Short Term Apartment vs Hotel

When you are going through the stages of “becoming” an expat, you’ll inevitably be faced with the challenge of making the transition between hotel stays and renting an apartment. This will typically occur at the “I’m staying more than 90 days” milestone. But what about that time period before that? Does it make sense to go through the headaches of a short term rental in Bucharest?

Well let’s look at the basics on this; a month in a decently priced boutique hotel will run you on average, 1,500 Euros per month (maybe less) and all of your expenses are going to be included in that. You won’t have to worry about internet, you won’t have to worry about cleaning, laundry will possibly be taken care of, cable TV, utilities, water, toiletries…pretty much all taken care of.

On a short term rental in Bucharest, the “monthly” packages can offer a great value, roughly around the 1,000 Euro mark, however, you will probably be putting down a security deposit that you may or may not get back. Remember that point. Now if you can bargain yourself down some, or find a deal (which we can assist you with, just email us) with the deposit and the first’s month paid in full, you should now be hovering around that 1,500 mark. You can possibly find a great unit available that has most of the amenities of a hotel room, but it will be difficult. Although we would love to assist you in finding a short term rental, we will recommend that you start at a website called www.VRBO.com. We used this site to advertise some of our US properties, and the response and the customer/property owner interaction was always wonderful. Occasionally some good deals pop up on here for Bucharest, a lot of the times they are out of town owners, so you have a relatively simple booking process sans all the legalities. These properties are also “full service” type properties. At the time of writing this article there were only 6 available in Bucharest, so they come and go quite quickly. With short term rentals in Bucharest you will probably be getting a unit in a “block” or communist building somewhere, and you will definitely be lacking the conference room, gym, business center, and other amenities a hotel has… so consider that.

Now while we clearly haven’t crunched all the numbers here, you can still see that it’s a toss up either way you look at it. Biggest consideration is this: do you want somewhere to unpack your suitcase and put your feet up or does hotel life suit you just fine. What’s the most you can get out of your expense account??

Keep an eye out for our in-depth two part article arriving shortly regarding apartment hunting.

Let us know your experiences with short term rentals in Bucharest…

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Related posts:

1. Where to Stay; The Basics…
2. Bucharest Cost Of Living
3. Phoenicia Hotel Experience.
4. What Are Expats Really Seeking?
5. Getting Around