Our New Year’s Resolution

It is always tough to start the New Year. After making positive (but hard-to-keep) New Year’s resolutions, promising to transform ourselves into super-humans through better habits, we need to remember the things about ourselves which are worth saving! Frogner House Apartments have decided to bring that forward in our company’s New Year’s resolutions: We will be true to ourselves.

(Foto: FHA)

With all our plans and grand ideas for the future, we will maintain the homely and personal atmosphere. We will ensure that our guests are comfortable and feel at ease while living with us. We will respect their private life and personal space, and at the same time offer friendly care should they need our assistance – or just a conversation.

We will work to ensure that the communication and booking process is as simple and quick as possible. We hope to be so familiar with you that we know what you need, even without you having to ask. Considering every contact person as a friend or family member, rather than conforming to a “strictly business” relationship, means that we care about your needs and your happiness. Taking care of your surroundings, for example at work, the same way you would if you were at home, is a sure way to achieve a good atmosphere!

(Foto: FHA)

With care, friendliness, smiles and positivity, we look forward to each day knowing we can do something nice for someone else. It may sound selfish, but doing nice things for others is the easiest way of making yourself feel good, which is a well known fact at Frogner House Apartments. Just offering to get someone a coffee while you’re on your way to get your own, may cause a smile and warm a heart. We make an effort to create smiles every day. Spread the positivity!

Frogner House Apartments mission, “Home Whern You’re Not”, captures our chore value. This is the essence of our company, an ethic we live by, and what we believe will create the best possible living experience for travelers in Oslo.

Expanding your rental opportunities!

Frogner House Apartments have incorporated two new addresses to our portfolio. These fully renovated apartments with classic interior design provide ready homes for happy residents!



Thereses gate 20

Spacious and convenient for travellers and families who will be staying a little longer: Leases are 1-3 years!

All the apartments are newly renovated and modernized in light, delicate colours, but still carry the original and well-preserved details like stucco and rosette, exposed wooden beams on the top floor, etc. They have 1-3 bedrooms, living room with sofa and dining table, flat screen TV, internet and a homely atmosphere. Kitchen, bathroom and all furnishings are brand new and fully equipped. It’s clean, inviting, and ready to use!



Our ambition of bringing the exclusive and comfortable Frogner ambiance to all our buildings has really been achieved in Therese Gate 20! Situated opposite the tram and bus stops Stensgata and Bislett, residents have easy access to the rest of the city. Grocery store, fitness centre, restaurants, cafés and other shops are in the immediate vicinity.

These apartments all fall under the concept ‘serviced apartments’, and offer tenants the use of our maintenance services on request.

Odinsgate 16



This building is an extension of our flagship Skovveien 8, renovated using the customized design to create a luxurious, yet homely feel. The apartments here are larger: One or two bedrooms, living room and a separate, fully equipped kitchen with both dishwasher and washing machine. Flat screen TV and Wi-Fi are complimentary, making this a comfortable, functional and homely alternative to hotel living!

Odinsgate 16 is at the heart of Frogner, with the tram stop Elisenberg and bus stop Frogner kirke close by. Some of the city’s best restaurants are in the neighbourhood, as well as bank, post office, grocery stores and different speciality boutiques. The reception in Skovveien 8 is only a 5 minute walk away, making Odisngate 16 an accessible address for both short and long term rent. Even with the added facilities in each apartment to facilitate the residents’ independence, the service level of this building follows suit from Ullevålsveien 1 and Arbinsgate 3 and is available on request. In other words: A familiar concept, expanded!

The entire staff of Frogner House Apartments is looking forward to being of service, and warmly welcoming new residents to our newest homes!


More homes to come!

As we already announced with our Dusty Days campaign and previous blogs (not a rumour and clean canvas and bright ideas), Skovveien 8 is undergoing renovations, and the much anticipated re-launch of this flagship building is drawing nearer. But have you realized that we are also adding 2 completely new buildings to our portfolio?

Odinsgate 16 is opening in September already, with newly renovated, traditional Frogner apartments. These hotel apartments are slightly bigger than what we’ve had before, with up to 3 bedrooms! It’s perfect for those who like to work from home, those travelling with their family or for those who find it more practical to share with a colleague or friend. These apartments fall in under the same concept as Ullevålsveien 1 and Arbinsgate 3, although their design resembles more the new style of the soon re-born Skovveien 8 with the classic signature details of original Frogner design. Very chic!

In addition, we are working on Theresesgate 20, which will also open this fall. This is a new concept under the Frogner House umbrella, created to satisfy a growing market demand of those staying in Oslo for about a year or longer. These are serviced apartments, meaning that they will also be able to contact our reception and maintenance service when necessary. It provides expatriates the option to rent an apartment on a regular lease, and at the same time offering the reception and maintenance services necessary to allow them the feeling of safety and support when residing in a potentially new and foreign place long term. These apartments are modern; however we have preserved the original plasterwork details and other charming traits which truly encourage the ambiance of our vision “home when you’re not”.

Sometimes when highly anticipated events take place, other happenings tend to sneak by unnoticed. So take notice: We are expanding our product line and growing our business. Yet in spite of fast development, we will always retain our focus to make sure our guests feel at home!

A clean canvas and bright ideas!

Skovveien 8 is now totally empty, all of the old furniture is taken out and inside we have sixty rooms to renovate, fill up with new and homely inventory, great colours and to make a home for you.

The job of renovating in it self is not easy, to do sixty rooms in sixty days and, to make a real homely apartment for our guest is even harder. Still we know that we can do this, we all believe in our self at Frogner House Apartments, and we know that we can create a home when you’re not.

We are filling up the building with great workers, we let our creativity do it’s best and we take all of the good ideas down to writing. Just after to weeks we are starting to see the great changing in the building. Skovveien 8 are being shaped as we have planed and hoped. All of this gives us great hope for the weeks to come. So we are still going strong and keeping up the great work. We are so exited to see the finished Skovveien 8 and most of all we are looking forward to wishing you welcome to a great home!

It is not a rumor anymore, we are renovating!

These pictures say more than 1000 words, work has started and we see progress after each passing day...

LEADERSHIP

Earlier this week we held our second breakfast seminar, and this seminar was also successful. We had several guests who mentioned how the seminar was interesting and new for this type of branch.

The seminar was about leadership and how we in the industry often times can learn from leaders in sports, such as their way to lead a team or how a coach can push individual practitioners to achieve new goals. What the sport often does better is to convey specific messages, make quick decisions in hard situations and the most important: Always provide their colleagues with feedback!

It a beautiful day
so I hade to take
some picture of
the beautiful
Frogner. Enjoy!

You choose!

As you may know, Frogner House Apartments is all about tailoring our services to provide an optimal offer for each guest, ensuring their sense of feeling at home when they’re not. In conjunction with our refurbishing plans of Skovveien 8, already in progress with our Dusty Days corridor make-over, we have decided on adding a range of new services and facilities to enhance and expand our service options:

Choose your room lay-out: When making a reservation, you receive a floor plan and can rearrange the furniture any way you like!

Choose your view: Thin film will be added to all windows on request, displaying the view of your choice. Options include Norwegian Royal Palace, The Norwegian Sognefjord, Norwegian Farm Scenery, New York Skyline, Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers, Tropical Island Scenery and more. The offer is available through online booking here.

Choose your companion: Life-size posters of your favourite celebrities can be ordered from reception. Have someone to come home to!

Choose your flavour: Water filters will be installed in all our buildings to provide optional taste additives to our drinkable tap water: Tastes will include orange, lime, strawberry, peach and mint.

Choose your lullaby: The bedrooms will have speakers installed, in connection with a patented automatic rocking device at the base of the bed. By using a simple remote, you will be able to choose from a list of lullabies, or download your own (USB port), and activate the adjustable rocking motion to lull you to sleep.

Choose your life: We have hired 3 life coaches to support our guests and help them make the right choices – not only at Frogner House Apartments, but also in life! The life coaches aim at empowering our guests, helping them navigate through current life prioritizing and decision making to determine what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.

Choose your bill: How much is it worth? Choose how much you would like to pay for your stay!




Happy April Fool's Day!

Change from 4 to 2 wheels!

So why not write a small text about bikes now when the spring is knocking on our doors, I hope and believe that there are more people than me waiting for streets empty from snow and until the day you can pack a picnic basket and ride out to Bygdøy or why not Frognerparken.

Is there something more exclusive and beautiful way to get around in the city than with a bike? a classic men's or bike for ladies with a saddle from Brooks, a sign of quality and convenience that makes definitive if not 100% sure more impression than a Porsche Cayenne in central Oslo.

In my opinion there are too few bicycles in Oslo, and I hope this will change, look at Copenhagen they have figured out that totally 36% take there bike to work and by 2015 they should reach 50% I think this is something Oslo should find inspiring, the city would be booth more beautiful and also sustainable! So we at Frogner House Apartments promise that from the 1 of April at least 50% of our crew will take there bike cycle to work.

Attractive cities in 2011

Lonely Planet has listed the most attractive cities in 2011; and if they can, Frogner House Apartment can. So here is the list over the cities we at Frogner House Apartments (mostly me personally) find interesting and recommend our readers to take a look at in the year 2011.

1. Oslo – Spring is great! When a city has winter 7 month a year everyone can imagine how people wake up and get an extra big smile on there faces when the first sun arrives and the temperature goes over 10 + Celsius!
2. Amsterdam - A modern and urban Paris with a touch of New York, buy a bottle of Rose wine and enjoy it by the side of one of all beautiful cannels.
3. Miami – Our general manager, Arne, consider this city to be one of his favourites. He has many travel memories among others when he rented a cab and drove to the airport to pick up his friends with Will Smiths classic song Welcome to Miami playing on the radio. I think you get the picture!
4. Delhi – All the interesting story’s guests have told us about India and particular Delhi in the past year have created an enormous interest and personal feeling about this city!
5. Hong Kong – Combines’ the best of all world, enjoy the mountains, skyscrapers and history!

Times changed with Galileo

Speaking of ideas and creativity, I went to the theatre yesterday and saw Galileo by Bertolt Brecht.

(Painted by: Giuseppe Bertini)



The play portrays how the invention of a telescope in the 17^th century brings Galileo on edge with the Catholic Church, as he discovers the movement of planets and moons in accordance with each other. This leads him to the conclusion that the world is not the centre of the universe, rather a part of an infinite, moving universe where the astronomical objects circle around the sun, around themselves and even around each other!

Considering the simplicity of the preceding world understanding, where every single star is attached and moving along a sky dome surrounding our stationary earth to prevent them from falling down on us, it’s no wonder people get confused. After all, if the world revolves around itself, at which point are we upside down? Hang on tight, everyone!

The scepticism and counter-arguments are overpowering. Galileo is told that he is mistaken, and that even if he is not mistaken it would be best not to publish these ideas "for the sake of the morale of the population".

Yesterday’s blog presents that knowledge is more easily available, and the innovative and new-thinking population, independent of social stance, is now the major force for development. Galileo believed firmly in the power of common sense, and that if presented with evidence people would be able to draw logical conclusions and change their perceptions accordingly. He was clearly a man ahead of his time…

Are we there yet?