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This year, renting an apartment on the New Year in Lviv will cost a bit more than in the previous year, but currently there is no rush with daily rent. This was reported to Lviv Now in one of the services of daily rent of apartments.
The biggest rush with renting apartments will begin in late December.
«Now they are booking, but not so actively, we expect the greatest increase in demand for rent closer to the New Year,» – said in the service.
Apartments for the New Year holidays will cost about three thousand hryvnias per day ($110) in the center of Lviv and nearby. If we talk about the cost of daily rent on other days, it is approximately one thousand hryvnias ($37). The service also says that the most popular service now is booking.com, where people most often book apartments. There, the prices for apartments on New Year’s Eve reach even six or seven thousand hryvnias. In particular, we are talking about apartments in the heart of Lviv. For comparison, on the Real Estate website, the daily rent of apartments is now approximately from 500 to 1300 UAH ($19-48).
Roman Senyk, one of the daily rent owners in Lviv, told Lviv Now that this year, one-room apartments are rented out for two thousand hryvnias ($74) during the holidays. Apartments with two or three rooms can be rented from 7-10 thousand hryvnias ($260-370) and more for one night. He notes that most apartments are rented for at least three days.
Currently, accommodation is booked the most between 24 December and 10 January, bookings began in September. He warns everyone to check the sites and pages where they are looking for housing, because there are cases when people are deceived with a cheap price for an apartment and so on.
Most Ukrainians, whether Orthodox or Greek Catholic, celebrate Christmas Day 7 January, which kicks off a season of festivities. This is according to the old, Julian calendar of Julius Caesar. In 1582, the western world, at the behest of Pope Gregory XIII, moved the calendar ahead by two weeks. Eventually, after centuries,the whole world joined, but those in eastern Christianity have kept their original times for holidays.
Because of this there is another holiday, Old New Year’s Day, 14 January–so those wanting to celebrate the occasion with perhaps better rates could cheekily stick to the old calendar.
Comparing demand with previous years
In addition, if we take into account the demand for daily rent during the holidays, last year it was higher, although prices in 2020 were much lower. For example, last year one-bedroom apartments in Lviv could be rented for even 300-350 hryvnias ($11-13) and above, but for the New Year, the prices also doubled or even tripled. In particular, the apartment offered for UAH 300 cost up to UAH 700 ($26), and in the center – up to UAH 900 ($33).
We will add that the real estate specialist Alisa Semeniuk suggests looking for the housing rent through reliable realtors or the specialized websites, otherwise it is possible to come across dishonest people. In particular, the sites doba.ua, airbnb.com.ua, booking.com are very popular and have good offers. You should be a little more careful with the sites olx.ua or «Ваш магазин» («Your Store»). They do not guarantee good faith, do not check the owners for good faith, and therefore there are many cases where people, as if by agreement, could not later get into the apartment they rented.
Sofia Shavranska, Yulia Osym
Translated by Vitalii Holich
You can read a Ukrainian language version of this story here.
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Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.
