apartment rental new york
 

Hi, I am just booking our accomodation for this Christmas and New Year in New York. We want an apartment, I think eating out for every meal would get to exhausting and expensive. We have looked at lots of options and are currently looking at few through NYHabitat, and Apartment2you. The best one appears to be one on VRBO. I know they are often scams and am very reluctant to go ahead with it, however it looks beautiful. Does anyone know if this one if for real? it is VRBO listing #169739 100 West 39th Street and Avenue of the Americas. I have asked for a reference (which was supplied) and emailed a guy at Harvard, he said it was all good. I have asked if a friend could view the property, she said we could this Saturday when the cleaning lady was there (however I do not have a friend in New York, I just said that to test her). If it is legitimate it would be great, but very nervous. What do you think? Regards Kate

Sure looks good. Maybe it's a very new listing, as I've never seen that one in browsing VRBO. The scariest thing is that if their calendar is correct, why do they not have a single advance booking? Most nice apartments I know are mostly booked up for up to a year ahead.

Here's one I've rented twice and I love it, but the bad part is it jumps from $250 a night during the rest of the year to $3000 a week in December.
I post the link as a comparison:
www.bigapplegetaway.com/

Look at the calendar for this one and you'll see what I mean about being booked up.

The only thing that struck me is that the actual listing calls it 39th "Avenue"... anyone who knows New York would know that it is 39th "Street."

This is a new building that looks to be very nice, though. I suppose there could be all sorts of logical reasons for the error I mentioned.

Hi, thanks for the feeback, yes I did query the mistake of address, which is when she came back with the exact address. I don't think we can take the risk, pity becuase it looks great and is cheap. I have emailed the link about the apartment you gave me, however $3000 is a bit much for us. Cheers Kate

Where did you get the idea that VRBO postings "are often scams"?
Recently I have seen some posts casting aspersions on craigslist short term rental ads (with which I do not agree), but never VRBO.

I got the information from Trip Advisor. Do you think it would be OK?

I too am a bit confused by your feelings. As a matter of fact that "bigapplegetaway" place I first found on VRBO. I guess it can happen, but I've never known anyone who actually got scammed from one of them. I'm not sure what "risk" you're talking about.

Although, I sure would want to ask them why there are absolutely NO reservations on the calendar.

the risk I refer to is turning up at the given address and there is no apartment. It has happened apparently and according to the Trip Advisor Web site quite regularly. Anyway I have now found out that VRBO guarantee the sites as long as you register your booking with HomeAway. So we will go ahead with it I think. Thanks for all your reassuring feedback. Cheers Kate

Kate,

I'll be in that area this weekend, so I'll go look at the building for you if that will help.

That area of town is all business, and shopping. There are a few restaurants and delis of course and you are very close to Bryant Park and the library.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

I'm surprised if Trip Advisor reports that it happens with VRBO "quite regularly". I know that hundreds of people here have rented VRBO apartments and although a few have been disappointed with one issue or another, I have yet to hear of anyone arriving at a VRBO apartment to find it didn't exist.

I rented a house in Cozumel for a week through VRBO and it was lovely, and exactly as described in the ad and the pictures. No problems whatsoever. Property management was cooperative and attentive. Wouldn't hesitate to use them again. In fact, looking into VRBO for Turks and Caicos this July.

A friend books a couple of apartments in his building on vrbo - doesn't use the calendar option for some reason, but his apts are booked about 75% of the time.

Hi I was wondering if you ever found out if VRBO listing 169739 was a real listing? It's the one that stated it was located on 39th Ave and Avenue of the Americas. I am wanting to book that location and just wanted to make sure it was legit. Thank you.

It is illegal if it is rented for less than 30 days.

mindy - doubtful that the poster will be reply to this thread, they seem to have not posted since 2008. If you click the original posters' name, it will take you to their profile which has an email address for the poster. But be forewarned, that may not be valid anymore either.

fwiw- there are a lot of reviews on the listing, current ones in fact. Are you concerned that these aren't legit?

I think if this is a condo, it may be legal. Not sure, plenty of folks on here will let you know about legality.

Being a condo has nothing to do with it's legality! If it is rented for less than 30 days, it is not legal...period...

It's not legal unless the apartments are specifically set aside for short-term use - as in corporate apartments. As far as I know they rent for a minimum of a month - and are not inexpensive. Typically condos and co-ops have leases that ban any sort of short-term sublet and allow longer-tern sublets only on proof of the financial stability of the subtenant,

HI everybody,
Interested in the same VRBO listing #169739
Does anyone know it? What was your experience Kate?
Hoping to hearing from you.
Thanks!!!

Kate's last post was in 2008, so it's highly unlikely she's going to see this and respond. And the rental is still likely illegal.

It's still illegal.

And even if that didn't stop me I would still do due diligence - (get land line phone number, who in the building to see if there is a problem, check references and find out if you need to hide from doorman/super or neighbors) and pay only with a credit card.

Lots of sites list illegal rentals. The city has other things to do than look at all of them. But if they get complaints they have no hesitation in acting.

The problem occurs if someone in the building - doorman, super, or other tenant, realizes that you are illegally renting a property and makes a complaint. If you are not a legal tenant - or a legitimate (NOT paying) guest of a legitimate tenant - you may have to leave on the spot (since actually you are trespassing).

Last year the city closed down a hostel about which they had lots of complaints - and in the middle of the night they shut it down and all of the guests had to pack their things and leave (as the place was padlocked) and find another place to stay.

DeeNYC: airbnb doesn't <i>rent</i> apartments. They <u>list</u> apartments that individuals want to rent out - almost all of which are illegal.

I was curious about airbnb, so looked at it. What I found was a private bedroom in an inhabited apartment in New York -- someone letting someone stay in a guest bedroom. I'm really not sure that's quite illegal. Surely people are allowed to let a friend spend the night with them in their own apartment. Just something I wouldn't be interested in and only one step up from couch surfing.

People are certainly allowed to have relatives or friends stay with them in their apartment for a limited amount of time - but for free. If the guests are unknown to them and they are renting the room out for cash - that IS illegal.

(Naturally renters can do this - but if they have a continuing parade of different relatives and friends visiting them from all different parts of the world - it is at least possible that a neighbor - or the doorman or super - would catch on and report them. Possibly leading to large fines for the renters and removal of "relatives" as trespassers.)

It's also almost certainly against their lease with the landlord or the proprietary lease if the building is a co-op or a condo.

If the renter owns the entire building - then they are allowed to rent a room under whatever circumstances they want. But, as you can imagine, the number of people in Manhattan doing this with spare rooms in their multimillion dollar townhouse is quite limited.

It may be limited but there is still a decent supply of townhouse owners that rent out rooms, or apartments, and list such rentals on the usual rental sites. I happen to know three owners of such properties--one in the East Village, one in the West Village who runs a B&B, and one in Harlem. Two of these owners use the rental income to help defray mortgage/building maintenance costs and the third lives on the rental income that the property generates.

The acquaintance who has owned a townhouse on Horatio Street (West Village) for many decades runs an oft-reviewed B&B at that location. She seems to have no trouble attracting clients.

I think that there is quite a large pool of would-be renters who are not deterred by renting someplace for a few days that may or not be legal. The chances that any of these renters will be hauled off to jail, or "caught" is slim to none, from what I've read. I'm not taking sides here, just commenting.

It is illegal to rent out the apt, not to pay to stay in an illegal rental. So no tourist is ever going to be arrested for renting an illegal Airbnb apt. And it's only illegal if you accept payment. The real problem for the tourists is if something happens. Then they are out of options. No refunds, no option but to try to find a last minute hotel room. And there are a lot of scams out there.

There are still a lot of illegal rental apts because there are a lot of greedy landlords. I see lots f them---primarily European tourists---in my new neighborhood.

Now, lets please let this years old thread die.

No one has ever suggested that would be renters are hailed off to jail.

Not even the owner of illegal hostels are hauled off to jail. They just have their property closed and have to pay large (tens of thousands of $) fines.

The risk for the tourist is arriving and finding no place to stay and having to find one on the spot - when the best deals are long gone - often at high prices.

Also - perhaps there are some people who prefer not to break the law.

Thanks everybody for all your comments on this topic. They have been very useful!

Doug, why should we be told by an editor to let the thread die when a question was asked above on January 3 about the same VRBO listing in the OP? That is a legit reason to answer now and not destroy or let the thread die. The new poster deserves an answer as much as the OP.