A situation may arise in everyone's life when they need to decide how to rent an apartment for a day or several days. Most often, this happens during trips or business trips to other cities, less often - if you need privacy in your own city. In the first case, a rented apartment is an alternative to a hotel room, outperforming it in many respects:
- Renting an apartment is cheaper than a decent hotel room. Of course, we are not talking about economy class rooms. But most people would still prefer to overpay a little, but get a whole comfortable apartment at their disposal instead of a cramped room with a bed and a bedside table.
- If you are traveling in a group, there is nothing to think about here. In the hotel, the cost of the room is taken from each person. True, companies with more than 5 people are extremely reluctant to rent out apartments.
- Apartments intended for rent are equipped with everything you need, including small things that you are unlikely to find in a hotel - detergents, dishes, various appliances. Not to mention the fact that the apartment has free access to a kitchen.
- When renting an apartment, you have complete control over your time and are not constrained by any rules. You can come back at any time, even at the latest, and bring guests whenever you want. Until the moment of eviction, no one will control you.
- And in general, being in an apartment is much more pleasant and cozy. The hotel’s name alone emphasizes your official status as a “guest,” but the apartment will make you feel at home.
Fraud schemes
If you are interested in how to rent a home correctly, then you need to pay attention to who is renting it out. Private owners most often deceive citizens in the area of rental housing. But when concluding an agreement with a legal entity, you can also get into trouble.
Important! If you need to rent an apartment daily, you should pay attention to the terms of the contract. Fraudsters can take money from clients and include a condition for the provision of information services in the contract. This means that a citizen will receive nothing but information for his money.
The company can simply advise who wants to rent out housing, but does not guarantee the conclusion of an agreement.
There is another scheme for deceiving citizens in St. Petersburg and other cities. The terms of the lease change after signing the contract. Other tenants move in with the tenant or there are no basic amenities: no hot water, broken elevator, etc.
Read also: Blacklist of landlords and tenants of apartments in Moscow.
It happens that in St. Petersburg or in Moscow someone else’s apartment is rented out, but the owner does not know about it. When the owner discovers the sharing, a scandal will be inevitable.
Inventory of property
An inventory of property allows you to avoid conflict situations between the tenant and the landlord. The inventory is attached to the contract and must be signed by both parties. This document may also include an apartment acceptance certificate. As a rule, the act is drawn up in two copies: one is signed upon check-in, the second upon check-out.
How to correctly draw up an inventory of property:
- An inventory of the property is drawn up by the apartment owner, but details can be entered in the presence of the tenant.
- It is not recommended to indicate the cost of furniture and equipment; it is enough to indicate the general condition and distinctive features. For example, there is a small dent on the refrigerator, and there is a scratch on the side wall of the hallway cabinet. In this case, it will be incorrect to indicate the price. To do this, you can stipulate penalties in the contract if property damage has been recorded (broken dishes - 200 rubles, chips and cracks on furniture - 1000 rubles).
- You must indicate everything: from carpets to the number of cutlery. To avoid deception on the part of tenants, the owner needs to indicate the details of household appliances (model, company name, serial number).
How to rent an apartment daily without being scammed
You need to pay attention to who rents out the property. The company that provides services must be registered in the form of an LLC or individual entrepreneur. It can also work on the basis of a patent. If the question of how to rent an apartment for a day is decided by a private owner working without documents, then most likely they will be scammers.
It is better to avoid those sites that charge an additional commission for their work. Some home rental sites give their visitors additional bonuses.
Read also: Commission for renting an apartment - what is it?
You need to read the reviews of other citizens in order to solve the question: how to rent an apartment on a daily basis so that scammers do not deceive you. Some companies and individuals have already become famous on the Internet for their fraud.
If very beautiful photos of housing are posted at an inexpensive price, it is also better to ignore the ad. You can get information from the photo. To do this, the image is copied and pasted into Google Images. There you will immediately see where the photo has already been lit.
When a person rents a home, they cannot charge him for viewing. The fact of check-in and the cost of daily accommodation are paid. Some companies specialize in charging money for showing homes. So a decent amount is slowly accumulating.
What schemes do scammers use?
Every year new ways to deceive honest tenants appear. The most common situations include:
- Forgery of documents. Thanks to high technology, third parties rent out the owner's apartment. After a certain time, he goes to court and challenges the legality of such a transaction. As a result, the tenant is left without money and a temporary apartment. Also, using this method, an apartment can be rented out to several tenants at the same time.
- The landlord asks for immediate payment in advance and does not record the transfer of funds in any way, and then asks to leave the premises or make payment according to the agreement.
- Among the scammers there may be companies that, for a fee, provide a list of owners who rent out housing at a big discount.
Moreover, such companies can be located in a reputable office in the city center.As a result, the received contacts are invalid. Naturally, the citizen is not given any checks or other documents confirming payment. Therefore, the fact of transfer of funds cannot be proven in court.
- For citizens who want to rent an apartment, scammers offer a list of lucrative offers. To receive them, the tenant must send an SMS message to the specified number. Of course, after sending no contacts in response. And the cost of such an SMS response can cost a citizen a tidy sum.
Every tenant must be careful and pragmatic. There is no need to neglect drawing up the contract and the acceptance certificate. You should give money only after it has been drawn up.
By following all the above tips, you will almost completely protect yourself from loss of strength and resources. The main thing is not to believe words, since they are not evidence in court.
How to rent an apartment in Moscow without cheating
You can successfully rent housing in the capital if you follow the instructions:
- Don’t believe the first advertisement you come across, posted at train stations or written on the asphalt.
- Start looking for housing a few days before arriving in the capital.
- Collect as much information as possible about the accommodation you plan to book.
- Make a reservation in advance through a trusted agency.
- You need to call the owners and collect information if you plan to rent a living space for a day without intermediaries.
- Choose housing that is within walking distance from the metro. Distances in Moscow are quite long; if you rent a room far from the metro, you will also have to take a minibus to get there. Considering the traffic congestion, the distance to the apartment will increase significantly.
- Read the lease agreement carefully. It indicates the rights and obligations of both parties, as well as responsibility for their failure to fulfill them. When renting daily housing, a person does not expect to take a kettle or microwave with him. Therefore, such things should already be in the apartment.
- Check whether the landlord provides the necessary amenities: availability of hot and cold water, other minimal amenities.
Read also: How to find out why there is no cold water in the house.
Now there are many options for renting housing. St. Petersburg and Moscow are especially different. Where there are many visitors, there will be more accommodation options. In addition to renting an apartment, you can consider alternative options for temporary accommodation.
Lease contract
A lease agreement is drawn up in a situation in which the owner transfers an apartment to the other party for use. It must clearly state the amount for the services provided and the period of use of the apartment.
Also, when drawing up a contract, you need to take into account other conditions in order to avoid difficult situations. When signing, be sure to consider the following:
- the apartment cannot be rented out for a period of more than 5 years;
- if the rental period of the property exceeds one year, then state registration is required;
- when concluding a contract, the lessor must provide documents confirming the right to property;
- An acceptance certificate must be drawn up along with the contract.
Sample
Below is the apartment rental agreement. If necessary, you can also download it from the link.
Where else to find daily housing
Hostels and hotels are an alternative to daily apartments. You can book a room directly through the website or by phone. There are many websites that act as intermediaries. It provides detailed information about accommodation, prices, photographs of rooms. It’s convenient that you can read reviews from real visitors directly on the website. After this, you can decide whether to move in or not.
Some hotels and hostels only operate on prepayment basis. For others, it’s enough to simply call in advance and pay for your stay upon check-in. The funds are transferred directly to the hotel owner, then the guest receives the keys to his room.
There are apartment-type hostels. Ordinary housing is being converted into a mini-hotel. They do everything necessary to temporarily accommodate guests. In such a hostel you can feel no less comfortable than at home.
You can choose a room to suit every taste and budget. It all depends on financial capabilities. You can choose a room that will cost the same as renting an apartment. In addition, various promotions are often held, which are announced by the intermediary website, and renting a home is beneficial for your wallet.
Don't want to make an advance payment? Call the phone number listed on the website and arrange check-in with the hotel owner. After inspecting the room, you can already make an informed decision whether it is worth paying for it or not.
If you need accommodation for a day, then renting a room in a hostel is a reliable and affordable option.
Choose a service that controls your reservation
Accommodation booking services are different.
There are the usual bulletin boards: a brief description of the property + the owner’s phone number. No one gives any guarantees there; this is a trip at your own peril and risk. You can call the numbers provided, but it is not a fact that they will answer, and it is not a fact that they will check in. And there are services that control your reservation, right up until the moment the owner meets you on the threshold of his apartment. Sutochno.ru is exactly like that. Let's see how it works:
1. You choose housing.
2. Send a reservation request to the owner.
3. Wait for the landlord to confirm the reservation and make an advance payment through the website.
If you make an advance payment through Sutochno.ru, you can relax - your trip is under control. Even if force majeure happens and the owner does not meet you, we will quickly find you another accommodation and transfer the advance payment to the new owner. But in practice such cases are very rare.
How can I not worry if I made an advance payment? After all, I don’t even know who I transferred it to.
The landlord does not receive an advance payment immediately, but only after you move in without making any complaints about the property. Therefore, the situation “they took an advance payment from me and threw me away” is excluded. If the landlord does not move you in, he will not receive any advance payment (it will return to you or to the new owner whose housing we offer you). Moreover, we will fine the landlord for non-occupancy.
Which owner would like such losses? That's right, no one. It turns out that the landlord is interested in your occupancy in the same way as you are.
Avoid commissions and other fees
If you book your accommodation online, you may encounter fees, “additional fees” and “service fees”. They can have many names, but the essence is the same - they want to take more money from you, and most likely it will go not to the owner of the property, but to the service as an intermediary. All this is covered up with beautiful words that “with this money we develop and improve.” Where they actually spend it is the question. Maybe they are developing, or maybe they are just ordering more expensive cocktails at their Friday parties.
There is no commission on Sutochno.ru. You pay only for accommodation, and only the price that the landlord himself sets.
Distinguish verified reviews from fake ones
The reliability of reviews on the Internet is a sore point. Often reviews are written by home owners themselves or website owners who live by the principle “if you don’t praise yourself, no one will.”
On Sutochno.ru everything is different. Our moderators check all reviews, so they are 100% reliable.
How can you prove that reviews can be trusted?
We have a whole system:
1. To write a review on Sutochno.ru, you need to make an advance payment for your stay through the site. We track payments and know for sure that the guest who writes the review paid for their stay through our service and actually lived in this apartment.
2. The landlord will never be able to leave a review of his property. If someone tries to create a new account and carry out similar fraud, we block him. It's tough but fair.
Tip #5 - Broke? Compensate!
After moving into the apartment, you discover faulty household appliances. The owner or his representative claims that you damaged the item and now must pay for its repair. This situation is easily prevented: just make sure that all equipment is in working order before moving in and write it down in the rental agreement.
Also read the contract carefully and look for a clause on compensation for damage in case of breakdowns.
Be careful and prudent and you are guaranteed a pleasant stay in cozy apartments!
Book during off-season and weekdays
The cost of the same apartment in season and off-season may differ by 2 times: where in winter you can live for 2,000 per day, in summer you will have to pay 4,000. Also, the price may increase on weekends and holidays.
If you plan your trip so that it does not happen during the season or on a weekend, you will almost certainly save a lot. On such dates, hosts offer lower prices, because there is no influx of guests, and between the options of “renting out cheaply” and “not renting out at all,” they, of course, prefer the first. So take advantage of the situation.
Rent housing at a good price
Tip #3 - The owner is not really the owner.
Some “enterprising” gentlemen rent housing for a long period of time, after which they begin to rent it out on a daily basis. Moreover, often without even informing the true owner of the apartment. What does this mean for you? The answer is simple - its appearance.
The contract with the false owner will be immediately terminated, and you will simply be evicted. To avoid such a situation, always check the documents for the apartment with the person to whom you pay money, even if only for a couple of days of stay.
All apartments for daily rent in our company are under exclusive management, and you do not have to worry about being evicted.
Use a service that awards bonuses
Most sites don't bother with this. You rent an apartment, and the site is limited to the word “thank you,” which, as you know, you can’t put in your pocket.
Not so at Sutochno.ru. If you book accommodation with prepayment through the site (as described above), you will receive a bonus for your next booking. All you need to do is write a review about your stay. Possibly bad. Possibly from one sentence. It doesn’t matter what it will be - just write it, and the bonus is yours.
Moreover, you don’t have to write it yourself. If you have made a reservation with prepayment, we will call you, ask your opinion about your stay, take notes on it, post your review ourselves and add bonuses to your balance. You don’t even have to go to Sutochno.ru.
Now you can imagine how Sutochno.ru works. Book your accommodation and we will help you with everything.
Travel with friends
This is not only more fun, but also more economical. Let's say you rent a good apartment for 4,000 per day. Typically this price includes accommodation for 3-4 people. If you move in with four people, each person will pay only 1 thousand rubles per day.
If the group of vacationers is really large (from 5 people), the owner of the apartment may charge an additional payment for each guest. But its size is usually small: from 200 to 500 rubles per day for an “additional” person. This will have an insignificant effect on the overall cost of living, so renting housing with a large group is still profitable.
