A stay should have character.
Not just square metres.

There is a version of the short-stay apartment that we have all seen a hundred times. White walls. IKEA furniture. A small kitchen to technically qualify as "self-catering." A smart lock that sends you a code and otherwise ignores you. It is optimised for square metres and nightly rate. It is not optimised for memory.

We did not want to build that version.

Character is a decision, not a budget

When we set up our apartments in Essen-Rüttenscheid, the first question we asked was not "how many guests can sleep here" but "what will they remember?" That sounds like a luxury question. It is actually a very practical one — because a guest who remembers something tells someone else about it. And in short-term rental, word of mouth and reviews are everything.

Character comes from specificity. A sofa you chose because it is genuinely comfortable, not because it photographs well. A pendant light that creates a mood in the evening. A kitchen island with bar stools where two people can actually cook together — not just open a microwave.

We did many things ourselves

A lot of the character in our apartments came from DIY decisions. Not DIY as in cost-cutting — DIY as in deliberate. We chose the fireplace because we wanted something that changes the energy of a room in the evening. We chose the sound system because we believe music matters. We hung specific artwork because blank walls are a kind of absence.

These are small decisions individually. Together they say something. They say: someone thought about you being here.

"The kitchen island is where it happens. Guests cook together, try new recipes, open a bottle. That is the experience — not the nightly rate."

The smart home layer

Beyond the physical design, we added a smart home layer. Voice-controlled lighting. TV and sound system accessible by simple commands. The idea is not to be clever for the sake of it — the idea is that a guest should never have to figure anything out. The apartment should just work.

This is where a lot of self-managed apartments fall short. The hardware is there but nobody documented it. The guest either ignores it or messages the host at 10pm asking how to dim the lights.

The Dropby tech layer — the cherry on top

On top of the physical apartment and the smart home setup, we added what we call the Dropby tech layer. A branded WiFi network. A digital guest guide at checkin.dropby.biz/guide with everything a guest needs — interactive map, voice command reference, local recommendations, emergency contacts. All accessible from the moment they connect to the network.

This is not about impressing guests with technology. It is about removing every small friction point that turns a good stay into a slightly annoying one. A guest who never has to ask a question is a guest who gives you five stars.

The Booking.com Traveller Review Award 2026 and our 9.6/10 rating are the external validation of this approach. But more than the award, what reassures us is the specific things guests write. Not "nice apartment." Things like: "I did not want to leave." That is the goal.