Short Term Apartment vs. Hotel

I’m at the age where the grime of hostels is getting harder and harder for me to overlook. Don’t get me wrong, I still stay in them. When I’m traveling solo, I suck it up and tell myself the bed is clean, that the bathroom will be acceptable, and constantly remind myself of how much money I am saving.

But sometimes, there are better options

When Pedro and I decided to take a trip to New York together, I knew a hostel was out of the question. We did consider hotels as well, but then we found a much more appealing solutions – renting an apartment for the week. He and I sat down and checked out the listings for NYC apartments on Wimdu and I was so overwhelmed by the options that I hardly knew where to begin. I let him take over the map, seeing as he had been to NYC before, and before we knew it, we had fallen in love with a little studio on the edge of Spanish Harlem.

Okay, okay, it wasn’t that easy.

A stack of books in the apartment we rented. I couldn’t fit the entire stack into the photo!

This process actually took days, but that’s mostly due to our indecisiveness. Once we got the hang of the website, we were able to narrow down the options pretty quickly. Like I said before, we focused on the map, basing on search primarily on the location. We figured, what was the point of renting an apartment if it took us 2 hours to get anywhere we wanted to go? Once we picked a general area, we were able to use the price settings to shrink the results down to our budget. The budget parameter narrowed our options quite a bit. But hey, that was to be expected, and we still had a decent selection to choose from. The price we found was still comparable (and in some cases, cheaper) than a hotel for the week. Every single apartment had reviews from previous tenants, photos, and a description of the neighborhood. We quickly made a rule that if the listing lacked a photo of a bathroom, we would just skip it. Seriously, sketchy bathrooms are where I draw the line. The reviews were the best part. We ended up choosing an apartment owned by someone who had several listings. We went to all of them and read countless reviews to assure ourselves that both the apartment and owner were well praised.

The stay

Seeing as I have been fulled by outdated photos of accommodations in the past, I was still a bit weary. However, we we arrived, the apartment look just like the photos. Sure, it was small, but it had interesting decor and was in a great neighborhood. Everyone on the block actually knew each others names. In New York! Our flight was delayed several times, but each time all we had to do was send a text to the apartment owner, and he was infinitely understanding. I loved our neighborhood. There was a deli on the corner where we bought breakfast sandwiches almost every day. There was a subway station 3 blocks away, bus stops everywhere, and plenty of places to eat. I loved being in an apartment instead of a hotel. It made me feel like I was getting an experience closer to what locals would have.

Any complaints?

Just some minor ones. As for the site itself, I thought it could use some improvements in the navigation. It was just hard to figure out how to get back to a previous page sometimes, nothing too terrible. The map was an incredibly useful tool, though I wish it ran just a tiny bit faster because I am so horribly impatient. I also think the site should have more clear rules on check in/out. The site allows the owner to set the times, but our owner simply set them as “flexible.” This seems awesome, but it turned out not to be. Weeks before our arrival, I contacted the owner and asked if we could check out in the afternoon due to the fact that we had a 7pm flight home. He said that would be no problem at all. We discussed this again upon arrival. However, the day before we left, we received a message saying he’d be at the apartment at 9am for keys. What about a 9am checkout says “flexible?!” We were miserable, tired, and irritated by his last minute change of heart. Luckily, the extra nice super stored our bag in his place so we could enjoy our day, but I found the whole process a little irritating. It would be nice if Wimdu had a clearer policy how just how early someone can kick you out of the apartment. I think we can all agree that 9am is a tad bit ridiculous.

Overall, I was really happy we chose an apartment over a hotel, and I’d certainly do it again, as Wimdu has apartment listings from around the world.