Austin

Bowspit, not sure why you seem to be so obsessed about this. Almost like you have a dog in this hunt.

GiuliaPiraino

sf73007, the white sofa lady is vegan, that's why animal products must never share the same roof as her renters

GiuliaPiraino

I just sent an email to Katie from the Chelsea apartment using the address on the main website rather than VRBO. Hopefully I will hear from her. There's another great apartment in GV that I am waiting to hear back from as well. My goodness, in our line of work emails have to be answered within 30 minutes and even then clients get antsy, some of these owners take days to respond, wow!

GiuliaPiraino

We also need to pick up a car in Newark and drop it off somewhere in Manhattan, I'm sure that's going to cost an arm and a leg as well. Any suggestions on ways to save in that regard?

GiuliaPiraino

Ugh. Katie's place is unavailable.

nytraveler

Depending on the drop off charge it might cost less to drop the car at EWR and take a car service into the city for $80 or $90. If the drop off it less than that I would hardly call it an arm and a leg.

GiuliaPiraino

As a frequent renter of apartments domestically and overseas, my biggest pet peeve is owners who wont respond if the place is booked. What are they thinking? Well it's booked so I'm not going to bother to respond? My goodness it takes about 5 seconds to hit reply and type "booked". And therein lies one of the many benefits of renting a hotel room from a major company with online booking.

crosscheck

Giulia, We often rent cars at one of the NY airports and return in Manhattan. Try Dollar - they don't charge a drop-off fee - http://www.dollar.com/Reservations/AllCars.aspx

GiuliaPiraino

Crosscheck, thank you for the tip!

Found a great place, great reviews that specifically mention the landlord, who I spoke to today, $270 a night, within budget, in a decent area, PHEW!!!! Now to make sure the booking actually went through, it's on some cheesy website and the landlord sounded spazzy. Crossing my fingers that this is the one because I am losing so much time and productivity sifting through hotels and apartments, what a task! Thanks for everyone's help!

ekscrunchy

If that does not work out, and I certainly hope that it does, you always have the option of the place I mentioned in Harlem; it is certainly safe and near subway stops. At least I know that landlord!

ekscrunchy

Never mind about my friends' place; I took a look and both apartments are booked through the end of this year. Sorry about that!

GiuliaPiraino

ekscrunchy, thank you anyway! Now to count the days until I can eat tricolor cookies at Rocco's Pasticceria, ahhhhhhh.

So we are definitely going to be on 3rd and B street, please inundate away with affordable yet tasty restaurant recommendations! BTW we love ethnic cuisine, especially eastern european, Balkan, Persian, pretty much anything we're hard pressed to find in AZ where people value Olive Garden and TGI Fridays, groan. I'll be spending most of my nights in so usually we do a splurge lunch and takeout for dinner, I'd love some takeout recommendations!

Thanks again for everyone's great advice!

ellenem

The OP is looking for places to eat near East 3rd Street and Avenue B. (not B Street)

GiuliaPiraino

Crosscheck, dollar's website is not allowing me to choose a drop off other than an airport. Did you make your reservations online or by phone?

crosscheck

It should work if you click "return to a different location." Try various locations in the city. Lately I've needed a car for work, but if I'm paying one myself I sometimes shop around on hotwire and then call to make sure I get the AAA rate. Since you're not going for a while, you might want to wait for a promotion - check your junk email for promo codes.

5alive

I was able to drop my rental from Dollar at about 22nd Street. I think we did it online. We were coming clear from Pennsylvania, so I think you should be able to do it from Newark.

In case your location doesn't work out, here are two B&Bs that are legal; I checked the COs. They have family suites; you'll have to contact them for availability. They are Stay the Night and Michelle's B&B. Michelle's seems to cater to European, especially French, guests.

http://www.staythenight.com/index.html

http://www.michellebedandbreakfast.com/

I can empathize a bit with Bowsprit and the other New Yorkers. I lived in Los Angeles for a couple of years. We had lots of friends come to visit, and of course all the tourists everywhere you go. You do get a different world view when your HOME is everyone else's DESTINATION. You want people to respect your home and its rules.

GiuliaPiraino

Thanks for the info 5alive, I did figure it out on the website and 22nd street is our drop off! As we were discussing on my other thread, I honestly believe that a majority of tourists don't know about this law. Most of my friends who travel once a year or less don't utilize sites like Fodor's, they would just go to VRBO or Airbnb and never know anything about the law, since the landlord/owner certainly isn't coughing up that information. It's an interesting dilemma. Without these illegal rentals, many of the people I know could never afford to come to NYC. On the other hand, I can see the locals point of view, it's taking away a possible apartment for someone who actually lives there. I'm going to believe that if the landlord rented us this flat that it's legal.

Bowsprit

I'm going to believe that if the landlord rented us this flat that it's legal.
-------------------------------------------------------

Actually, it's much more likely that any apartment you'd rent for less than 30 days would be an ILLEGAL rental. You should ask anyone willing to let their apartment for paper proof of its legitimacy.

Or just continue to stick your head in the sand and pretend none of the rental 'stuff' has any influence on your vacation plans.

janisj

From your other thread it pretty much seems you don't care that it is illegal.

>>We've already fully and thoroughly explored the subject of illegal rentals in NYC on a previous thread.... - now tell us about the location.

Hez

So I was curious and had a look at the law. Although it is illegal to rent out a property for less than 30 days there is no mention of it being illegal to rent the same property. So, as a renter you are not technically breaking the law. The worst thing that can happen is you could be served with a vacate order.