Apart-Hotel Paradis: Visiting Odessa

Short Destination Guide for Beginners

Credit Crunch Bite Raises Hope in Rental Market

clock February 1, 2009 16:28 by author admin

   Company budgets have to be carefully watched when sending their Executives abroad, especially now, with the specter of recession just around the corner.  At one time, when a company was relocating its Executives to maintain the company perspective abroad, they stayed in local hotels with international reputations for their excellent service.  This cost the companies dear, putting an additional burden on available resources.  It was time to find a suitable alternative for the relocation of Executives abroad.  An ideal alternative was the short term rental market.



   Rentals for the short term market comprise fully furnished apartments and are complete with everything the discerning businessman needs while abroad.  Utilities are ready provided, with utility costs usually incorporated into the rental. This includes electricity, water and, if available, gas.  Additional to the rent are charges made for internet and cable TV usage, plus any telephone calls that might be made. The line rental, however, is covered in the rent. 

   An added advantage of providing furnished apartments for your Executives is their total freedom.  You can come and go as you please, socialize with friends, and even host business meetings according to your requirements.  The additional space means you have the space to entertain and hold parties and even bring your family with you for no more cost than the additional air fare.

   Apartments are certainly more cost effective than housing your Executives indefinitely in hotel rooms, often saving the company as much as 40% if staying for any length of time.  The apartments are administered by a Property Manager or Real Estate Agent and they will negotiate on your behalf to obtain the best deals for cost-effective solutions to home-from- home essentials.  Some Property Managers will only deal with the short term market while others specialize in longer term rentals only.

   Freedom of choice is another factor, offering furnished penthouses, luxury apartments, apartments with garden facilities or something more modest like a studio apartment or duplex, or even a fully service apartment.  Whatever is available, a short term rental is an ideal solution to provide your Executives with a comfortable home abroad.

   Short term rentals can be allocated for as little as 7 nights up to 3 months.  Medium term tenancy applies for rental periods over 3 months and up to 6 months.  If a rental is required for longer than 6 months it is let under the terms of a long term rental.  A lease applies and this will stipulate the length of the rental period and the terms and conditions that you are expected to comply with.
Despite these few drawbacks, however, selecting the right apartment for you can provide you with the space and luxury you would automatically expect in a hotel but provide you with the additional space and freedom that you would expect at home. Liaising with the Real Estate Agent to iron out any problems is the key to a happy and comfortable stay and, appropriately organized, a short term apartment has many benefits over using hotel accommodation for trips abroad.

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Once I lived in Europe – I was a traveller but felt I belonged…

clock January 24, 2009 17:28 by author admin

When travelling around Europe you need to realize that, unlike the US mainland, from north to south, you are not travelling through a series of contiguous states.  In Europe, each state-sized country is – well, what it says – a country.  Each country has its own government, its own legislation, its own borders and cultures and, until recently, its own individual currency. The currency is now Euros throughout Europe and the Republic of Ireland and is accepted as a dual currency on the Isle of Man.  In the United Kingdom, however, Euros need to be exchanged for pounds sterling which, at the present time, do not have a particularly good exchange rate.

In every country throughout Europe, however, you can live the high life or you can travel around inconspicuously, living like the local people do and spending far less money with little compromise to lowering standards.  Naturally, you can stay in hotels which could work out expensive, or you can stay in youth hostels with varying degrees of comfort, although long-term, this is not a particularly cost-effective option either.  However, you can also consider renting apartments while travelling.  This is much more feasible and is an option many European families consider themselves when they are travelling.  Europeans call this kind of holiday ‘self-catering’ for obvious reasons.

Many websites are devoted to real estate rentals.  If you are in Holland [the Netherlands] try the website Kamermet.nl, for France the website devoted to rental options is PAP.fr, in Italy there is VivaStreet.it. These are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are many more.  It would help, however, to understand the language so that you can read the advertisements on those websites.  As an example, in most European countries, you can expect to pay around Euros 350 per week although, in some major cities like Madrid, the rents can be considerably more.

One excellent way of finding short-term rental apartments to let on a weekly or monthly basis is to look in the English language newspapers such as The Costa Times which is published online by British ex-pats living in Spain.  Similar English language newspapers in other countries are also available online and all of them feature a classifieds’ section with apartments to let [usually called flats to let]. 

These are owned by Brits returning to the UK for a few months or who own them as holiday homes and want to rent them out when they return home in order to make a bit of money to help with maintenance costs.  British holiday homes are available throughout the European continent, as are holiday homes owned by Scandinavians and Spanish, Italian and French holiday homes owned by professional people who usually live in Madrid, Rome and Paris respectively.

The beauty of renting holiday homes is that they are all furnished, even down to the pots and pans, refrigerator, cooker and all the electrical appliances.  All you really need to do to make yourself comfortable is purchase your food, buy a bottle of wine or two, pay your rent [usually with a deposit equaling one month’s rent which is returnable at the end of your tenure] and then settle down to enjoy the country you are now a temporary citizen of and get to know the culture and meet your neighbors.

Apart from being a far more cost-effective way of visiting Europe, you will feel far more integrated when renting your own place.  If you are just drifting from hotel to hotel you never really feel as if you have put down any roots, and you live through a featureless visit just as a tourist, without any real distinguishing factors that later stand out in your memory and remind you that once you lived in Europe.

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