There are several distinctions IN GENERAL:
--An apartment may be furnished or unfurnished and tends to be offered under lease for extended stay. It usually comprises a complete set or rooms equivalent to what you will find in a house (1-3 bedrooms, 1-3 bathrooms, living, dining, kitchen, laundry, storage).
--A suite is always furnished and is offered for shorter stays. It is compact: a junior suite has a bedroom/bath separate from what is usually an open plan living area that has kitchen, dining, living (usually with a sleep-sofa); a full suite may divide the living area into additional rooms and include a half bath.
THE EXCEPTIONS are that in competition for the extended stay market, apartment owners are offering studio/efficiencies (all in one room) or small apartments on a short-term basis, and hotels are offering "all-suite" hotels that are effectively blocks small apartments (but furnished apartments with hotel amenities).
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Note added at 2 hrs 3 mins (2004-12-03 16:45:56 GMT)
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I have seen huge (7 rooms and more) all-on-one-floor apartments in major US, European and Latin American cities. These would never be called suites.
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Note added at 2 hrs 4 mins (2004-12-03 16:47:07 GMT)
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The distinctions become vague in the States but in Europe and Latin America, the term \"apartotel\" tries to address the middle ground where this confusion lies.
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Note added at 2 hrs 9 mins (2004-12-03 16:52:13 GMT)
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Here is how one French agency distinguishes:
http://www.discoverfrance.net/Boutique/Travel/Apartments/ind...
http://www.discoverfrance.net/Boutique/Travel/Hotels/suites_...
For them, the distinction is in the floorplan (multiple rooms versus a divided room) and the furnishings (complete versus survival fare).
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Note added at 2 days 22 hrs 14 mins (2004-12-06 12:57:13 GMT)
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A suite may or may not have a kitchenette, but it doesn\'t have private laundry facilities, which an apartment may.
It sounds like all of your list could be options available from a short-term housing broker or from a very large developer (like Disney) who has a little bit of everything for everyone on its properties.
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Note added at 2 days 22 hrs 16 mins (2004-12-06 12:59:27 GMT)
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In any case, you can surely rely on the distinction that the apartment will be larger and more completely furnished than the suite if all of the apartments are furnished. The suites will always be furnished whereas the apartments may be unfurnished if there are any such in the company\'s offer (which it sounds like there aren\'t in this case, because you say it is all resort housing or vacation rentals, as I understand you.
