COP15 is Less than One Month Away

The city of Copenhagen is about to go down in history as the place where something big happened. Tens of thousands of delegates and visitors will converge on the city in December for the United National Climate Change Conference, or COP15 for short. We’re excited to be just across the bridge from this big event and we’ll be waiting for the decisive news from the meeting to travel across the Sound and around the world.

Red Apple Apartments feels privileged to offer a great selection of accommodation to COP15 visitors. In addition to our regular collection of hospitable apartment owners, we have helped nearly 100 extra Copenhagen locals offer their high-quality apartments just for this event. It’s certainly not too late to book an apartment for December. We’re open for Climate Conference bookings between 5 – 20 December–a few extra days before and after the conference dates in case you want to enjoy the winter charm of Copenhagen for a few days.

We’re offering apartments in the city center, in all the great local neighborhoods and, of course, right next to the Bella Center where the conference is being held. Visit our Copenhagen City Page and put in your desired dates to see what’s available. Please note that minimum stays vary between 3 and 14 nights during most of December because of the event.

Why not settle in to one of our city apartments while you watch history being made?

We’re Suddenly in Love with Florence

We opened Florence, Italy this week with 10 beautiful apartments and every one in our office has been gawking at the photos and dreaming of a Tuscan vacation. Florence led Europe out of the Dark Ages and we’re thinking we might be led out of the Dark Swedish Winter by catching the next flight to Italy.

These gorgeous apartments start at 125 euros per night. They’re all bookable online with plenty of availability through the dark months of November and December.

Just have a look at photos. You might be seduced too.

www.redappleapartments.com/florence

 

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Where Can You Confuse Copenhagen with Dubai?

In the Sluseholmen harbor development in Copenhagen, a new apartment building is reminding a lot of visitors of something they might see in Dubai–a sleek, tall, mirage hovering over the water. The Metropolis building, designed by the innovative U.K. firm, Future Systems, has the futuristic look of something from the Persian Gulf but is softened by its careful consideration of Scandinavian taste. With its wonderful curves and reflective surfaces, the Metropolis certainly turns heads.

If you’d rather enjoy the architecture and the harbor views from inside the building, Red Apple Apartments is offering the chance to live like a Metropolitan during the COP15 conference in December: we have listed 2 apartments in the Metropolis building for bookings between 5 – 20 December. Stay in either a spacious designer 1 bedroom apartment (CPH 0359) or a luxurious 3 bedroom apartment (CPH 0401). Both apartments are just 5 minutes by car from Bella Center.

Read more about the Metropolis building in Danish or English and Contact Us for more information.

Kulturhavn weekend in Copenhagen

Many of our favorite apartments in Copenhagen are clustered around the harbor neighborhoods Islands Brygge, Havneholmen, Fisketorvet and Sluseholmen. This weekend these communities are getting together and hosting a festival called Kulturhavn. If you are staying in the neighborhood or anywhere in Copenhagen and want to be outside enjoying the nice summer weather (fingers crossed!), stop by the harbor for 3 days of cultural and sporting activities. More details in English and Danish at the Kulturhavn website.

Even though we’re fully booked in these neighborhoods for this weekend, check out these apartments for a stay on the harbor some other weekend:

CPH 0201 – Luxury 2 room apartment on the harbor

CPH 0046 – Luxury apartment in Copenhagen

CPH 0305 – Luxury penthouse with 3 balconies

Red Apple Goes to Seedcamp

The Red Apple Team took a day trip this week to Helsingborg, Sweden, to present our company at an event called Seedcamp–a kind entrepreneurial expo of new companies in the region. We were one of 20 companies at the event, representing some of the most promising web and IT companies from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and the U.K. The event’s purpose was to give new companies the chance to discuss the challenges of starting a business with some successful company founders and some of the people who fund such companies.

Red Apple Apartments is about to celebrate its first year online, so we feel like we are growing out of the “start-up” phase of our development, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a lot to learn. We have the “happy problem” (according to one of the entrepreneur “mentors” at the event, Jussi Laakkonen) of growing too fast. We are now offering apartments in 8 cities to hundreds of clients. We have over 200 apartments in our collection and we are adding new ones every day. We were almost too busy to leave the office to attend the day-long Seedcamp!

But we’re glad we did. Sometimes it’s good to sit back and think about what your goals are and your vision for the future. We usually just take it one step at a time, one booking at time, one apartment at a time, one request at a time. It’s all we can do. But in Helsingborg this week, we were able to talk about how far we’ve come and far we can potentially go.

We were pleased to be selected for Seedcamp this year and we’re happy with all the press and acknowledgment for our year of hard work. We are encouraged to keep up the good work. Keep checking our blog and our website for further developments in the coming months. There was a lot of talk at Seedcamp about growth and “scaling.” We know we have the potential for enormous growth here at Red Apple Apartments, but we will never sacrifice our strong focus on service. We have big plans, but for the time being, we will continue to offer our high standard service to our customers and keep adding quality apartments to our cities as each one gets booked up for the summer.

“Short-term Apartment Rentals Becoming More Popular”

And that’s according to travel expert Rick Steves. His recommendation for travel in Europe this year: Stay in an apartment and feel like a “temporary local.” Of course, we already know that short-term apartments are an economical alternative to hotels and one of the best ways to get to know a city. That’s why we offer apartments in 8 major European cities. Short-term apartment rentals are our specialty, but if you need further proof that apartments are the way of the future for travelers to Europe, here’s Rick’s endorsement in his own words (from CNN.com):

“Because of the high cost of hotels and the sinking economy, short-term apartment rentals are becoming more popular. Budget travelers can stay in spacious accommodations with a kitchen (generally stocked for a self-service breakfast) for the price of a moderate hotel room. I used an apartment as my base several times last year. It gave me a good excuse to shop in the local markets, enjoy the economy of eating in, and bask in the feeling of being a ‘temporary local’.”

Makes sense to us. Take Rick’s advice and opt for a Red Apple Apartment on your next trip to Europe.

So Many Changes!

Just take one quick look at our home page and you’ll see all the changes we’ve been working on for the past several weeks. We are always seeking to improve our service, our business and our website, so we hope you enjoy all the new features. You’ll get used to them soon enough, but let us introduce you to some of the highlights:

THE MAP: The new home page has an interactive map to help you visualize where you want to go. Just click on a city to see our selection of apartments there.

NEW CITIES: We’ve recently opened up for business in Amsterdam, Tallinn, and Barcelona. Check out our high quality apartments in these new cities.

MONTHLY: Click on a city on the map and you’ll be faced with a choice: Nightly or Monthly? You can still choose to stay in one of our apartments for any length of time, but now we offer monthly prices for many of our properties with sometimes significant discounts from the nightly price.

LIST YOUR APARTMENT: If you are an apartment owner and you want to see your apartment featured on our website, you can use our new online form to send us information about your apartment. We’ll respond within a few days and by the end of the week you could have your first Red Apple tenants!

NEW BLOG: Our new blog contains news about our company as well as travel tips and stories from all the cities we service. Think of it as your one-stop destination for all things Red Apple.

Thanks for your interest in Red Apple Apartments. If you have any comments about our site, our company or our apartments, we’d love to hear from you: info@redappleapartments.com.

Hotel Apartment: The Mythical Service-Oriented Beast

Red Apple Apartments lists a number of hotel apartments in each of its cities, but what exactly is a hotel apartment? Is it a hotel or an apartment? A two-headed beast? We prefer to think of it as the best of both worlds.

Many travelers, whether visiting a city on business or pleasure, like the independence of cooking their own meals or at least preparing their own cup of coffee in the morning. If you are traveling with children or with a group of colleagues, it is important to have private bedrooms while still sharing a living space. A hotel apartment offers these freedoms, but has the added benefit of a front desk with concierge services and extra bonuses like restaurants on the premises, a gym or fitness center, covered parking, or even room service.

We recently talked with Øyvind Øvsthus, the manager of a major hotel apartment in Oslo, about the advantages this two-headed accommodation option can offer the discerning traveler. Øyvind has worked his way up the chain of command over the past five years from working behind the front desk to managing an entire complex. He knows all about what makes apartment hotels special and the secret is service. He oversees an experienced team of hospitality managers, head housekeepers, and chefs, who work every day to make guests feel like just that…guests. So, while our slogan is “Feels just like home,” Øyvind Øvsthus’s hotel apartment goes the extra step to make sure that you are treated like a guest in your own home. You can do your own laundry or send it out for dry cleaning. You can cook your own meals or visit the lunch buffet. You can work on your laptop in bed or give a presentation in the conference room. You can stay for one night or move in for a year. How’s that for service options?

Øyvind Øvsthus was educated in Australia and holds a business degree in hotel and event management. He manages 244 apartments in Oslo, and he and his experienced hospitality team are waiting to treat you like a guest in your own home.

Book one of Øyvind Øvsthus’s expertly serviced hotel apartments in Oslo for any length of time at www.redappleapartments.com.

How to Photograph Your Apartment

Great photographs of your apartment will often lead a potential tenant to choose your apartment over another rental. Especially when you are trying to rent out property over the internet, photographs prove that the space is a real apartment and not an internet scam. But more than that, good photographs will prove that the apartment is also a livable home and serve as a warm invitation.

But interior spaces are some of the most difficult subjects to photograph and when you are photographing your apartment you will be facing a subject that can feel “empty” or “lifeless.” Here are a few tips to combat a lifeless photo and help you welcome tenants over the internet into your home.

Setting the Scene:
The first step is to clean the apartment. Clean everything. Make your bed, straighten the rugs and curtains, put away the magazines, hide the garbage can, and put the toilet seat down. You might even have to put away things that aren’t usually put away. Less is more when it comes to décor to help a room not appear “cluttered” in a photo. On the other hand, the apartment should seem like someone lives there, not totally empty, so set the kitchen table or put a vase of flowers on the nightstand.

Lighting the Scene:
Most cameras are designed to take photos outdoors and indoor spaces are just too dark to look good. Natural light from outside is best, but cameras are attracted to bright windows like moths to flames and everything else in the room will be darkened. Try to let the light in through the window without actually having the window in the shot. Don’t use the flash, unless you have a good flash that you can bounce off a wall or ceiling (if you don’t know what this means, don’t use your flash). Turn on every lamp in the room for a nice warm glow, but by all means, avoid fluorescent lighting, which can cast an alien green light in photos or make your apartment look like a hospital.

What to Shoot:
Everything. The more the merrier. You can always delete the ones that don’t look good or you can send them all to us and we will pick out the best photos of your apartment for the website. Shoot every room in your house. Take close ups of your best pieces of furniture and decorative art. Small architectural details or decorations may seem insignificant but can help represent the design style of the apartment. If you have a great view, photograph it. Great sunsets? Photograph one. If your apartment is in a historic building, photograph the exterior as well.

How to Shoot:
Steadying your camera is crucial. Even if you set the perfect scene and light it well, a blurry photo is useless. If you have a tripod, use it. If you don’t, try to rest the camera on a table or flat surface or steady your hand against the wall. Most basic cameras don’t have a wide enough lens to capture an entire room, so you’ll have to back into a corner or shoot a room through a doorway. Try the room from many different angles and all corners and doorways. Don’t always take the photos from eye level. Crouch down or stand on a stool for different perspectives, but try to have as little of the ceiling in the shot as possible.

Let the Room Be the Star:
People like to rent an apartment that is empty—that is, without other people living there, so photograph your apartment without yourself or your family members in the shot. Watch out for mirrors! A self-portrait of you with a camera in the bathroom mirror won’t help sell your apartment.

To Summarize:
• Clean the apartment
• Add a few small decorative touches
• Shoot during the day when it’s bright, but not too sunny
• Photograph every room
• Take lots of photos and choose the best

If you want to list your apartment with Red Apple Apartments, follow the above advice and send your beautiful apartment photographs to info@redappleapartments.com. We’ll get back to you right away and hopefully you’ll have tenants in no time at all.