Ideas for nomads in NYC?

June 9, 2012 6:54 PM

Homeless in NYC for two - three weeks with two cats. Any ideas about where to live?

My wife and our two cats just landed in NYC and have no place to live for 2-3 weeks. Hotels are expensive and mostly not pet-friendly. Pet-friendly sublets are super-expensive. Any creative suggestions?

Details:

We recently bought a co-op in NYC and just moved there from Seattle. Everything about the purchase went fine, except the closing date, which was always nebulous. My wife's job starts on Monday, and our place in Seattle was sold, so we just moved out and hoped for the best: we had no other option.

Now that we're here, we found out that the seller isn't moving out until the week of the 25th, so we're nomads for at least two weeks.

I've responded to every ad in craigslist and scoured airbnb. Our realtor's been doing the same, and has found a few places, but in the about $4000 range (full month only).

We're at a rare pet-friendly hotel now, and our stuff's all in storage, but the hotel's $200 / day, so we really don't want to stay here at that rate for two - three weeks.

Any ideas? Alternately, any mefites out there got any cat-friendly sublets for June? :)

posted by molybdenum to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Why don't you board the cats and then you can find a place on airbnb?
posted by zia at 6:56 PM on June 9, 2012

Look for a place outside the city and have her take public transit to work.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:00 PM on June 9, 2012

Is your wife's job the kind of place that could out you in temporary corporate or campus housing?
posted by matildaben at 7:08 PM on June 9, 2012

Seconding DoubleLune's suggestion. Pick the suburb based on the location of your wife's office (e.g. if it's convenient to Penn Station, go with NJ or Long Island; convenient to Grand Central, Westchester or Connecticut).
posted by telegraph at 7:16 PM on June 9, 2012

Since you're already at a hotel you like, try speaking to the manager or guest relations person and negotiate for an extended stay rate. Let them know that you'd prefer to keep your business with them, but will move on if necessary. You'd be surprised how many hotels are willing to work with their customers rather than having another empty room. Good luck.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 7:18 PM on June 9, 2012

See if there's an Extended Stay-type hotel somewhere near where you want to be (or within reasonable range of transit). I know Extended Stay America is pretty pet-friendly, though I don't know specifics. I just remember staying in one and having an enormous dog living next door to me.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 7:30 PM on June 9, 2012

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We did talk to the hotel clerk and discuss an extended stay rate: we might get it down to $1800 for the next two weeks (pending manager approval tomorrow). Still higher than we'd like, but obviously better than the $4000 we were looking at.

There's an Extended Stay America in Rutherford that accepts pets for $109 / day, but I'd initally ruled that out because I assumed we'd have no reasonable way of getting into Manhattan (my wife works at Cornell) each day. But maybe I've underestimated NYC / NJ public transit. I'll check that out, so thanks for the suggestion.

We'd considered cat boarding...but one of our cats is very elderly and crazy and often refuses to eat / drink when she's stressed by unfamiliar settings. Maybe I'm being an overindulgent cat-daddy, but I seriously wonder if we'd pick her up from the boarder alive. Ah, cats!
posted by molybdenum at 8:20 PM on June 9, 2012

We are in the city and have extra cat food (BFF) if that would cut down on your expenses. You can Memail me if you need to. :)
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:43 PM on June 9, 2012

Have you checked with Cornell Res Life to see if they have a place to stay? They may have empty dorm rooms, empty faculty houses, or empty apartments. Lots of campuses will help their new employees out in a moving pinch. Never hurts to ask!
posted by MultiFaceted at 8:57 PM on June 9, 2012

If you DO consider the Extended Stay in Rutherford, you will be 100% within very easy public transit to Manhattan. That's quite close to my house and my wife and I ride the bus into the city every day. You'll just jump on the 190 bus to Port Authority. If you want any local info, feel free to email - I think staying there would be a good move.

(we're crazy cat people so we certainly understand your situation. I don't know what I'd do with our gang of 7 cats in the same situation)
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:22 PM on June 9, 2012

The Aloft in Harlem is pet-friendly and hip.

Discuss an extended stay rate with them, you may be pleasently surprised.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 8:05 AM on June 10, 2012