Write and Say

Are You Addicted to Sport?

2009-06-26T05:02:00.004+01:00

According to a recent survey, Moveandstay team is practicing regularly 11 sports in total. I detail below the variety of sports we are doing:

Badminton
Cycling
Fitness (including BODYPUMP™)
Golf
Kitesurfing
Running
Soccer
Swimming
Tennis
Walking
Yoga

In average our team is exercising 2,5 hours per week (some of us are doing sports up to 9 hours a week).

Of course some few staffs do not practice sports at al but we hope that after this article they will discover the benefits of sports :)

A Buzzle article: benefits of playing sports mention the following:

"Playing sports is very beneficial for the development of social skills in a person. Sports teach a person to interact with people, act as a team. They foster collective thinking and develop planning skills in children. Sports build confidence in children and give them a sense of accomplishment. Sports thus play a vital role in one's social well-being. "

and

"Playing sports serves as an excellent exercise, which has a wide variety of health benefits. It reduces blood sugar level and reduces the risk of blood cholesterol. Playing sports decreases the chances of hypertension and several other stress related disorders. Research has revealed that people who play sports regularly can deal with stresses and strains in life in a better manner. Depression, anxiety and other psychological disorders are less probable in people who indulge in sport activities. "

Another article related to sports benefits and therapies says the following:

"Some of the most proficient advantages of sports include development in:

- Proficiency in various sport skills

- The person's skills that are needed to socialize among the peers and adults. - Confidence and independence of the person

- A sense of success, triumph and achievement

- Leadership qualities and skills

- Agility, endurance, coordination, speed, strength and flexibility

- A sense of cooperation and competition

- Ability to accept responsibility and make decisions

- Imagine, appreciate and express emotions

- Good working habits

- Temperament

By participating in sports, the person gets to:

- Promote physically fit and healthy style of living

- Develop motor and physical skills

- Increase personal development like focusing on the task at hand, being on time, listening to what others say and trying the best possible

- Learn how to win gracefully and lose respectfully

- Experience injury and pain and learn how to work it through

- Learn how to handle criticism and take coaching

- Help others in the team

- Encourage positive attitude in life"

If you are interested in living an healthy life, you can also see the Benefits of biking to work

As someone said, "the hardest part in sport is to lace up your shoes".

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Sydney

2009-06-19T10:52:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Sydney:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Sydney

A drastic difference between setting up a business in Sydney, Australia, as opposed to Bangkok, Thailand, or Manila, Philippines, is the country’s economic and political stability.

For this reason alone, making Sydney your home‐base is not only a sensible one, but the egalitarian nature of the people, and democratic outlook on both foreign and native‐born workers, makes becoming part of the Australian business community one of the most promising in modern times. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Hong Kong

2009-06-18T11:00:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Hong Kong:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Hong Kong

Hong Kong is not necessarily a completely foreign country. It must be remembered that the city was under British rule up until recently, and while there is certainly a distinct Chinese flavor to it, Hong Kong houses its citizens very similar to the way any American city would.

Most properties available for rent are in good condition, and are usually unfurnished. Very few serviced apartments allow daily stays. Normally you’ll be looking at a minimum stay of 30 days. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Kuala Lumpur

2009-06-17T11:07:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Kuala Lumpur:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Kuala Lumpur

Moving to Kuala Lumpur is no easy feat. There is the culture‐shock you will undoubtedly feel upon your arrival, as well as the nagging feeling that you should be working when you’ve been spending all your time trying to find furnishings for your new office space.

There is a deep‐seeded desire for every businessperson to have the perfect office; one that is clean and conducive to a relaxed and efficient work environment. Bear in mind that the solution to your worries about finding the right look for your office can be found with a serviced office. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Singapore

2009-06-16T11:11:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Singapore:

Practical Guide For Business Travelers Coming to Singapore

When deciding where to operate your business, many considerations need to be considered. What kind of governmental regulations and requirements are imposed on small, or, conversely, large businesses? What are the differences in protocol between the two?

One of the most important things to consider is what kind of lifestyles will your employees have? In doing so, you will allow the people working for you to not only enjoy the place they work, but their living situation will be far more pleasant. Download Now

eBook: Practical Guide for Business Travelers Coming to Bangkok

2009-06-15T10:34:00.000+01:00

Today we have released one FREE eBook related to Bangkok:

Practical Guide for Business Travelers Coming to Bangkok

Bangkok is a huge hot spot for tourism. In fact, it is

considered one of the most desirable tourist destinations

in the entire world because of the vast amounts of

tourism experience by this city each and every single year.

The industry of tourism is alive and thriving in the city of

Bangkok and that is something that can be taken

advantage of when planning business expeditions in the

beautiful and tourist filled city. Download Now

Advanced Web Ranking and Moveandstay: A Case study

2009-06-05T09:38:00.010+01:00

My team and I've been using daily Advanced Web Ranking, a website positioning software produced by Caphyon, for a month now and if you want to save hours in your SEO works and be more productive, here's a review of this great SEO software.

At Moveandstay, we are extremely focused on search engine optimization and we need to track 5 websites with hundreds of keywords related to serviced apartments and serviced offices. That clearly means a bunch of data to be tracked and analyzed on a daily basis.

We started with one city in year 2000 (Bangkok, Thailand) and then another one (we were checking daily and manually our rankings in Google, Yahoo! and at that time- Altavista) and after 5 cities and dozens of keywords, we started to look for a more efficient and effective way of working.

We tried several solutions on the web (i.e. Digital Point Solution, WebRanking or AgentWebRanking) and I was a bit disappointed by the results because the updates are not automatic and to me, the way of displaying the data is not very natural.

Most importantly, the results were not 100% accurate. All of this made me think we had to change our method of tracking our search engine rankings for all our keywords.

We then discovered Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) on some dedicated SEO forums. After checking out demos and very interesting graphs from people we like to read, we felt that AWR were for us.

We tried the free demo (the version we tried is Advanced Web Ranking 6.5) for one month and we totally liked the software. What I clearly like in this software are the following:

GENERAL

- It is "Plug & Play" (you do not need to search for information or "learn" anything before using it
- The Interface is very clear
- The system updates itself automatically
- It does not ask for password, cachka protection or anything annoying
- The search engines covered are the most important ones (Google, Yahoo, MSN Search)

MORE SPECIFIC

- You can load the last project you used automatically
- You can compare your previous search engines ranking
- You can import a list of keywords from a text file, URL, Google suggest, etc
- You can view the evolution in time for websites, keywords and search engines
- You can schedule the report you need (it does on schedule a keyword check), AWR will generate this report for you

- You can see your popularity among search engines (very interesting concept)
- Interestingly, you have a submission tool where you can manually submit your websites to around 400 search engines and directories

You will find below some screen shots to make up your mind:

The Assistant

The Keywords Ranking Changes

The Keywords Ranking Changes Evolution in Time

The Keywords Interface

I and my team greatly recommend this software and I would conclude by simply saying: Advanced Web Ranking made our SEO work much more productive. kudos to them!

Male & Female Equity in Our Offices

2009-05-29T11:18:00.005+01:00

At Moveandstay, we are concerned about equals right for men and women

It starts simply by having the same amount of employees who are males and females in our offices.

That is the case... we have nearly the same amount of persons being male and female (with a small advantage for females)

This was done totally into a natural process and this leads to harmony among the co-workers.

As we all like statistics (don't we?) Moveandstay office has a staff team made of 53% females and 47% males.

I found some interesting definitions about equality between men and women on the website of the United Nations

Equality between women and men (gender equality): refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that womens and mens rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of both women and men are taken into consideration recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a womens issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between women and men is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.

Gender: refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between women and those between men. These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context/ time-specific and changeable. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a women or a man in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age.

A number of fact sheets on the underlying concepts have been developed by OSAGI. Read more

This leads me to remind you that if you are looking for a job, we are in need of great people for the following positions:

- Reservation Officer

- Content Manager

- PHP Programmer

- Administrative Officer

You are interested and motivated? Just go to our Carrers page to submit your resume!

Google New Search Method: Wonder Wheel

2009-05-28T11:00:00.000+01:00

I just found out that Google released a new featured named "Wonder Wheel"

You can see the theme of a website by just following the hierarchy of it

What you need to do is:

1. Go to Google.com
2. Search for your keyword
3. Click Show Options on top left
4. Click on Standard view / Wonder wheel
5. See the result!

I tried with Moveandstay and you can browse the keywords associated with Moveandstay.

1. Enable Wonder Wheel as described above
2. Type "Moveandstay"
3. Then click on "Serviced Apartments"
4. Then click on "Serviced Apartments Hong Kong"
5. You get the nice picture as below:

I think this is a great tool, what do YOU think?

General Inquiry Form for Offices

2009-05-26T10:05:00.005+01:00

This post follows my previous post related to making FAST INQUIRY on Moveandstay

In order to customize your needs, we have added a new general inquiry box for serviced offices, virtual offices and meeting rooms.

You are looking for an office and want to speak to a dedicated consultant?

Simply go to our General Inquiry Form for Offices

You have now 2 choices to make inquiry for serviced offices and business services:

FAST: Contact us by e-mail

FASTER: General Office Inquiry Form

FASTEST: Fast Office Inquiry Form

Are You a Business Traveler?

2009-05-21T12:05:00.036+01:00

If you are a busy traveler then the 2 recent blogs created by Moveandstay will probably help you in your quest:

Bangkok Business Traveler

USEFUL INFORMATION & TIPS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS COMING TO BANGKOK

Business Traveler in Asia-Pacific

USEFUL AND INTERESTING TIPS FOR TRAVELERS COMING TO HONG KONG, SINGAPORE, HONG KONG AND OTHER CITIES IN ASIA. WRITTEN BY EXPATS AND FREQUENT TRAVELERS COMING TO ASIA.

Some interesting definition I found on the net related to Business Travelers...

From Princeton

"A business traveler is a traveler whose expenses are paid by the business he works for"

OK... I think business travel is a little bit more than this...

I prefer the one from Myloweslife.com

"Business travel means travel by any covered individual or covered employee of a company outside of their normal routine job duties associated with their current occupation anywhere in the world while on assignment by or at the direction of a company for the purpose of furthering the business of a company. Such travel shall begin when the covered individual leaves his/her residence or place of regular employment for the purpose of going on such trips, whichever occurs last, and shall continue until such time as he/she returns to his/her residence or place of regular employment, whichever occurs first."

or a more detailed one from the US Legal Department

"Business Traveler: while business travel is commonly associated with huge corporations, many small businesses rely on the practice as well to make sales, keep in contact with vendors, market their products or services, and keep up with industry trends (via trade shows, conventions, etc.). Indeed, intelligent choices in the realm of business travel can be a major boon to small businesses hoping to curb spending without sacrificing in other business areas."

I recommend also that you read these very interesting articles:

Business Travel: What's Changing?

Key Trends are Altering the Way Road Warriors Work in the Airport, on the Plane, and in the Hotel.

Best in Business Travel

Where to invest your travel dollars this year

Best travel gadgets of 2009

Get in gear with the very latest essential trip accessories

Moveandstay is always present to help you organizing your business travels. Our friendly staff will help you finding apartments, or offices wherever you go.

Fast Inquiries

2009-05-21T11:54:00.008+01:00

You are a business traveler constantly on the move and you may not have time to search for apartments and offices.

We decided to make things easier for you by doing a FAST INQUIRY on our apartments pages.

As soon as your inquiry is received, our sales department will send you an email with suggestions based on your requirements.

We did the same fast inquiry box for serviced offices, meeting rooms and virtual offices. Our staff will contact you right away to satisfy your needs.

Give it a try now! Just fill your details and click Send Me Listings or Make Inquiry Now

You can of course contact us, our friendly staff are always delighted to propose you a customized solution.

Top 100 Apartments

2009-04-30T09:26:00.000+01:00

In order for you to better choose your apartments or serviced apartments, we have just added a cool new feature: a dedicated page showing the top 100 apartments listed on Moveandstay according to our clients and editors reviews.

This is how it looks:

Give it a try Now!

Top 100 Apartments in Australia & New Zealand

Top 100 Apartments in United Kingdom & Ireland

What is really cool is that you can see this ranking city by city!
Try Top Sydney Apartments or Top London Apartments

You are probably curious to know how it works, we are using the following criteria to rank the apartments:

- Value for Money

- Location

- Staff

- Condition / Cleanliness

- Comfort / Standard

- Food /Dining

If our editors find that an apartment is great, they select it and we add a title Editors' choice! below the photo.

Do you like it? let us know!

Follow Us!

2009-04-27T10:55:00.018+01:00

Moveandstay is now present on Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy our tweets and join us!

TWITTER:

Follow our recent tweet and activities on twitter.com/Moveandstay
Samples...

"Have you ever seen "The Blue City"? http://tinyurl.com/dx8y7y"

"The place on earth where you can see two continents and two seas come together. http://tinyurl.com/dhlqox"

"The Quality Sleep, do you want one? http://www.wikihow.com/Sleep-Better"

FACEBOOK:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86680370385
Get connected and see the latest photos submitted by Moveandstay team
Last photos added: Koh Chang, Thailand company trip

Enjoy!

If you wish to send you your twitter / facebook address, we would love to discover them. Simply reply to this post or send us an email to contact@moveandstay.com

New Feature: Apartment Review

2009-04-17T11:22:00.025+01:00

In order to give you a better experience on Moveandstay we have added today a new feature called "Apartments Review". This will help you to share your opinion with other users about the apartment you stayed-in and see other clients reviews for the next apartment you will move-in.

You can review the property and also Moveandstay performances by just clicking on the link "Submit Review" on the apartment description page.

The review is published after approval from our editors (this is to avoid spam, we do not edit the content). If your review is published, it will be instantly available on the apartment description page. We do have a very strict privacy policy, your name and email address will never be published.

See below the review made by Mr Yoshiyuki M. for Four Season Place Serviced Apartments, Hong Kong

Value for Money: 4/5
Location: 5/5
Staff Performance: 5/5
Cleanliness: 5/5
Room Comfort: 5/5
Food/Dining: 5/5

Comments: "This hotel is number one hotel. Very good access to Airport express, Subway and next to ifc shopping center that is high end shopping place. Hotel has new facility and very good services. Complementary SPA is also outstanding especially view from swimming pool is great. All of staff are very friendly and professional. I highly recommend this hotel if you have a budget. Hotel restaurants are also very good. Especially Chinese restaurant are very famous and considered number one restaurant in Hong Kong. At ifc shopping center, you can enjoy all kind of shopping."

We are always looking forward to receiving your comments and feedback, feel free to submit your review now or simply send us an email to contact@moveandstay.com

Less than 1 minute response time!

2009-03-25T11:37:00.004+01:00

I just noticed that our sales department took less than 1 minute to answer a client request.

Fax: Slowest (write fax, send fax, wait for answer)

Telephone: Slower (find number, call, get answer)

E-mail: Slow (ask question, wait for answer)

Moveandstay Inquiry System (and great staff): FASTER (ask question, receive immediate answer)

Do you have feedback about our friendly staff performance or our inquiry system? Just send us an email: contact@moveandstay.com

Are You Ready for Earth Hour?

2009-03-25T08:54:00.005+01:00

As announced by Moveandstay Team on Twitter and as you may know, Saturday 28 March 2009, 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth you are invited to switch off your lights and every electronic equipments (TV, fridge, DVD players, etc).

See the "official website" related to this event: www.earthhour.org

See also our previous articles on Moveandstay about getting a green environment:

What Moveandstay does to protect the environment
Powering a clean energy revolution
10 simple steps to get a green office

See you soon!

2009-03-24T11:47:00.005+01:00

Hello,

I have arrived to Bangkok 28 days ago, but seems it was yesterday.
It was an amazing and intensive experience. I keep useful advices and learning from everyday I have passed here.
I will go back to Portugal as a better professional.

When you arrive to a foreign country it is usual to think that you are by your own. Not here for sure: I was never alone! Wherever I went, there was always someone ready to go along with me!

There are things we cannot forget and this is one of them, for sure!
Bangkok will always be a special place for me.

Thank you all for make me fell part of the family...for real!

I will keep in touch with the people! Facebook and Twitter are here to help!

Well, I don't say goodbye...I say see you soon!

Raul

Moveandstay.co.uk is launched!

2009-03-24T11:38:00.004+01:00

We have just launched today the new version of Moveandstay.co.uk

You will be able to find Apartments and Offices in United Kingdom & Ireland

You can of course ask our friendly staff for customized advices if you have no time to search

That's the spirit

2009-03-20T09:51:00.011+01:00

Hello everyone,

Following my previous post as intern at Moveandstay...

Imagine that you have a cauldron, a bonfire, special ingredients, a magic formula and a Wizard. Well, I would say you have a magic potion.
Now imagine a Sales Team, a Programmers Team, a Content Team, a Business Developers Team and Managers with "know how". Oh, perfect...you have Moveandstay.com.

Good mood, dedication, mutual respect, self-confidence, mutual help, are just some of the characteristics that makes Moveandstay.com a great place to work.
I can also guarantee that every single people inside the office is special.

Each team member has detailed and specific assignments, but all working together on the same purpose: provide the clients a unique and excellent lifestyle.

It seems nice and easy like this, right?
Please remember that, as posted on the 17th March Moveandstay.com hosts:

1,738 cities in 79 countries

16,484 Serviced Apartments

10,392 Serviced Offices
3,850 Furnished Apartments
1,351 Villas
1,152 Virtual Offices
1,104 Meeting Rooms

This means ringing phones, ringing skypes, incoming and outgoing emails, contact with new providers, emails without reply, time zone, programming questions and technical issues on the scale above.

After all it is not that easy?
True, but nothing is for free!

Take care!

Raul

New main pictures for Moveandstay.com.au

2009-03-19T11:58:00.004+01:00

We have updated the main pictures of Moveandstay.com.au
You can see really nice pictures and the following message...

How can we help you?
We can help you find great apartments or offices for rent for a day, a week or a month.

Most important for us is do you like the pictures?
We can surely help you to find apartments + offices in Australia & New Zealand

Lazy to search? simply send us an email to contactau@moveandstay.com

Today on Moveandstay!

2009-03-17T09:24:00.006+01:00

We added a new feature on our homepage to inform you about the total number of properties available on our website. It is called Today on Moveandstay!

As I write this blog, there is on Moveandstay:

1,738 cities, 79 countries
16,484 Serviced Apartments
10,392 Serviced Offices
3,850 Furnished Apartments
1,351 Villas
1,152 Virtual Offices
1,104 Meeting Rooms

You want to feature your property on Moveandstay?
You can become our partner by clicking here

648,503

2009-03-13T11:11:00.004+01:00

It is amazing how many messages we receive at Moveandstay these days...

I just saw the statistics of my email software and since 09/2005 I got...

648,503 e-mails and counting

These are valid emails (not spam).... It is an impressive number no?

From Lisbon to Bangkok - Internship

2009-03-10T02:47:00.029+01:00

Hello everyone.... or should I say "Sawatdee"?

Before all, I would like to thank Alexandra Pauthier and Gael Ovide-Etienne who gave me this unique opportunity.
They are the persons who made everything possible!

So, introductions and facts:

My name is Raul Oliveira, a 23's good-looking Portuguese guy :) , with a degree in Public Relations.

I work for a Portuguese company called TravelingtoLisbon since February 2008. It is a self-catering apartment company based in Lisbon.

A couple of months ago, Alexandra and Gael offered me the opportunity to come to Moveandstay office, in Bangkok, for a month of internship. (Alexandra is my TravelingtoLisbon’s Director and Gael is Moveandstay’s Director)

My mission is to improve my marketing skills and global knowledge…and what a good opportunity!

I arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport on the 24th February, at the end of the afternoon.
After doing the usual things (Visa, luggage, different map pick up, etc…), I went to meet Gael at Baan Chaopraya's residence. The trip from the airport to there took around 40 minutes.

After my arrival here, Gael quickly appeared. He offered me an apartment in this building for my first days in Bangkok. Well… I was expecting an apartment, but what I have found was a “mansion”!
Please confirm what I am saying: http://www.moveandstay.com/bangkok/apartments_description.asp?id=30949

After a few hours of sleep (“blessed’” jet lag) I was ready to go to the office. Gael showed me the way, which seemed easy, but didn't stop me to get lost (twice) on the next days …

The office is located in a very nice high floor building. Inside, my first impression was good: a large entrance hall, four big elevators and wide corridors. The office appeared on the left, spacious and well decorated.

Everyone in the team were, are and I think will always be, extremely nice and caring with me, always prepared to help and to make me feel good and comfortable.
Words are only words… nothing as such as acts!

I would like to really thank you all for the warm welcome…thank you, thank you all!
Unfortunately these few lines are not enough to write everything I would like to say, but I will get back…soon!

Laew phob gan mai,

Raul

New Moveandstay Logo

2009-02-11T09:12:00.013+01:00

When launching Moveandstay.com.au on February 2009, we included a brand new design and a new booking engine, we also have released our new logo to enhance Moveandstay brand giving it a simple and clear look.

Compare to our old logo, it looks fresher, simpler and more noticeable.

The + inside this logo symbolizes the combined solution of Apartments and Offices worldwide that Moveandstay provides.

What do you think about our new logo? Leave us your comments!