OldFloridaGal

Will be spending 1 week as a vacation. Need a 2/2 with kitchen preferably in Village or nearby. Any suggestions?

starrs

2/2 = 2 bedroom, 2 bath?
What are you expecting to pay?

nytraveler

Are you looking for an apartment sublet (illegal and possibly a scam)?

An aprt hotel (there are a bunch but don;t know of any in the Village)?

And you do need to give us a budget.

paula1470

Yes first of all you need to tell us exactly what you are looking for, how many people and your budget. Next of all October is expensive in NYC. I just booked the studio at Radio City Apartments for $230 a night plus tax. This is a bargain for October. Most other hotels were running $300 a night or more. Radio City Apartments have kitchens, etc and do have one and two bedroom apartments but I put in lots of different dates for October and only came up with the stuido rooms. You could try calling them.

Another suggestion is the affinia hotel chain which has suites. www.affinia.com The cheapest of these is the Eastgate Tower. Looks like they have the one bedroom suite with two beds and a sofa bed plus full kitchen for $289.00 plus tax. I put in the 2nd week of October. They have the two bedroom suite also available for $439+tax but looks like only one bathroom. They all have full kitchens. If you need two baths, you'd be better off getting two separate rooms. If you want to book the room non-refundable, they are a little cheaper. All their other hotels are $300 and up but maybe you have a budget for that.

I would suggest you book for October right away. The suite hotels book up quickly.

paula1470

Eastgate Tower is on the east side in the Murray Hill section. Radio City Apartments are in the Times Square area which is not my favorite but we are mostly coming to see shows this trip so it's convenient.

sheri_lp

I recently found this website (through NYT travel story) and I'd like to know if anyonw has ever used Airbnb.com? They have all kinds of rooms, or entire apartments all over NY.

paula1470

sheri_lp, you will get all sorts of answers from this question but the bottom line is that short term apartment rentals is not legal in most (if not all) buildings in NYC.
Here is a recent post about this which will cover everything
you want to know about these type of rentals.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...tment-stay.cfm

mclaurie

Airbandb is TERRIBLE. There've been lots of reports of scams and problems. 2 bedroom suites in NYC are somewhat rare so they're very pricey. Several of the Affinia.com hotels (like Eastgate) have 2 bedrooms. Best Western Hospitality has 2 bedroom 1 bath as does Radiocityapartments.com The Salisbury, the Beacon and Doubletree Guest Suites have a few 2 bedrooms that you have to phone about. Otherwise, 1 bedrooms with sofabeds in the living room and some with 2 double or 2 queen beds in the bedroom are more plentiful and a lot cheaper. For 2 couples, often 2 separate studios are the cheapest option. Unless you're a large family that can't manage any other way, you'd probably be better getting 2 suites.

sheri_lp

Thanks Paula, sseems I did see read some of that conversation about legality. It's too bad, because I thought it might be something cool!

nytraveler

Six days isn't much time to see Boston and NYC - never mind adding a road trip. If you want to see something specific along the way (Newport Mansions, Old Sturbridge Village, Mystic ship museum) then it makes sense to stop there and drive.

If you just want to get from Boston to NYC yo can get the cheap bus for next to moting (way less than a car rental) in 4 hours.

paula1470

nytraveler-I think you answered on the wrong thread. But I saw the other thread and I agree with you. I also told them to use the cheap bus which is what my daughters and I did last summer-didn't have any problems.

OldFloridaGal

Thanks to all for your suggestions. My apologies for being late responding---family illness out of the country. We did find a 2 bed/1 bath for 200. a night in the East Village the last week in October. Thanks again for all your help!

vjpblovesitaly

"We did find a 2 bed/1 bath for 200. a night in the East Village the last week in October"

Hotel room?

paula1470

OldFloridaGal-Sounds like you have been away from Fodor's for awhile. If you rented an apartment, you may have potential problems. Although people weren't supposed to rent out apartments for short/tourist stays, it was being done. But recently a new bill passed making rentals for less than 30 days illegal. Many apartment rentals on craigslist, etc are a scam. Even if they aren't, you risk being found out and thrown out on the street. There aren't many 2 bedroom hotel rentals and in Oct they are either booked or very expensive. Just wanted to warn you.

nukesafe

Just thought I should reply to the discussion of Airbnb. We rent our guest room in Anacortes, Washington through that site, and it has worked out very well for us. We have not, so far, used Airbnb as renters. We are also going to NYC in October, and I struck out using Priceline to get something affordable. I could't get even a a 3* for well over $200, and I'm not about to book under a 3* hotel in NYC.

Anyway, we have booked an apartment that sounds really nice through Airbnb for four nights at $150/night. Now you guys have me worried about the legality thing.

I'll post back to let you know how it went, but I don't see how it can go too wrong. Our money is paid to Airbnb through PayPal. They hold the money and if the apartment is not as advertised, we contact Airbnb, and the money is refunded.

Of course, we could be standing in the middle of Hell's Kitchen in the middle of the night with our luggage ---

nytraveler

Your money may be refunded (at some point - they won;t hand over cash on the spot) - but you're left trying to find a hotel in a city that's already packed full.

And the choices that you had a couple of months ago are gone. So you may be left with the truly awful (on another thread someone seems to be staying at the Hotel Pennsylvania) or paying $400-$500 per night.

Have you used google earth to see the building actually exists at the address? Do you have a24 hour phone number in case of any sort of problem (plumbing etc)? Do you have references from previous guests?

sheri_lp

Hells Kitchen is lovely this time of year...

nukesafe

Did all of the above, NYTraveler, except for the Google Earth bit. Most of NYC looks like a jumble from space, anyway, so I doubt you could tell a scam from way up there, anyway.

All you say is true about the need to use due diligence with any site like Airbnb, VRBO, etc., but I fail to see what the motivation would be for someone to scam you on Airbnb. If the place is not there he gets no money. It the place is a #@$% hole, he gets no money. I would be more wary of a site like VRBO as they often demand a deposit in advance; and those bucks go right into their pocket.

Now maybe New Yorkers have some really sneaky and unique, streak of dishonesty that I haven't encountered before. But you would know more about that than I would.

nytraveler

Well I'm not sure that he wouldn't get the money if you didn;t like the apartment. It might well become a case of he said/she said - and he gets the money if there is any apt at all - no matter how awful.

And therehave been reports of truly awful places for which people couldn;tget a refund.

And there are scammers everywhere. The one benefit of a hotel is that it's an ongoing business with assets that it has to protect - so the scam factor is extremely limited.