What corporate housing actually means in New York
Corporate housing is a furnished apartment rented for a set block of time, usually with a 30-night minimum and a signed agreement between the provider and your employer. You get a lease or a licence, a fixed unit, and a move-in date. Most of the companies that dominate this market in New York work that way, and for a six-month relocation it's a sensible structure: one rate, one apartment, one bill your company can process.
It gets awkward when the stay is shorter than a month, when the dates are still moving, or when nobody wants to sign anything. That's the case we hear most often from people starting a project downtown: six weeks, maybe eight, with a start date that slipped twice. For that shape of trip, an apartment you book by the night does the same job with less paperwork.
We're a building of apartments at 17 John Street, in the Financial District. Every one of ours has a full kitchen. We sell the apartment, not the bed, so we don't charge per guest when a colleague joins you for a week.
Corporate housing vs. an apartment suite you book nightly
| Corporate housing / serviced apartment | An apartment suite at 17 John | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical minimum | 30 nights, often longer | One night |
| Paperwork | Lease or company agreement | A booking, like any hotel |
| Changing your dates | Amendment to the agreement | Change the reservation |
| Kitchen | Yes | Yes, full kitchen in every apartment |
| Laundry | Varies by unit | In-unit washer and dryer in our W/D apartments, plus a free guest laundry room in the building |
| Building extras | Varies | Gym, guest lounge with an espresso bar, rooftop terrace, conference room by the hour |
| Front desk | Often none | Staffed building |
What to check before you commit to anything
Ask these five things, of us or of anyone else:
- The minimum stay, in nights: not "monthly", which can mean 28, 30 or a calendar month depending on who you ask.
- Whether the washer and dryer is in the apartment or in the building: both are fine, they're just different lives. Ours marked W/D have the machines in the unit. The laundry room downstairs is free to use, detergent included, and it's open whenever you need it.
- The square footage of the exact unit, not the room type. Sizes vary a lot inside one category.
- Whether extra people cost extra: we don't charge per guest, we charge for the apartment. Anyone staying overnight does need to be on the reservation in advance.
- What happens if the project ends early. Worth knowing before you sign a lease, not after.
Our apartments, in square feet
These are the real numbers, so you can picture the space rather than trust an adjective:
- Classic King Studio: 340 sq ft, full kitchen. The smallest thing we have, and enough for one person on a work stay.
- Deluxe King Studio: 485 sq ft, full kitchen.
- Deluxe 1 Bedroom W/D: 550 sq ft, sleeps up to 4, washer and dryer in the unit. This is the one we point most solo long-stayers at, because the bedroom door closes on the desk.
- Classic 2 Bedroom W/D: 750 sq ft, two bedrooms, sleeps up to 4.
- Superior 2 Bedroom W/D: 1,100 sq ft, sleeps up to 6.
- Luxury 3 Bedroom W/D: 1,200 sq ft, sleeps up to 8. For a team sharing, or a family that came along for the assignment.
Room to stretch out matters more at week three than it does on night one. That's the honest argument for an apartment over a hotel room on a long stay: you can cook something that isn't delivery, do a wash on a Tuesday, and take a call in a room with a door.
Working here, and getting around
The building has a conference room you can book by the hour, which is the sane option when your apartment isn't the right backdrop for a client call. There's a guest lounge with a Jura espresso bar if you want to work somewhere that isn't your kitchen table, a gym, and a rooftop terrace that's a good place to end the day.
For transit, Fulton Center is a couple of blocks west of us at Broadway and Fulton. The MTA rebuilt it as one complex joining five stations and nine lines: the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, J, Z and R. Midtown offices are a straight run north on the 4 or 5; the PATH to Jersey City and Newark leaves from the World Trade Center, on the far side of the Oculus.
Is the Financial District right for a work stay?
It's quiet at night and on weekends, which is the thing people either want or don't. The offices empty out after six and Sunday mornings down here are genuinely calm. If you want noise outside your window at 11pm, this isn't the neighbourhood. If you want to sleep, cook, and be at a desk in Midtown in twenty minutes, it is.
One practical note for anyone here while apartment hunting: staying downtown puts you within a subway ride of viewings almost anywhere in Manhattan and much of Brooklyn, which is more than you can say for most of the outer-borough short-term options.
If you're weighing a month here, tell us the dates and what you need in the apartment and we'll tell you plainly whether we have it.