Bucharest Apartments, Bucharest short term rental

Irina Vrabie, PR Manager RomVision; “The short term accommodation system in Bucharest: A chaotic market with sand services”

All Apartments: What should the short term accommodation system really mean, taking into consideration the fact that the regulations in the field are, generally, broken?

Irina Vrabie: It should mean an alternative to the classical accommodations means. Still, there is some confusion between renting apartments and the short term accommodation system. We don’t just rent apartments, this is the segment that belongs to the real estate agencies.

We, and I mean few companies that took this business seriously, offer much more than the simple delivery of the keys to an apartment: we provide the comfort similar to the one of your own dwelling, with everything it implies – TV cable, wireless internet, phone, but also cleaning services, assistance for any unforeseen situation, counseling.

Unfortunately, there are many so called short term accommodation companies that resume to delivering the keys of the apartment and cashing the money, and nothing more.

A.A.: How would you describe the market of short term accommodation in Bucharest?

Irina Vrabie: Chaotic. Without any regulations. Without any transparency. A little bit caustic, but this is the truth. And it is unusual, because we are talking about a market which meant, in 2008, more than 12 million Euros. And this is not all, but it is, in a certain and non-principial way, an extremely competitional market. This takes place because of some actors which, in the last 3 years, entered and played incorrectly, having dumping prices just because they do not offer real short term accommodation services.

The quantity also increases. There are many companies who didn’t bring anything new, but who just rented apartments for long periods, from third parties, and then sublet them by day. The conclusion is obvious: the quality has been altered.

When RomVision entered this market, in 2001, it had another vision: innovation in services and Internet. RomVision has been the first player in Romania who used the internet as a main promoting/communication way. Subsequently, the internet allowed many companies to enter the field and the extremely competitional development, but, constantly, in this market, we kept our position together with other 3 companies (Professional Realty, Unid, Agentia H). The rest of them entered and later on disappeared.

I would mention an aphorism which suits the moment: “Time is the one that confers the value”.

A.A.: What is the proportion in which the short term accommodation system intersects with the hotels’ market in Bucharest?

Irina Vrabie: From the very beginning there is an exclusive request for short term accommodation in Bucharest as everywhere else in the European capitals. We intersect with the hotels in the niche of “neutral” consumers, the ones that choose the optimal report quality/price. On the other hand, the existent war regarding the 3 – 5 stars market in Bucharest is not advantageous for anyone. The drastically diminution of the tariffs for the 5 stars hotels can have an effect only for a short period of time. The standard of the services of a 5 stars hotel will never be mistaken for what a 3 star unit can offer.

In the short term accommodation system the situation is similar. There are two companies that are in competition, having similar tariffs, but offering completely different services from the qualitative and even quantitative point of view.

A.A.: What distinguishes RomVision from the rest of the competitors?

Irina Vrabie: The time, the team and the services. We work in the hospitality industry where people are extremely important. I know it sounds as a cliché and I wouldn’t have mentioned it if it weren’t true.

Since 2001, when we entered the market, the colleagues from the team have changed so much that now in the team we have only those persons that truly transmit the RomVision values: professionalism, commitment, innovation, care. We are satisfied only when our customers are satisfied.

A young team which, in all of these 8 years, worked hard to keep its promise reflected by the company’s motto: “Caring. Always”.

We offer services that are unique on the market and I would like to mention one program that guarantees the quality and emphasizes, once again, the difference: the Program No Surprises according to which our customers benefit from discounts between 15% and 75% from the price of the accommodation if the problems appeared are not solved in 60 minutes. RomVision is the leader in the short term accommodation market from services’ standard point of view.

A.A.: How did the crisis affect the short term accommodation market in Bucharest?

Irina Vrabie: Between January – March 2009, the request decreased abruptly and subsequently maintained the descending trend, but in a more moderate manner, with small fluctuations. As a consequence, we reduced the number of the apartments in our portfolio, we reduced the tariffs and the operational expenses as we could, having always in mind the condition we imposed to ourselves: not to affect the standard of the RomVision services.

A.A.: What are your expectations for the following 6 months (until April 2010)?

Irina Vrabie: To reach an equilibrium. In this market, a great number of players sell only an image. The reality is very different and the differences are huge. They promote one thing and the customers receive a totally different thing.

Distorting images, presenting apartments that do not exist in their portfolio and performing short term accommodation with “sand” services, one cannot resist for long on this market.

As happened until today, the time will exclude the ones who don’t perform this business “in the right way”. From more than 50 players on the market, in April 2010 we will “find” only a few.

A.A.: Do you feel the support of the Ministry of Tourism on this market?

Irina Vrabie: Unfortunately, we don’t. This market has been completely ignored by the Ministry of Tourism. We hope that things will change in this aspect, and the persons having the responsibilities will exert the role of controlling and regulation instrument. This will mean advantages for everybody involved: the state will collect better what it is supposed to, the persons who have a correct business in the field will be able to orient towards quality and not toward a war against non-loyal competition, and, last but not least, our customers will receive what they must receive and the surprises that might appear will be only pleasant ones.

Tags: bucharest, bucharest apartments, Irina Vrabie, Romvision, short term rental