Write and Say

We are featured on Officesnapshots!

2010-07-15T04:23:00.001+01:00

Our office in Bangkok is featured in Officesnapshots!

To work in a great office give you inspiration. What is important is to like to come to this office and feel comfortable. Ideal is to be in harmony. See below Officesnaphots comment about our office:

"Today's world is filled with uncertainty, especially when one is conducting business in or moving to another country. Moveandstay is a resources that attempts to assist business travelers and expatriates by linking them with furnished apartments or services offices in a number of locations worldwide.

The company, which is located in downtown Bangkok, has a broad view from their high-rise window which allows their 30 employees to take in the dramatic cityscape.

The office space is outfitted with several private offices, which have glass walls allowing audible privacy, without laziness-inducing visual privacy that walls might create. The employee workstations are simple glass tables arranged in pods for easy communication.

While the office is fairly plain, it does boast a very nice wooden floor throughout. Hopefully we will get to see Moveandstay update their offices in the future!"

See it by yourself!

Moveandstay Office in Bangkok

Happy Birthday Moveandstay!

2010-07-12T05:35:00.000+01:00

This year is the 10th anniversary of Moveandstay.

Let's Celebrate!

Moveandstay is now present in 1,738 cities and 79 countries.

Our goal is to propose 5-stars services to our customer looking for serviced apartments and serviced offices.

Thank you to all our clients, business partners and providers!

A menu to simplify everything

2010-06-28T10:47:00.000+01:00

We have released today three new functions on Moveandstay:

1. A new menu on top of Moveandstay to simplify your search

Apartments (serviced apartments, furnished apartments, budget apartments and apartments for sale)
Offices (serviced offices, virtual offices and meeting rooms)
Advertising (to add your properties)

Into each specific category, you can make your request easily by contacting our experts.

2. We have also added a search box

Type any keywords, address, post code and see the result :)

3. On top of it you can see a LIKE button

You can easily "become a fan" or "LIKE" of Facebook.com/moveandstay

Do you like it?

Let us know!

Updated affiliate listing

2010-06-07T10:09:00.001+01:00

Dear partners,

We have improved our affiliate listing. As you can see the layout is a lot better than before and it will open the description pages inside a new window so that clients can make inquiries and bookings easily without problem of size and hidden content.

We have improved also the tracking system so that all inquiries and bookings tracked are perfectly accurate.

The second good news is that you have nothing to change :)

If you have any question related to our partnership, please contact David@moveandstay.com

Talking About Authority and Trust

2010-04-02T08:43:00.002+01:00

We, at Moveandstay, absolutely love the concept of Wikipedia: contribution by everyone who are experts about a subject giving free knowledge for everyone at anytime.

We recently get an article about Moveandstay on Wikipedia and we are pretty much excited about it!

This article was written using neutral tone: what our company is about (serviced apartments & serviced offices provider), when Moveandstay.com was created (2001).
It is interesting as it gives strong references with newspapers articles and all travel & business books referring to Moveandstay.

Wikipedia has also a good section related to serviced apartments and serviced offices

If you know any newspaper or book that is talking about Moveandstay, please contact us at contact@moveandstay.com

Read also:

Earth Hour 2010: It's Show Time!

2010-03-24T04:21:00.003+01:00

For the second year, Moveandstay supports Earth Hour.

We encourage everyone to switch off their light / TV / Computer and any electric device in your house, apartment and office on the following date:

8.30PM, SATURDAY 27TH MARCH.

You need more information or want to do more for your planet? Earth Hour Official Website

Interested in getting a green environment:

What Moveandstay does to protect the environment
Powering a clean energy revolution
10 simple steps to get a green office

Street view imagery for Hong Kong Serviced Apartments

2010-03-12T04:55:00.002+01:00

Great new experience in Hong Kong for our clients!

Google just released Street View Imagery for Hong Kong (yes, it is very impressive!)

You can see immediately the result on our Hong Kong serviced apartments listings

See it for one of the great properties listed on Moveandstay: Shama Central Serviced Apartments

I love this new feature, and you?

P.S. For our apartments providers, submit your Hong Kong property to Moveandstay now!

Apartments & Villas for Sale: Email Alerts

2010-02-23T05:17:00.000+01:00

Are you looking to buy an apartment or a villa in Thailand?

We added a tool called Apartments & Villas for Sale Email Alert

Simply enter your name, your email address and your target price and we will send you listings of properties matching your budget.

NO SPAM. Of course, we have a very strict privacy policy so you will not get any useless emails.

Apartments & Villas for Sale: Articles & Useful Information

2010-02-18T05:49:00.000+01:00

Following my previous post related to apartments & villas for sale on Moveandstay, we have added some useful information and articles for people who wish to buy a condominium, a house or a villa.

I give you below the direct links and a preview of one of the articles we have chosen:

Buying Apartments & Villas in Bangkok: 10 Useful Articles
With an article from Tatesestates.co.uk "The first thing you need to do is decide how much you can afford. You will need to look at how much money you have available yourself and how much you can borrow. There are a number of different financial institutions which offer loans to people buying a property, for example, building societies and banks. You should find out if you are able to borrow money and if so, how much (for information on mortgages, see under heading Mortgages)."

Buying Off-plan in Bangkok: Risky or worth it?
"The slowdown in the property market in Bangkok has totally taken the allure out of buying off-plan, but it has also opened up alternate possibilities for finding a good property bargain. Investors who are buying off-plan are taking a hefty risk in thinking that their finances will stay the same as they are now in such a volatile economic environment – especially if their capital is off-shore and they are relying on uncertain exchange rates. As they will have to pay the majority of their investment upon completion of the project, it means that they are at fortune's mercy."

Guide to Buying a Condominium in Bangkok
"If you are looking for freehold ownership of a property then there are several important points to adhere to. The first essential is that the condo must be in the building's foreign quota, which is usually only forty nine percent of the building – this can be ascertained by looking at the title deed of the property."

If you wish to browse our property listings with great apartment for sale in Bangkok, follow this link: Bangkok Apartments For Sale

Apartments & Villas for Sale!

2010-02-10T08:56:00.002+01:00

Today we are excited to announce a new product: Apartments & Villas for Sale.

As a first step, Thailand will be the first country with featured apartments & villas for sale.

Are you currently living or about to live in Thailand?
Do you plan to retire in Bangkok, Hua Hin, Pattaya or Phuket?

To buy an apartment or a villa is a very good solution
We propose more than 44 apartments & villas and 11 projects available for sale with prices starting from THB 2,357,000.

Get access to our properties portfolio!
Simply go to the following pages and discover our properties portfolio:

Of course, if you have specific needs, you can always contact us.

Get the lowest price for your stay!

2010-02-09T11:28:00.002+01:00

On Moveandstay, whenever you are in the process of booking a serviced apartments for a short or a long period, the price is calculated automatically according to your length of stay.

We've figured out that for some length of stay (between 21 and 30 days), the monthly rate can be a lot cheaper than the weekly rate.

What makes Moveandstay different compared to other websites is that you can get the cheaper rates just by extending a little bit your length of stay (terms & conditions may be different though). You can of course ignore this offer and continue with the price quoted before.

To illustrate this feature, I invite you to see the 2 examples as per below.

I input my check-in and check-out date and I clicked the link Check Monthly Rate below the price quoted.

Result: I got a rate more than 47% cheaper than the regular daily rate!

As a summary:

You get instant availability
You get instant pricing
You get the choice to get the monthly rate if you wish

Do you like it? Send us your feedback: contact@moveandstay.com

Hot Deals on Facebook

2010-02-02T09:22:00.001+01:00

We're excited to share with you a new content featured on our Facebook page: Apartments Hot Deals.

You will find in this category the latest special offers and hot deals from serviced apartments worldwide.

You can of course also receive Moveandstay hot deals via Twitter :)

Do you like it? Tell us!

Improved Property Page!

2010-01-28T09:49:00.000+01:00

We have just released an update of our property dedicated page.

You can view at a glance photos, essential information of the properties and you can select / filter the units you are interested-in very easily.

Try it! go to Le Grove Serviced Apartments, Singapore

Make multiple inquiries at the same time

2010-01-18T10:53:00.000+01:00

Great News!

At Moveandstay, we are constantly experimenting new ways for client to getter get contact with the apartments or offices owners.

We have developed a simple tool that will allow you to select several units and contact the owners directly.

Just go to the listing page of your favorite city (i.e. Bangkok serviced apartments for rent listing), select the units you are interested-in and click on Make Inquiry Now.

Your request will be instantly delivered and you will get an answer fast.

Send us your feedback! contact@moveandstay.com

For Haiti

2010-01-15T10:24:00.002+01:00

Information, resources, and ways you can help survivors of the Haiti earthquake.

New Moveandstay Logo on Facebook

2010-01-11T09:09:00.007+01:00

We have uploaded today a new logo on our Facebook page.

You like Facebook? You like Moveandstay?

Become a fan today!

Just drop us a comment to let us know if this logo is cool or not!

P.S. Moveandstay has now a permanent url on Facebook! Go to www.facebook.com/moveandstay

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T09:14:00.002+01:00

All Moveandstay team join me to wish you a happy new year 2010 :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Season's Greetings from moveandstay.com

2009-12-29T04:53:00.002+01:00

All of us at moveandstay.com join in saying "Thank you" and wishing you a happy holiday and a prosperous new year.

Best Wishes,
Moveandstay Team

Serviced Apartments & Serviced Offices Worldwide www.moveandstay.com

Moveandstay Customer Reviews - Report

2009-11-18T11:45:00.001+01:00

We are pleased to share with you our first report on the reviews we collected from our customers.

From August to mid November 2009, we collected 157 reviews about Moveandstay’s staff and 60 reviews about the serviced apartments we offer on www.moveandstay.com

To see the 2 forms we sent out to our customers:
1/ Customer service review
2/ Serviced apartment review

Customer profile

Overall the profile of our customers is split as follow:
- Leisure traveler: 60%
- Business traveler: 40%

Customer service review

Regarding the customer service review, four criteria are used for evaluating Moveandstay’s staff that received excellent rating:

1.     Friendly staff: 99% of our clients are very satisfied or satisfied.
2.     Relevant selection of apartment: 97% of our clients are very satisfied or satisfied
3.     Fast response: 96% of our clients are very satisfied or satisfied
4.     Good follow-up: 94% of our clients are very satisfied or satisfied

Please find below all the details:

Many interesting suggestions and recommendations have been proposed by our customers such as offering a customer bonus point system/loyalty program or some inputs about how to make our booking process faster…
We keep in mind all of these ideas and are thinking about how to implement it as best as possible.

Serviced apartment star rating

Our customers rate our serviced apartment offer as follow:
-       Over 50% of our serviced apartments are rated with 4 or 5 stars.
-       25% are considered as 3 star properties.
-       Less than 20% of clients perceived our serviced apartment offer as 1 or 2 star properties.

Serviced apartment review

5 criteria are used for evaluating our serviced apartment offer that gets very positive ratings as well:
Cleanliness: This item is the best rated with 93% of very satisfied or satisfied customers.
Apartment staff, value for money and services get each 90% of very satisfied or satisfied clients.
Comfort: 88% of our customers are very satisfied or satisfied.

Please find below further data:

Keep sharing with us your valued feedback either on your booking experience or on the apartment you stayed in to help us improve our service and serve you better next time!

Welcome to the new Moveandstay!

2009-11-02T11:04:00.015+01:00

After 9 years at your service, we acquired great level of experience in term of customer needs and we tried to develop our clients' satisfaction at the maximum possible.

Following our new ideas and your recommendation, we thought a lot about the best way to make your apartments and offices search and user experience to be absolutely unique.

We have tested these fresh ideas for 6 months on our sister websites: Apartments & Offices in Australia (Moveandstay.com.au) and Apartments & Offices in UK (Moveandstay.co.uk) and we got very good feedbacks so far.

We are now proud to make you discover the latest improvements that we believe will be very useful for business travelers and expatriates.

The new Moveandstay is now live with great new features:

Better functionalities:

Instant availability
Instant pricing
New greatly improved search
FAST to load (we know you do not like to wait)

Better content:

New products: budget apartments
Latest apartments and offices news
More great properties

Better services:

Very accurate property localization (what is in the neighborhood?)
Concierge service for our customers (only in Thailand for now, soon in other countries)
Great friendly staff to satisfy your needs (see our customer satisfaction report)

There is a LOT more to come but now it is your turn, let us know what YOU think!

Give it a try! Go to see our Apartments & Offices Worldwide (www.moveandstay.com)

Send us your feedback to contact@moveandstay.com

New Affiliate Manager

2009-10-15T03:55:00.002+01:00

Dear partners,

We are pleased to announce you that Moveandstay has a new affiliate manager: Mr Oliver Limsila

Should you have any question regarding the following topics:

- Apartments or offices partnership general questions

- Optimization of your affiliate pages to get more leads and bookings

- Change of partnership plan (XML, Iframe, General inquiry form, banners)

- Commission question

Please do not hesitate to send an email to oliver@moveandstay.com

Improved Search

2009-10-13T09:34:00.007+01:00

Just a short update to let you know that we have greatly improved our search engine.

This search tool was already able to find serviced apartments using:

Address
Zip
Area

It is now able to look into the following property fields:

Property names (Strong request from our customers!)
Google Maps objects (Google provides useful information on objects near the properties)
Content Tags (special tags added by Moveandstay team)

To summarize, finding a serviced apartments on Moveandstay has never been easier :)

Serviced Apartments Asia 2009

2009-10-13T06:15:00.002+01:00

Moveandstay CEO will be speaker at the conference "Serviced Apartments Asia 2009"

19-21 October 2009 at Grand Hyatt Singapore

Serviced Apartments Asia 2009

Unlock the opportunities in Asia's thriving market!

Asia's first and foremost forum dedicated to addressing serviced apartments as a high-yielding asset class, a premier platform where key industry players converge to do business.

Conference Schedule:

Pre-conference day:

19 October 2009, 9.30am - 4.30pm

Conference days:

Day 1,

20 October 2009, 8.30am - 6pm

Day 2,

21 October 2009, 9.30am - 6pm

More Information

Free Email alert service about the lowest airfares from Bangkok to anywhere

2009-10-01T12:13:00.007+01:00

Do you live in Bangkok and do you travel frequently? Then you probably know that finding the best airline ticket deals to your preferred destination that also fits your travel needs and your budget is a real challenge! That's why we are offering a new airfare email alert service to help you find the latest airfare prices from Bangkok to destinations around the globe.

How does it work? Subscribe to our airfare email alerts on www.bangkokbestflights.com - it takes less than 1 minute to sign up and receive email alerts about the latest deals from Bangkok to your favorite cities.

In addition, our Bangkok Best Flights blog offers the latest news about airports and the airline industry here in Asia and around the world.

Stay tuned! Follow Bangkok Best Flights on Twitter where we provide real time updates on the latest promotions.

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bkkbestflights

Bowling Competition

2009-10-01T08:43:00.011+01:00

On 1st of October, Moveandstay team attended a bowling competition organized by SERVCORP (one of our favorite serviced offices providers) on 1st of October 2010 in Bangkok for the benefits of a charity association named Camillian Home (St. Camillus Foundation of Thailand) and sponsored in part by Dahra Spa & Beauty.

We had a great evening playing bowling with all people present on this occasion. Find below some photos of this great evening :)

Several members of the teams (all?) made a donation for this association which purpose is caring for children living with disabilities.

Here is the list of participants:

Moveandstay 2 teams
Jones Lang LaSalle 3 teams (WINNER)
Ark Enterprise 1 team
Savills 1 team
Dahra Spa & Beauty 1 team (sponsor)
Camillian Home for Disabled Children 1 team

Moveandstay team did not win this time but we will train hard to get better results soon.

Thank you SERVCORP for this fun competition!

Budget Apartments

2009-09-25T11:47:00.002+01:00

We have increased our properties portfolio and we are now proud to propose you a new product: BUDGET APARTMENTS.

Because we know that economic crisis is (was?) in the air, we thought that it would be a great idea to propose apartments that fit lower budgets than the one required normally by serviced apartments.

Give it a try! Go to Perth Budget Apartments

Moveandstay API is ready!

2009-09-24T11:43:00.002+01:00

Our custom API for prices and availability is now ready.

If you have a calendar system / pricing system, we can now connect your system to ours and reciprocally.

If your apartment or office is using such solution (i.e. Ezyield, Levart, etc) and you wish your property to be connected to Moveandstay system, please contact us, we will be happy to help.

New Search

2009-09-23T10:38:00.002+01:00

Today we released a great feature on Moveandstay: the new PROPERTY SEARCH

I list below the features of this tool

- Search by price

- Search by location (you know autosuggestion? type "cit" and the system finds "city centre"

- Search by guests, bedroom type

- Get the apartments & offices listing by email instantly

Soon you will be able to search by property name, neighborhood and

Give it a try, at Moveandstay, we LOVE it :)

Go on Moveandstay Sydney Serviced Apartments page and find what you are looking for

New Products for Affiliates

2009-09-18T10:17:00.003+01:00

Dear affiliates,

As a partner, I would like to propose you to feature on your website a new great content from Moveandstay.

We now feature serviced offices and virtual offices as part of our affiliation solution.

We do have a great offer associated with a very easy to integrate procedure.

Let us know if you are interested and I will send you more details about this offer.

Share with us your client reviews!

2009-08-31T09:09:00.004+01:00

You are one of our valued partners and you own one or multiple properties referenced on our websites? Do you have maybe great client reviews that you would like to share?

In this case, we offer you the opportunity to share with us your client reviews.
We think that testimonials from previous clients is the best way to gain future client's trust.
Also, we are convinced that these reviews will help our customers choose the right apartment meeting their wishes and expectations.

To share your client reviews, just click here and fill out our online form.

Then, we will be pleased to feature it on your listings - this will boost your number of inquiries!

Whenever you wish to give us a new review, simply use this form.
If you own several properties, just fill a form per property, submit and repeat.

We are looking forward to receiving your great reviews soon!

Freshly arrived from France!

2009-08-25T12:20:00.001+01:00

Hello everybody! My name is Marie, or should I say Maliii for my Thai colleagues. I arrived in Moveandstay offices over one month ago. I am 23 and I come from France.

I thank Gael for offering me the opportunity to complete my final internship in marketing before graduation,here, in Bangkok, and all the Moveandstay team for their warm welcome.

It is the first time I come to Asia... so you may imagine I discover every day more and more multiple aspects of a new culture...definitely different from European culture!
Anyway I enjoy and try to adapt as much as possible...but I can't avoid the cultural shocks...

What surprised me the most in Thailand so far:
- niceness of Thai people
- spicy food
- huge traffic jams
- 7 eleven shops open 24/7
- shopping malls and stores open every Sunday
- huge night markets
- pink eggs
- food and beverages to take away in plastic bags
- tiny tissues in restaurants
- Thai people do not say easily 'no'

and What I miss the most:
- cheese!
- bread
- green salad with olive oil dressing
- salt and pepper... ;-)

Anyway, I definitely appreciate to live this experience in Thailand, and especially among the Moveandstay team! ;-)

See you soon! ;-)

Marie

New Customer Service Feedback

2009-07-24T03:46:00.003+01:00

As you know, our aim is to provide a customer service of high quality.

We do our best to entirely fulfill your needs as giving you the maximum of satisfaction when using our services.

In order to improve it, we are looking for your feedback. We are convinced that constructive reviews would help us to design a customer service that truly adheres to your wishes and expectations.

We know that your time is precious, so instead of writing emails or phoning us, you can simply click here and fill our online survey:

It is simple and fast to fill, so it would not take you more than 2 minutes to leave your precious comments.

We are looking forward your feedback on our customer service.

Ebook: Ultra Luxury Living in Bangkok

2009-07-08T04:44:00.007+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Bangkok ultra luxury living, find below an overview:

Using an Helicopter in Bangkok:

Soaring Above the Traffic to Your Destination

Rent a Ferrari in Bangkok:

Leasing a Car Worthy of James Bond or Michael Schumacher

The Best Spa Experience in Bangkok:

The Ultimate Thai Massage and Spa Experience

Have a dinner in the air:

Champagne Highs Complete with a Birds Eye View

Rent a limousine in Bangkok:

Why Drive When You Can be Driven?

Download Now

Are You Addicted to Sport?

2009-06-26T05:02:00.004+01:00

According to a recent survey, Moveandstay team is practicing regularly 11 sports in total. I detail below the variety of sports we are doing:

Badminton
Cycling
Fitness (including BODYPUMP™)
Golf
Kitesurfing
Running
Soccer
Swimming
Tennis
Walking
Yoga

In average our team is exercising 2,5 hours per week (some of us are doing sports up to 9 hours a week).

Of course some few staffs do not practice sports at al but we hope that after this article they will discover the benefits of sports :)

A Buzzle article: benefits of playing sports mention the following:

"Playing sports is very beneficial for the development of social skills in a person. Sports teach a person to interact with people, act as a team. They foster collective thinking and develop planning skills in children. Sports build confidence in children and give them a sense of accomplishment. Sports thus play a vital role in one's social well-being. "

and

"Playing sports serves as an excellent exercise, which has a wide variety of health benefits. It reduces blood sugar level and reduces the risk of blood cholesterol. Playing sports decreases the chances of hypertension and several other stress related disorders. Research has revealed that people who play sports regularly can deal with stresses and strains in life in a better manner. Depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders are less probable in people who indulge in sport activities. "

Another article related to sports benefits and therapies says the following:

"Some of the most proficient advantages of sports include development in:

- Proficiency in various sport skills

- The person's skills that are needed to socialize among the peers and adults. - Confidence and independence of the person

- A sense of success, triumph and achievement

- Leadership qualities and skills

- Agility, endurance, coordination, speed, strength and flexibility

- A sense of cooperation and competition

- Ability to accept responsibility and make decisions

- Imagine, appreciate and express emotions

- Good working habits

- Temperament

By participating in sports, the person gets to:

- Promote physically fit and healthy style of living

- Develop motor and physical skills

- Increase personal development like focusing on the task at hand, being on time, listening to what others say and trying the best possible

- Learn how to win gracefully and lose respectfully

- Experience injury and pain and learn how to work it through

- Learn how to handle criticism and take coaching

- Help others in the team

- Encourage positive attitude in life"

If you are interested in living an healthy life, you can also see the Benefits of biking to work

As someone said, "the hardest part in sport is to lace up your shoes".

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Sydney

2009-06-19T10:52:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Sydney:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Sydney

A drastic difference between setting up a business in Sydney, Australia, as opposed to Bangkok, Thailand, or Manila, Philippines, is the country’s economic and political stability.

For this reason alone, making Sydney your home‐base is not only a sensible one, but the egalitarian nature of the people, and democratic outlook on both foreign and native‐born workers, makes becoming part of the Australian business community one of the most promising in modern times. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Hong Kong

2009-06-18T11:00:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Hong Kong:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Hong Kong

Hong Kong is not necessarily a completely foreign country. It must be remembered that the city was under British rule up until recently, and while there is certainly a distinct Chinese flavor to it, Hong Kong houses its citizens very similar to the way any American city would.

Most properties available for rent are in good condition, and are usually unfurnished. Very few serviced apartments allow daily stays. Normally you’ll be looking at a minimum stay of 30 days. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Kuala Lumpur

2009-06-17T11:07:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Kuala Lumpur:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Kuala Lumpur

Moving to Kuala Lumpur is no easy feat. There is the culture‐shock you will undoubtedly feel upon your arrival, as well as the nagging feeling that you should be working when you’ve been spending all your time trying to find furnishings for your new office space.

There is a deep‐seeded desire for every businessperson to have the perfect office; one that is clean and conducive to a relaxed and efficient work environment. Bear in mind that the solution to your worries about finding the right look for your office can be found with a serviced office. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Singapore

2009-06-16T11:11:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Singapore:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Singapore

When deciding where to operate your business, many considerations need to be considered. What kind of governmental regulations and requirements are imposed on small, or, conversely, large businesses? What are the differences in protocol between the two?

One of the most important things to consider is what kind of lifestyles will your employees have? In doing so, you will allow the people working for you to not only enjoy the place they work, but their living situation will be far more pleasant. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide for Business Travelers Coming to Bangkok

2009-06-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Bangkok:

Practical Guide for Business Travelers Coming to Bangkok

Bangkok is a huge hot spot for tourism. In fact, it is

considered one of the most desirable tourist destinations

in the entire world because of the vast amounts of

tourism experience by this city each and every single year.

The industry of tourism is alive and thriving in the city of

Bangkok and that is something that can be taken

advantage of when planning business expeditions in the

beautiful and tourist filled city. Download Now

Advanced Web Ranking and Moveandstay: A Case study

2009-06-05T09:38:00.010+01:00

My team and I've been using daily Advanced Web Ranking, a website positioning software produced by Caphyon, for a month now and if you want to save hours in your SEO works and be more productive, here's a review of this great SEO software.

At Moveandstay, we are extremely focused on search engine optimization and we need to track 5 websites with hundreds of keywords related to serviced apartments and serviced offices. That clearly means a bunch of data to be tracked and analyzed on a daily basis.

We started with one city in year 2000 (Bangkok, Thailand) and then another one (we were checking daily and manually our rankings in Google, Yahoo! and at that time- Altavista) and after 5 cities and dozens of keywords, we started to look for a more efficient and effective way of working.

We tried several solutions on the web (i.e. Digital Point Solution, WebRanking or AgentWebRanking) and I was a bit disappointed by the results because the updates are not automatic and to me, the way of displaying the data is not very natural.

Most importantly, the results were not 100% accurate. All of this made me think we had to change our method of tracking our search engine rankings for all our keywords.

We then discovered Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) on some dedicated SEO forums. After checking out demos and very interesting graphs from people we like to read, we felt that AWR were for us.

We tried the free demo (the version we tried is Advanced Web Ranking 6.5) for one month and we totally liked the software. What I clearly like in this software are the following:

GENERAL

- It is "Plug & Play" (you do not need to search for information or "learn" anything before using it
- The Interface is very clear
- The system updates itself automatically
- It does not ask for password, cachka protection or anything annoying
- The search engines covered are the most important ones (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search)

MORE SPECIFIC

- You can load the last project you used automatically
- You can compare your previous search engines ranking
- You can import a list of keywords from a text file, URL, Google suggest, etc
- You can view the evolution in time for websites, keywords and search engines
- You can schedule the report you need (it does on schedule a keyword check), AWR will generate this report for you

- You can see your popularity among search engines (very interesting concept)
- Interestingly, you have a submission tool where you can manually submit your websites to around 400 search engines and directories

You will find below some screen shots to make up your mind:

The Assistant

The Keywords Ranking Changes

The Keywords Ranking Changes Evolution in Time

The Keywords Interface

I and my team greatly recommend this software and I would conclude by simply saying: Advanced Web Ranking made our SEO work much more productive. kudos to them!

Male & Female Equity in Our Offices

2009-05-29T11:18:00.005+01:00

At Moveandstay, we are concerned about equals right for men and women

It starts simply by having the same amount of employees who are males and females in our offices.

That is the case... we have nearly the same amount of persons being male and female (with a small advantage for females)

This was done totally into a natural process and this leads to harmony among the co-workers.

As we all like statistics (don't we?) Moveandstay office has a staff team made of 53% females and 47% males.

I found some interesting definitions about equality between men and women on the website of the United Nations

Equality between women and men (gender equality): refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that womens and mens rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a womens issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.

Gender: refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context/ time-specific and changeable. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a women or a man in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age.

A number of fact sheets on the underlying concepts have been developed by OSAGI. Read more

This leads me to remind you that if you are looking for a job, we are in need of great people for the following positions:

- Reservation Officer

- Content Manager

- PHP Programmer

- Administrative Officer

You are interested and motivated? Just go to our Carrers page to submit your resume!

Google New Search Method: Wonder Wheel

2009-05-28T11:00:00.000+01:00

I just found out that Google released a new featured named "Wonder Wheel"

You can see the theme of a website by just following the hierarchy of it

What you need to do is:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Search for your keyword
3. Click Show Options on top left
4. Click on Standard view / Wonder wheel
5. See the result!

I tried with Moveandstay and you can browse the keywords associated with Moveandstay.

1. Enable Wonder Wheel as described above
2. Type "Moveandstay"
3. Then click on "Serviced Apartments"
4. Then click on "Serviced Apartments Hong Kong"
5. You get the nice picture as below:

I think this is a great tool, what do YOU think?

General Inquiry Form for Offices

2009-05-26T10:05:00.005+01:00

This post follows my previous post related to making FAST INQUIRY on Moveandstay

In order to customize your needs, we have added a new general inquiry box for serviced offices, virtual offices and meeting rooms.

You are looking for an office and want to speak to a dedicated consultant?

Simply go to our General Inquiry Form for Offices

You have now 2 choices to make inquiry for serviced offices and business services:

FAST: Contact us by e-mail

FASTER: General Office Inquiry Form

FASTEST: Fast Office Inquiry Form

Are You a Business Traveler?

2009-05-21T12:05:00.036+01:00

If you are a busy traveler then the 2 recent blogs created by Moveandstay will probably help you in your quest:

Bangkok Business Traveler

USEFUL INFORMATION & TIPS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS COMING TO BANGKOK

Business Traveler in Asia-Pacific

USEFUL AND INTERESTING TIPS FOR TRAVELERS COMING TO HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, HONG KONG AND OTHER CITIES IN ASIA. WRITTEN BY EXPATS AND FREQUENT TRAVELERS COMING TO ASIA.

Some interesting definition I found on the net related to Business Travelers...

From Princeton

"A business traveler is a traveler whose expenses are paid by the business he works for"

OK... I think business travel is a little bit more than this...

I prefer the one from Myloweslife.com

"Business travel means travel by any covered individual or covered employee of a company outside of their normal routine job duties associated with their current occupation anywhere in the world while on assignment by or at the direction of a company for the purpose of furthering the business of a company. Such travel shall begin when the covered individual leaves his/her residence or place of regular employment for the purpose of going on such trips, whichever occurs last, and shall continue until such time as he/she returns to his/her residence or place of regular employment, whichever occurs first."

or a more detailed one from the US Legal Department

"Business Traveler: while business travel is commonly associated with huge corporations, many small businesses rely on the practice as well to make sales, keep in contact with vendors, market their products or services, and keep up with industry trends (via trade shows, conventions, etc.). Indeed, intelligent choices in the realm of business travel can be a major boon to small businesses hoping to curb spending without sacrificing in other business areas."

I recommend also that you read these very interesting articles:

Business Travel: What's Changing?

Key Trends are Altering the Way Road Warriors Work in the Airport, on the Plane, and in the Hotel.

Best in Business Travel

Where to invest your travel dollars this year

Best travel gadgets of 2009

Get in gear with the very latest essential trip accessories

Moveandstay is always present to help you organizing your business travels. Our friendly staff will help you finding apartments, or offices wherever you go.

Fast Inquiries

2009-05-21T11:54:00.008+01:00

You are a business traveler constantly on the move and you may not have time to search for apartments and offices.

We decided to make things easier for you by doing a FAST INQUIRY on our apartments pages.

As soon as your inquiry is received, our sales department will send you an email with suggestions based on your requirements.

We did the same fast inquiry box for serviced offices, meeting rooms and virtual offices. Our staff will contact you right away to satisfy your needs.

Give it a try now! Just fill your details and click Send Me Listings or Make Inquiry Now

You can of course contact us, our friendly staff are always delighted to propose you a customized solution.

Top 100 Apartments

2009-04-30T09:26:00.000+01:00

In order for you to better choose your apartments or serviced apartments, we have just added a cool new feature: a dedicated page showing the top 100 apartments listed on Moveandstay according to our clients and editors reviews.

This is how it looks:

Give it a try Now!

Top 100 Apartments in Australia & New Zealand

Top 100 Apartments in United Kingdom & Ireland

What is really cool is that you can see this ranking city by city!
Try Top Sydney Apartments or Top London Apartments

You are probably curious to know how it works, we are using the following criteria to rank the apartments:

- Value for Money

- Location

- Staff

- Condition / Cleanliness

- Comfort / Standard

- Food /Dining

If our editors find that an apartment is great, they select it and we add a title Editors' choice! below the photo.

Do you like it? let us know!

Follow Us!

2009-04-27T10:55:00.018+01:00

Moveandstay is now present on Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy our tweets and join us!

TWITTER:

Follow our recent tweet and activities on twitter.com/Moveandstay
Samples...

"Have you ever seen "The Blue City"? http://tinyurl.com/dx8y7y"

"The place on earth where you can see two continents and two seas come together. http://tinyurl.com/dhlqox"

"The Quality Sleep, do you want one? http://www.wikihow.com/Sleep-Better"

FACEBOOK:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86680370385
Get connected and see the latest photos submitted by Moveandstay team
Last photos added: Koh Chang, Thailand company trip

Enjoy!

If you wish to send you your twitter / facebook address, we would love to discover them. Simply reply to this post or send us an email to contact@moveandstay.com

New Feature: Apartment Review

2009-04-17T11:22:00.025+01:00

In order to give you a better experience on Moveandstay we have added today a new feature called "Apartments Review". This will help you to share your opinion with other users about the apartment you stayed-in and see other clients reviews for the next apartment you will move-in.

You can review the property and also Moveandstay performances by just clicking on the link "Submit Review" on the apartment description page.

The review is published after approval from our editors (this is to avoid spam, we do not edit the content). If your review is published, it will be instantly available on the apartment description page. We do have a very strict privacy policy, your name and email address will never be published.

See below the review made by Mr Yoshiyuki M. for Four Season Place Serviced Apartments, Hong Kong

Value for Money: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Staff Performance: 5/5
Cleanliness: 5/5
Room Comfort: 5/5
Food/Dining: 5/5

Comments: "This hotel is number one hotel. Very good access to Airport express, Subway and next to ifc shopping center that is high end shopping place. Hotel has new facility and very good services. Complementary SPA is also outstanding especially view from swimming pool is great. All of staff are very friendly and professional. I highly recommend this hotel if you have a budget. Hotel restaurants are also very good. Especially Chinese restaurant are very famous and considered number one restaurant in Hong Kong. At ifc shopping center, you can enjoy all kind of shopping."

We are always looking forward to receiving your comments and feedback, feel free to submit your review now or simply send us an email to contact@moveandstay.com

Less than 1 minute response time!

2009-03-25T11:37:00.004+01:00

I just noticed that our sales department took less than 1 minute to answer a client request.

Fax: Slowest (write fax, send fax, wait for answer)

Telephone: Slower (find number, call, get answer)

E-mail: Slow (ask question, wait for answer)

Moveandstay Inquiry System (and great staff): FASTER (ask question, receive immediate answer)

Do you have feedback about our friendly staff performance or our inquiry system? Just send us an email: contact@moveandstay.com

Are You Ready for Earth Hour?

2009-03-25T08:54:00.005+01:00

As announced by Moveandstay Team on Twitter and as you may know, Saturday 28 March 2009, 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth you are invited to switch off your lights and every electronic equipments (TV, fridge, DVD players, etc).

See the "official website" related to this event: www.earthhour.org

See also our previous articles on Moveandstay about getting a green environment:

What Moveandstay does to protect the environment
Powering a clean energy revolution
10 simple steps to get a green office

See you soon!

2009-03-24T11:47:00.005+01:00

Hello,

I have arrived to Bangkok 28 days ago, but seems it was yesterday.
It was an amazing and intensive experience. I keep useful advices and learning from everyday I have passed here.
I will go back to Portugal as a better professional.

When you arrive to a foreign country it is usual to think that you are by your own. Not here for sure: I was never alone! Wherever I went, there was always someone ready to go along with me!

There are things we cannot forget and this is one of them, for sure!
Bangkok will always be a special place for me.

Thank you all for make me fell part of the family...for real!

I will keep in touch with the people! Facebook and Twitter are here to help!

Well, I don't say goodbye...I say see you soon!

Raul

Moveandstay.co.uk is launched!

2009-03-24T11:38:00.004+01:00

We have just launched today the new version of Moveandstay.co.uk

You will be able to find Apartments and Offices in United Kingdom & Ireland

You can of course ask our friendly staff for customized advices if you have no time to search

That's the spirit

2009-03-20T09:51:00.011+01:00

Hello everyone,

Following my previous post as intern at Moveandstay...

Imagine that you have a cauldron, a bonfire, special ingredients, a magic formula and a Wizard. Well, I would say you have a magic potion.
Now imagine a Sales Team, a Programmers Team, a Content Team, a Business Developers Team and Managers with "know how". Oh, perfect...you have Moveandstay.com.

Good mood, dedication, mutual respect, self-confidence, mutual help, are just some of the characteristics that makes Moveandstay.com a great place to work.
I can also guarantee that every single people inside the office is special.

Each team member has detailed and specific assignments, but all working together on the same purpose: provide the clients a unique and excellent lifestyle.

It seems nice and easy like this, right?
Please remember that, as posted on the 17th March Moveandstay.com hosts:

1,738 cities in 79 countries

16,484 Serviced Apartments

10,392 Serviced Offices
3,850 Furnished Apartments
1,351 Villas
1,152 Virtual Offices
1,104 Meeting Rooms

This means ringing phones, ringing skypes, incoming and outgoing emails, contact with new providers, emails without reply, time zone, programming questions and technical issues on the scale above.

After all it is not that easy?
True, but nothing is for free!

Take care!

Raul

New main pictures for Moveandstay.com.au

2009-03-19T11:58:00.004+01:00

We have updated the main pictures of Moveandstay.com.au
You can see really nice pictures and the following message...

How can we help you?
We can help you find great apartments or offices for rent for a day, a week or a month.

Most important for us is do you like the pictures?
We can surely help you to find apartments + offices in Australia & New Zealand

Lazy to search? simply send us an email to contactau@moveandstay.com

Today on Moveandstay!

2009-03-17T09:24:00.006+01:00

We added a new feature on our homepage to inform you about the total number of properties available on our website. It is called Today on Moveandstay!

As I write this blog, there is on Moveandstay:

1,738 cities, 79 countries
16,484 Serviced Apartments
10,392 Serviced Offices
3,850 Furnished Apartments
1,351 Villas
1,152 Virtual Offices
1,104 Meeting Rooms

You want to feature your property on Moveandstay?
You can become our partner by clicking here

648,503

2009-03-13T11:11:00.004+01:00

It is amazing how many messages we receive at Moveandstay these days...

I just saw the statistics of my email software and since 09/2005 I got...

648,503 e-mails and counting

These are valid emails (not spam).... It is an impressive number no?

From Lisbon to Bangkok - Internship

2009-03-10T02:47:00.029+01:00

Hello everyone.... or should I say "Sawatdee"?

Before all, I would like to thank Alexandra Pauthier and Gael Ovide-Etienne who gave me this unique opportunity.
They are the persons who made everything possible!

So, introductions and facts:

My name is Raul Oliveira, a 23's good-looking Portuguese guy :) , with a degree in Public Relations.

I work for a Portuguese company called TravelingtoLisbon since February 2008. It is a self-catering apartment company based in Lisbon.

A couple of months ago, Alexandra and Gael offered me the opportunity to come to Moveandstay office, in Bangkok, for a month of internship. (Alexandra is my TravelingtoLisbon’s Director and Gael is Moveandstay’s Director)

My mission is to improve my marketing skills and global knowledge…and what a good opportunity!

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on the 24th February, at the end of the afternoon.
After doing the usual things (Visa, luggage, different map pick up, etc…), I went to meet Gael at Baan Chaopraya's residence. The trip from the airport to there took around 40 minutes.

After my arrival here, Gael quickly appeared. He offered me an apartment in this building for my first days in Bangkok. Well… I was expecting an apartment, but what I have found was a “mansion”!
Please confirm what I am saying: http://www.moveandstay.com/bangkok/apartments_description.asp?id=30949

After a few hours of sleep (“blessed’” jet lag) I was ready to go to the office. Gael showed me the way, which seemed easy, but didn't stop me to get lost (twice) on the next days …

The office is located in a very nice high floor building. Inside, my first impression was good: a large entrance hall, four big elevators and wide corridors. The office appeared on the left, spacious and well decorated.

Everyone in the team were, are and I think will always be, extremely nice and caring with me, always prepared to help and to make me feel good and comfortable.
Words are only words… nothing as such as acts!

I would like to really thank you all for the warm welcome…thank you, thank you all!
Unfortunately these few lines are not enough to write everything I would like to say, but I will get back…soon!

Laew phob gan mai,

Raul

New Moveandstay Logo

2009-02-11T09:12:00.013+01:00

When launching Moveandstay.com.au on February 2009, we included a brand new design and a new booking engine, we also have released our new logo to enhance Moveandstay brand giving it a simple and clear look.

Compare to our old logo, it looks fresher, simpler and more noticeable.

The + inside this logo symbolizes the combined solution of Apartments and Offices worldwide that Moveandstay provides.

What do you think about our new logo? Leave us your comments!

Partnership based on XML

2009-01-23T11:19:00.001+01:00

Following the email we have sent to our real estate agencies partners in Europe, here is some information about XML.

WHAT IS AN XML?

This post is largely inspired by the following Wikpedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

XML means eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is a widely used system for defining data formats. XML provides a very rich system to define complex documents and data structures such as invoices, molecular data, news feeds, glossaries, inventory descriptions, real estate properties, etc.

Often when you get create an XML from a database, you generate a DTD (Document Type Definition) that goes with the XML file. A detailed document explaining the purpose of each field is also greatly appreciated.

ADVANTAGES OF XML

* It allows for transfer of data across different networked applications.
* It supports Unicode, allowing almost any information in any written human language to be communicated.
* It can represent common computer science data structures: records, lists and trees.
* Its self-documenting format describes structure and field names as well as specific values.
* The strict syntax and parsing requirements make the necessary parsing algorithms extremely simple, efficient, and consistent.
* XML is heavily used as a format for document storage and processing, both online and offline.
* It is based on international standards.
* It can be updated incrementally.
* It allows validation using schema languages such as XSD and Schematron, which makes effective unit-testing, firewalls, acceptance testing, contractual specification and software construction easier.
* The hierarchical structure is suitable for most (but not all) types of documents.
* It is platform-independent, thus relatively immune to changes in technology.
* Forward and backward compatibility are relatively easy to maintain despite changes in DTD or Schema.
* Its predecessor, SGML, has been in use since 1986, so there is extensive experience and software available.

EXAMPLES

An XML is basically a text with a breakdown of data
< DATA1> this is data 1 < / DATA1>
this is data 2 < / DATA2 >
etc

I take as example below the XML we use for Serviced Apartments in London. You can see that each field contain a specific value.

<-?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?->
<-moveandstay->
<-property->
<-property_id->527<-/property_id->
<-booking_url->https://www.moveandstay.com/reservation_apartment.asp?id=527<-/booking_url->
<-apartment_url->http://www.moveandstay.com/apartments_description.asp?id=527<-/apartment_url->
<-apartment_listing->http://www.moveandstay.com/london/servicedapartments.asp<-/apartment_listing->
<-apartment_googlemap->http://www.moveandstay.com/google_map_direction.asp?id=263&type=sa<-/apartment_googlemap->
<-apartment_locationmap->http://www.moveandstay.com/showmedia.asp?property_id=527&selected_menu=map<-/apartment_locationmap->
<-apartment_photos->http://www.moveandstay.com/showmedia.asp?property_id=527&selected_menu=photos<-/apartment_photos->
<-apartment_floorplans->http://www.moveandstay.com/showmedia.asp?property_id=527&selected_menu=floor_plans<-/apartment_floorplans->
<-property_name->130 Queensgate Apartments<-/property_name->
<-address->130 Queensgate, <-/address->
<-postcode->SW7 5LE<-/postcode->
<-area->South Kensington<-/area->
<-city->London<-/city->
<-country->United Kingdom<-/country->
<-advertising_type->Serviced Apartments<-/advertising_type->
<-small_description->130 Queensgate Apartments, London offers 4 Star quality product and service and is ideal for families, friends and people travelling to London on business or leisure.<-/small_description->
<-description->This stylish Victorian building offers 54 Elegant serviced apartments with a traditional English style and decor throughout, Situated in an elegant tree-lined residential street within the exclusive Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.<-/description->
<-location_description->One Thirty offers a secure ideal location and is situated between Gloucester Road and South Kensington Underground Stations, both of which are on the Piccadilly Line with direct access to London Heathrow. Each of the underground stations also serves the Circle and District Line services and provides easy access around London and to the Theatre District and Business Centre as well as the many Historical sights and places of interest, which are too numerous to mention.130 Queensgate is within walking distance of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National History and Science Museum's, the Royal Albert Hall, the fashionable shopping areas of Knightsbridge, Kensington and the Kings Road.<-/location_description->
<-accomodation->Each of the well appointed and spacious apartments offers a warm and traditional interior, including a fully equipped kitchen with a welcome pack of Tea/Coffee on arrival, and a luxury bathroom with Guest Toiletries as standard, lounge/sitting area, direct dial telephone (lounge/bedroom), satellite television/radio, ceiling fan, trouser press, individual safe, hair dryer, double glazing and independently controlled central heating, two passenger lifts, 24 ...

MOVEANDSTAY PARTNERSHIP

If you are an affiliate partner, you can access Moveandstay XML by login to the affiliate control panel and click on XML in the top menu, you will get all information you need to integrate Moveandstay XML on your website.

If you are a real estate agent and you have exported your properties portfolio via XML, please send us an email to contact@moveandstay.com and our engineers team we will integrate your XML asap.

If you do not know how to create an XML, please ask your IT team, they surely know the process. We will be happy to give you any kind of information you need to successfully integrate your properties on Moveandstay

Introducing the new Moveandstay.com (Beta)

2009-01-22T10:18:00.010+01:00

I don't know about you, but we see the year 2009 as a very promising year. And to start well, we're happy to show you our brand new site (still in beta): beta.moveandstay.com.

The new website features:

- Brand new design: more professional and user friendly
- Fast search: users will find apartments they need in seconds
- Instant pricing and availability: our users have been asking this for long (we hope - actually, we are sure - you will benefit from it)

How these changes will affect our partnership with you:

Your Apartments: we now feature apartment by apartment - which means that we need your best photos and precise information for each apartment (ie. bedding configuration, bathroom, number of sleeps, etc..). Our content team is here to help if you need assistance: content at moveandstay dot com.

Your Rates: All prices are now set 'per night' so that we can calculate exact prices instantly to online users. Also, you can set seasonal rates, and have the system to propose different rates according to the length of stay. Log in to our new control panel, and you'll see all you can do.

Your Vacancies: Your apartments are all set as "on request" by default. Now, when a user asks the availability of an apartment, your response will update the apartment's calendar. (ie. if you answer that your 1-bedroom apartment is not available from January 10th until January 29th, then your calendar for that specific apartment will be set as "unavailable". In order to optimize your partnership with us, you can provide us with either allotments or XML feeds. All vacancies will get a much better visibility to users (as you could imagine).

What to do next:

1. Check your listings on beta.moveandstay.com
2. Log in to our new control panel (using your old username and password)
3. Edit your photos, rates, descriptions (as you wish)
4. Give us your feedback on this blog

BONUS: We will give one month premium spot to the 5 best feedbacks from serviced apartment managers who answer this question: According to you, what's the most important aspect for a serviced apartment website in order to increase the number of online bookings?

Check out our new (8 years old) website: Sabaai.com

2008-10-29T04:32:00.001+01:00

Dear all,

As some of you might know, we started Sabaai.com, our very first online-booking site, in July 2000. This website was, and still is, dedicated to serviced apartments in Bangkok.

Today, (and after 2 years of research and development), we are launching a brand new instant-booking engine - and Sabaai.com will be our testing platform for the coming months.

Our booking engine features:

Instant Pricing: calculate instantly total pricing based on number of days
Instant Availability: with allotments, calendar linking and close cooperation with our partners, we display available apartments first
Secured & Fast Online Booking: with a credit card, you can book an apartment for a day, a week or a month instantly, almost anywhere - and it's fast.
Faster Search: we show you only the apartments matching with your requirements. The results are 100% relevant to your request.
We plan to roll out this new system to all our Moveandstay sites (Global, UK, French, Australian, Chinese and Japanese sites to be more precise) in early 2009.

Please have a look at Sabaai.com: we hope you will be exited as much as we are.

Your suggestions and feedback will be very much appreciated: Comments on this blog are welcome!

Affiliate Contract & FAQ Changes

2008-10-28T05:27:00.007+01:00

Dear Partners,

Following your questions and feedback, we have updated the Affiliate Contract and Affiliate FAQ for serviced apartments and serviced offices as per below:

AFFILIATE CONTRACT: 3 Compensation

3. Payments are made monthly by Paypal or Credit Card (preferred methods).

- Paypal: Payment is done immediately as long as we received the commission from the apartment

- Credit Card: Payment is done immediately as long as we received the commission from the apartment and provided you have a credit card processing tool.

- Bank Transfer: Payment is done when the commission reaches a certain level, The level is up to the affiliate partner. There is USD 20 to USD 40+ bank fee deducted to the affiliate commission in this case.

Important: Your commission will be paid only if Moveandstay get its commission from the property. If a client make a confirmed booking (booking status is set as Booked) and cancel his reservation before arriving at the property, no commission can be paid to the affiliate.

AFFILIATE FAQ:

Tip#19: What do you mean by "net commission"?

It is the commission we receive from the property deducted of all bank charges (i.e. if Moveandstay gets 10% of the total booking value for a property, our commission may not be 100% of this amount. There is bank transfers fees, etc)

If you have any question, please do not hesitate to contact us

Powering a clean energy revolution

2008-10-27T04:32:00.003+01:00

Following my previous articles on getting a green office or environmental friendly apartment here and here, Google recently published a very interesting article about powering a clean energy revolution

You can learn how to set power management on your computer or get access to a carbon footprint calculator... The topics are as per below...

- Heating and Cooling
- Saving Water
- Computing Equipment
- Electronics and Home Appliances
- Other Energy-saving Tips
- Government Programs

Interesting to read also 3 free awareness posters from the Australian Government

- De-light me

- Prints of Darkness

- Switch Off

Counter mesures against hackers

2008-06-05T17:02:00.004+01:00

Following my previous post regarding hackers...

Moveandstay network (all websites and affiliate system) will be down for a while, we are currently setting up a new system to protect our network against hacker attacks.

All system should be back online within 2 hours

We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience.

UPDATE: All our network is secured and back to normal now.

Moveandstay Attacked by Hackers!

2008-05-20T09:27:00.005+01:00

Dear Moveandstay Users and Affiliates,

Moveandstay network (including affiliate system) has been victim of an intense attack by hackers that completely put our network down for 2 and half days.

We deeply apologize for this down period and we are sorry for the inconvenience it may have caused.

We managed to fix the problem as soon as we could and everything is back to normal.
We are taking measures now so this incident will not to happen again.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact us at affiliates [at] moveandstay [dot] com

10 simple steps to get a green office

2008-03-06T12:15:00.004+01:00

10 simple steps to get a green office from Greenoffice.org.nz

1- Measure how much you use & how much you waste!

Keep track of the number of copies you make. Use the counter on your machine to work out just how much paper is being used. Prepare to be surprised!

Calculate the weight and volume of paper used in your office each year and let your staff know how much they use

As you go through your green office programme you’ll be surprised how much paper you can save… and how much money you can save your office!

2- Save paper ~ Think before you print.

Use your print preview software: in any Microsoft Office application select 'File - Print Preview'.

Avoid making multiple copies of large documents with summary pages, PowerPoint presentations, online documentation and email.

Always check on screen for errors before you print.

When printing conduct a print preview, to make sure efficient paragraphing and pages are correct. Choose the correct font size for your printing, and use the function 'shrink to fit' to use the paper adequately.

Combine accounts to have just one mail out rather than several.

Edit and re-script your invoice system and ask your suppliers to do the same.

Minimise Office Paper Waste by using the phone, or via email rather than written.

Double sided printing and photocopying.

Print multiple pages per sheet for presentations and the like.

Update mailing address list - delete any that are out of date.

Print company cards rather than individual cards that may only be wasted.

3- Save toner

Draft quality printouts use less toner. Select 'draft' printouts when using the 'Print' command on your computer – this is usually changed under Printer Options on the Windows Print Dialog box.

You can even set your printer to make draft prints by default.

Tailor the size of paper to the length of your message.

4 - Save energy

Make sure all computers and other office equipment are turned off when they are not being used and that lights are turned off when natural light is sufficient.

Use energy efficient light bulbs where possible.

Make sure energy saving features on PCs, printers and photocopiers are enabled.

Use the stairs rather than a lift!

Change the thermostat on the heating or air-conditioning.

Use blinds to reduce solar gain in summer and save on air conditioning costs.

Don’t fill the kettle to make a single cup of coffee.

5- Recycle as much as you can!

Check what items are picked up by your local authority’s kerb-side collection, if it has one.

All paper including used office paper, newspapers and cardboard.

Plastics.

Cans & glass.

Compostable materials.

Mobile phones & batteries.

Office equipment.

6- Share Stationery

Encourage staff to share and circulate copies of reports rather than issuing separate copies .

Share staplers, hole punches etc. rather than owning one each!

7- Re-use Office Supplies

Set-up a stationery 'reuse centre' or 'exchange spot' for unwanted stationery.

Paper (reuse both sides of the paper, and then recycle).

Ring binders – transfer archive contents to manila folders.

Envelopes and parcel packaging with reuse labels.

Reuse cardboard cartoons.

Refill pens and tape dispensers.

Reuse scrap copy paper as notepads.

Reuse envelopes and look for design features that support reuse - for example resealable envelopes, or space for multiple addresses.

Reuse file indexes.

8- Buy Recycled Products

Buy recycled paper and paper based products. Check to make sure your photocopier supplier endorses the use of recycled content paper and remanufactured toner cartridges before you buy. Some recycled content papers are recommended or guaranteed in low volume but not high volume printers.

Buy recycled waste paper bins.

9- Return to Sender

Ask suppliers to take unwanted packaging back for reuse.

Ask your packaging supplier about a returnable credit system.

Reduce the use of fax cover sheets, when details are usually in the letter itself.

10 - Share Ideas and Keep Improving

While greening your office you might find better ways of reducing waste, water or energy – share your ideas with others.

Look at other green office initiatives in this guide to keep your programme going!

You will get on Greenoffice.org.nz, all information to get a green kitchen, bathroom, cleaning, etc

What Moveandstay does to protect the environment

2008-02-08T12:16:00.008+01:00

Following my previous post, I summarize below what we do at Moveandstay to protect the environment:

Most of our staffs are using public transportation, bicycle or rollerblades to go to the offices
We are a near to paperless office
Our computers from Apple are environment friendly and are easy to recycle
We recycle papers, cans, plastic bottles, etc
We switch off any unnecessary lighting during the day
We use long-life light bulbs
We use reusable crockery and glasses as opposed to plastic cups and disposable plates/cutlery
We switch off all equipments before leaving the offices (lights, printers, computers, routers, etc)
Recently we paid a little more our flight ticket to Easyjet to compensate our carbon emission during the flight (52 kg of CO2 generated /person for a trip from Paris to London)

Do you have more ideas we could use to protect the environment?

Our hosting company goes climate neutral

2008-02-06T23:39:00.009+01:00

At Moveandstay, we are very concerned about the protection of the environment.

After doing a partnership with Officebroker which has a green policy, we just learned today that our hosting company (the company that hosts all Moveandstay websites) is climate neutral.

"February 6, 2008 (San Francisco, CA) – Hosting.com, Inc. today announced that its San Francisco data center is now climate neutral. Hosting.com is projecting that the amount of carbon it will be neutralizing in San Francisco is the equivalent of not burning 260,000 gallons of gasoline a year. [...]

In addition to pursuing green initiatives in Hosting.com’s data centers through the use of green power, energy efficient data center design, and enterprise virtualization solutions, Hosting.com pays for climate neutrality for the homes of all of its employees."

New XML: Countries and Cities with Serviced Apartments

2008-01-21T15:24:00.000+01:00

Some of our affiliates requested this feature, I am pleased to announce you that the XML "countries and cities with properties available" has been created.

You can have access it now in Moveandstay affiliate control panel:

- one XML for serviced apartments content
- one XML for countries/cities having serviced apartments

If you have any question, please contact us

New XML: Self-Catering Apartments

2008-01-18T15:17:00.000+01:00

We had several requests from our affiliates asking to feature on their website our self-catering apartments. We heard you and we have generated the XMLs of these self-catering apartments listings in all the cities available!

These XML are available now on iframe and XML via Moveandstay affiliate control panel:

- one iframe script displaying the properties listing and description
- one XML for self-catering apartments content
- one XML for countries/cities having self-catering apartments

If you have any question, please contact us

Problem of Servers Migration

2008-01-10T11:16:00.000+01:00

Dear users,

We had a slight problem of servers access while we were moving our entire system to a stronger one. This incident has also affected our affiliates using Iframe and Live XML.

Affiliates who import their xml into their database were not affected.

We deeply apologize for this period of downtime.

Small Correction for Affiliates

2007-09-10T13:39:00.001+01:00

Dear Affiliates,

Apparently there was a tiny thing that was not clear inside the affiliate control panel:

In the statistics page, there was this message displayed: "Warning: No impression tracker detected"

This message means that there is no impression recorded for the period (Iframe) or the impression tracker is not installed (XML)

I have changed the message to be "No impression or no impression tracker detected."

Our engineers have also corrected the iframe script to be more accurate when counting the impression coming from affiliate websites.

I hope this is clear enough! If you have any question post a comment or send an e-mail to affiliates [ a t ] moveandstay [ d o t ] com

Affiliate Commission Payment

2007-09-07T14:56:00.000+01:00

I wanted to make a reminder regarding the commission payment:

Your affiliate commission will be paid only if Moveandstay get its commission from the property.

If a client make a confirmed booking (booking status is set as Booked) and cancel his reservation before arriving at the property, no commission can be paid to the affiliate.

Our accountant team will contact you by e-mail as soon as a payment is about to be sent.

If you have any question regarding the payments, please send us an e-mail to affiliates [a t] moveandstay [d o t] com

Validate Your Affiliate Contract Online

2007-09-06T10:20:00.000+01:00

No more hassle to scan the affiliate contract and send it by e-mail or fax
Using our new affiliate control panel, everything can be done online:

1. Login to Moveandstay affiliate control panel and click CONTRACT (top menu)
2. Read the contract (your commission level is clearly specified)
3. Tick "I agree with Moveandstay Affiliation contract"
4. Click ACCEPT button

DONE!

You can of course still print and fax the contract to our office: +66 2 235 6626 or send us the signed contract by e-mail to affiliates [a t] moveandstay [d o t] com

Affiliate Control Panel: Feedback Needed

2007-09-05T12:23:00.000+01:00

I am pleased to announce you that Moveandstay affiliate control panel is now ready to be discovered.

I would like to know your opinion about this new tool we developed specially for our affiliates.

From now on, you will be able to track impressions, inquiries and bookings your site generates. You are also able to see the lead/booking and commission status LIVE

GET STARTED NOW!
Just follow the 4 easy steps below:

1. Go to affiliate.moveandstay.com
2. Affiliate ID: Enter Your Affiliate ID
3. Password: Enter Your Password
4. Click Login

FEATURES
You get access to your account summary and discover all sections of the control panel such as:

- Home: A summary of your account including the latest news from our Blog
- Your Contact: Update / modify your contact details
- Earnings: See LIVE the commission breakdown for a selected period
- Statistics: See the impression, leads and bookings for a selected period
- Iframe: Get more content using Iframe script
- XML: Get more content using XML + install the tracker to record impression
- Banner & Links: Feature Moveandstay banners or text links and earn commission
- Contract: Review your affiliate contract online with your commission level
- Tips / FAQ: Get the latest tips and answers

Let me know what you think, give me your feedback!
Just send an e-mail to affiliates [a t] moveandstay [d o t] com

P.S.: For all commission payments, you will receive a report by e-mail from our accounting team.

Top Real Estate Websites

2007-09-04T18:14:00.000+01:00

I just looked at this website today and it says that Moveandstay is 27th in the...

TOP 100 REALESTATE SITES

"The Best Real Estate Sites were collected in this rating and sorted by popularity. Worldwide real estate companies directory and property buyers and sellers guide."

Add your site now!

More on your website comparison

2007-08-30T15:17:00.000+01:00

If you enjoyed using Alexa relating to my last post, then you'll also enjoy this new traffic and popularity metrics tool called AttentionMeter which triangulates graphs from Alexa, Compete & Quancast all into one easy to use interface.

Warning: these tools can be addictive

How to compare your website with competition

2007-08-28T12:07:00.000+01:00

If you would like to know how your website visitor traffic ranks with competitor websites, check this website and put your website URl in the search box. It will return some interesting results about your website and its performance.

Alexa offers an interesting ranking system that provides a quantitative (but approximate) measure of your site's traffic. You might think of Alexa.com as a form of Nielsen Ratings for websites. It also gives you useful information on your site, such as the number of sites linkings to yours, the speed of your site, and comments from users as well.

As an example, let's take a look at the Alexa report for Moveandstay website. Our website was apparently the 64,132th most visited website during the 3-month period ending August 27. Also, based on Alexa's estimate, 401 other websites link to us and most users come from the US and Singapore.

You'll find other useful websites and software giving you an estimate on your site performance such as Indexa or the link popularity check at Marketleap.

How to improve your Google ranking in 30 minutes

2007-08-22T13:58:00.000+01:00

If you are looking at optimizing your serviced apartment website (and have not done so until now), I recommend you to check this video.

Warning: for the real SEO experts, you won't learn anything new in this video.

Promote your apartment on a free classified site

2007-08-21T16:13:00.000+01:00

One very easy way to generate (potentially lots of) traffic to your site is to post your apartment listing on a classified site. There are plenty out of there but only a few do generate decent quality traffic. So, based on the city you have your apartment, you shall choose carefully which site you shall focus on. I tell you, posting everyday takes time and may not pay off right away. Therefore, here's a few tips:

1- Try to find 10 popular classified sites in your city
2- Go on Alexa to check each website rankings
3- Take the top 3 highest ranked on Alexa
4- Create your listing with attractive title
4- Post a listing on each site everyday for 2 weeks
5- Check and compare your stats (traffic AND Leads/Bookings) after the 2 weeks

The challenges:
- You usually can't post the same listing day after day so you'll need to change description everyday if you want to post everyday as i recommend
- Posting everyday can be time-consuming and generate no results => you must track to make sure your efforts are paying off
- Some very good sites like craigslist.org or gumtree.com are very crowded, and your listing appears on top for a few minutes before "drowning" in the rest of the listing

Outsourcing:
IF you are interested in outsourcing this work, you may come in contact with us :)

What are you most interested in?

2007-08-09T13:44:00.000+01:00

We have been working for 7 years on proven working technics to improve results in terms of leads generations and bookings, and we would like to share some with you. We just need you to tell us which subject you are most interested in at first. You may choose from the topics below and drop me an email at gael at moveandstay dot com and tell me what you need to know/improve most:

7 Effective Techniques to Handle Long Stay Enquiries
10 Ways to Improve Booking Conversions
20 tips for Generating More Leads Online
How to (and Why) Create A Video Podcast for Your Serviced Apartment
5 Best Ways to Answer Client Emails
20 Recommended Websites That Will Boost Your Presence Online
Checklist On Your Search Engine Optimization
Optimizing your ad spending on Adwords, Overture and MSN
3 Highly Effective Ways to Online Partnerships
10 Tips On Handling Your Property Reputation Online

How to market your serviced apartment online

2007-08-06T12:20:00.000+01:00

You'll find below a few tips you may have missed to market your serviced apartment online effectively:

1- Register your apartments on all apartment portals (ie. Moveandstay.com)
2- Post your ad at least weekly on Free classifieds websites (ie. craiglist.org, vivirama.com, vivatreet.co.uk...)
3- Paid listings on Google (Adwords), Yahoo or Microsoft advertising programs
4- Search engine optimization= link your site with other relevant sites, and make sure your web pages are easily readable for search engine robots

A few other tips you may be interested in, in what we call the web 2.0 world:

5- Have a blog and update it regularly with text but especially photos of happy clients, renovations, events, new menus at your restaurant etc...
6- Write something amazing (a story about a funny client, the craziest request you have had until now, etc..) articles and submit it to social network website like Digg.com
6- Make videos of your apartments and/or city and post it on YouTube
7- Make a (video) podcast
8- Create a lens en Squidoo.com about serviced apartment in your city
9- Make "artistic" photos of your properties and post it on Flickr

One thing to remember though: when you do web 2.0 marketing, always remember to write or do things that truly matters to your clients/audience.

What's keeping us busy

2007-07-18T11:52:00.001+01:00

- Booking Engine: set your rates and availability online
- New top menu bar
- New registration page
- New Virtual Office Section
- New Homepage
- Other top secret ideas we have but won't reveal to the competition (we know you're watching us! :)

You're welcome to add new features you'd like to see on Moveandstay in the comments!

New feature: "Visit this apartment"

2007-07-18T11:10:00.001+01:00

Users can now make appointments with you to visit the property

We are receiving between 30 to 50 long stay enquiries per day. That's around one thousand in one month and until now, we have done very little to assist both users and apartment owners to meet and deal directly (we believe the conversion shall be much higher if we do it this way).

Therefore, you shall start receiving new emails with the following title: "Mr/Mrs. X would like to visit your apartments". Within the email, you'll see the time and date of the suggested appointment. If you are okay with it, simply "confirm" it so that the client receives a confirmation with your exact address, contact name and phone number.

When you meet with the client, we'll ask you to cooperate and inform us on the outcome of the appointment (whether the client wants to sign the contract, or not) so that we can track on the status of each enquiry. Should the appointment be successful (contract signature), we shall send you the invoice in order to collect our commission.

As you can see, our system is based on cooperation and trust - we believe very much in this system as everybody benefits from it. Should you have suggestions and ideas on this specific topic, please do drop us a line/comment below.

We'd be happy to interact with you...

Important announcement for apartment owners

2007-07-12T10:45:00.000+01:00

This does not concern serviced apartment listings.

We now screen enquiries for you and arrange appointments with clients.

We are changing our system in order to make your (and our) life easier. You will no longer waste time receiving unqualified requests and we will put all our efforts in securing appointments with actual tenants really interested in your apartment.

Higher chance to find a tenant - We will process and filter each enquiries before you receive it. You shall receive only pre-screened visit's requests from tenants wishing to view the apartment before signing a contract with you.

Pay on performance - It is still free for you to list your apartment(s) on Moveandstay.com. We simply add a markup on top of your rental price (ie. 1.25%) - which represents our agency fee. If you sign a one-year contract with one of our client, we shall charge 15% off the first month. That's it.

Your apartment appears on other websites - our new model allows us to syndicate your apartment listing to plenty of relevant websites. All enquiries will handled the same way as on Moveandstay: only actual and serious visit request will be sent over to you.

If you wish to continue listing your apartment based on these new terms and conditions, you do not have to move a finger!

If you wish to remove your apartment listings from Moveandstay, please contact us (do not forget to add your account number so that we can act accordingly).

Booking engine: Do you want to a tester?

2007-05-12T11:09:00.000+01:00

We are currently developing a booking engine that will allow apartment owners and managers to:

1- Set prices based on calendar
2- Set availability for all apartment types
3- Receive confirmed bookings with instant payments
4- Integrate this booking engine on your own website

If you wish to use this new feature or at least, give a try, please let us know by email [contact [at] move and stay dot com] and we'll give access to the first 50 (offer reserved to serviced apartment managers for now)

Serviced and self-catering apartments

2007-02-12T10:27:00.000+01:00

You may have seen that we have recently changed a few sections on Moveandstay and added the term "Self-Catering Apartments" on several pages. There is a good reason for this: the offering in Europe is just too overhelming and we just had to add "some" of these apartments in our listings. We ended up having more than 2,000 "self-catering" apartments, so we created a new section so that our visitors can see clearly the difference in both offering as explained below:

The main common points:
- You may rent the apartments for a day, a week or a month
- You will find that most of our apartments are centrally located
- All apartments are fully equipped

The main differences:
- You get someone cleaning your apartment every day (or at least 3 times a week) in a serviced apartment
- You do not have a reception area and lobby in a self-catering apartment
- Self-catering apartments are closer to regular apartments in terms of privacy and self-service"
- Serviced apartments are closer to hotels in terms of service and access to facilities (gym and pool)

Usual clients:
Serviced apartments => business people staying for a few weeks or months
Self-Catering apartments => Tourists allergic to hotels, with a need to "feel" a city

My wish list for 2007

2006-12-28T15:42:00.000+01:00

We have plenty of wishes for this coming year (as usual), but I would like to share with you some of them:

Wish #1: Interact more with our partners
Wish #2: Serve our clients faster and better
Wish #3: Have a speedier website
Wish #4: Better experience on our control panel
Wish #5: Partner with many more companies in the Europe and US

As for wish#1, our blog should be part of the solution - and I hope you will comment on that specific blog with your own wishing list!

For wish #2, we now have reservation staff in Bangkok, Barcelona, Paris and hopefully, soon in London. Being in key cities will allow us to be closer to our clients and be even more reactive when a need arises.

Wish #3 and #4 are very much technical - but so important for the experience of our clients and partners like you. We are aware that adding or editing properties on Moveandstay has not always been easy, and sometimes very frustrating. So we have to improve our system and make it more user-friendly.

We have started in Asia, but we are now conquering the European market as wish #5. It takes lots of time to travel, meet the right people, check the quality of the apartments and learn how to work together. But we are getting there, and by the end of next year, Moveandstay shall be well established in Europe and in the US soon after.

Now this is your turn - I hope to receive lots of wish lists from you!

Let's talk...

2006-12-27T17:05:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody and welcome to Moveandstay's blog that I have called WriteandSay - a way for us to communicate with serviced apartments owners, managers and agents.

We have now thousands of partners and we figured that the best way to communicate with you, was through blogging. Thus, myself (Gael) and several of my colleagues will post regularly in order to keep you updated on improvements at Moveandstay.com. This will also be an opportunity to exchange ideas, give comments and feedbacks (from you of course).

We're very excited to start this blog (with you) for this coming new year 2007!

Gael Ovide-Etienne
CEO, Moveandstay.com