[quote=spdrun]I know people who rent out their NYC apartments when they travel. Via Craigslist, not VRBO or AirBnB … why the hell would one pay someone a cut to do what Craigslist does for free? Generally not super short term, but more like a month in summer. (Theoretically the legal minimum in NY.)
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Oh yeah. I think technically short term rentals are illegal in NYC. Paris too. But it’s very difficult to police it because guests can say their friends/family is using it. Some buildings in NYC are really tough but we’ve rented places there. Amazing places!
For people traveling with kids, staying in hotels isn’t convenient. Forget even if you are affluent and have money to spend on 5 star hotels and can book 2 adjoining rooms. We do that for short trips but for longer stays of at least a week, it is TOUGH to stay in hotels.
When you have young kids you need to cook and you really need a full washer and dryer. For us, it doesn’t even come down to a price factor. Hotels just aren’t convenient with 2 young kids.
Even in cities like NYC and Paris where many of our friends rent out, it’s easy to bypass rules if you know what you’re doing. You can let guests know ahead of time and also the MOST important person is typically the doorman. You tip the doorman a bit from each guest and you also tell the guests it’s a good idea to tip the doormen and these guys are making a fortune in tips. They won’t say anything and if anyone asks he says “family of the owners are staying”.
Of course you have to be careful in this situation with posting photos of the outside of the building or too much info on location. But you figure out quickly what works and what doesn’t.
Other places we’ve rented like in Paris, the owners have fed ex’ed us the keys ahead of the stay. Amazing places! Same thing in the French Riviera. Same thing in London, etc. etc.
It’s really the way to travel these days. If you book via sites like http://www.airbnb.com you’re totally protected because they don’t even pay the owner until 24 hours after the check-in to make sure it’s not a bait and switch. VRBO as well as Homeaway also offer insurance you can buy. And as long as you use your credit card you’re always protected anyone if there is a bait and switch. But after a while you just know which ones are legit or not. You can tell the owners that really have this down to a science.
And the thing is…..some of them are making a killing and very high ROI on it vs. traditional rentals.
