Stay-Unique

Placement organization

Name of organization: Stay-Unique
Town/city: Barcelona
Country: Spanje
Website:

Student

Name of student: Nina Kersbergen

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2017-2018

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Apartment rental company
Organization’s activities: Stay-Unique is a small apartment rental company for tourists, they manage around 85 apartments within Barcelona and since 2 years they manage a hotel as well called Barcelona 226. To distinguish themselves from the competitors Stay-Unique tries to be unique, they do this by offering the best customer service possible to guests. The motto of Stay-Unique is: come as strangers, leave as friends, this already sums up what Stay-Unique stands for and this applies not only to the guests but also to the employees and the interns.
Target group of the organization: Tourists
Company culture: The company culture within Stay-Unique is informal, there is no difference between the boss, the employees and the interns, and initiative and your own opinion is highly appreciated. Everyone within the company is coming along very well and the other interns are becoming your friends before you know it. You will have a lot of responsibilities and most of all a lot of fun!
Number of employees: 32
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes!

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

I am working at the office as a office management intern.

Brief description of your daily activities: I have a variety of tasks but my main daily tasks are proceeding bookings, answering emails, contacting guests, answering the phone and having contact with the guests through WhatsApp. However I also have a lot of secondary tasks such as preparing the monthly numbers for the owners of the apartments, doing various marketing based projects, doing check in and check outs whenever needed and working shift in the hotel from time to time.
Brief description of your company assignment: Stay-Unique wants to be unique and part of this process is sending a customer journey to the guests. On the customer journey guests can see an overview of their booking, they can get in contact with the agent who is there to help them, they can fill in a small questionnaire in order to receive a tailored guide with all the activities that would be suitable for them and they can book activities with a discount as well.
The customer journey is still in progress and not a lot of guests are filling it out, my company assignment is to find out why not many guests are filling it out and what we can do to higher the percentage of filled out customer journeys.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The supervision is amazing, I have one official supervisor but you can actually just go to anyone to ask questions and they are more than happy to help you or to meet with you!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Flexible, stress-proof, independent, team player, social.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Ms Office, writing skills
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: I took a plane from Amsterdam to Barcelona

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Internet, the company is rent-rooms Barcelona and I would highly recommend it!
How did you go to work every day? I lived on walking distance from the office

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Your supervisior will make an appointment for the NIE number
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 hours
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No, everyone within the company is speaking English with each other and the company gives you the possibility to follow Spanish lessons 2 times a week at the office.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 90 euro
Accommodation (monthly): € 490
Local transport (monthly): € 10
General costs of living (monthly): € 300
Costs of visa: € 0
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The company offers a compensation of 150 euro per month.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Spain is not much different from the Netherlands so I did not really do anything to prepare myself, have been to Barcelona before so the city was not much of a surprise to me.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: 153081@edu.nhtv.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Don’t pay the deposit beforehand, I have heard a lot of stories of people who did never receive back their deposit.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Barcelona is an amazing city, there is plenty of things to do and so many places and of course the best part of Barcelona, the beach
Just walk around the city and discover everything Barcelona has to offer.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link