Chile Forum

Hi, can anyone recommend any serviced apartments or furnished short term apartments to rent in Providencia, Santiago?
I'd appreciate any recommendations. Want to rent for 1 month.

Hi

You could try these:

http://www.portalinmobiliario.com/

They do short term lets. There are quite a lot of apart hotels in Santiago and the prices are quite reasonable. Not sure how it would compare to a short term let but I suppose if you have to pay deposits and such like for a short term let it may be a valid option.

http://www.chilecontact.com/ApartHotels.html

You could search Craigslist Santiago. I found a great apartment in Bellas Artes that way.

If you are looking to rent a long-term apartment in Chile, and want excellent customer service and a hassle free experience, then don't use <banned company name>! My wife, sister-in-law and I recently (April 2011) rented an apartment in Santiago through <banned company name> and it was disaster. The apartment hadn't been cleaned in months! In fact, we told by the concierge that the prior tenants of the apartment had left only an hour before we had arrived! There was dust on every horizontal service, the towels, bed sheets and shower curtains were disgusting, several light bulbs were missing from the lamps - one lamp appeared to have faulty wiring, as our replacement bulbs kept blowing out. One of the beds was an old broken child's bed, with a urine stained mattress. There was even a bag of rotting salad in on of the kitchen cabinets!

I was only scheduled to stay in Santiago a week, and unfortunately, the first day and a half of my visit was spent hanging around as the apartment had to be cleaned: time I would have preferred to be sightseeing. And to make matters worse, the owner of the apartment refused to provide a receipt for the $400,000 pesos in cash we gave him, and Malte Sieber, the owner of <banned company name> has refused to return any of my calls, and has been very rude to my sister-in-law. We used an agency in the hopes of receiving a clean, professionally managed apartment: were we ever wrong.

Sorry you had a bad time with <banned company name> - I used them twice (once last year and once this year) for two different apartments. Both experiences were relatively painless, however, I totally understand what you mean about the dirt! The first apt. we rented, my little kiddos had black feet within minutes of walking around with their shoes off. Once I saw that, I had to do what you did and scrub every single horizontal surface because they all had gunk on them. I emailed our contact at contact chile and told them I didn't mind paying the cleaning fee when we left (seems like there is a cleaning fee for each rental), but that they probably wanted to reconsider who their cleaner was. I thought either the cleaning lady was terrible, or the apartment had sat vacant for a couple of months with the windows open (gathering gunk). We were in that apartment two months and it seems like one day we went out of town and left the windows open and shoot, there it was again, gunk on everything! Don't underestimate the mucky gunk in the air in Santiago! And to think we were breathing all that stuff! Makes you think about getting an air filter.

Our second apartment from them was much nicer. In my opinion, I think the differences stemmed from renting from a male landlord (first apartment) and then a female landlord (second apartment). There were just more "feminine touches" I guess in the second apartment... more art on the walls, useful kitchen appliances, spices in the cupboards, a vacuum in the closet, a mop, a broom, hair dryer in the bathroom, extra rolls of toilet paper under the sink, new sheets -still in plastic from the store- in the bedroom closets, new towels in the bathroom... just made for a much more pleasant experience.

The commission on contact chile is outrageous (in my opinion). So I'd say if you can find something on craigslist that will work for you, go for it.

POST EDITED AND MOVED TO CLASSIFIEDS

My opinion and only my opinion.
Under Classifieds.
I would have told OP that I had a place and to just message me. It did come off as a bit of an advertisement....

having said that. Congrats. Looking at your webpage I can see why you are doing well. Very good first impression. All the best success to you.

Ben,

Are you listed on AirBNB? I found the site here and fell in love with it... only wish I had thought of it.

Ben,

Very nice rental apartment, at reasonable rates, and conveniently located. Seems ideal for tourists and/or newcomers to Santiago who are trying to get their bearings before venturing forth. Best of luck with this business endeavour!

benclark15 wrote:I've been reading these posts with interest, and feel that it is about time to step up and do some shameless promotion of my own business venture! My wife and I rent a one bedroom apartment in Santiago Centro on a short term basis (mainly to tourists) which has been very well received by all who have stayed there. In my opinion it is an excellent option for tourists who want more comfort, privacy and cleanliness than a hostel or a cheap hotel but don't want to pay the inflated prices that the big hotel chains charge. Business has been relatively good and we are currently in the process of purchasing a second property.

For those who are interested, you can check out our webpage: http://www.homefromhome.cl or the reviews some of our guests have left on tripadvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g294305-d1731534-Vacation_Apartment_in_the_heart_of_Santiago_Chile-Santiago.html

Or of course, give me a shout via a Private Message on this forum.

Charles, apologies if this is not the right place to promote my services - if it is not then feel free to remove this post and I'll make a new one in the classified section.

Regards,

Ben

Please move that post over to the classifieds.

Thanks to all for your kind comments and yes, I will move the post over to classifieds. I am indeed listed on AirBNB which I think is a great site in principle, although I'm not a big fan of their commission model.