Why?

Stagland, the managing company running Erzsebet19 Apartment has been on the travel market since 2016. It is a family business dealing with short-term accommodation and event organisation. We are specialized in larger group, family and business travellers who are travelling together but prefer to sleep in separate single beds. Our main market was stag and hen groups organized in Budapest. We were very successful financially however we had many conflicts with our neighbours and locals due to the behaviour of our groups.

During the pandemic in 2020-2021 we mainly focused on business travellers, sport teams, bigger families and even offered our apartment for free to doctors and nurses, who were serving the people during the hard times. We were pleased with the results and did not want to return to the more problematic party groups. We realized that we need to change and create a more sustainable accommodation for our guests, but the change of the types of our guests was only the first step in reaching our goals. In the beginning of the Ukrainian war, we took in refugee families and helped them to find long term accommodation in Budapest.

Before the pandemic Budapest’s downtown faced the impact of overtourism. Most of the young tourist groups arrived at Hungary’s capital for hen or stag parties and just a small number of them for the culture or for sightseeing. The short-term rentals faced a lot of conflicts with the residents and the authorities, and this issue is still unresolved because of the lack of proper regulations. Our idea would be to transform the short-term accommodation audience to responsible tourist groups, who care for the environment and believe in sustainability. Our commitment as an accommodation provider is to strive for the different types of sustainability certificates and labels. Our accommodation receiving a certificate would not just stand out from the crowd and be more visible to get booked by more eco-minded guests but would also get the opportunity to create and maintain an eco-friendly short-term rental and at the same time “offer” a calmer life to the locals.

Unfortunately, we are facing another global crisis, the energy crisis. Our sustainability commitment is now even more important, and we are implementing energy saving measures in our accommodation, which means lower heating options for guests and the highest rated energy saving appliances. We hope our guests will join us in this collective effort to get through these challenging times.

We would also like to show that Budapest is offering a lot more than just parties and ruin bars. Our capital is absolutely worth a visit even without a crazy nightlife and can be enjoyed in a sustainable way with much lower environmental impacts than those involved with party tourism. Finding the right balance regarding economic, social, and environmental issues can and will also improve tourists’ experiences and this process must start with the offered accommodations, like short-term rentals when it comes to big cities and urban tourism in general.