Time and again over the past 10 years, the Moscow city government has made bold promises about hotel expansion plans for the capital. Yet actions speak louder than
words, indicating where priorities are focused. Mid-class, centrally-located, Soviet-era hotels (Minsk, Intourist, Moskva, Rossiya) have fallen one by one, while new hotels opened in the downtown have been almost exclusively four- and five-star offerings, with nightly rates hovering around $300.
Certainly, there are exceptions. Small business class hotels like Katerina, East-West, Sretenskaya and Tatyana offer somewhat more reasonable rates ($200 a night and under). And there are still a few inexpensive (approximately $100 a night), Soviet-era hotels (Sovietskaya, Cosmos, Izmailovo, Ukraine, Belgrade) that offer that indescribable flavor of days done by.
The upshot: if you want to stay in the city center (St. Petersburg has been seeing much the same trend as the capital, albeit on a smaller scale) and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg, your options are limited and shrinking.
Into this breach a new alternative has appeared: short-term apartment rental. Driven by demand from fiancées, business people and adoptive parents for lower-cost accommodations on mid-length (1-2 week) stays, the short-term apartment rental market offers many advantages over a hotel stay, not the least of which is a much lower cost.
“Not only is it less expensive,” explained Vitaly Mazen of Like Home, “but at the same time you have more rooms. It is 50-70% of the price of a hotel room, but in an apartment you get a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a washing machine. You can wash and iron your clothes. This is much more convenient if you are staying a long time. You can cook a simple breakfast and don’t have to pay for laundry services.”
Sergei Kormushkin, general director of FlatLink, concurred. “The traveler can, most of the time, choose a better location, number of rooms, and have a certain flexibility at check out.” There is, Kormushkin said, “a feeling of home.”
Comparing hotels and apartments is a bit like comparing kolbasa and sausage. It is not simply that apartments can cost half or less than half of a similarly-situated hotel – e.g. an apartment just off the Arbat or Tverskaya for $140 a night, or a spacious flat just off the Garden Ring for $100 or less. It is also that the independent-minded traveler gets much more for that lower price: amenities like laundry, a place to have friends over for dinner... privacy.
“It’s like home,” said Alexander Lebedev, manager at Aventec. “The biggest point is privacy. If you want to invite guests, please do so! If you want to have people stay over, that’s fine – no one is counting bodies.”
The short-term apartment rental business has been around unofficially since the early 1990s. But it started to take off and be run by above-board firms only toward the end of the 1990s. Californian Rick Moncher (a.k.a. “Moscow Rick”) got his start in the business in 1998. After he discovered the opportunity during a trip to the capital, he said, “I started with one flat, then two, and then continued to add them one at a time as soon as demand exceeded supply. At the beginning, I did absolutely everything – from cleaning the toilets to meeting the guests at the airport. I knew if I did everything myself, it would get done right and guests would be pleased and come back to me and spread my name around.” He said he now has the largest short-term apartment business of its kind in Moscow and never has to advertise.
Moscow Apartments4U has been in the market for five years and was also started by an American businessman. Tina Rodriguez said the firm works predominantly with business people, but that about 20% of its client base is tourists, many of whom are attracted by the location of the firm’s apartments – near the old Arbat. Aventec has been in the business for five years; Like Home and Flatlink have each been in for three. Kalitagrad has been renting apartments long term for a decade, and in the last year made the move to start providing short term rentals.
Most all of the rental agencies contacted indicated that the overwhelming percentage of their clientele is foreigners. Moncher said that about 30% of his business “somehow involves foreign men and FSI women in some stage of a potential or active relationship. That could mean anywhere from a guy’s first visit to Russia to meet his Internet connection... repeat visitors meeting a lady again or meeting multiple ladies... someone going through the fiancé visa interview process... or a now-married couple returning to Russia to visit... In my early years, about 60% of my business came from this area because I actively followed the many Internet groups catering to such men. Adoption families is another area that has shown tremendous growth for us. We now help three to four Western families each month that come to Moscow to complete the adoption of Russian children.”
These percentages hold for most other agencies as well, yet most classified a predominant portion of their clients as “businessmen.” Indeed, Moncher said that the fastest growing part of his business is corporate clients. “ My main corporate client is the biggest firm in the world in their industry,” he said. “They currently occupy five of my flats for periods of three months to three years. All of these guests demand high-end flats in the heart of the city on or near the main street of Tverskaya. This firm was paying an average of $550/day at the Marriott Grand on Tverskaya for their management team in Moscow. They are now renting one of my two-bedroom flats directly across the street (and overlooking) that hotel for $150/night on a six-month lease. It is a win-win situation for the employee (much larger living space, full kitchen, washer/dryer, computer system, high-speed internet), for the company (huge cost savings and happier employee), and for me (less time and energy spent on keeping the flat full every night).”
Without question, the short-term rental business in Russia is an Internet business. Most agencies get most of their clients through the web and through word of mouth. The best ones have easy to navigate websites, complete with pictures of apartments, maps, tables listing relevant amenities, and a real-time calendar for showing availability. [See box at left: Surfing for Apartments]
“We always have up-to-date calendars on our website and there is no hanky-panky,” said Flatlink’s Kormushkin. “If you see that the flat is free for a certain period of time, then in 99% of the cases – it is free... We never change the apartment one or two days before someone’s arrival in Moscow, unless there is a technical necessity (which has luckily happened only two or three times in the last couple of years).”
True to their Internet focus, most all agencies also offer very reasonable rates for high-speed Internet in their apartments (with or without computer), in addition to a range of other related services, including visa support and registration, airport transfer, cars with or without driver and tourist excursions.
Indeed, the discerning independent traveler may be hard-pressed to see any way that short-term apartment rentals lose out in comparison to hotels, be it on price or services. Yet there is the intangible matter of security. Some travelers will obviously feel much less secure staying alone in a private apartment building, versus in a hotel.
“It is an open question,” Like Home’s Mazen said, “whether security is better or worse in apartments. All our apartments have steel doors at their entrances and some have a concierge downstairs. I would not say it is any less secure than a hotel.”
“To tell you the truth,” said Aventec’s Lebedev, “about 50% of our clients prefer being secured, 50% prefer not. For some people, more privacy is more security. Maybe some people don’t like to be noticed or disturbed.”
Visa registration upon arrival also need not be a matter of concern: agencies typically outsource visa invitation and registration services to a third party, often a hotel. “The fact is,” Moscow Rick’s Moncher said, “all large, professional apartment firms here have agreements for secondary firms to handle visa registration for their guests. The normal – or proper – procedure for ‘official’ registration is to have a working agreement with a large hotel to officially register the guest into their hotel by entering them into the hotel computer database, in case the police would actually call the hotel to check.”
Barring sudden regulatory or legal changes, short-term apartment rentals are set to be an increasingly important accommodation option for Western travelers to the two capitals and beyond. The main challenge will be discerning between experienced, reputable players and fly-by-night scam artists [See Picking an Agency]. Admittedly, not having to do this sort of research, and knowing you can rely on the Marriott or Radisson name to insure a certain type of visit, is very important to many travelers. But for the independent traveler, looking to cut costs and gain amenities, short-term rentals are a good way to go. And it sure beats waiting for city governments to build affordable hotels. RL
Surfing for Apartments
Russian Life’s research on short-term apartment rentals turned up several firms that have been in the market for several years, have an established apartment stock, speak English and cater to a foreign clientele. Russian Life cannot, however, endorse any one firm, advising cautious, informed purchasing (see box, page 40).
Aventec
In business five years. “When we started, there were just three companies doing this,” said Manager Alexander Lebedev. “Now this market is much bigger, with something like 16 companies offering apartments short term in Moscow.” The company offers 20 apartments, 10 of which they own, 10 of which they broker. many in the desirable Patriarshy Prudy and Novy Arbat regions, with rates as low as 50 Euros per night. Aventec offers visa support and registration services and airport transfers.
aventec.ru
FlatLink
In business three years. “Not many companies out there in Moscow can offer a short term apartment in the center for less than $100 per night,” said General Director Sergei Kormushkin. Offers visa registration, invitations and airport transfers. Notably, the firm has apartments in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod as well.
flatlink.ru
Kalitagrad
In the long-term apartment search and rental business for 10 years. Only just entered the short-term market. Has about 20 apartments on offer in the center, near the Arbat and Mayakovskaya, ranging from $60-200 per night. Also can offer dachas in the country for a month or more.
kalitagrad.ru
Like Home
In business three years. Offers over 100 apartments in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, some 25 of which they own and the rest “shared with partners.” Most all are in the center. Offer visa support and registration, as well as airport transfers.
likehome.ru
Moscow Rick
Reports hosting over 10,000 guests since 1998. American-owned. Has two classes of apartments: budget (Enjoy Moscow) and upscale (Moscow Star). Offers visa support and registration, airport transfer and a great pantry-stocking service. Most of the budget apartments are within 150 yards of one another, near Sukharevskaya and Svetnoy Bulvar metro stations, making this a good option for groups (weddings, business trips) traveling together. Most of his high-end places are located on or near Tverskaya.
enjoymoscow.com / moscow-star.com
Moscow Apartments4U
Western owned. In the market for five years. All Eurostyle apartments, from one to five bedrooms, priced from $100-400 a night. “We usually work with people to provide cars, tourist travel programs and lots of things like tickets, or visa registration,” said Tina Rodriguez. Most of the firm’s apartments are in the old Arbat region.
moscowapartments4u.com
Picking an Agency
Here are some important questions to ask and research to do when picking a rental agency.
Π Web-triangulate. Do searches on the web for the company name and see what comes up not related to the company’s website. Look for past clients who may have had good or bad experiences with the firm and decided to post this on forums or websites.
Π Carefully examine the list of included and non-included amenities and look at all the pictures online of the apartment you have been assigned (be sure to have a specific apartment for specific dates, confirmed in writing; don’t wait for that to be assigned at a later date).
Π Ask if the apartment is directly controlled by the agency or if they are just a broker. In the latter case, there is a chance that an apartment could be double-sold.
Π How does the firm handle security and repairs? Do they have a number you can call 24-hours a day to report a problem (burst pipe, washing machine does not work, fuse out and no replacement)?
Π Is high-speed internet available in the apartment, and at what additional cost?
Π Where will your visa be registered?
Π Is there a minimum length of stay?
Π Is there a special checkout time?
Π Are all local phone calls from the apartment free?
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