Unsurprisingly, here at Nook & Cranny we are travellers as well as hosts in the short stay serviced apartment world, so we do get to choose places to stay ourselves too, and we know some of the pitfalls.

So we understand how difficult it can be to really get a view of a serviced apartment from photos and a description on a website.  We've tried to add featured which give comfort to our potential guests, that the place that they book will be exactly what they're expecting or better - we do love to exceed expectations. Sometimes people ask to view the apartments before they book, but we are almost always at capacity and the chances of it being a changeover day for the flat they that are interested in is low, which makes viewing in person difficult in our industry. Of course, if there is an option to do so we will.

Criteria which we go through when we are booking a holiday sort stay apartment ourselves:

• location, is it near where I will be working/visiting?
  
• quality of apartment & furnishings, availability of white goods and optional extras
  
• is car parking right outside the property? 
• transport links - if I don't have a car, will I be able to really get around?
  
• quality of the neighbourhood - is it an area with access to leisure activities?
• will I get quick response if I need anything during my stay?
  
• Can I arrive late at night and still get the key easily?

Putting your mind a rest before booking:

1. Right from the start we understood that top quality realistic photography was really important to people when choosing to book their apartment. We try to make the photos both informative and easy on the eye. So some of them are just showing equipment which you can expect in the flat when you arrive.
2. We've recently added guest reviews of our apartments which people are kind enough to leave us after their stay. We feel that these are important, as they tell you things that we can't say ourselves.
3. We commit to personally answering all contact forms within 12 hours and usually much faster. We are always happy to take phone calls and to try to fulfil all reasonable requests however unusual they may be. Cots and high chairs, toddler feeding equipment etc are a very popular request which we are happy to fulfil.
4. We send out an "e welcome pack" before people arrive - this gives lots of local information as well as extra info about the flat and directions, wifi codes etc to put guests mind at ease. We find that sending it as an e-doc is more useful than leaving it in the flat as then we can use internet links to lots more local info which can come in very handy from your phone on arrival or from your laptop.
   

Always looking to improve

So in an attempt to give you more then you expect we have decided to make walk through videos of the apartments so that people can get a feel of the layout too. We've had a bit of fun shooting them & we've added some crazy music but they al only 45s long, so you certainly won't get bored. I hope you love them - please do comment and let us know your views, as we gradually film all the apartments we want to be making sure that you see what you are looking for. 

We are very lucky in Nottingham, we have lots of hotels and restaurants in the city centre which attract people from overseas and from other parts of the UK to come for an extended stay for work or leisure. 

But there is a fast growing trend towards choosing the affluent and well located town of West Bridgford with its open green areas and its cafe culture, farmers markets, and friendly feel, just 2 miles out of Nottingham - a 20 minutes walk or 5 to 10 minutes on a frequent and efficient bus network depending on the traffic.

All of our Serviced Apartments are located within a 5 minute walk of Central Avenue which is where all the buzz happens in West Bridgford, so we think that you will love the area as much as our very happy guests, many of whom have arrived here after taking local advice on where they should stay when working in or visiting Nottingham for a short stay.

For a while now, I've been polling my guests as to why they have chosen to stay n West Bridgford above what is locally known as "town", and this is what they have come up with:

• The community atmosphere and the lively, friendly feel of the restaurants and cafes as well as shops in the tree lined Central Avenue
• The Farmers Market makes Central Avenue a wonderful place to go for a stroll then have breakfast with family or friends at the weekends
• The park & the field with children's playground, teenagers floodlit basketball/football pitch, well kept tennis courts
• Lots of fun family days out nearby
• On Central Avenue we have M&S for quality food, Carluccios, Pizza Express, Caffe Nero, Costa Coffee, Mud Crab, as well as many lovely independent shops & restaurants, making for a fun evening out as well as daytime chill out time
• The short walk to lots of beautiful River activities - walking, running, cycling, and rowing   
  
• Holme Pierrrepont is a fabulous Watersports Centre for white water rafting, sailing, water skiing and other water sports, this a a short walk down the river or a 2 minute drive from Central Avenue
• The great tennis clubs, health clubs
• It is the home of Trent Bridge Cricket Club as well as Nottingham Forest Football Ground with Notts County sharing a ground with Nottingham Rugby club just a stone's throw away
• Easy access to the University of Nottingham
• Easy access to Nottingham Trent University
• Easy access to Queens Medical Centre makes it a great place to stay for visiting medics
• Easy access to Nottingham Train Station, all the buses go straight past the station. Frequent trains taking you south to London, Leicester, Loughborough or head north to Leeds or Sheffield. 
• Many families enjoy the host of fun which can be found in activities and clubs for pre school children
• West Bridgford is served by fabulous Schools both primary and secondary
• West Bridgford has a host of places of faith in all denominations
  
  

So what do you think? Would you rather stay in Nottingham City Centre, or West Bridgford - let us know what you think, and why - what are your favourite places to visit in the area? 

OK, I admit it,  I sponsor Nottingham Playhouse, through Nook & Cranny for reasons of pure selfishness, and I don't even think they mind! I don't suppose the tax man minds either, in fact my accountant tells me that Mr HMRC in his wisdom encourages my self centeredness with financial incentives.  What is the world coming to? 

From Stage to Foyer
Ever since I was a young girl, I have been drawn to the theatre. I feel that it has many styles - comedy, tragedy, horror, period pieces - just like life I suppose, but when seen on stage it is strewn in sparkly dust which makes it so magical. I have long been a fan of experimenting to see if once, just once, if I clap hard & long enough in recognition of a mind-blowing performance, they might just start over again from the beginning to the end (no luck so far, but I'll keep trying).
I did have a go at walking the boards for a while but it really just served to show me that being positively involved in the theatre requires different talents to being a wonder on a stage, and I should try to make my small mark whilst keep firmly in the foyer & the seats of the auditorium.

The recession hit the arts
In 2008 when the UK economy was in free fall I read in the paper that sponsorship of the arts was in decline and I decided that I should show my appreciation that Nook & Cranny was enjoying an extended period of growth by looking into giving a little back to a very deserving cause close to my heart. As it happened I also couldn't think of a more fun way to "work" than by taking valued clients, many of whom have become friends to see the type of top class theatre that The Playhouse offers. 

So I met up with the lovely Nick Lawford, Fundraising & Development Manager at The Nottingham Playhouse and I was so impressed by the innovative, thoughtful and community spirited way in which the theatre is run as well as the way that he had spent time putting together a package for me which clearly had my specific business needs in mind (and yes, some overlap with my selfish personal preferences).

The Package, should you care to join in this spree of benign self interest.
Just in case you were thinking of joining our ranks of selfish sponsors you can clearly see that I am evangelical about encouraging local businesses to join in. So I thought I'd share with you some of the fabulous benefits that Nook & Cranny receive, and do feel free to get in touch if you'd like more details or if you'd like to be on the list of theatre lovers for invitations from Nook & Cranny to any of the shows

• We get to take clients to every in house show that the Playhouse puts on throughout the year
• We get invited to Rehearsal Suppers which involve hob nobbing with the cast and the whole team and getting a great insight into a play before it is all polished up for the opening night.
• We can put adverts in the programmes which we get given for performances
• We get one off invitations to a dinner on stage every now and then which is a personal favourite
• Once a year we hold an event at which we can bring a large party and use the catering facilities ( from the marvellous Cast bar) to host before, during the interval and after the show.
• We get invited to networking meetings, and many more one off events which raise the profile of the business
• We benefit from the soft glow of being part of one of the best reasons to live in Nottingham. 
• The list is endless, and I feel my brand, such as it is, is strengthened hugely

I am grateful to love almost all of my business life and to farm out the bits I don't love, but I can honestly say that I get a pure delight from the association that I have with The Nottingham Playhouse, only very slightly tainted by the fact that I feel that I cannot help but get so much more from it than I can ever actually give them back.

Thank you so much to Nick Lawford, Derek Graham, Giles Croft & Stephanie Sirr, the fabulous box office staff & of course Tim Wheelhouse at Cast which is such a lovely place to be whether there is a show on or not.  

Oh dear, did I forget the wonderful actors?! That won't go down well, daaaaarling!! mwah mwah :)

Fantastic A levels achieved, and now your teenager is off to Nottingham University!!
So your precious child,  is off to Nottingham University...
You've spent all those years raising little Jimmy. Firstly getting him to sleep through the night, eat solids, then as he grew you taught him how to tie his tie and shoe laces for school, you coached him how to master his front crawl on camping holidays in France and how to be a team player in the local football team on a saturday afternoon. 
Then as he hit his teenage years you encouraged him to speak nicely to girls at parties and to study hard for his GCSE's. Perhaps he got a job in the local coffee shop & earnt his independence travelling to London and further afield all on his own during the school holidays. Then he did his Duke of Edinburgh &  got great  A levels results. You've tried to encourage him to only drink responsibly, and alternate with soft drinks.. a now, horror of horrors, he's leaving home and going off to Nottingham Uni to try out real life.
Well I don't know about you, but that's what I remember by parents doing, and that's what I am in the process of doing with my own 3 sons who are all now teenagers, but there's one thing that the modern parent does which I don't remember my folks ever doing:

Settling your child into Nottingham Trent University or University of Nottingham
Here at Nook & Cranny we are inundated at the moment with parents who are taking a week out of their busy schedules to bring little Jimmy up to Nottingham Trent University (NTU) or "Uni of" (as it is known). They drop him off at the campus, rush to the nearby Waitrose to fill his fridge with delicious morsels of healthy food, and they then leave him to settle in. But, (and I have yet to ascertain whether Jimmy knows this or not!), they don't go straight home, they stay close by in case they get "the call".
They spend a week in a delightful modern serviced apartment in West Bridgford - just a couple of miles away from Nottingham town centre, where they can enjoy all that cafe culture and river walks, countryside and Farmers Markets have to offer whilst laying in wait, just in case little Jimmy needs a mercy dash - perhaps he will run out of fresh Coriander or some other equally disturbing fate will befall him!
I jest, many of our clients here at Nook & Cranny are families of overseas students relocating their offspring to another country as well as to a new life of independent living, and perhaps the UK parents are having their own little celebration of long overdue freedom. We often welcome the overseas students back for each of the holidays if they have to leave their halls of residence whilst the University holds vacation conferences, and often parents and siblings come over to stay with them & catch up on family time. It's a great way to get to know the local area as a tourist as well as a student.

So, however you are thinking of dropping your child off, don't forget, that when you wish to pick them up, come to visit, or celebrate the graduation which will come round in a flash, you know where we are, but take my advice - don't tell Jimmy!