The Blueground is an alternative to sites like Airbnb and VRBO with a focus on longer term rentals of at least a month long and furnished with a premium aesthetic consistent across their global apartments. If you’re a traveling professional, digital nomad, or tend to have extended stays in one of 18 major cities around the world, then the Blueground has a lot to offer. It basically gets right a lot of what Airbnb gets wrong but unfortunately the Blueground has a lot to learn about what Airbnb and sites like it get right. You can watch my full review in the video above or read on.
Booking And Cost
The way Blueground works is it rents out apartments in 18 cities like Washington DC, Madrid, Istanbul, and Dubai. Their design team then furnishes all of those apartments with similar shelves, beds, televisions, and aesthetic touches. The benefit of that consistency means you know the style you’re going to to get inside the apartment. A modern, minimalist, metallic, white and black look. And it’s a look that’s welcoming and really easy to settle into. The floors and furniture are all nearly new – and the apartments are all professionally cleaned before you show up.
Searching for an apartment is fairly standard although Blueground isn’t entirely upfront about their pricing. You’re shown the lowest prices – no matter the duration or dates the apartment is available – unlike hotel booking sites or Airbnb. You can adjust the dates for a more accurate listing of available apartments but nearly always the difference between a 1 and 6 or 12 month rental is significant. Listings also don’t immediately show you the final price, which can be 30% or more expensive due to utilities, fees, and other insurance.
The Blueground is a premium service so the higher rates are expected but having to wait several clicks to get the final price is a bit disappointing. Ultimately it makes budgeting more difficult.
The Actual Apartments
Once you do book a place though, the furnishing and top notch. The furniture from the couch to the granite tables, and minimalist lamps are all new or in very, very good shape. You’ll have at least one large screen TV with complimentary YouTube TV giving you more than 85 channels to stream from. The silverware and pots and pans are high quality and the kitchens are fully stocked. The refrigerator, coffeemaker, microwave, and other appliances are updated and you definitely don’t feel like Blueground have skimped on interior furnishing. It’s a premium service that does deliver on a premium feel.
Bed sheets and blankets are really soft, I’m not sure what the thread count is but it feels like linens you’d find at a high end hotel. When you move in, Blueground also have some fancy shampoo, conditioner, and lotions waiting for you as well as soft towels a hair dryer, and ironing board.
The Internet connections too are lightning fast.
What’s Lacking
The Blueground does a very good job of the premium experience. The apartments are very nice, the customer service is responsive, and their app lets you manage your bookings and find out useful information like where to put out the trash and wifi password. On the flip side the site search listings don’t show final prices and there are no reviews of apartments available either. Lacking community feedback can be disconcerting, especially since changing apartments carries a $1,500 fee.
Blueground do fill a niche for the growing digital nomad, remote working population looking for consistency in high end temporary accommodations. Still, they have a lot to learn from their established competitors Airbnb and VRBO, starting with transparency.
Great review on the Blueground service and I agree with the comments regarding price transparency, hidden costs, and insurance. Thanks for sharing. However, there aren’t many companies that offer such premium services. Within a week or a few day’s notice one is able to secure an apartment in a major city. I tend to jump between Blueground and HelloLanding.com. Are there any other services you have used in the past?
I’m currently evaluating a few others (you can keep up with updates here: https://foxnomad.com/about/newsletter). I can’t give recommendations per se yet, but Sonder and Zeus Living are alternatives. Hope this helps!
I would not even provide 1 star. Extremely disappointing and terrible experience.
I booked a long term 3 month stay at a Blueground property and was immediately charged 1 month (over $8,200 AUD). Within hours of the booking, I suffered an unexpected injury that left my foot in a brace. I immediately contacted Blueground asking for a cancellation (within hours of making the booking). Blueground has refused to refund my hard-earned money, saying that the terms are non-refundable in the first month.
Even after providing photos of my injury, a doctor’s certificate too – still Blueground refuses to give my money back.
I even offered to change the date of my booking, to a date after I have recovered from my injury – still Blueground refuses to compromise.
It seems this company is unethical, immoral and has poor values. This company would prefer to take people’s hard-earned money, and provide absolutely nothing in return.
I do not understand how the people in this company sleep at night, or how they think this is a moral way to conduct business. Companies like this do not last.
Whatever you do – DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY. They will steal your money.
Worst experience ever. Everything doesn’t work, when you need assistance they program a maintenance but they arrive with over 3 hours late and they left with more problems that when they came