Queef Latinah

Hi all. I looked around for posts on Abu Dhabi and there was a lot of useful stuff on cost of living, salaries, schools etc. However, didn't find anything tackling "single guy" issues. Namely;

1. I don't want to piss-arse about buying fridges and mops and paying lecky bills. I'm ideally looking for 1 bedroom fully serviced places. However, such options seem scarce on internet land and/or expensive. I like the look of "Al Jowhara Tower" but asking prices are around 90k AED per year. My budget would be around 80k AED per year- can anyone recommend a building or serviced apartment for this budget? Would appreciate some names of buildings or agent contacts. Worst case scenario I will stretch to 90k but surely there are more options out there...

2. In such places, is it possible to have female visitors staying over? How strict would such expat-centric apartment blocks be? I lived in other parts of the GCC and female visitors were always easily tolerated. I'm hoping it's the same in AD?

3. All the apartments appear to have minimum one year contracts. Are these breakable if I lose my job / resign inside the one year period? My prior experience of GCC suggests that as long as I provide proof from my company that I am leaving, the contract can be cancelled.

Would be grateful for any advice, bearing in mind I am a young(ish) single guy and have single guy needs. I just want to arrive and get on with it, rather than spend time sorting out internet packages and all that jazz. Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

Gavtek

Try looking at Jannah properties. For example: https://www.propertyfinder.ae/en/ren...b-6461380.html

Shouldn't have any issues having guests over.

Usually there's a 2 month penalty for breaking a 1 year lease early, it can vary though.

scrubbedexpat141

Treat your security guards nicely and they won't give a monkeys how many lady friends you invite over.

Can't help on serviced apartments I'm afraid although 90k sounds about right and not a bad deal.

Not sure if that route differs but most private landlords will charge you a couple of months rent to break the tenancy I believe.

archie159

I know lots of people who have stayed for ages in hotel-run serviced apartments (eg Park Rotana, one of the Reem Island hotels [can't remember its name] etc). I don't know what they pay, but you can certainly haggle over prices, but you'll probably find it easier to do this once here. I've also met people staying long term in the hotels out at Yas - Staybridge etc. And the longer you commit to the better the rate you'll be offered - again, you need to haggle over break-clauses. But you can certainly do it month by month if you wish - but you'll pay more than if you commit to eg 6 months, a year etc.
ps - now that I think about it, I am sure I met someone recently who told me he pays about 6k per month. If it was the person I am thinking of, then he is in the Dusit Thani. There are so many new hotels going up that you have a strong position to negotiate once you are here, and can drive around a bit and show them offers you have had elsewhere.

DXBtoDOH

I was being.... ah.... entertained in a hotel apartment when there was a friendly knock at the door from the hotel staff inquiring if everything was fine.

At 11:00 PM, FYI.

Well known international hotel brand in Doha.

Millhouse

Just do a long term through airbnb - my mate does this and it works out great.

scrubbedexpat141

Did you tell them where to go?

DXBtoDOH

My host went and mumbled something at the door.

I did wonder exactly how often he was hosting. Friendly Dutch chap in town for a month for work. Bit of a giant as you might expect. Except in the area where it counts and it was all I could do to not to raise my eyebrow. The saving grace of the interruption was that it killed the mood so it worked out in the long run.

Millhouse

I had pictured this as you hosting - dim lights, a few t-lights, some vegan wine and a box of wet wipes.

DXBtoDOH

What are vegan wines?

Millhouse

Come on - you know. Most wines are filtered through a fish's cod piece

scrubbedexpat141

Fair enough.

Different but I regularly don't answer the front door. Sometimes I know it's not anyone important and sometimes I might look and see it's someone selling watercoolers or whatever and just ignore it. You'd be amazed at the persistence of some people and the expectation that you HAVE to open the door.

DXBtoDOH

Ah. Learned something new today.

jam25mack

I stayed in a Golden Sands hotel when I first arrived back in 2006. They were a pain in the tits when bring chicks home. At the time I was regularly seeing a work colleague and we used to come into the hotel via the side door into the lift, then they started locking it at night so we would go in through the front door only for them to ask for ID (shes Filipino). One night I had a row with them and the cheeky cnuts called up my company (as they were paying) the next day and made a complaint that I was drunk and abusive....! This lead to me being called in by my line manager. The thing was my friend had been injured that night and I had spent all night in the hospital and was stone cold sober. Went back that day and rinsed them. threatening that they would lose the company contract etc. Dicks! As such, it might be worth checking that guests are allowed before you sign the contract.

With regards to now, my friend was in a serviced apartment here, first Tecom and then in the marina Marina. Decent buildings. She paid around 7-8pcm I think, but if you do it on a month by month basis they ramp it up significantly (10-12pcm) over the winter period. Neither of these had any issues with guests as I would often crash on the settee after a night out.

Queef Latinah

Thanks for the advice peeps. Originally I was going to ignore the hotels, because they advertise ridiculous rates (190k per year for a 1 bed apartment at the beach Rotana for one year! Jog on!) BUT based on the above I will definitely visit them and put in cheeky offers here and there. I prefer to deal with incompetent hotel staff rather than incompetent landlords