Try Craigslist for vacation accommodations

Craigslist, the free, online community bulletin board that lists job openings and items for barter and sale in cities worldwide, also allows postings from those looking to pick up extra cash by renting out a room or apartment for the night.

We wondered: Is Craigslist – an unvetted list of available beds created by anonymous posters – a viable option for those looking for affordable accommodations in another city?

We needed a room in Manhattan two weeks from the day of our first search, on either a Friday or Saturday night. We aimed at spending less than $100, figuring that for more than that, we’d just go with a known quantity and book a hotel.

When it comes to staying with an unknown host in the Big Apple, even born-and-bred New Yorkers want a buddy sometimes, so we brought a friend.

We used Craigslist’s New York City site (http://newyork.craigslist.org), clicked on Vacation Rentals (one of nine options under the Housing umbrella on the site) and looked for listings that fit our criteria. We contacted each listing that matched our price range, provided it had been posted within the previous two weeks.

Trolling Craigslist for accommodations is an exercise in detective work. Though the occasional budget hotel will post on the Vacation Rentals page, most listings (which appear as a header hyperlinked to the actual posting) we saw seemed to be private homes. There is little to no organization; the New York site, for example, had 100 listings per page (and many pages), but included were places in Vermont, Paris and Mexico.

The information provided by the posters varies considerably, and as with all listings on the site, you reply to an e-mail address randomly assigned to the poster. It’s the poster’s prerogative to list a phone number (most don’t) and to get back to you (some won’t).

Other than warnings that “stating a discriminatory preference in a housing post is illegal,” anything goes, with minimum stays, smoking rules and location being just a few of the variables. Many listings mention one location in the heading, then another in the actual posting.

It can be downright confounding.

Scrolling for places under $100 cut down our options considerably; following up with the people behind the listings reduced them even more. The “five minutes from midtown” apartment we found, at $75 per night double with a two-night minimum, turned out to be in Queens, another borough altogether and about 20 minutes away. We bailed after e-mailing back and forth with the poster, who also sent us a contract under the previous guest’s name.

We spoke with one person whose offer seemed promising ($100 for a room in a Tompkins Square Park four-bedroom), followed up with an e-mail and then lost contact. When we called again two days later, we were told, “Sorry, but all of the rooms are filled.”

A call to another place ($95 for two in the Village) went to a number where an electronic voice told us, “Sorry, but your party is not available.” Another Lower East Side apartment ($95 for two) fell through after a few hours of e-mailing.

After four days of e-mailing, calling and being canceled on, we finally found a place with a spare room eight blocks from the Guggenheim Museum on the Upper East Side, for $95 total (cold cereal and tea included), with no deposit required.

We couldn’t beat the location: The subway was mere feet away, and though we walked down the characterless first-floor hallway of the busy apartment building with trepidation, once the door opened we were comfortable enough to leave our bags and pay in full.

Our hosts, an engaging young couple with an extra room, showed us the two bathrooms, spotless kitchen, virtually empty living room and queen-size bunk bed that, for the night at least, would be ours – towels, linens and blankets included.

OK, so we had trouble unlocking the apartment door when we returned late that night, but we blame the vino, not our hosts.

After the initial annoyances, Craigslist worked out well for us, and we’d use the service – as well as other lodging sites such as Expedia.com (www.expedia.com) and Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) – when looking for our next room in Manhattan.

But it’s not for those who fear the unknown or don’t want to be tethered to their e-mail. And if we were traveling for a wedding, conference or some other this-weekend-or-bust event, we’d probably pony up for a hotel unless the Craigslist couple we already rented from had a room available.

So is it legal to rent out a room in your home?

According to the Web site of the New York City Department of Finance, “The rental of only one room in your home to guests is not considered the operation of a hotel,” and no hotel room occupancy tax would apply.

But when it comes to the issue of landlords who rent out entire apartments to tourists, New York City Councilwoman Gale Brewer told us, “We don’t want any illegal tourism,” and she and other city and state officials have formed the Illegal Hotels Task Force to address the issue.