Serviced Apartments Gain Appeal
With hotel prices soaring and Moscow losing its affordable hotels to demolition and reconstruction as parts of big hotel chains, business travelers are often forced to pay premium prices for a hotel room. Many companies have found a simple and more affordable solution to their housing dilemma - a serviced apartment.
Serviced apartments are available for rent from most reputable real estate agencies. They are often cheaper than regular hotel suites and offer a home-like atmosphere to a businessman who may be weary of yet another standard hotel room in yet another city.
Such apartments can be rented from one night to several weeks, and agencies offer discounts to long-term lodgers.
For example, St. Petersburg-based real estate agency Nevsky Prostor offers a 10 to 20 percent discount (depending on the season) for a two-week stay. Depending on the number of stars, average prices of hotel rooms in St. Petersburg can run from $100 to $300, while Nevsky Prostor offers two and three-room apartments for $80 to $120 a night.
Dennis Burlitsky, short-term lease consultant for Moscow-based Beatrix Relocation Services, said his tenants (95 percent of whom are foreigners) aren't required to pay any additional fees if they book an apartment at short notice.
Beatrix Relocation Services leases its upscale two-room apartments for from $90 per day, including taxes and agency fees. The company also signs an official contract and receives payments by bank transfer from its corporate clients. By arrangement, real estate agencies can supply such services as dry cleaning, shopping, driving, translating for a separate fee.
Alla Shinkevich, lease administrator at Nevsky Prostor, said that foreigners coming to St. Petersburg from Moscow for the first time rent a hotel first of all because security is very important to them, but those who have been to the city before, opt for serviced apartments. "Many spend their first two nights in a hotel and later move to an apartment," she said.
She also noted that Moscow travelers tend to prefer paying from $80 to $100 per night, and that there is "a lack of cheap apartments" costing $40 to $50 per night. She said that people from Moscow account for 20-30 percent of the company's short-term lease business.
The majority of real estate agencies have comprehensive bi-lingual websites which offer a picture of the property, its price, location and a list of additional services available at a particular apartment.
Beatrix's Burlitsky said leasing a flat for a short term as opposed to staying at a hotel made a lot of sense because they can be a budget option for business travelers, especially in the face of a looming 30 percent increase in hotel room prices and 100 percent occupancy at the hotels.
By Sveta Graudt
SPECIAL TO THE ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
27 October 2005
