short-stay-apartments
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Niko Karstikko and the curious return to room service
At 14, Niko Karstikko loved working the front desk of an eight-room bed-and-breakfast. Years of banking, startups and travelling later, the Bob W co-founder is building hospitality around a question he knows from both sides of the door: what makes a guest feel at home?
Bob W.
Bob W. - short for 'Best of Both Worlds' - is a Helsinki-founded, tech-powered aparthotel operator offering design-led, sustainability-focused apartments across European cities. It blends the consistency of a hotel with the space and local character of an apartment, running an in-house technology stack for self-service check-in, a 24/7 app-based virtual host, and automated operations. Founded in 2018 by Niko Karstikko and Sebastian Emberger, the company operates in roughly a dozen countries and close to 20 cities, positioning itself as a lower-carbon, lower-cost alternative to both traditional hotels and short-term rentals.