Press article on the aparthotel

While I was snoozing under a palm tree in Puerto Rico, Alex was doing all the hard work and talked to the French/ Brussels press. We celebrated the official opening of Housestories with the attendance of the ‘Minister of Environment and Energie’ Evelyne Huytebroeck. The main French-speaking newspapers, TV stations and radio channels reported on our opening. Here is a first article, we are trying to gather the other ones…

Internet gains

We are currently in Puerto Rico and what strikes me here are the prices of internet connections both in hotels as in cybercafés. Where you can eat on every corner of the street some junk food burger or taco for $ 99 cents connecting to the internet costs you quickly between $4 till $20 for 20 minutes. I find it a scandal how hotels still make big bugs on something that we at Housestories only consider as a normal free service for our guests…

More ‘proofsleeping’

It started with a bit of a bummer as there was an electricity breakdown in the whole neighbourhood when we just got there. Thank god we were not stuck in the elevator! Thank god again that 1 of our clients ,who walked in right behind us, didn’t get stuck into the elevator neither! The whole neighbourhood was pitch dark: no lights in the streets/bars/restaurants and  the traffic lights were also not working. Suddenly Brussels resembled some African village where power cuts happen regularly.

Even if we couldn’t help it I felt annoyed so I quickly ran over to the candle lit night store, bought some candles and a lighter and promised our tenant it would soon be over. I failed to explain why this happened but she was happy with my romantic solution.

Half an hour later the electricity went back on and we could continue our journey in Brussels. Must say: we slept very well: Anker Bedding have great beds!  Rob happily tried the free wifi and digital TV while I went for a run and afterwards I enjoyed a  nice hot shower. A truly nice experience!

Running in the Parc Duden

Finally I tried out the running path in the Park Duden on a beautiful Sunday morning. It was great! Unfortunately I am not a very good and trained runner and the up&down small hills of the park  got me on my knees very quickly. But for trained runners or just peace seekers this park is an absolute must and right in front of our aparthotel!

More pics of latest shooting

Some more snapshots taken during the shooting last week…

Penthouse shooting

Yes! It finally happened, the penthouse was ready to be photographed! Have a look at the first results, I am proud of them! By the way: the guy in the background cleaning the windows is my business partner Alex…For those who wonder what I did: I was stylist, decorator, cleaner and photography assistent…In a small company you’d better be an all-rounder!

Penthouse pleasures

Have a good look at these taps. They look pretty normal to me. Wrong: they are custom made in Paris for our art deco bathroom in the penthouse…Don’t ask me why because they look like any other old fashion looking English tap…Not of any importance now. Thing is, there are installed and thus the shooting of this apartment can take place. Date: Friday October 9th. Photographer: Herman of Verne, who else! Venue: Avenue Besmelaan 107, Brussels. All stylists welcome!

Learning…

Alex and me are almost having a fulltime job at running our aparthotel. That was not the idea as we both work as freelancers elsewhere as well. But in a start up of a company I guess there is no other way. Concretely we have 3 of our 4 apartments booked and thus we needed to prepare those apartments. Installing all last items that were missing such as obscuring curtains, wardrobes, towel hangers and a million other small items we haven’t thought of buying before. Obviously the apartments needed to be cleaned. Yes yes, we do that ourselves! Why? Well first of all because we want to experience everything in our business, so also the cleaning of the toilets! Secondly we were caught by surprise by the reservations and thus our cleaning team was not booked yet! Meanwhile all of that has been arranged. There is a limit to every kind of experience! So now that the apartments are settled it is more than time to start the serious business: getting us known and attracting new clients. We are learning every day and I have to be honest that we are not always laughing. We are making many beginners mistakes and are confronted with a lot of problems we couldn’t have imagined we would encounter them. But those who know us know that we won’t give up…at least not yet

Neighbourhood restaurant

Now that we are open and that we have guests staying over they regularly ask me about the nice places to eat or to enjoy a good beer. I posted an article before on the nice café ‘bar du matin’. Today I would like to share my thoughts on a great&original restaurant right behind the corner called ‘Café des Spores’. It is a restaurant specialised in mushrooms. I must admit the 1st time I heard that I thought it was kind of weird as I am not a particular fan of mushrooms. But having tasted several of their dishes I must say I became a true fan! A tip for those who would like to go and give it a try: the dishes are quite strong in taste, so better take several smaller dishes and share them with just like tapas! Bon appétit!

Proof sleeping

I feel stupid to tell you that the shooting of the penthouse didn’t happen last Saturday. Why? The taps that need to fit the art deco

bath and sinks are ordered in Paris and nobody knows for sure when they will be delivered. Would have been a shame to have no pics again of the bathrooms. With pain in my heart I postponed the shooting again

But as my day in Brussels was planned anyhow I decided to try out the apartments myself and do some proof sleeping (is this English????).  Again I should be honest: thank god I took this initiative because some minor issues were still not optimal: no hot water in the shower, dishwasher not connected yet and no cable tv arranged yet. But let’s be positive also: the beds are heavenly! The apartment we slept in (75 m2 1 bedroom apartment) feels big and has loads of light. It is peaceful and quiet, the double glass windows isolate all street noise. The towels and bathrobe are fluffy. The SMEG oven baked our croissants perfectly in no time and we enjoyed our breakfast in the sun (south side). Definitely worth having done that and I will proof sleep all of our apartments because believe me, I am a pretty demanding customer and I want to get it all right for you. So anyone wants to have a go too? Please go to our site and book it, available also temporarily for 1 night: http://www.housestories.be