Apartments Rent the Sun and More S.L.

Placement organization

Name of organization: Apartments Rent the Sun and More S.L.
Town/city: Barcelona
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.rentthesun.com

Name of student: Leanne Peute

Specialist area: MT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Apartment rentals
Organization’s activities: RentTheSun is a company which is specialised in holiday rentals. There are 31 apartments from one to twelve persons in Barcelona. The apartments are all near by or in the city center of Barcelona and are all luxury furnished.

They are committed to maximise the enjoyment of the customers. The company also wants to give the customers a pleasant and comfortable stay in different places like Barcelona, Madrid and Rome. RentTheSun receives customers from across the world.

The main office is located in Barcelona. In the company are working interns with various nationalities. This is a good service to the customer, because most of the customers can speak their own language when they have contact with RentTheSun.
Target group of the organization: Tourists and Business people
Company culture: Informal company where you are able to show a lot of initiative and where you are having a lot of responsibilities.

Number of employees: 15-20
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes, more than that!

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Customer service: Check-ins and Check-outs, administration, Marketing, managing affiliates etc.
Brief description of your daily activities: Doing Check-ins and Check-outs, answering emails, calling customers, processing new bookings, making plannings for the week, searching for new affiliates
Brief description of your company assignment: Marketingplan about the German market to make solutions how to increase the number of German bookings at RentTheSun. I had to compare the German and the Dutch market, because there is a huge difference in the number of bookings of those two countries. The plan has to be implemented at the end of my internship.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Amazing supervision, you will have a lot of feedback and the person is always able to help you and to give suggestions! The person is always around.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Friendly, very flexible, independent, sociable, team player
Additional company requirements for this placement? Google Analytics, English writing skills, Microsoft Office
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French: Basic
German: Basic
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: metro

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? yourself
How did you go to work every day? by foot or public transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? Yes, NIE-number
How did you arrange the necessary documents: Went with a Spanish colleague to the Police Office
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 3 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, the office language is English

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 100
Accommodation (monthly): € 525
Local transport (monthly): € 30
General costs of living (monthly): € 150
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: € 10.30
What did the company pay for/to you? €150 per month for transport and financial compensation

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Spain is not that different from the Netherlands so I did not prepare.
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: leannepeute_@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Don´t search for an accommodation near by a touristic attraction, because the prices are very high. But in average is Barcelona very expensive in case of accommodations.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Barcelona has so much to offer! There are the touristic attractions but most of the things you have to discover by yourself. There are a lot other students living in the city. You have to find out a lot when you start an internship here, but you will develop yourself more and more.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link