Van, taxi latest NY lodging option for bold, cheap visitors - The Denver Post
But travelers to New York City bold enough to book a parked van for $22 a night through Airbnb do get a real bed and a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline from across the East River in Queens. "If you want a New York adventure, this is it. Great location, great view," says Rapha Schaele, a 23-year-old student from Freiburg, Germany, who recently stayed in the van with two friends for four days. While parked vehicles make up a tiny fraction of the thousands of Airbnb private accommodation listings in New York City — just three vans, a converted yellow taxi and two campers — they provide an option for adventurous, budget-minded visitors... For now, all the New York City listings on Airbnb for parked vehicles come from one owner, Jonathan Powley, a 35-year-old standup comedian and former hotel concierge who has been renting his vehicles for six months and does his best to anticipate... Police say that as long as it is legally parked, there's no problem sleeping in a vehicle on the street. There have been no problems thus far with those staying in Powley's vehicles, all parked in Queens' Long Island City, a gentrifying neighborhood of former industrial warehouses and new condo towers. Every day, Powley cleans his four-wheeled hotel rooms, changes the sheets and puts out flowers for new guests. Source: www.denverpost.com
