Of the hotels designed for long-term guests, or extended-stay properties, Residence Inn (tel. 800-331-3131, http://www.residenceinn.com) is one of the best known. Generally, extended-stay hotels don’t have restaurants or much meeting space, but they do have in-room kitchens and laundry machines available—amenities that make feasible stays of a month or more.

Although all extended chains do walk-in business, the guests who stay awhile get by far the best rates. For example, Houston’s TownePlace Suites (tel. 800-257-3000, http://www.towneplace.com), owned by Marriott, depends on long-term guests for 60 percent of its business and offers them a steep discount, while Hawthorn Suites (tel. 800-527-1133, http://www.hawthorn.com) in Dallas fills 37 percent of its rooms with extended-stay guests, who typically score a rate little more than half of what a short-term traveler pays.

Tom McCabe, the global director of travel services for the Boston high-tech company PerkinElmer, said that some of his colleagues have negotiated rates with a local Residence Inn that are 10 percent to 15 percent less than the company’s already low corporate negotiated rate.

Says Amy Griffin, director of hotel sales at the 221-suite Residence Inn, one of Marriott’s seven extended-stay properties in Chicago, “When we’re talking about extended stay, we’re referring to stays of five or more nights.”

Their clientele—which includes relocated employees, engineers and architects involved with the redesign of Soldiers Field, and IT consultants who stay on for months—pay rates according to a four-tiered structure: the longer the stay, the lower the rate. A guest who stays for a month typically pays a nightly rate around $30 less than a guest who stays for less than five nights. This property near the Hancock Building offers more amenities than most extended-stay hotels, including 24-hour fitness and business centers, as well as a hot breakfast every morning.

“Extended-stay products are either upper tier or lower tier,” explained Reneta McCarthy, a lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell. Residence Inn, in the upper tier, has made a point of increasing their level of service. “You can ask the housekeeper to go out and get staples,” Ms. McCarthy said.

The Hilton-owned Homewood Suites (tel. 800-225-5466, http://www.homewood-suites.com) is also at the high end. Most of its 100 U.S. hotels have business centers, convenience stores and even grocery delivery. The Washington, D.C., location is popular with those doing business with government agencies and nearby corporations like Lucent Technologies and Lockheed Martin.

The Wyndham-owned Summerfield Suites (tel. 877-999-3223, http://www.summerfieldsuites.com) is also top-tier, with properties in such affluent areas as Scottsdale, AZ, West Hollywood, CA, and Grand Cayman. The chain has redesigned its guest rooms with 820 square feet of space, upgraded its bedding and continues to feature ergonomic Herman Miller desk chairs. It takes special pride in its “Great Rooms”—the hotels’ meeting and social areas that boast oversize furniture and stone fireplaces.

Extended-stay hotels continually try to upgrade the technical services that are so important to business travelers. Last March, Oakwood Worldwide (tel. 800-259-6914, http://www.oakwood.com), which operates both extended-stay properties and corporate apartments in the United States, England and Asia, unveiled Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) access at its San Jose location, where a room can be had for $55 a night. The Wi-Fi service is available for $29.95 a month ($5.95 per day). If the program is successful, Oakwood plans to expand it nationwide.

The Atlanta-based Homestead Studios Suites Hotels (tel. 888-782-9473, http://www.homesteadhotels.com) is growing quickly: of its 112 suburban properties in 28 states, 70 percent have been built since 1997. The average guest stays from two to four weeks.

Choice Hotels International (tel. 800-424-6423, http://www.choicehotels.com) owns MainStay Suites, as well as seven other chains, including Clarion, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, and Econo Lodge—5,000 locations altogether. To help road warriors fight stir-craziness, the 47-unit MainStay in Hayward, California, a suburb of San Francisco, offers complimentary breakfast and evening social hours. An automated checkout system takes less than a minute to use. Stay one night and the rate is $79.99; stay a month and the rate drops to around $60.

Extended-stay hotels aren’t for everyone. Roder Russo, a Louisiana energy company executive, used to stay at one long-term–stay property outside Philadelphia for a week at a time until he became fed up. “The service was deplorable, and the rooms inadequate—better suited to truck drivers than business travelers,” he said. Now he stays at Hiltons and Marriotts.

In lean times, long-stay travelers offer full-service chains “great business,” Ms. McCarthy said, “because they help fill the rooms on the weekends.” She said that “because their break-even point is so high, luxury hotels will take drastic action to get those heads in the beds.”

In New Orleans, business travelers don’t have to choose between a luxury property and an extended-stay product: the Iberville Suites (tel. 504-523-2400, http://www.ibervillesuites. com) are under the same roof as the lush Ritz-Carlton (tel. 800-241-3333), and Iberville’s guests enjoy many of the Ritz’s amenities. At the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, long-term guests receive a 50-percent discount off the rack rate and discounted laundry service.

Brian Honan, the director of marketing at the Four Seasons New York (tel. 212-758-5700, http://www.fourseasons.com/newyorkfs), said that before the ’90s, hotels had rental offices just to deal with extended-stay guests, but the boom years saw a trend away from less profitable extended stays. “Now with the economy, hotels are becoming more open to long stays and the wheeling and dealing in terms of pricing,” he said.

Honan explained that during tough times, the Four Seasons’ suites are the last ones to sell. Since a fifth of the hotel’s units are suites, he can’t afford to let them sit empty. “Rather than hang on to see if a transient traveler picks up the suite, we’ll sell it for 50 percent less.”

At the Regency (tel. 212-759-4100, http://www.loewshotels.com), a 351-room Loews hotel in Manhattan, general manager Stuart Schwartz said he “always enjoyed a pretty good long-term client base”—up to 20 percent at one point. “And after 180 days, they get their taxes back. That means that the 8.25-percent city tax, the 5-percent state tax and the $4-a-night occupancy tax are deductible,” he explained, referring to the type of occupancy tax law common around the country.

Bill Doak, who manages the Beverly Wilshire in Los Angeles (tel. 301-275-5200, http://www.fourseasons.com), said that guests who stay for a month are almost all business travelers and account for 6 percent to 8 percent of the hotel’s clientele; Mr. Doak would like that number to grow, and to that end, the hotel will slash rack rates up to 40 percent, and will offer extras such as 50 percent off dry cleaning and reduced parking fees. The hotel will even wheel in a refrigerator and a microwave.

Matt Lavine, a television reporter who covers the entertainment industry, stayed at the Wilshire with his wife Beth, a radio station sales manager. The two were impressed by networking opportunities at the bar and the pool, and with the service: they scored a free upgrade upon arrival, and the concierge quickly located a photographer for an interview Mr. Lavine was doing. The Lavines’ short-term stay became an extended stay. “We were only supposed to stay for three nights,” said Ms. Lavine, “but we loved it so much that we stayed a week.”

To see how all the extended-stay hotels compare in Business Traveler’s extended-stay accommodation survey, see the August issue of Business Traveler. To subscribe, visit http://www.businesstravelerusa.com/subscribe