Salocin

Looking for Accommodation in Philadelphia

The most recent in a long line of trials and tribulations of an MBA acceptee - finding a place to live in Philadelphia

As you can probably imagine, it's pretty difficult to find a place to live in a faraway city when you live on the other side of the world.

During the Wharton Welcome Weekend, I visited a number of student houses and found that the kind of place I would like to live in is a "Brownstone" - in Philadelphia (and probably the rest of the US, but I'm no expert), this seems to mean anything that isn't a high-rise.

I find the logic of the housing market a little confusing in Philadelphia. A high-rise apartment costs more to rent than a Brownstone despite being part of a modern, massive housing complex with little or no character and where all the flats are of similar design. The upside is that all the ameneties are taken care of, and one of the big benefits, according to some of the people I spoke to during the weekend, is that the reception can receive special delivery (DHL, FedEx etc) packages when you are out. I can only conclude that Americans receive a great deal more special deliveries than I do and I am left wondering what it is I am missing out on.

There is no question in my mind that I want to live in a Brownstone (character, history, style, more in keeping with my European pretensions etc), and that this is going to have to be in Central city. For this reason, I am about to go to Philadelphia for six days to look for somewhere to rent. This involves a return flight to Philadelphia (the cheapest being via Manchester, would you believe) and six days in a hotel.

Booking a hotel is problematic. I've tried Hotwire.com, which looks really good until you try to pay - at which point it says "What? A foreign credit card? I'd rather have a system failure" and promptly does exactly that.

I found out that most of the people who booked rooms through hotwire.com at $50 per night ended up with either the Holiday Inn or the Crowne Plaza. Seeing as both of these hotels belong to the same group, I call up the reservation line, tell them the problem I'm having, and get told that if I want that price, I'm going to have to book through hotwire, as the cheapest they can offer me direct is $168 per night. It would seem I'm being subsidised by the middleman, or the hotel group in question has a strange set of business practices.

Here's hoping it's all worth it and I find somewhere nice to live for the next 2 years.

UPDATE 16th June 2002...

I've found a place to live in Center City Philadelphia, after much agonising and walking around in circles in Philadelphia for days and days. It wasn't as bad as finding property in London, but it was bad enough for me to be grateful that it's over.