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. 

Here are some of the ways New York Habitat ensures that our apartment rentals run smoothly:

  • Prescreened apartments: All of our apartments must have a detailed prescreening and apartment visit before they can be listed on our website to ensure that they meet New York Habitat’s standards.
  • A dedicated customer service team: New York Habitat takes seriously all client feedback and revisits apartments on a regular basis to ensure that all information provided is up to date and that apartments continue to meet our standards.
  • Market knowledge: With 18 years of experience working on furnished apartment rentals, New York Habitat has built a deep knowledge of rental rules and other market factors to ensure that rentals proceed as expected.
  • Knowledgeable agents: For each of our cities, New York, Paris, London and the South of France, our agents are selected because of their knowledge of local markets. Once joining our team, New York Habitat agents are trained comprehensively about our apartment inventory.

If you are looking for vacation accommodations in cities that New York Habitat does not offer apartments, here are some tips to avoid scams:

  • Deal with a licensed agency. New York Habitat has licenses from the State of New York.
  • Never make rental prepayments without a signed contract and knowledge that the apartment actually exists. New York Habitat uses an agency contract for every booking and we have met with every owner whom we have listed.
  • Use caution when using sites like Craig’s List and other classified pages. Though the majority of the offers on these sites are legitimate, a significant portion of the offers are scams and there is no prescreening on these sites. These sites can be helpful in finding a local broker, as many reputable brokers, including New York Habitat, advertise on sites like these.
  • If dealing with an owner directly ask if there are any additional conditions associated with the stay. You do not want to get stuck having to tell people in the building, that you are a friend of the owner or having limited privileges to enter the building. New York Habitat does not accept any rentals with conditions like this.

We hope that this article and our next tips on how to avoid apartment rental scams will be helpful in aiding you in your apartment rental experiences. Whether looking for a New York rental, Paris Accommodations, London Apartments or the South of France Villas, New York Habitat’s carefully selected accommodations will help to ensure that you end up with a great place to stay.