Offering temporary temporary apartments can be an expensive prospect when done correctly.
I know two different guys who act as go-betweens (as ByT Argentina does) between the owner and the renter. The biggest complaint my buddies have is that Argentine owners of temporary rentals don't like to spend a centavo on anything if they can possibly avoid it. The idea of extra sets of sheets upsets many of them - the maid just has to make sure she gets to the apartment early and get the sheets to the laundry so she can retrieve the sheets later and put them back on the bed. Same with towels. Maintenance, repainting, et al - heh. My buddies won't work with Argentinos who are like that. They just recently dropped an apartment because the owner was too cheap to provide good service.
Seems to me what Splatter is offering is quite reasonable, provided that he is providing good service to his clients. I would agree that in a temp apartment I never paid expenses either, but that's a minor detail that I'm sure he can work out. I was paying $700 USD for one bedroom apartments in Palermo (NOT studios) in 2007 - I can't believe that anyone would think that is a high price for a temp apartment a couple of blocks away from Palermo in Almagro 7 years later.
Mariano's vehemence surprised me a bit. But then again, he's got a picture of "Che" Guevara as his icon, maybe that says about everything?
One can disagree without such verbal vehemence. I don't see Splatter's offer even close to being a rip-off.
Which reminds me. I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day. He's a US citizen living here as a resident, married to an Argentina. He has a high-end remis service. He started with a Lincoln town car imported from the US and has since expanded with some other locally-purchased luxury cars. He targets wealthy or business travelers with a high-end experience from the airport to apartment and anything during the stay that might be needed.
I asked him why he hadn't been seen on BA Expats recently. He commented that he'd had enough of people who basically shot their mouth off without any kind of governor as to what they were saying or who they were hurting. Specifically, the straw, he was accused of being a fraud and a rip-off by a respected member of the forum (who shall remain nameless unless he wants to make a comment) because his service is expensive. He was accused of making false comments (like threatening people that taxis would rob them from the airport to their apartments) and other alarmist things. Even if he said that, I know the guy well and it wouldn't have been a threat I don't think; such an event wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility (I know someone who was robbed right after stepping out of a cab from the airport - two computers stolen as he was paying for the cab, and the laptops were still on the back floor and the backseat of the cab - the guy was pushed out of the way as he stepped out of the cab to get his wallet out and pay the driver - the driver had made a number of calls on his phone during the trip and the guy didn't speak Spanish. Obviously suspicious, but not provable) and I can't see that he is ripping anyone off who can afford to pay his prices because he uses a marketing technique that accompanies the reputation of the city.
I used to use high-end town car services when I was traveling on the company dime. I can understand someone not wanting to pay a premium price for a premium service when other, more economical services are available. I don't use expensive town car services any more because it would be coming out of my own pocket and I'm not a wealthy man.
But this whole thing about ripping people off because someone charges a decent price for such services and/or accommodations is ridiculous.
