Last time we looked at a huge range of events happening in Nottingham this summer. But what about those more off-the-beaten-track attractions?

Well, Nottingham has those too. Here's a rundown of our favourite places you might not have heard of...

Lost Property
Lost Property is a new secret bar that opened earlier this year. It's the brainchild of the folks behind the Mercure Hotel and The Curious Tavern and if you fancy a late drink it's open 'til 2a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. But you'll have to find it first! Weirdly its address is 7.5 Carlton Street. Then look for a booth and the man in there will direct you to the rooms full of keys, suitcases and other lost property long since forgotten by its owners.

Boilermaker
Nottingham has not one but two secret bars and this one is right in the middle of Hockley. If you don't know what you're looking for it's easy to walk on past – unless, that is, you know your cocktails. A boilermaker is a beer + whiskey cocktail and the bar's entrance looks like a boiler shop. Because it's so popular there's often a queue (now you'll understand why boilers seem to be so popular in Nottingham!) and it's worth the wait. Go in through the 'Staff Only' door and be treated to a fantastic range of cocktails, with table service and late opening at weekends.

Nottingham's Caves
It's a not very well-known fact that Nottingham sits above a labyrinth of caves that were carved out to provide somewhere to live, prison cells and even bowling alleys, and you can visit many of them on guided tours. We had to bring it back to going out somehow so you won't be surprised to read that two of our best-loved pubs sit above caves: The Malt Cross and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. 

Recently renovated, you can go on a tour of the caves below the Malt Cross and learn the last 300 years' history about the pub's location. You can visit the caves beneath Ye Olde Trip too – thought to be the oldest inn in the UK, dating back to 1189AD. It's nestled against the rock face beneath the castle and the caves used to be part of the pub itself but now act as the inn's cellars, making sure that their beer stays nice and cold.

Escape Games
If small spaces don't bother you and you feel like doing something completely different the escape rooms could be right up your street. The basic premise is that you and the rest of your team are locked in to a creepy room – they have names like 13utcher, Con-traption and Crypt-ic – and you have an hour to escape by cracking codes, finding lost items, building machines, and pitting yourselves against all sorts of mental and physical puzzles. Or you get locked in. If that sounds like fun you can find this hidden gem on Castle Gate.

Five Leaves
Last but certainly not least is another secret place in Nottingham (that doesn't involve alcohol or frightening settings!) – an independent bookshop. It's tucked away down an alleyway opposite Nottingham Tourism Centre, so if you can't find it you can always pop in and ask where it is. It calls itself 'political' and 'radical' so depending which way you lean it may inspire your thinking or contradict it but as one of the only independent bookshops to open in the UK since 2000, and with regular events, readings, book signings (and a great range of reading material) it's well worth a visit.

If you do go along to any of these secret places please let us know what you think of them in the comments, and feel free to tell us about any hidden gems we haven't included.

For more information about our luxury serviced apartments in West Bridgford please get in touch and we'll be only too happy to tell you more about more all the wonderful places to visit in Nottingham. 

In our last blog, we looked at how much it costs to rent a short-term property versus renting one long-term. The surprising finding was that once you take all the moving costs, the expense of furnishing an apartment and the bills into account, it's cheaper to rent on a short-term contract than a long-term one (not to mention all the time you save not having to deal with energy suppliers, researching everything you need to buy, staying in for things to be delivered, waiting around for Virgin to set up your broadband...).

We compared two people sharing a two-bed serviced flat in West Bridgford for 6 months and our comparison showed that the short-term let worked out at £700 cheaper over that time. So we thought it would be interesting to do the same calculation but this time we'd compare staying with us in a short-term rental with staying in a hotel.

Who remembers Lost in Translation? It was a look at how impersonal and dehumanising staying in a hotel can be, something we talked about a while ago in this blog – Business Travel: From Dehumanising to Enriching – Are You Up For the Challenge? We don't mean to put a negative spin on hotels but having an apartment all to yourself or you and your partner is so much nicer, isn't it?

But is it more expensive?

A quick search on trivago to stay in a hotel in Nottingham tonight came back with options ranging from £29 to £153. PWC's forecast for hotel prices outside London in 2017 predicted an average of £70/night. Nottingham's prices are a bit above average, the average in Nottingham was £64/night in 2014, and £71/night in 2015 (according to this report by The Daily Mail). So, why don't we work with a rate of £75 per night for a double room.

OK. So, let's work out how much that is for a month:
£75 x 30 nights = £2250

And for six months:
£2250 x 6 months = £13,500

How does that compare with renting a short-term apartment? Our special rate for lets of 3 months or more is £2000, which is:
£2000 x 6 months = £12,000

That's already a saving of £1500. But... with a rental you get two bedrooms. If you wanted to rent two rooms in a hotel your costs immediately doubles to £27,000. Wow.

The other benefits of short-term serviced apartment

Not only do you get two bedrooms, you get a living room, a fully-equipped kitchen, and a parking space as well. So you can cook your own meals, the kettle is a sensible size, you've got a Nespresso machine (not Nescafe instant). You can eat what you want when you want it. You can have midnight feasts, early morning smoothies, late morning brunches. Plus preparing your own food is so much cheaper and healthier than eating out all the time. And when you do want to go out you've got the many many gorgeous restaurants West Bridgford has to offer on your doorstep.

You also have space for your family to visit or stay, friends can come round too and you have enough chairs for everyone to sit down! You don't have to work at a tiny counter next to the TV amongst your possessions because that's the only flat surface, you can spread out across an entire table!

You've got free parking right outside – most hotels charge for parking these days, so that can add £5/day (or 
£900 for six months) to your hotel bill. And you can come and go as you please. The cleaners come at a time to suit you, and you don't have to fit in with reception times or meal times.

What do you think? If you're renting for more than 3 months, is it cheaper to stay in short-term accommodation or go for a long-term letting?

I bet you answered 'long-term', right?

Surely you pay less per month with longer leases than you do with short-term ones, how could it possibly be the other way around?

But it is! When you look into it there's an awful lot more to renting than just paying the rent.

If you take all of the other costs into account, a longer lease stops looking like such a great deal. And if you count non-monetary costs (like your time, hassle, peace of mind and convenience) short-term renting is by far the cheaper and easier option.

I know what you're going to say, 'we would say that' given what we do, which is why we've got the figures to back it up...

(We used like-for-like 2-bedroom properties in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire for comparison based on 2 people relocating to the area – as most of our guests are – and renting for 6 months)

SHORT-TERM LET
Rental per month £2000* (includes weekly cleaning)
Rental per month £1900* (equivalent without cleaning)

Additional charges for:

• Letting agent administration, references & inventory £0
• Deposit £0
• Gas & electricity £0
• Council tax £0
• Fast broadband & phone £0 (calls extra)
• Water £0
• Furniture (beds, bedside tables, chest of drawers, wardrobes, dining table & chair, sofas & armchairs, bathroom cabinet, soft furnishings, pictures, T.V., fully equipped kitchen including Nespresso machine, a fridge/freezer, and washing machine) £0
• New bedding £0
• Removal company £0
• T.V. licence £0

TOTAL FOR 6 MONTHS:

6 x 1900 = £11,400

*Please note that this is a special reduced rate for rentals of 3 months or more

LONG-TERM LET
Rental per month £650 (without cleaning)

Additional charges for:

• Letting agent administration, references & inventory £404 one-off**
• Deposit £650+ (refundable so not taken into account)
• Gas & electricity £85/month
• Council tax £110/month
• Fast broadband & phone £35/month (calls extra)
• Water £25/month
• Furniture (beds, bedside tables, chest of drawers, wardrobes, dining table & chair, sofas & armchairs, bathroom cabinet, soft furnishings, pictures, T.V., fully equipped kitchen including Nespresso machine, a fridge/freezer, and washing machine) £5000
• New bedding £200
• Removal company £1000 (once at end of tenancy)
• T.V. licence £12/month

TOTAL FOR 6 MONTHS:

6 x 650 rent = £3,900 + 404 + (267 x 6) + 5000 + 200 + 1000 = £12,106

That's £700 MORE than the short-term let!

**Average estate agent fee charged by ARLA licensed agents is £202 per tenant (November 2016)

You do still have all the furniture at the end of your rental so there's an option of not spending £1000 on  moving and selling what you spent all that money on but even if you have the time and capacity to do it, it generally ends up on Gumtree for pennies.

So there's no way around it, short-term leases are cheaper.

Not only that but they save you heaps of time too because there's:

• no researching everything you need to buy
• no time spent signing up to utility companies and organising your Council Tax
• no finding and booking a removal company (and all the hassle involved in packing up and moving)
• no waiting in for Virgin to come round or the electrician to call
• no taking time off work to be there when your furniture's delivered
• no taking and sending off meter readings
• no hidden costs like there are with many estate agents if you decide to leave earlier than planned, for example

With our minimum 3 month lets there's no faff at all.

Just 100% flexibility and a readymade home with all the creature comforts you could possibly want waiting for you to move in.

We also offer tailored relocation support if you need any help finding the right school, church, sports club, other parents, or anything else you need to start living the moment you move in. Our properties are guaranteed to be immaculate when you move in, plus if you have any issues during your stay we're on-hand to deal with them.

We don't understand why anyone would you do anything else?!

Please let us know what you think about our findings in the Comments below or feel free to ask us any questions. We'd love to welcome you to West Bridgford soon and show you what all the fuss is about!