Online Apartment Rental Advice

Renting an apartment online is easy and safe if you avoid these 10 common mistakes

Renting an apartment online has become easier and easier over time. Different real estate agencies and companies are offering a database of apartments for rent on their websites. You can see pictures of the apartments, read reviews left by other people, and even book your apartment online.

While offering apartments online has made the process of renting an apartment easier and more enjoyable, it has also opened the door to new scams. To ensure you have a good and safe experience when you rent an apartment online, there are several things you can pay attention to while looking for an apartment.

In this article, we’ll highlight 10 things you should avoid when searching the Internet for accommodation. We’ll also give you tips on how to find safe agencies and apartments, so you can have an enjoyable experience renting an apartment online! Read the entire story here…»

As a follow-up to our article in 2008 about where to find reviews about New York Habitat, we wanted to share the latest and greatest sources where you can find reviews of New York Habitat and our apartment rentals in New York, Paris, London and the South of France.

Google

The 1st stop we recommend checking out is New York Habitat’s Google Place page. Here you can find an agglomeration of reviews from around the web including Insider Pages, Judy’s Book, Yahoo, Yelp and more. Currently our rating is 4.7 stars out of 5 based on 277 reviews and growing.

If you are looking for more detailed reviews, we would recommend checking out some of the more specific sites:

Facebook

One of our favorite places to receive reviews is Facebook because we can interact with our reviewers and respond to any questions or concerns. In addition, you will find tips, discounts and more on our Facebook page. So, please join us in the conversation on Facebook and if you have stayed in one of our apartments, share a review.

Insider Pages

One of the first and most trusted review sites is Insider Pages. Mentioned in the earlier article about reviews, New York Habitat has been receiving reviews here since 2005 and continues to receive positive feedback. More than 65 clients have reviewed our service and apartments on Insider Pages and to date we have a cumulative average rating of 5 stars! In addition to the basic rating, Insider Pages offers clients and owners the ability to add a written review as well. Be sure to check out what people have to say. Read the entire story here…»

Unfortunately, the Internet is still filled with scams, so we’re going to keep talking, tweeting, blogging and educating people about how not to fall victim to them. Many scams involve renting from afar, which is what we specialize in, so we figured who would be better to write on this topic than us at New York Habitat.

The Internet Age has become a time where trust is paramount in business transactions. It’s a global marketplace now, where renters and travelers are booking accommodations across borders and around the world. Which is why it’s more important than ever to investigate who you’re dealing with a world away via the Internet.

The proliferation of rental scams on the Internet hurts everyone; from potential renters who become victims of scams, to honest property owners, brokers and agencies who find it ever more difficult to gain people’s trust in legitimate rental transactions. The lack of policing of these rental scams hurts both the rental and tourism industries as a whole. Internet posting sites need to work on verifying the legitimacy of the posts on their site, if they don’t find a way to do this they will eventually lose all credibility.

Here at New York Habitat we recently encountered some rental scams of our own and we’re breaking down the details for you:

Example 1 –: They copy the apartment descriptions  and photos from our website but use their own email address not …@nyhabitat.com Read the entire story here…»

New York Apartment: 2-bedroom Bed & Breakfast in Greenwich Village (NY-9572) photo

After sharing with you some tips on how to avoid rental scams and determine if you are dealing with a legitimate company or agent before choosing an apartment,  this week we wanted to show you how to spot clues that the apartment you are looking to rent may be a fake.

Rental scams are on the rise, so it is more important than ever to look into the person or company that you are dealing with and make sure they are legitimate. Here are a few things to look out for:

1)    Is there a legitimate company name on the contract that you can investigate further? : We have seen many fake contracts with “company names” like “Charming and Cozy Apartment in Time Square” or “1br-Beautiful Option for Hotels”. Those are not business names; they are lifted straight out of a rental ad! Read the entire story here…»

New York: Vaction Rental 1-bedroom in the East Village (NY-11155 Photo

So, you’ve read all your travel guides on how to survive on $40 a day, packed your entire vanity into 3oz bottles and a quart sized Ziploc bag, found an apartment rental on the Internet and even managed to survive the cross-Atlantic flight existing solely on the one complimentary bag of airline peanuts. Magnifique! However, when you arrive at the location of that très chic, too-good-to-be-true vacation rental you found on the Internet, you find out the address you were given to your dream apartment is actually a Starbucks cafe. Mon ami, you have found a rental scam!

It pains us to see our fellow globetrotting travelers end up in this predicament. So, as you ponder how this could possibly have happened to a très savvy travel aficionado like yourself, let us pass along some advice on how to spot various apartment rental scams so you don’t end up sleepless in Seattle (New York, London, Paris, or anywhere else in the world). Read the entire story here…»

New York Habitat has been offering furnished apartment rentals for 18 years and prides itself on offering the best selection of thoroughly screened apartments in New York, Paris, London and the South of France. Today we will talk about some things to consider when shopping for a vacation rental apartment to avoid common rental scams in the market place.

New York Habitat’s president and founder Marie Reine Jezequel was featured on WCBS 2, the local New York CBS affiliate, talking about ways to avoid vacation rental scams. For more information http://www.nyhabitat.com/media-press/usa-cbs2-news-november-2007.html

Read the entire story here…»

central park new york winter

With summer just ending last weekend and winter fast approaching, it is time to finalize your plans for the 2007 winter holiday travel season.

Whether visiting family in the South of France, traveling to Paris for the first time, touring London or enjoying New York again, the period from mid-December through the first week of January is one of the busiest for vacation apartment rentals.

New York Habitat offers a variety of apartments throughout the year, but the selection for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays is rapidly changing as apartments are booked as quickly as they become available. Read the entire story here…»

Blog articles such as: Keep Your Apartment Clean!, Tips from the Pros: How to list your apartment, and Tips from the Pros: Clear the clutter all provide tips on how to put forth the best presentation when listing an apartment.

While a clean and clutter-free home is important, renters are increasingly more concerned with the added perks. What amenities or attributes make an apartment stand out from the rest? New York Habitat offers some useful suggestions for pumping up your vacation rental, as well as a few enticing examples of each.

Child’s Play: Traveling with children

A large downside of staying in a hotel is the impersonal living quarters. The rooms lack personality and the cozy warmth that accompanies a home. Children, especially, are often times bored by the colorless walls and the lack of entertainment. Apartment and home owners can do well to attract the large family market by incorporating child-themed bedrooms into their rentals.

This five-bedroom rental in République (PA-3739) provides 3 children’s rooms in addition to 2 other bedrooms.

This three-bedroom apartment in New York’s financial district (NY-11565) provides a children’s room along with toys and games to keep them busy.

Generation Next: High-speed Internet access

For those of us who have left the Puritan Generation (those born between 1588 and 1617), Internet and technology have become an important part of our lives. Whether traveling for business or pleasure, a high-speed Internet connection is a major attraction. Providing access to the Internet within a rental could sway a renter to choose your apartment over another. Read the entire story here…»

Approximately 3,000 miles of ocean separates the United States from its European counterparts. With that distance comes differences in language, traditions, customs, and more. Once on foreign soil, many New York Habitat clients have expressed confusion over what may seem like simple things. As a good number of New York Habitat employees were born and raised in Europe, many of these questions can be easily answered by our staff.

Our New York City team has worked together to compile a list of the minor differences that our travelers can expect to stumble across while staying in Paris, New York, London, or the South of France. And even a peculiar way in which we’re all rather similar. Read the entire story here…»