Apartum: your saving grace for holiday rentals

Remember the last time you planned a trip somewhere? Maybe you were lucky enough to hit the Samba shaking, caipirinha drinking shores of the beloved Rio de Janeiro or possibly a romantic weekend getaway to Paris. Whatever the weather, there is no doubt that your quest to find a holiday apartment was pretty damn difficult, laborious and time-consuming. You surely spent hours and hours delving through hundreds of poorly designed websites only to leave you feeling like that Christmas in 1983 when you opened your last present, a stuffed toy, when all you really wanted was that ultimate Action Force figure.

Lorenzo Ritella, one of the founders and CMO of Apartum, believes that he can bring order to the chaos of holiday rentals (and to finding me that Action Force figure!). Apartum, branded as “The first holiday apartment comparison site” launched 3 months ago and combines a sleek design, navigable layout and a manageable selection of quality holiday apartments. The design is reminiscent of Airbnb although that’s no surprise considering that 80% of the new websites I come across have the same top photo + search layout. It works for a reason.

Online comparison is a huge sector which has seen the development of search engines and comparison sites, such as Trivago and Kayak, whose main goal is to simplify consumers’ lives by finding the highest quality products at the best prices. Lorenzo explains “Websites like Trivago have radically changed the way people book a hotel, while other sites compare prices for flights, car insurance and credit cards, Apartum is the first comparison site for tourist apartments”. They are tapping into a sizable market with the vacation rental turnover in the US and Europe surpassing $85 billion annually.

Apartum aggregates apartments from the top holiday letting agencies in one simple, easy to use, real-time platform with the positioning of the apartments determined by user ratings and comments. Having used the service I think that they are off to a good start although I’d like to see quicker search results and more developed filters (with map layout). Lorenzo explains that they will be introducing a range of new features very soon.

Apartum currently works with some of the best agencies from across the world such as Flipkey (by tripadvisor), HouseTrip, FriendlyRentals, Only-apartments, Interhome, WayToStay, Directstay, as well as other local agencies such as Apartmentbarcelona, ShBarcelona to compare more than 300,000 apartments worldwide. They operate in 150 major tourist destinations such as Paris, Rome, Barcelona, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, Bali, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne, to name a few. They expect to be opening in another 150 cities in the coming months.

So why use Apartum instead of Airbnb or Homeaway? Well, if you’re looking for a hassle-free stay in an apartment of your own (not shared), with no unexpected surcharges or horror stories to take home, then professionally managed holiday apartments are the only way to go.

The team is composed of Sergi Villaubi, CEO & Product Manager, Lorenzo Ritella, CMO, and Manuel Angel Rodriguez as advisor. Between them they have over 10 years experience in online apartment rentals and online marketing and match their experiences with a passion to grow the company into an international powerhouse. They have previously raised a small angel round and are now raising a more substantial seed round to allow them to build their team up, improve the platform and invest more heavily into marketing.

If you’re your looking for a holiday apartment on your next trip then we suggest you give Apartum a try!