Enjoy Apartments

Placement organization

Name of organization: Enjoy Apartments
Town/city: Barcelona
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.enjoy-apartments.com

Name of student: Gaby van Moorsel

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2014-2015

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: apartment rental
Organization’s activities: Enjoy Apartments rents apartments for short, mid and long stay at different locations: Barcelona, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Curacao, Aruba, Rio de Janeiro, Ibiza, Malaga, Madrid, Marbella, Mallorca, London, Rome, Milan, Cape Town and Andorra.
Target group of the organization: Not a specific target group – Families, couples, friends, so everyone who wants to rent an apartment
Company culture: The culture of Enjoy Apartments is informal. Ralph is the boss of the company and the only permanent employee. I had a lot of responsibility, because I was the only one who was a student at the HBO. The other students are all from the MBO, so Ralph expected that I took the lead sometimes.
Number of employees: 1, and 4 or 5 students for their internship
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Product management, Channel management, Revenu Management, Bookings
Brief description of your daily activities: I had to response enquiries/reservations through mail and phone, I checked bookings in our system and an extern system, checked the channels for the calendars, the prices and the descriptions.
And I had to do check-ins and check-outs at the apartments.
Brief description of your company assignment: I’m working on a plan to improve all the communication within the company and to the customers.
So I have to describe the situation from now and how it should be in the perfect situation.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: The communication with Ralph is via Skype. He will give you a lot of tasks, but you can not do them all in that small period. You have to make desicions, which task is more important.. I have a lot of responsibilities.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? be independent, come up with (good) ideas, be flexible, be stress-proof, take your responsibilities
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Internet
English: Advanced
Spanish: Basic
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? www.happycasa.es
How did you go to work every day? by foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: –
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? –
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? If you want to improve your Spanish, yes.

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € €250 incl. suitcases
Accommodation (monthly): € €430,-
Local transport (monthly): € For me, max. €10,- because I go everywhere by foot
General costs of living (monthly): € €400,- but this depends on what you do in your spare time.
Costs of visa: € –
Costs of work permit: € –
What did the company pay for/to you? Nothing

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not.
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: gaby_vanmoorsel@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: You can go and see the typical touristic hotspots, like:
Parc Güell, Arc de Triomf, Sagrada Familia, Tibidabo, etc.

But in the centre of Barcelona, you’re not going to find the typical Spanish culture. Only in el Born, you can feel the real Spanish culture.
Therefor, you have to go to the small villages around Barcelona.

Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: –

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link