The way into business, step by step:
From the first monthly due date (after 7 days) the rent is joined by 90 € utilities per game month (see “Running costs”). An established studio still brings about 75–110 € surplus per day after all fixed costs. The first days bring less: reputation and word of mouth start at 0, early requests come almost entirely via the portals (18 % commission), and with reputation 0 your market price sits roughly a quarter below that of an established house. That is exactly what the goodwill month and the deposit starter help are for — the fixed costs of the first weeks are deliberately small, so the slow ramp-up is affordable.
On every free house slot you have two options. Prices are calibrated against the real Leverkusen housing market — what counts is the size (furnished warm rent per m²) and the location of the house. Values for the Ahornweg town house (location ×1.00):
| Apartment | People | Size | Rent / month | Utilities / month | Move-in (renting) | Purchase price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | 2 | approx. 30 m² | 650 € (≈ 21.70 €/m²) | 90 € | 1,950 € (1,300 + 650) | 95,000 € |
| 2-room | 4 | approx. 55 m² | 950 € (≈ 17.30 €/m²) | 130 € | 2,850 € (1,900 + 950) | 220,000 € |
| 3-room (from level 9) | 6 | approx. 85 m² | 1,400 € (≈ 16.50 €/m²) | 170 € | 4,200 € (2,800 + 1,400) | 350,000 € |
The utilities (internet, power, heating) run as a fixed amount per game month for every apartment — even while it stands empty and even when you own it (buying only removes the rent). Details in the “Running costs” section.
Small furnished flats are the most expensive per m² — just like on the real market. In better houses everything scales with the location: in the Hafen loft house (×1.30) the studio costs 850 € rent and 123,500 € to buy — but nightly prices are higher there too.
🤝 Landlord’s goodwill: Your very first rented apartment costs only half the rent in month 1 — once per save, after that and for all further apartments the regular rate applies.
🤝 Deposit starter help: Only for the studio as your very first rented apartment the deposit is not due at move-in — together with the goodwill, the studio move-in costs only 325 €. Instead you pay the deposit off in 4 equal instalments per game month, collected automatically together with the rent until it is complete (1,300 € for the studio = 4 × 325 €). If the money is not there for an instalment, it simply stays outstanding and runs along with the next month — this creates no rent arrears and no termination. If you move out or the landlord terminates, only the part already paid in counts (refunded or lost) — the outstanding rest lapses without replacement, nothing is claimed back. Buying out likewise credits only the part paid in. Every further rented apartment costs the full deposit at move-in.
Renting is the way in: deposit (2 months of rent) + first month of rent, after that the rent runs every 7 days — even while the flat stands empty. Buying is the savings goal: it costs real money once, but after that only running costs apply and nobody can give you notice. Careful: every further purchase gets more expensive by a factor of 1.45 — per apartment you already have (rented ones count too). So the second purchase costs 1.45 times, the third 2.1 times the base price.
Buying out: Buying out means: buying the apartment you are renting — the only purchase path without the 1.45 mark-up. You can take over a rented apartment at any time for the purchase price of its location minus your deposit (studio at Ahornweg: 93,700 €) — without the 1.45 mark-up, but only with no rent arrears. That equals roughly 144 months of rent: buying out is no bargain but the long-term savings goal — and at the same time the cheapest path to ownership, because only here the 1.45 mark-up does not apply.
⏱️ The game runs in fast-forward: 7 real days are 1 game month. That is why the monthly rent comes every 7 days — it is not four times the rent, because your overnight earnings come in just as fast: one game month of rent faces one game month of earnings.
A rental month therefore lasts 7 real days. What is collected is one combined monthly debit: rent + utilities (650 + 90 € for the studio), plus the deposit instalment (325 € for the studio) and the caretaker subscription where applicable — the message itemises all parts. This runs automatically, even while the flat is empty and even while you are not playing, but never pushes your account below zero: if the money is not there, rent arrears build up (over rent AND utilities). For perspective: rent plus utilities for the studio equal about 106 € per real day — two and a half occupied nights a day cover them, so one running 3-night booking is almost enough.
While the deposit starter help is still running on your first rented apartment, the deposit instalment is collected together with the rent — the message lists it (“+ 325 € deposit”), and the apartment card and the Numbers tab show the outstanding rest until it reaches 0.
Since 30 Jul 2026 every apartment has two kinds of costs — just like in real life. Keep the fast-forward in mind: 7 real days = 1 game month, so all monthly amounts come every 7 days (and a month of earnings comes in just as fast).
How is it collected? Rented flats pay rent + utilities in one monthly debit on the rent due date (itemised in the message). Owned flats have their own monthly due date from the purchase or buy-out — buying only removes the rent, the utilities keep running.
If the money is not there: for rented flats the familiar rent arrears build up (two unpaid months → termination). Owned flats cannot be terminated — but from two unpaid months of utilities the power is cut off: no new requests come in for that apartment until you pay the arrears at the room card. You never lose the apartment itself.
🔧 Caretaker subscription (from level 4, switch right on the room card, per apartment): 100 € per game month. In return — for that apartment only — half the chance of faults, automatic repairs (10 instead of 15 minutes, 40 % cheaper) and automatic furniture replacement 20 % cheaper (see furniture wear). When you switch it on, the first month is due immediately; afterwards the subscription runs with the apartment’s monthly debit. If the till is short on the due date, the subscription pauses itself (message) — no debt, switch it back on any time. Note for existing players: the old 2,600 € one-off purchase was replaced on 30 Jul 2026 — anyone who had it got the subscription activated on all apartments (switch off any time, no refund).
Does the caretaker pay off? Roughly from 2–3 fully booked apartments, or when you rarely look in: he saves ~40 % per fault (typically 60–110 €), replaces furniture 20 % cheaper (56–140 € per replacement) and prevents star losses because broken things never linger. For a single, actively managed apartment, doing it yourself is cheaper.
If you have not opened the Apartment Empire for a while, the game halts completely. Not throttled, not halved: halted. The moment you open it again, everything carries on exactly where it stopped.
When that happens is up to you. On the start page, below the game tiles, you will find the collapsible box “⏸️ Pause setting per game”, where you set for each business separately when it should stop while you are away. Without a setting of your own the default of 6 hours applies. For the Apartment Empire you can choose 6, 12, 18 or 24 hours, or 2 or 3 days — the long steps are harmless here, because a game month takes seven real days anyway. Your choice takes effect the next time you open the game, and every action in the game restarts the clock.
⚠️ Do not mix the two up: the 6-hour window for new requests (see “Guests and bookings”) is something else and cannot be adjusted. It always bites first — after it, the business still runs, only nothing new comes in.
Both sides stop — and that is the whole point:
| Stops earning | Stops costing |
|---|---|
| Corporate contracts pay no monthly instalment | Rent and utilities are not debited |
| (new requests had already stopped before that — see below) | Deposit instalment, caretaker subscription and obligations pause |
| Furniture does not age, nothing breaks |
You can no longer lose an apartment while you are away. Rent used to keep running even when nothing was coming in — with an empty till that became two unpaid months, and the landlord gave notice, deposit gone. That cannot happen any more: while the business is frozen, no arrears build up at all. The same goes for owned flats — no more “power cut off” just because you were on holiday.
Your corporate contract does not lose a single instalment. A six-game-month contract pays six monthly instalments — with a break exactly as without one. The break pushes the payment and the contract end back together; so you get your money later, but in full.
What counts is your last click, not whether the page is open. If you leave the tab lying around without touching anything, your business halts after the same time just as it would with the window closed — otherwise leaving it open would be a trick. If that happens while the game is running, a bar appears at the bottom: “⏸ Paused”; one click on it is enough and everything carries on at once, no reload needed. Every other action counts just the same: accepting a request, changing a price, switching tabs, opening the page.
What this means day to day: until it halts nothing changes, not a cent. The real brake is and remains the 6-hour window for new requests (see “Guests and bookings”) — anyone who drops by briefly every day never notices the freeze at all. It is not a penalty but a safeguard: you gain nothing during the break, but you no longer lose anything either.
Five areas with two levels each. Every level permanently raises the nightly price and brings stars. Level 1 of the beds is mandatory: without a bed the apartment is not ready to occupy and receives no requests.
| Area | Level 1 | Level 2 (from Lv 4) | Level 3 (from Lv 12) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🛏️ Beds & mattresses | 280 € · +5 €/night · +0.10 ★ | 700 € · +9 €/night · +0.18 ★ | 1,600 € · +8 €/night |
| 🚿 Bathroom & towels | 260 € · +5 €/night · +0.10 ★ | 680 € · +9 €/night · +0.18 ★ | 1,500 € · +8 €/night |
| ☕ Kitchen & coffee | 320 € · +6 €/night · +0.09 ★ | 800 € · +10 €/night · +0.16 ★ | 1,900 € · +8 €/night |
| 📶 Wi-Fi & tech | 200 € · +4 €/night · +0.11 ★ | 540 € · +8 €/night · +0.20 ★ | 1,500 € · +8 €/night |
| 🪴 Décor & homeliness | 230 € · +4 €/night · +0.12 ★ | 560 € · +7 €/night · +0.22 ★ | 1,500 € · +8 €/night |
| 🌿 Outdoor space (from Lv 5) | 340 € · +6 €/night · +0.08 ★ | from Lv 15: 890 € · +11 €/night · +0.14 ★ | — |
| 🅿️ Parking & access (from Lv 7) | 420 € · +7 €/night · +0.08 ★ | from Lv 15: 1,100 € · +12 €/night · +0.12 ★ | — |
Upgrading all seven areas in full: 15,320 € for +143 €/night and +1.88 stars.
Since 30 Jul 2026 three pieces of furniture wear out and break eventually — not on a fixed counter, but by chance: with every guest night the probability rises a little. A bed can die after 750 nights or last 3,000; on average:
| Furniture | belongs to | average lifetime | replacement price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🛏️ Bed | Beds level 1/2/3 | ~1,500 guest nights | 280 / 700 / 1,600 € (per level) |
| 🛋️ Sofa | Décor level 2 (designer furniture) | ~1,000 guest nights | 560 € |
| 📺 TV | Wi-Fi & tech level 2 (smart TV) | ~2,000 guest nights | 540 € |
One night takes 35 minutes of real time, and you are paid night by night — not up front. The nightly price is built like this: (base price + amenities) × house location × reputation factor × guest type × your price mark-up. From that, 🌐 portal bookings pay 18 % commission to Booking & co. — direct bookings are commission-free (distribution under Upgrades raises the direct share). Plus running costs per night: 7 € (studio), 10 € (2-room), 13 € (3-room).
👥 Per-person surcharge: Every additional guest from the second one adds +10 € per night — just like in a real apartment complex. Example: studio base price 59 €, 2 people → 69 € per night; a family of four in the 2-room flat pays +30 €. The surcharge is shown on request and guest (“incl. +10 € for 2 people”) and scares nobody away: demand and reviews keep calculating on the base price — higher occupancy is simply more profitable.
The guest mix is calibrated against Marco’s real complex (as of 31 Jul 2026): about half of all requests come from companies — 🔧 fitters (×0.95, from level 2, 1–2 people, 3–7 nights, want a kitchen to cook for themselves) and 💼 business travellers (×1.25, from 3, want Wi-Fi). Roughly a third are 1-2-person private guests: bargain hunter ×0.85 · late sleeper ×1.05 · long-stay guest ×0.88 (from 5, stays 7–12 nights). Families (×1.00, from level 2, 3–5 people) are the exception at ~12–15 % — they need the larger flats. Plus, rarely: fault-finder ×1.10 (from 6, strict) · influencer ×0.90 (from 8, only from 3.8 stars) · party guest ×1.30 (from 13, breaks things 4 times as often).
Tip: In the studio (2 people), two-man crews sleep just like in the real business — 1 in the bed, 1 on the couch (the request shows this once the flat has a couch, i.e. décor level 2).
You set your own prices: a mark-up or discount of −30 % to +80 % on the market price. Demand reacts noticeably — towards +85 % it drops to zero and your rooms stand completely empty.
The key rule: it depends on whether your rooms are full. While beds stand empty, every discount brings in more than it costs — an occupied night at 45 € beats an empty one at 60 €. Only once you regularly have to turn requests away because you are fully booked does a mark-up pay off.
Early on that almost always means: price on the cheap side. Later, with a good reputation and several apartments, the best point moves up — measured over 30 game days with a well-occupied business (final wealth): −20 % → 48,972 € · normal → 93,581 € · +20 % → 77,957 € · +60 % → 16,097 €.
Do not let the first days fool you: with sky-high prices the daily net looks good at first, because the starter requests sell dearly. The slump comes once no new ones follow. Too cheap is wrong as well: a full house for little money.
👥 Per-person surcharge (since 31 Jul 2026): On top of the finished nightly price come +10 € per additional person from the second one — example: a 59 € studio with 2 people = 69 €/night, 3 people in the 2-room flat = +20 €. Important for your pricing: the surcharge is independent of the price dial and costs you no demand — elasticity and reviews only use the base price. Fully occupied rooms are pure profit: the studio with 2 people earns +10 €/night over a single guest, at zero risk.
At the start nobody knows your place — just like Marco experienced in real life. Word of mouth grows with every completed stay (portal guests count too) on a square-root curve: 0 % → 100 % after 30 stays, fastest at the beginning — about 41 % after 5 stays, about 71 % after 15. The price card shows the progress (“📣 Word of mouth”) until it is full.
🌐 Portals: toggled per house (Upgrades tab). Listed, you have full reach from day 1 — the portals bring 75 % of the maximum requests without any word of mouth. In return they take 18 % commission on the overnight earnings of every portal booking (🌐 mark on request and guest). Direct bookings are commission-free.
Strategy: stay listed at the start (nothing works without it) and build word of mouth and reputation on the side. At full word of mouth you can delist if your rooms fill up anyway — or stay on and book the 18 % as rent for reach.
Your reputation starts at 0 stars — a new host has nothing to show yet and has to offer cheaper (at reputation 0 the price factor sits roughly a quarter below an established house). The base is the average of your last 20 reviews, dampened at the start: reputation = average × n / (n + 3), n = reviewed stays. With straight 4.5-star reviews that means: after 1 review 1.1 · after 10 3.5 · after 30 4.1. So both count: the number of stays and their quality — good amenities bring better scores and lift the reputation faster. Reputation steers both how many requests come in and how much you can charge per night.
How quickly you react to a request is a ranking factor on the real portals. In the game there is a simple bonus for it: accept a request within 30 minutes and that booking gets +0.15 stars on its review.
Every review can be answered — with one of three suggestions that fit the score. It costs no money, only attention, and it is the small daily task the game did not have before.
Your reply rate (share of answered reviews among the last 20) works on your reach:
| Reply rate | Effect on the number of requests |
|---|---|
| below 60 % | −8 % |
| 60–90 % | none |
| above 90 % | +8 % |
Guests make requests with a deadline of 20 minutes. Fulfilling them costs 0–6 €: extra towels 4 € · water 6 € · coffee capsules 5 € · explaining the Wi-Fi 0 € · a parking tip 0 €. Given the +0.08/−0.15 stars, these are the cheapest stars in the game — always fulfill them. The guest host (4,200 €, from level 8) does it automatically.
After every checkout the room has to be cleaned, otherwise nobody can move in. Three options:
After about 3 % of bookings something breaks (4 times as often with the party guest) — from a dripping tap (180 €) to a heating on strike (280 €). While the fault persists, it costs stars. Repairing yourself takes 15 minutes at full price. The caretaker subscription (100 € per apartment and game month, from level 4, switch on the room card) repairs automatically in 10 minutes, 40 % cheaper — and halves the fault rate for that apartment. Details in the “Running costs” section.
Events move almost only the demand, hardly the market price. You only earn from them if you turn the price dial yourself beforehand — which is why they are announced hours to days in advance.
Long stays automatically get a discount: from 4 nights −10 %, from 7 −20 %, from 14 −30 % per night. In return you save cleanings and have no vacancy — long-stay guests are solid, but no longer automatically the best deal.
The house price does not buy the building — it opens up the room slots in it (a contract with the housing company); you then rent or buy each apartment individually. A better location adds to every nightly price, but also makes rent, deposit and purchase price more expensive:
| House | From level | Opening up | Slots | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahornweg Town House | 1 | — | 4 | ×1.00 |
| Lindenplatz Period Building | 5 | 25,000 € | 4 | ×1.08 |
| Villa Sonnenhang | 10 | 75,000 € | 5 | ×1.18 |
| Hafen Loft House | 16 | 220,000 € | 5 | ×1.30 |
18 room slots in total; opening up all houses costs 320,000 €. Buying every apartment on top lands you in the millions with the 1.45 curve — realistically you mix renting and selected purchases. Full ownership is a long-term goal for months, not for a weekend.
This is the biggest lever in the late game — and the only one that breaks the real ceiling. The ceiling: requests only arise for 6 hours after your last action, and the rate grows exactly as fast as your portfolio. Ten apartments therefore sit empty in the same proportion as one.
Every one to three real days a company asks for long-term accommodation for 2 to 6 game months. Accept, and the apartment is occupied around the clock — even if you do not look in for days on end. The money arrives as a monthly payment.
What it costs:
What the company asks for: kitchen level 2, Wi-Fi level 2, a parking space, a 4.0 rating and full word of mouth. That takes one to two active weeks at the earliest — the start is not made one bit easier.
How many you may hold: one per four apartments (rounded down), plus one per five levels above 15. With 6 apartments that is one, with 12 it is three. The bulk of your business stays in the normal game — and that is deliberate.
Calculated (Ahornweg studio, fully upgraded, rating 4.6, +20 %): individual letting about 3,010 € per real day at 34 % occupancy, corporate contract about 6,540 € — a factor of 2.17 for that one apartment. Across six apartments with one contract that makes the business ×1.19.
Extending is only possible in the final game month, at the price valid then. If a contract runs out while you are away, the apartment sits empty until individual requests pick up again — which is exactly why you get a notification for it.
These upgrades belong to the whole house — bought once, they apply to every apartment in it (Upgrades tab, 🏘️ card).
| Upgrade | Price | from lv | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🔒 Key safe with code | 1,200 € | 6 | waiting-time penalties disappear · one more booking can be held (3 instead of 2) |
| 📲 Door-code lock | 4,800 € | 12 | +0.10 ★ per stay (needs the safe) |
| 🛂 Online registration | 3,500 € | 17 | unlocks 🌍 international guests (needs the door-code lock) |
| 🧺 Your own laundry room | 2,400 € | 10 | laundry 9 € → 3 € per person and stay |
| 🧺 Ironer & dryer | 3,600 € | 19 | laundry 3 € → 1.50 € |
The laundry is new and belongs to the cleaning: 9 € per person and stay, shown on the room card („cleaning 14 € + laundry 2 × 9 €"). It only applies from level 6 — the start stays untouched. Cleaning yourself costs it too: laundry is material, not labour.
Does it pay? With six apartments the laundry costs about 363 € per real day. The laundry room saves two thirds of that and pays for itself in roughly 10 real days — the ironer and dryer need about 59 real days, that is a late-game purchase.
🌍 International guests only exist in houses with online registration. They pay well (factor 1.15), stay 4 to 8 nights and review kindly. Since 1 Jan 2025 foreign guests are the only ones who have to register at all — which is why the guest type hangs on this upgrade and not on the level alone.
A harbour loft (location ×1.30) and an Ahornweg studio do not have to carry the same percentage markup. From the second house the price card offers a switch: 🔗 all houses together (default) or 🏘️ each house on its own.
Change nothing and you lose nothing. When you unlink them, every house first takes exactly your previous value — not a single price changes at that moment. An attentive player gets roughly 4 % more out of the same portfolio.
Minimum stay (1, 2 or 3 nights, per house): shorter requests never arise for that house in the first place. That costs requests and saves cleanings — roughly a zero-sum game. It is a matter of taste, not a right and a wrong button.
Worth knowing: since 1 Aug 2026 a request comes in via the listing of one house and only fits there. Otherwise you could make one house cheap to generate requests and book them into the expensive one.
Word of mouth is full after 30 stays — usually within the first active week. After that a second bar runs: your brand, from 30 to 400 completed stays. That takes weeks instead of days.
It expressly does not raise the request rate. It pulls at two other places:
Measured together that is about +17 % in the reference business. Corporate contracts do not count towards it — they produce no stays in the brand sense.
Cologne takes 5 % of the room rate, since 2025 from business travellers too. In the game Leverkusen follows suit from level 15: the town announces it 12 to 24 hours in advance, then it applies — permanently.
It is the only cost item that grows with your success — rent and utilities are a rounding error in a settled business, the tax stays noticeable. That is exactly why it rises in the late game: it is the counterweight to the extra apartment slots from the attic conversion.
Not every euro comes from the night itself. You switch on these four positions per house in the Upgrades tab; guests then add them on their own, as often as they do in real life.
| Extra | one-off | guest pays | take-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🅿️ Rent out the parking space | — | 7 € per night | 35 % |
| 🐕 Pets welcome | 450 € | 12 € per night | 8 % |
| 🕐 Early check-in / late check-out | — | 25 € per stay | 15 % |
| 🚲 Two rental bikes | 900 € | 12 € per day | 12 % |
From the second apartment on, your letting becomes a business — and a business has paperwork. The amounts are small; the point is that they exist and that somebody checks them.
| Item | per apartment and game month |
|---|---|
| 📻 Broadcasting fee (one-third rate) | 6.12 € |
| 🛡️ Landlord liability insurance | 22.00 € |
| 🚨 Smoke alarm servicing | 8.00 € |
| 🏛️ Business registration | 40 € once, from apartment no. 3 |
They are debited together with the rent or the utilities — no separate date, no second number to keep in mind.
One switch per house: “require a deposit (250 €)”. The party guest causes damage four times as often and pays nothing for it so far — the deposit is the answer to that.
| deposit off | deposit on | |
|---|---|---|
| Requests for this house | 100 % | 92 % |
| 🎉 Party guests in the mix | full | halved |
| Damage after checkout | you pay | covered up to 250 € |
On the numbers it does not pay off, and that is deliberate: at a 3 % chance of damage and about 200 € average damage it saves roughly 6 € per booking — against 8 % fewer requests on a booking worth about 630 €. It only pays where plenty of party guests book. It is meant to be a decision, not a button you simply press.
The card also shows what the deposit has really covered for you so far — so you can do the sums yourself.
When there is no further house to be had, you build upwards. The attic conversion creates one more apartment slot in a house you already own.
| House | Slots | Price | from level |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🏠 Ahornweg Town House | 4 → 5 | 30,000 € | 13 |
| 🏛️ Lindenplatz Period Building | 4 → 5 | 45,000 € | 16 |
That grows the world from 18 to 20 apartment slots.
Since 30 Jul 2026 you can offer breakfast per building (Upgrades tab, 🥐 card) — strictly optional: without breakfast everything plays exactly as before.