Fabio

We are a family of 4 looking for an apartment for 1 week in Manhattan.
Any suggestion about a good web site to research ? There are so many..... too many....
thanks a lot !

HappyTrvlr

Apartment rentals in New York are illegal for less than 30 days. There are lots of scams on the Internet so beware.

SueNYC

Well for the most part, renting an apartment for under a month is illegal in NYC so I suggest you consider looking at apartment like hotels like Radio City Apartments.

maxima

New York State Law prohibits the rentals of 30 days or less in most residential apartment buildings. Many of the apartment you see advertised on the internet fall into this category.

One of the reasons this law was enacted, is that the short term rentals in residential apartment buildings are not in compliance with the stricter fire safety laws that are in effect for hotels.

If you rent an apartment that is not a legal short term rental, you will have no refund and no legal remedy if there is a problem. Tenants who rent out their apartments in violation of the law are generally violating their lease and may face eviction. In addition, some of the listings you see on the internet are scams.

There are legal apartment hotels in NYC. Choose wisely. some have great web sales depending on when your visit will be

nytraveler

You can look for people who own their individual townhouse and are willing to rent out a room (but there aren't many and finding one will be difficult).

Otherwise renting for less than 30 days is illegal.

For suite look at Radio City Apts, the Beacon Hotel and the Affinia Group - all of which have numerous suites.

Be aware that many listings online are scams. Several posters here have come to NYC to find the place they rented did not exist. (there were several articles about this in the papers over the last two years.)

And several weeks ago 2 young girls came to my building looking for the apt they "rented" - which didn't exist - and for which they had paid a large amount. Our super ended up putting them in a cab to the police station (really to hook them up with travelers aid - although they were convinced the police would find the real apartment and/or the scammer.)

nytraveler

Fabio -

Just noticed your name. The young girls who came looking for an apartment in my building were from Italy and had booked online from there - so the crime actually occurred in Italy. The person called "George" required full payment in advance - and did not provide anything but an email address.

If you consider looking for one of the very few legal apartments make sure that you have a specific address before booking, that you have the full name, address and landline phone of the person you are renting from, that you use google earth to make sure the building is as claimed (one person rented an apartment in a place that was a community garden rather than a house)and that you have the name of the person IN the house that will be responsible for any problems. Also require references and do a search for both the address and name of the building as well as the web site to search for complaints.

If in doubt - do NOT risk losing all your funds.

Fabio

thanks a lot to all of you !!

Yes I am full aware of scams and crime, that's why I made this post, just to avoid them ! A colleague of mine had the same bad experience some years ago, she sent the money to a certain Wanda Hernandez and the apartment did not exist.
Probably I used the wrong words. I meant holiday apartment for short stays. I see there are many of them on the web like vacationrental.com newyorkstay.com feelnyc.com

but I have no idea whether or not they are enough reliable..

vjpblovesitaly

Try a hotel if you want to avoid scams and crime. "This post" won't do the trick.

nytraveler

Short-term rentals (yes, for holidays ) are ILLEGAL in NYC. To be safe you need to use an apartment hotel - like Radio City Apts, Beacon Hotel or Affinia hotels.

If you search VERY carefully you may find the owner of a multi-million $ townhouse who is willing to rent off rooms short-term to help cover the mortgage - but there are not very many of these (as you would imagine).

Doing anything else you find on the web is just asking to be taken.

These scams happen all the time - and some companies specialize in scamming european tourists who don't know the rules. There have been articles in the local newspapers - one doorman said he had people coming looking for apartments they rented that didn't exist numerous times - almost all europeans.

Unless you are willing to risk all of your money don;t do this.

NeoPatrick

Fabio, I'm confused. You say you want to avoid scams, yet you still ask about a website that is specifically illegal rentals -- scams if you will. In case you aren't listening -- private apartments cannot be rented for less than 30 days in New York -- that includes what you are calling "holiday apartments for short stays". Period. Your only "non scam" solution is to rent an apartment from a legal apartment/hotel like Affinia and others listed above.

ekscrunchy

But there ARE apartments in townhouses that rent for less than 30 days..the ones where the owner lives in the building. I'm not going to delve into this yet again, but they are out there on sites like Flipkey.com, and Homeaway.com.

For one reason or another, there seem to be quite a few in the newly gentrified areas of Harlem, including one owned by friends of mine. This area seems to appeal more to European tourists than Americans.

To Fabio, I would suggest looking on the website mentioned for places in Harlem, if you are willing to stay in that neighborhood. And yes, there are many scams out there, so it might be simpler to just book a hotel room..there are many hotel ideas offered on this forum.

If Fabio wants to pursue the apartment route, maybe some of us can offer out thoughts on places that he finds online..at least we can, hopefully, steer him away from the most obvious scams.

I am all for underscoring the fact that the large majority of these rentals are not legal and that it is very easy to fall victim to a scam. But we also have to allow for the fact that a small minority of advertised short-term rentals ARE legal, and that there are some visitors who do not seem to care if the place they rent is legal or not.

NeoPatrick

I guess it's semantics. But to me if someone is advertising an apartment that is being rented illegally, then it IS a scam. No?

The problem in this thread is that the OP has specifically said he doesn't want a scam. So in my humble opinion that means he doesn't want an illegal apartment. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions here, but that's honestly the way I read his posts -- that he really doesn't understand that most of those "many" apartments he is looking at on the websites ARE illegal and therefore ARE scams. Even if you get away with renting an illegal apartment, you've still been scammed if you rented it thinking it was legal to do so.

nyer

I agree with NeoPatrick's take on this. Also, ekscrunchy just because you know a business you believe is legal that's in Harlem and they use Flipkey and Homeaway, that doesn't mean that Fabio or anyone else can figure out which ones are or are not legal. Those sites don't vet their listings any better than VRBO, do they? Looking at Harlem doesn't really make it more or less likely that its a legal situation either.

If someone comes here, seems understandably confused by some of the sites and is concerned about no scams, no illegal rentals, I think the responsible thing to do is say, yes there may be some that are legal, but it would be impractical (in the opinion of many people here) to do all the research (check listings, check building codes, licenses etc, have someone visit the apartment etc) So the responses often come under the category of other helpful ideas--looking for hotel in lesser known neighborhoods, the names of specific budget hotels people like, etc.

starrs

Here's a hotel with kitchens in the rooms that gets very good reviews - http://www.staytimessquare.com/accommodations.html

"•Kitchen with full size stainless steel refrigerator (and icemaker!),dishwasher, convection microwave, two burner stove top, dishes and cutlery, toaster and full size coffee maker"

abram

There are several apartment style hotels, such as Radio City Apartments, Affinia properties, and The Beacon. Completely legal.

Fabio

ok now I better got all your points about legal and illegal/scams. thanks.

I will concentrate on these Radio City Apartments, Affinia and The Beacon which are legal or on hotels.

doug_stallings

Yes, I think there is some confusion for a lot if travelers, Euroeans in articuar. We don't have very many apartotes r vacation rentas in Nc. That's just not the case in most s vacation destinations but is the case in most US cities on the east coast, unlike in most of Europe.

nytraveler

Fabio -

All of the places you just listed ARE hotels. Some may be called apts - but they really are hotels. The Affinia hotels were originally apartment buildings that were bought by a hotel chain that went through registration and modification as a legal hotel - with all of the additional safety and fire regulations that entails - and they offer hotel services with lobbies and desk staff. (Not like renting an illegal sublet in a building full of long-term legal tenants.)

ac291

we used homeaway.com and got a great Apt not far from Times Square. It was such a great experience! the owner was super lovely and very helpful and even offered us to store our luggage in his studio up the road before our flight (he was a photographer)

just read the reviews and ask lots of questions...

nytraveler

ac291 - but it was illegal, could easily have been a scam. Why advocate that the OP risk their entire hotel budget on one of the hundreds of scams?