NYC hotel advice

Just a word on Priceline. I've never been happy with my bookings, including at the Grand Hyatt, where we probably had the worst room in the house. To be sure, I later learned it wasn't even a room you could reserve through the Web site, it was exclusive to Travelocity. With Hotwire, at least I was guaranteed a bigger room.

 

Good point MMSW- though I have only once (in at least 50 bids) been disappointed in my room and while I didn't like that hotel, it was still a good value overall. There are sites that review P/L hotels/treatment- I find them rather useful in getting what you are looking for.

Then again, I rarely bid over 2.5* where I go to most of the time because I am completely thrilled to get a Courtyard by Marriott at about 1/3 of the lowest offered price on their website.

 

And I rarely bid under 3. Mrs. MMSW, considers slumming it to be a Holiday Inn. And with some great deals on 4-star places, I haven't needed to.

Some friends think I'm crazy to use Hotwire as often as I do, figuring I could be stuck with a bad place. But the way I look at it, four stars is four stars. I've probably booked 20 times and never have been disappointed with either the price or the pice when I stuck to four stars. (I didn't care for a three-star place in Baltimore -- the Holiday Inn.) And I've had some steals, such as the Hilton at the Alexandria Mark Center, outside D.C., for $40, and the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton in New Jersey for $45. You can't get a Red Roof Inn for those prices.

(My best Hotwire story involved taking my grandparents to a wedding in Minneapolis. Round-trip air for four from Albany, three nights with two rooms in a Sheraton, and a Lincoln Town Car with a grand total of 6 miles on it when we turned the key -- under $800, all courtsey of Hotwire)

 

Hotwire has very, very rarely let me down. And the one time it did, they refunded my purchase.

 

And Albert Anastasia got wacked there, the famous barber shop execution.

The Barclay is great, one of the classic old New York hotels, particularly if you can get it under $200.

 

By the way, if you're staying for multiple nights, there's a trick to seeing what Hotwire hotel you *could* be bidding on. Or at least which hotels are in the running. After you see what's available in the neighborhood you want, try booking the visit as a package, including airfare. The prices won't be relevent anymore, but it'll show you what hotels are offered in that star range in that neighborhood. I've done it with 100 percent success on, I'd say, 10 or 12 occasions.

 

Spent 5 nights at the Sheraton in Midtown, but Mrs. PD's former employer was footing the bill, so I have no idea what the room rate was.

I can't think of a better location if you're there for Broadway shows.

 

never had a bad experience with expedia or hotwire.

 

Can someone explain why the big fancy shmancy hotels make you pay for high-speed net access?

Is it just "because they can"? I've stayed in Motel 6s in Podunk and got free wireless or high-speed.

 

I know it has no coolness to it, but there's a Holiday Inn on 57th street that worked out perfect for me when I spent a week in NYC this summer.

The rate was reasonable (can't remember exact cost, maybe $200), the room was clean and simple and I was a short walk from a lot of the places I wanted to go. Central Park is about a block away, near Columbus Circle, Carnegie Hall is a few blocks away and there are plenty of great places to eat in the area.

Also, there were no doting employees I had to tip constantly.


And Omar, just cut on your laptop in the hotel room and you're bound to pick up a few dozen wireless signals. Odds are, you can access one of them. No need to pay for shit.

 

They do that because they know people who stay at nicer hotels (including many on expense accounts) will be likely to pay for it. The Motel 6s of the world use free high-speed as an enticement to get people to stay there. The nicer hotels already have the customers, so they might as well make a few more bucks off of them. That's why every Courtyard and Fairfield has free high-speed, and just about every Marriott and Renaissance charges for the same service.