Our family has been traveling around Russia for a long time. We used to always stay in hotels. But we gradually came to the conclusion that renting an apartment by the day is cheaper and more comfortable than a hotel room. Why? I’ll tell you using the example of Samara, where we went for a week this summer.
When traveling as a couple, any standard room is fine. While the child was small, the extra bed in the room – first a child’s bed, then a folding bed – did not bother anyone, although it took up space in the modest “standard” room.
We want it to feel like home
But when my son turned into a teenager, I wanted to live comfortably while traveling, as we were used to at home: a room with the parents, a room with the child, and no one bothers anyone. Two-room hotel rooms are the most expensive accommodation option: suite, junior suite or suite.
Therefore, we began to look towards apartments for daily rent. The cost of renting two-room apartments with a kitchen, washing machine, iron and other household items is usually less than a standard hotel room, not to mention a suite or suite. In addition, ironing and laundry at a hotel is a separate, expensive service for which you need to contact the staff. Therefore, for parents traveling with children, a daily apartment while traveling is a salvation for the family budget.
We have noticed that daily renters are quicker to adapt to customer demand and preferences. New renovations and modern design are more common in apartments and apartments. After all, it is easier to renovate one apartment than the entire hotel. Therefore, an apartment, which is often cheaper than a hotel room, looks much more modern and is better equipped.
In addition, having a stove and refrigerator at your disposal, you can save on breakfast in a cafe. For example, it’s more convenient for me to drink coffee in my dressing gown in the morning, and only then get out into the city. In hotels, you have to get dressed without drinking coffee, and then go down to breakfast in the lobby bar or look for a cafe in the city.
Changing the linen provided by the hotel every day is an absolutely unnecessary option for me – I even hate that a stranger is doing this. Washing the dishes or taking out the trash is not difficult for my husband and I: we can handle it at home. And in apartments, sound insulation is many times better than in hotels.
So, when we went on vacation to Samara, we looked at rented apartments for an overnight stay, but just in case, we decided to check the prices in hotels.
How much does daily rent cost in Samara and what apartments are offered?
Following the tourist flow, the cost of daily rental housing is also increasing. According to Qian analysts, it increased in Samara by 21% compared to last year. Prices are approaching those in Moscow. If in the capital, within the Third Transport Ring, the daily price for a “kopeck piece” for a family of three starts from 4.5–5 thousand rubles, then in Samara in the summer and in the first half of autumn you can rarely find lots cheaper than 4–5 thousand rubles.
Are you going to Samara? Choose an apartment for daily rent in Qian from more than 1.5 thousand offers
But it’s still cheaper than renting a hotel room. For our “two-room” requests, the hotels offered us to pay for either two standard rooms or a suite/junior suite. We would not leave our son alone in the room, although he is 14 years old, and minors are not supposed to be accommodated this way.
Hotel booking forms split our family so that one adult lives in the room with the child, and the other lives separately. We crossed off the list of very tired hotels, very expensive and located on the outskirts.
As for apartments for rent, their prices do not decrease much with distance from the historical part of the city.
The fact is that in the center there is a lot of old housing stock, even more correctly – old, lovingly furnished by the owners for tourists.
But the appearance of the mansions, corridors and staircases sometimes evoke sadness and remind us of communal apartments.
In the Oktyabrsky district adjacent to the center (starts in the area of the Ladya monument at the end of the pedestrian embankment) there are many new residential complexes, with fresh renovations and spacious apartments. Sometimes they amaze you with their size.
DAILY RENTAL APARTMENTS IN SAMARA
We looked at many apartments with columns, podiums, suspended ceilings with patterns, original color schemes and beds with massive headboards.
Most often, they were rented out through real estate agencies or management companies, which have dozens of lots at their disposal.
Our family eventually chose an apartment in a building – an architectural monument of the late 19th century, which was initially profitable, but in the Soviet years was ided into communal apartments. In recent years, communal apartments there have been bought out and converted into apartments. But we got an authentic apartment, where the landlords themselves once lived. The renovation and furnishings are from the early 2000s, but the house is located in the very center, and the Volga was visible from one window.
We were pleased with our choice. The only unpleasant moment was when we were visited by an uninvited guest – a cockroach. But we made allowances for the first floor and the 100-year history of the house and quickly slammed it down. But it took us five minutes on foot to get to the beach, to the embankment, to museums, and to the Gothic church – the calling card of the center of Samara.
Why are more apartments available for daily rentals than for long-term rentals?
Most owners of Samara real estate who rent it out prefer short-term rentals. Therefore, throughout Samara there are about 400 offers for long-term rentals. And short-term ones – about 2 thousand. This is not surprising, because the cost of long-term rental apartments in the central regions ranges from 15 to 40 thousand rubles per month for a one-room apartment and 17-55 thousand for a “kopeck piece” (depending on condition and footage). And short-term rental can bring in up to 100-150 thousand rubles monthly – in the absence of downtime, of course.
We found no more than 500 short-term rental offers in the city center. The fact is that not all premises here are suitable for daily rental. Most old mansions and former apartment buildings do not have hot water supply. And in cute wooden houses with carved frames there is often no running water or sewerage.
Those who wish to provide amenities at their own expense, and residents of the municipal fund, as well as elderly and low-income citizens, live as in the century before last.
Why did we choose Samara?
The song about “Samara-town” was popular back in the last century, but even today almost everyone knows it. And this gave Samara a strange PR: the majority, without looking at the maps, think that this is a remote provincial town in which there is nothing to look at.
Meanwhile, Samara closes the top ten largest cities in Russia, it has more residents than Rostov-on-Don or Krasnodar. There are also many architectural beauties and tourist spots here.
The city was founded in 1586. There are still many architectural monuments from the late 19th century, mostly in the Art Nouveau style. And also – numerous examples of wooden architecture of the same time.
By the end of the century before last, Samara became a major center of grain trade. Local merchants could afford to build mansions no worse than those of their capital “colleagues”.
They equipped houses with the latest technology at that time: electricity, telephone, water supply and sewerage.
You can now get into some of these houses – for example, the former mansion of the merchant Kurlin, which now houses the Museum of Art Nouveau.
Kurlin’s mansion – Museum of Art Nouveau Kurlin’s mansion – Museum of Art Nouveau
The 20th century made Samara (in Soviet times it was called Kuibyshev) a large industrial center. During the Great Patriotic War, this city became the reserve capital of the USSR; embassies of many countries were evacuated here and the Soviet government planned to move here. A safe bunker was prepared for Stalin from which he could rule the country. However, he never used it. But now you can go on an excursion to “Stalin’s Bunker”.
Samara is now open to travelers and even hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
One of the city-forming enterprises and important tourist locations is the Zhigulevsky brewery. The drinks produced here have been known to all foam lovers since the end of the 19th century.
You can visit the bar at the factory and taste beer straight from the assembly line, or go to Kukhmisterskaya – a tasting room built more than 100 years ago for the merchants and nobles of Samara.
If you have a couple more days left, you can go to the nearest city of Tolyatti and see the museum of the AvtoVAZ plant. Or spend a day in nature in the Zhiguli Mountains.
There you can climb the rock from which Stenka Razin’s robbers watched to see if a merchant flotilla with goods was moving along the Volga. Or visit the village of Shiryaevo, where the artist Ilya Repin was inspired to paint the painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”.
Most of the center has the status of a historical settlement, that is, all the houses in it are recognized as historical and architectural monuments and significant changes to their appearance are prohibited. That is, you cannot simply demolish an old house from the end of the century before last and build a new one, for example, made of brick.
So the owners of real estate live in the city center, not fully understanding their prospects: either they will be demolished in the near future, or they have a protected status. At the same time, many owners, and even more so tenants, do not have the financial capacity to maintain ancient monuments in proper condition.
That’s how old Samara stands, very beautiful and interesting, half restored, half demolished or dilapidated. But while there is still plenty to see in the city center, you urgently need to visit this wonderful place. Our family checked: you won’t regret it!