Doug and travelbuff you are right. Having explored some of the apartment-style places online now, I see the wisdom in staying put and having a kitchen, and there are places still available at this late date. Would love the B&B rec travelbuff.

Thanks again, folks, you are lifesavers.

I would stick with the Comfort Inn Theater District over the La Quinta since it gives you the real NY experience of New Year's Eve madness and Times Square, but is closer to better dining on 9th Avenue than you will find near to La Quinta.

(Manhattan is at least 2 miles wide at the widest)

The Inn I was thinking about is on W147th St. Called the Harlem Landmark Inn, it's actually in Hamilton Heights a few blocks north of Harlem, and quite honestly in a better area than the first B&B you were looking at on 136th St, I would not recommend that area.

There's also the Sugar Hill in on W 141st and the Inn on W 153rd, I think it's the Apple Inn or something like that, will check if you would like.

The Harlem Landmark is in a brownstone on a National Landmark St, and a block away from the A train which will take you downtown in 15 to 20 minutes. There's a few large grocery stores in the area and a couple of good restaurants, so most of your creature comforts are here. This is one of the fastest growning areas of the city, so it's safe and lots of people on the street even late at night, so this area is pretty safe.

You might check for other B&B's in the city as well, since they will may be a bit less expensive than staying at a hotel.

ellenem, thank you for that info and you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, and I got my numbers wrong, according to ask.com. Manhattan is 13 miles long and a bit over 2 miles wide at 14th St. One of these days I will have to walk from one side to the other.

I'm so relieved!

I would look into the Milburnhotel.com which is on the upper west side. It may not look as flash as On the Avenue on photos online but the rooms are larger and you get a kitchen and free continental breakfast. The Beaconhotel.com is nicer/more freshly renovated but it's often fully booked. Jacksbandb.com and www.wymanhouse.com are nice smaller places in the same area (upper west side) but their payment/cancellation policies will be less flexible and there may be a problem getting 2 regular beds (vs bed & sofabed). For the amount of money you're shelling out, daughter should not have to sleep on a sofabed. They're usually very uncomfortable and a pain to open and close.

I personally think Hamilton Heights is just too removed from things to stay there for a month. If you were going to split the stay in 2 places, then maybe that would be ok and stay somewhere else as a balance.

I think you should be able to negotiate prices down from what listed online almost anywhere if you're staying for 2 weeks or more if you email or phone. If you don't ask, you won't know.

West-eleventh.com and gvhabitue.com in the village are nice & charming but again may not offer 2 separate beds. Sutton Court residences is another idea if they'll give you a break from the rack rate listed online.

Now let's talk about New Year's at Times Square. Read carefully here http://timessquarealliance.com/nye/nye_faq.html I wouldn't stay at the La Quinta for any reason. It's not near Times Square and it's not very nice. The Comfort Inn Times Square or Times Square South are fresher/nicer and closer to TS. Do you know about reviews on tripadvisor.com? Do you realize there are "travelers photos" on the review pages?

Thanks to our great advice, I am researching apartments now and have found there are many available. Some are part of a corporate chain (like Execustay and Oakwood), some are listed by brokers (like this Upper West Side apartment I'm looking at http://www.mmgnyc.com/index.cfm?page=details&id=20674), and some are listed by the owners themselves.

Are there brokers to beware of? Should I expect to put a security deposit down equal to the month's rent?

Thanks again for all your help. (BTW I'm my daughter's FATHER, not her mother as I must have implied earlier.)

Corporate apartment rentals will rent only for a month or more - and are typically much more expensive than illegal private rentals. Anyone willing to rent for shorter periods is doing it illegally - and may be a scam or may just be illegal. If the latter, and other tenants find out about it and complain you could be evicted as trespassers - since you have no legal standing.

The website you listed is no longer live (there are nonspecified technical problems) so I wouldn;t rent anything from them.

as for Oakwood et al, I think the one bedrooms come with one queen size bed - you would have to check the details on that. And their one-bedrooms are typically $5,000 - 6000 for a month since they are usually luxury buildings.

I am looking at one-month rentals only.
Sorry the close parenthesis was not supposed to be part of the link; it DOES work.
http://www.mmgnyc.com/index.cfm?page=details&id=20674

Also try the Atrium on Bleecker.

Have you read the description of the apartment? It a a 3rd floor apartment in a walk-up building. these buildings were typically built around 1900 and have very high ceilings - so there are usually two long flights of stairs (14 or 15 steps for each flight) - so 30 steps between each floor. Not fun for hauling up luggage, groceries or packages. And again, just one queen size bed - so your daughter would have to sleep on a probably uncomfortable pull-out sofa.

The area is fine - and the rent is certainly very inexpensive - but the bedroom is minute. I would try to get details on layout and size - a reasonable one bedroom should be at least 750 sq feet.

Thanks for the great advice. I have been looking now for a few more days and have found a first-floor brownstone on 80th that a private owner has listed for $4000 for the month. You can see it here: http://www.sublet.com/spider/suplr_w...om/&add_url=no
It is a perfect location for us, as my daughter wants to camp out at the AMNH. What do you think? Is a month's security deposit typical?

I'm always skeptical of these so-called sublets. You have a lot more confidence in human nature than I do if you decide to rent this apartment. There's just no way to know if this is or is not a scam. While it probably is legitimate (it appears that the owner is trying to sell a ground-floor apartment in a building he/she owns and is willing to rent it out in the meantime for a tidy sum), who knows?

In NYC, for a real sublet, first and last month's rent plus a security deposit is typical. But I'm not sure I'd be willing to tie up $8,000 dollars in the hope that this is real.

FYI: Just to be clear, are they trying to rent you the 300-sf studio for $4,000 (a particularly horrible deal) or the 750-sf one-bedroom (a bad but not horrible deal)?

If this is on the ground floor you need to be very sure of the security arrangements. Besides the regular building security - do they have just have doublelooked doors to the street or an electric fob system- you need to be sure that all of the window have iron gates on them. There is no way I would rent a ground floor apartment without gates on every window. (At least one will have to be a gate on the inside of the apartment, to which you have a key, n cae of fire.)

And agree - that for a studio this price is out of control.

What research have you done on the owner and the building? (There was a poster earlier in the year who paid in advance for an apartment under similar circumtances - and never heard from the landlord again - just out the money.)


And nothing is typical - since one-month rentals aren't typical. For a regular rental you pay a month in advance, a month security and have to prove your income - plus usually a large fee to the real estate agent.