New York Habitat Blog

Have you been searching for the perfect apartment for your stay in New York, Paris, London or the South of France? Wondering what to do now?

Here are the two best ways to begin the booking process:

1. You can search our website and find apartments that meet your specific needs. The website includes details about each apartment we have available, the price and the dates of availability.
Once you find something interesting, either fill out a request form or call us directly at 1 (212) 255-8018 to submit your request. When making a request make sure to include the apartment reference number, your best contact phone number and e-mail address as well as the dates of your stay.

2. If you are not sure which apartment would best suit your needs, our team is well acquainted with our apartments and would be able to help determine which property is a good fit.
Also, if you don’t want to search the website for the perfect apartment, we would be happy to look for something for you; just let us know the dates that you will be coming, your budget, the area that you would like to stay and any other important details, and an agent will get back to you with the best solutions as soon as possible.

Once you have contacted New York Habitat, we will get in touch with the owner to confirm that the owner will accept your booking. As soon as we receive confirmation, we will prepare the booking documents and either e-mail or fax them to you.
Once you receive the documents, get them back to us as quickly as possible because the New York, London, Paris and South of France markets are especially competitive and require quick responses to the owners to ensure that the booking is completed.

Remember when looking for an accommodation in New York, London, Paris or the South of France, New York Habitat is perfectly suited to helping you find the ideal place to stay.

Find more apartment rental tips: Frequently Asked Questions, when to reserve an apartment, RSS contribution to apartment search

With New York Habitat’s unique service, knowing the best time to book an accommodation can be challenging.

Unlike hotels where the exact number of available rooms is known at any given minute, the inventory is constantly changing at New York Habitat.

So, when is the best time to begin booking an apartment?

Vacation Rentals:

The peak time to book an apartment for a vacation rental is about two months before the arrival date. Therefore, if you begin your search three or four months prior to your trip, you should have a wide choice of available apartments. On the other hand, beginning the search too early – say, one year in advance — can sometimes make it more difficult because many of our owners do not know their schedules yet.

However, during the busiest seasons, such as Easter and Christmas/New Year, reserving earlier is wise because all of our rooms are usually booked. By contrast, travel tends to be slower in January and February, so waiting until the last minute sometimes can net a bargain priced room.

Furnished Rentals and Shares:

The peak period for booking furnished rentals is about one month before the arrival date, though there are many people who do not begin to look until just a few weeks or days before their arrival. Similar to vacation rentals, it is important to consider what the demand is like at your start date.

For example, if you are planning on a September 1st arrival, you should begin looking quite early because the demand is high with the influx of students traveling to our various cities.

Summary:

Remember that it never hurts to begin your search early. New York Habitat provides RSS feeds of all of our apartment searches to keep you up to date on the latest availabilities and our agents remain dedicated to finding you the perfect accommodation. So, when looking for that perfect apartment in London, Paris, New York or the South of France, remember New York Habitat for all of your accommodation needs.

New York Habitat’s listing agent, Brian Lowenberg, shares his ideas on how to make your apartment attractive to potential customers. He has visited over 1,500 apartments since he has worked at New York Habitat and can offer useful advice about how to prepare your apartment before listing it with us for the first time. He has worked with our rental agents to discuss what owners can do to make their apartments friendlier to incoming clients and offers this advice to all of the owners that he visits.

One of the most important tips Brian can offer is to clear the clutter before listing your apartment. When preparing your apartment to list with New York Habitat, take some time to clean space out in the closets for the guest, organize the clutter so that the apartment is pleasing for the guests and don’t forget to dust those areas which are often forgotten. Once you are successful at creating an inviting space, you will find that clients are more likely to request your apartment when they see it on the website. Remember that it is important to prepare the apartment, just like it will be when the client arrives, for the listing agent’s visit so the pictures taken during the visit offer a realistic look into your space. Our clients find that the best accommodations, whether it’s in New York, London, Paris or the South of France, have been well thought out for their stay. Thinking about the little details makes all the difference.  

So, when you set up an appointment for photographs to be taken at your apartment, prepare the apartment just as you would before a client were to arrive. Both clients and agents will appreciate the quality photographs that result from the little extra effort and you will find that clients are asking for your apartment because it is somewhere that they would like to stay.

Be proud of your accommodation and take the time to make it one of New York Habitat’s special apartments in London, Paris, the South of France or New York.

Experienced rental agent Marijn van der Maden finds that one of the most important recommendations that he can offer clients is to keep an open mind in their apartment search.

Looking in other neighborhoods can offer better values
and more space with similar commuting times.

Not only are there great apartments in the popular neighborhoods in Manhattan, there are various interesting offerings in Brooklyn and Queens. Since 2004, Marijn has worked at New York Habitat in the Furnished Rental department and often finds that clients are interested in accommodations in Park Slope Brooklyn, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Brooklyn and Astoria Queens. The apartment rentals in these neighborhoods represent good value and offer easy subway access to Manhattan. Each of the neighborhoods has a unique feel and offers different attractions.

Overall, many visitors find that they get to truly live like a New Yorker when they venture into a neighborhood outside their original search and most customers who choose one of these locations would and do return to the same neighborhood on their next trip.

So, when searching for an apartment rental in New York, don’t forget about the other boroughs; you may find your dream apartment where you least expected it.

We are about to begin an ongoing Blog series about Apartment Rental Tips from the New York Habitat community. You will hear from the rental agents, listing agents and management about their advice both for people looking to rent an apartment and those looking to list with us. We will include suggestions from members of all of our offices: New York, London, Paris and the South of France.

Each tip will give you a little bit of background about the interviewees’ history with New York Habitat as well as a recommendation that he/she can give based on their experiences.

We hope that you find these tips useful in your search for housing or for clients.

Furthermore, we would like to open up this Apartment Rental Tips category to clients and owners as well. If you have something that you think would be helpful to share, let us know; we would be happy to include either your comments or a Blog entry if you have a suggestion either for clients or owners.

We would also like to hear your feedback on New York Habitat, so if you would like to include a Blog entry about your experiences working with New York Habitat we would be interested to include that as well.  If you would like to submit an entry for consideration, please e-mail us at blog@nyhabitat.com.