A hotel would give you a room. We give you the top of the building.

I came for a two-week project and expected the usual serviced-apartment compromise. The desk by the window is a proper workstation, the Wi-Fi held a full day of video calls without a stutter, and the driver was in arrivals at 03:40 exactly as promised. I have already booked the same apartment for March.

We booked the apartment with the balcony and spent every evening on it. The kitchen had everything we needed to cook properly, which after a week of restaurant food was exactly what we wanted. Aida answered our questions about Medeu and Shymbulak faster than any hotel concierge we have used.

I moved to Almaty for work and needed somewhere to live while I looked for a flat. Two months later I stopped looking. Everything is included, someone cleans once a week, and when the washing machine made a noise it was replaced the next day. It removed all the friction from a stressful move.

Fifteenth floor, and the view over the city towards the mountains at sunrise is worth the booking on its own. Quiet, spotless, and the check-in took four minutes. This is a hotel operation running inside an apartment, which is exactly what I want when I travel.

The photographs are honest, which is rarer than it should be. What we did not expect was how well the apartment is thought through — good knives, enough hangers, blackout curtains that actually black out. Small things, but they are the difference between an apartment and a home.

We travelled with our two children and the separate bedroom made the trip possible. The kids slept while we sat in the living room. Everything was clean, the building is secure, and there is a supermarket two minutes away. I would recommend it to any family visiting Almaty.

I run a team across three time zones and needed somewhere I could take calls at midnight without waking the neighbours. This worked perfectly. Fast internet, a comfortable chair at a real desk, and management who let me extend twice at short notice without changing the rate.

Booked late on a Thursday for a Monday arrival and had a confirmed apartment within the hour, in English, on WhatsApp. That responsiveness is the whole product. The apartment itself was better than the four-star hotel my colleague stayed in, and cost less.

Very close to the business district, so I walked to two of my three meetings. The apartment was larger than the photos suggested and the bathroom was genuinely luxurious. Transfer to the airport was arranged the night before with no fuss.

We are in our sixties and had been nervous about renting an apartment instead of booking a hotel in a country we did not know. We should not have been. We were met at the airport, walked through everything, and given a number to call. It felt looked after from the first minute.

My father was being treated in Almaty and we needed somewhere calm nearby for three weeks. The team understood the situation immediately, moved us to a quieter side of the building and arranged the car to the clinic every morning. I am grateful for how they handled it.

I stayed a month and never once had to think about the apartment, which is the highest compliment I can give. Housekeeping came on the same day each week, the utilities were included, and the coffee machine and the good pans meant I barely ate out. Better value than any hotel in the city.