Searching for accommodation in NYC

Hmmm.. 4th week in NYC now. I have changed 2 houses now. I have had wonderful experiences here especially looking out for accommodation. Srivatsan (One of my colleagues) suggested I blog my experiences so that others might benefit out of it.

I traveled to NYC from Bangalore with close to 1 weeks notice. I'd started looking out for accommodation just after I was notified that I would have to leave the next week. Being a fan of Bangalore Craiglist, my first search started from Craiglist. I did not find any Indian posts of looking for roommate and wondered what kind of Indian population resides in NY/NJ. All that I found was in Brooklyn, Queens and Jackson Heights. I thought staying towards that NY Side will be better and not get to NJ/Jersey City.

I had a call with my Onsite Manager and he suggested I lookout for something in Jersey city as most of them stay here and most of the Indian population also is here and I would not feel LONELY and LEFT OUT!! He then referred me to the www.sulekha.com website and asked me to find something which was viable for me.

Kusuma was in CA by now and she too was assisting me search for some accommodation and was doing the calling stuff to the people enquiring about the house, rent, utils etc..

For people like me who have not been to US before and this is your 1st visit, be it with family or single, you choose to rent a house / share the house rented by someone else, the utilities are extra. The utilities include the electricty/gas + phone + internet + groceries.

www.sulekha.com is one of the best online portals to search for accommodation. The next best will be the referrals. If you know of anyone who stays in the place u r traveling, referrals is the best as usually you will land there without any hassles and have a good stay. Not to say that others don't; but others may/may not.

If you are traveling to NYC (like me) and looking for accommodation, here are some TIPS:

1. See if anyone else is also traveling so that you could share a hotel room and make your stay "The Happiest". Hotels like Ramada, Red Carpet Inn, Extended Stay America are some places you could choose to stay. You would save as well as have some real fun..

2. if you are coming single and will stay single (not with family) you could probably lookout for some shared accommodation or paying guest accommodation. If you want to be among the Indian Crowd, you may want to search something in Journal Square, Jersey City. You can find some accommodation towards in the Indian Square / Indian Street.

As soon as you come out of the Journal Square Path Station, towards your right is the "Indian Street". Prefer staying to the right of the JSQ Path Station.You will be near to the Indian street and will not feel left out. Not that the left side area towards SIP Avenue and Summit Avenue is not good; however I prefer the right for some reasons better unspoken.

Things spoken till now is only if you are coming alone or single and wanna commute to NYC to office faster. It takes just over 10 mins to get to NYC by the Path Train from JSQ. Now, if you are coming with your family, then the whole picture changes.

I would prefer to stay in Edison or near Metro Park if I am coming with my family. This would be when someone would come for a long term. That part of NJ, Edison and Metro Park is full of the Indian Community with the city being more clean and better in many ways. Though its a pinch to the pocket and time to travel all the way from Edison to NYC to work, anyone would love the atmosphere and would wanna get there if with family.

Just to brief you about the travel from Edison to NYC; anyone who is travelling to NYC, or NY, would have to take the NJ Transit train till Newark and then depending on which part of NY you would have to go, you decide the train. If you have to get to somewhere near WTC, one would have to take the Path Train from Newark to WTC; else if it is the upper Manhattan, one could take the same NJ Transit train to get to work. You may want to refer to the NJ Transit website for more information on the train network and the train schedules along with the connecting Path Train timings.

I hope reading this blog now, you have a fair idea of what you should be doing. Anyways once you get to this place you would surely learn it as this country makes you learn to live independently.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave me a comment, I will try to get back to you ASAP or atleast make sure I refer you to the right person.