utilize Deliveroo and eat in after a full day of exploring London.

Hamilton’s bedroom has a queen size bed and dual closests

The bedroom has a queen sized bed, two closets if you want to fully unpack, and has it’s own doorway leading out to the private garden.

The sofa converts to trundle beds in Hamilton

The living room’s sofa converts to two single trundle beds, so while Hamilton is best suited for a couple, you can also comfortably sleep up to four people in the apartment.

The bathroom is large. The shower, with both a rain shower overhead and handheld shower head, is one of the best features. Add a rain shower with good water pressure, and just about any bathroom goes from standard to luxurious.

There’s also in-floor heating throughout the apartment, so your feet won’t get cold even if you forget to pack a pair of slippers.

Pints and bar snacks at the Cross Keys, Chelsea’s oldest pub

Hamilton is in Chelsea, with shopping, restaurants and pubs nearby. The Cross Keys, Chelsea’s oldest pub and reportedly a hangout of Prince Harry, is just a short walk from the apartment. Other famous patrons have included Agatha Christie and the Rolling Stones. We didn’t see any royals or celebrities hanging around, but we did enjoy a few pints and bar snacks in front of their roaring fire.

Also practically across the street is Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, the 3-Michelin star flagship restaurant that Gordon Ramsay opened in 1998 as his first solo restaurant. It books up well in advance, and we were disappointed not to be able to get a reservation since our trip was a bit last minute.

Not far down the street is also Maze Grill Royal Hospital Road. We did get a reservation there last minute and we never pass up the beef wellington when it’s on a Gordon Ramsay menu.

Exploring London

Public transportation nearby (there’s bus lines practically just out front of the Hamilton apartment and the underground about a 10-minute walk away) also makes exploring London extremely easy.

What Makes London Perfect Different?

London Perfect is a boutique management company, and unlike other holiday apartment rental companies, only rents out luxury apartments. They carefully select beautiful apartments in some of London’s most desirable neighborhoods like Kensington, Mayfair, Notting Hill and Chelsea. And most of the apartments available on London Perfect are strictly vacation rentals.

Another thing that makes London Perfect different to other vacation rental companies is that they have a dedicated team to offer support seven days per week. This support team located in a nearby office actually in London eliminates one of the biggest forms of stress when it comes to renting a holiday apartment.

Someone from the team was waiting for us at the apartment to give us the keys, show us around and get us settled in. You also don’t have to worry about hunting down a lock box in some dark alley, like often happens when dealing with an individual who is renting you a holiday apartment.

I actually haven’t wanted to stay in a London holiday apartment since a bad experience several years ago. I was in London and sharing a 3-bedroom apartment with colleagues. We were all in London as speakers appearing at World Travel Market, one of the biggest travel trade shows in the world and a global travel event.

When you’re on a stage speaking on a presentation you’ve worked months on with several hundred eyes on you, you’d probably have liked to have a hot shower so you look and feel your best. The hot water heater was not working in our holiday apartment and it was a bigger issue than just resetting it. Not only was the water a glacial temperature, but we suffered in an incredibly cold apartment with no heat in November. The company we rented from was basically of little service, wanting us to sit around for a 5-hour window waiting for a repair man. Being that more than 50,000 people from some 40 countries attend World Travel Market, there was no other available apartments for us to move to and last minute hotel rooms were at premium. Flash showers in icy cold water and sleeping in layers it was. And we weren’t even offered anything for the massive inconvenience.

The hot water heater actually stopped working on the second morning in our London Perfect holiday apartment. When we couldn’t find where the actual hot water heater was located to try resetting it, a call to the office support team had us in hot showers in under an hour. It was like calling down to the front desk when there’s a problem in your hotel room.

It’s the little things like knowing you have a support team available that really sets London Perfect apart from other holiday apartment rental sites.

Tower Bridge in London

Booking a London Perfect Apartment

London Perfect is part of a company that began in Paris with Paris Perfect, and also has holiday apartments elsewhere in France like Provence, in Italy and even Bali.

The website is super easy to use. Each apartment listing has photos, a clear description, a floor plan, and a map with nearby attractions. Once you decide on your London Perfect apartment, simply click on “Request Booking” and complete the details. The London Perfect team will promptly be in touch with a quote for the requested booking.

We stayed in Hamilton, perfect for 2 people, but you can browse their selection of apartments that range from studios to 3+ bedrooms. You can also easily filter by neighborhood, or even by specific amenities you’d like such as number of bathrooms or for only apartments with a balcony or garden.

We recommend subscribing to their email newsletter, which alerts you to upcoming sales and special offers.

Our stay was in partnership with London Perfect in order to bring you this story. However, Luxe Adventure Traveler maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and enthusiasm for travel are entirely our own.