'Beware' of short-term rentals in NYC

— -- Until this summer, Zonder was among the growing ranks of travel websites that tout short-term Manhattan apartment rentals as a way to beat the cost of hotel rooms in one of the world's most expensive cities.

But when Zonder founder Bob Barnes booked online and showed up at what had been pitched as a one-bedroom unit near South Street Seaport, he waited two hours for a key — to discover a studio bereft of window blinds, with leftovers in the fridge and the owner's robe hanging in the bathroom.

For $150 a night, "it was a pretty decent place, but not the kind of (professionally managed) product we offer," says Barnes, who has since yanked Zonder's nearly 1,000 New York listings from the site.

As demand for Big Apple apartments soars — Manhattan requests are up 150% this year at the vacation rental site HomeAway — so does the controversy surrounding them.

"This isn't a business practice we support, and we strongly discourage people" from renting apartments, says Chris Heywood of NYC & Company, the city's official tourism arm. "It's a real case of buyer beware."

Short-term rentals in New York, such as those found on Craigslist, are not illegal. But they do violate co-op leases and condominium bylaws, warns attorney Stuart Saft, chair of the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums.

"If it's a six-story walkup, it might be easy to get away with, but not in a doorman building," says Saft. "Unless the owner is physically present, the board can refuse to allow (renters) in."

But even as social networking sites such as TripAdvisor post scam warnings about visitors paying in advance for places that don't exist, new sites such as AirBed & Breakfast and Roomorama aim to lower the risk.

These "peer-to-peer" sites, which charge guest service fees ranging from 5% to 12%, offer a combination of hosted and unhosted stays in Manhattan and other cities and let renters pay by credit card.

Tips for renting a short-term apartment in the Big Apple: