What are the essential pieces of information you'd want a serviced apartment website to have?
1) # of bedrooms / bathrooms
2) kitchen facilities
3) TV / DVD etc
4) facilities like Gym / Fitness club membership
5) Cleaning services
What else?
What are the essential pieces of information you'd want a serviced apartment website to have?
1) # of bedrooms / bathrooms
2) kitchen facilities
3) TV / DVD etc
4) facilities like Gym / Fitness club membership
5) Cleaning services
What else?
Location, distance to nearest MTR etc?
1. actual size of the apt...not counting elevators, stairways, entrance, etc.
2. price
3. lease period
4. number of units in building
5. internet, cable...
KIA, do you mean a website for a particular serviced apartment, or a website that covers many serviced apartments?
For both:
- Prices for different stay durations
- Size and floorplan of rooms
- Location
- Distance to MTR or other forms of transport
- Wide angle photos of ALL classes of room
- In-room facilities (especially details on internet access- wired/wifi + charges)
- Other facilities
- Online booking would be nice, but not essential
If this is for a site that aggregates serviced apartments:
- Credible review section including ratings for different factors (attitude of staff, cleanliness, noise, quality of beds)
- User-loaded photos (a la the Tripadvisor hotel reviews).
Aggregator / Reviews website. the user uploads is a brilliant idea. However, it needs a certain amount of critical mass to get going.
I find the user-loaded photos really useful- it's too predictably obvious that photos from the hotel/apartment will be of the best angle of the best room under the best lighting conditions and so I tend to discount them.
User photos will sample a wider range of rooms, but also point out particular features that the review was interested in- the view out the window, the quality of the bathroom, etc.
Swimming pool
Lessee Parking provided/included?
Any visitor parking, or nearest parking
How many beds, and how many sofabeds
Laundry facilities - in room, separate laundry room (or both), nearby
Minimum stay options (daily, weekly, monthly)
Prices for different stay durations as mentioned (v. imp.), maybe it can present a quote for longer term quote once the dates have been selected.
On-premises shops (if any).
On internet, also whether it's wired broadband or wireless and whether adapters, patch cords, etc are available.
Many if not all of us here have likely taken shots of places they've stayed (i have). When I booked my place on Wotif.com, i relied on cheap daily rates. When I stayed about a week and felt the need to go, I casually asked about a monthly rate - and realized I should have inquired early on.
I think it's especially important to post prices because that gives the big community a benchmark of how quickly prices are rising. It benefits us all in the long run.
I was wondering if I was going to post all the prices of placed I'd checked as of early April...
Pricing will be a tough one to maintain, as the apartments essentially change their pricing on a regular basis.
Will probably have apartments that co-operate with us, update their rates on a regular basis.
Thanks for the input folks .. hopefully we can get this new venture launched by the end of the month.