[gulp] NYC hotel prices

[carrie74]

We're going to be in NYC for 4 nights over the Easter holidays, and currently looking at hotels. DC are 13 (DD) and 11 (DS). Previously on short hotel stays in US, we've all shared one room that comes with 2 beds and the DC have shared, but I'm wondering if they're getting a bit old for this now? So any advice? I suppose we could split up and have boys in one bed, girls in another. Found a really nice hotel in Jersey City, v close to the PATH transit system (and great price!), but would we regret staying off Manhattan?

DH and I visited NYC about 4 years ago, but just the 2 of us, and stayed near Grand Central. Wasn't cheap, but was a special occasion. Now that all our costs are effectively doubled with bringing the children with us, we're looking at ways to save via hotels...

Have a look at suite based hotels like the Affinia Hotel and Suites and Fairfield Inn and suites to name but just two. Look at suite based hotels generally speaking (Doubletree by Hilton at Times Square is also good). They can do good rates, some offer free breakfast as part of the room rate and are family friendly.

If you do not mind travelling into and from Manhattan the Jersey City hotel may be worth it for those 4 nights you are there. But would your children get a bit tired of it?. What is in the general area around this hotel in terms of restaurants etc?.

Unfortunately hotel rooms in NYC are not cheap due to demand; NYC gets many visitors all year round these days.

Don't stay in Jersey! Go on booking.com and you'll find a deal.

I stayed in a suite room at the Redbury New York in June.

two double bed and a pull out double in the lounge area. Plenty of room for myself and my three friends.

Booked via booking.com- would really recommend.

Where does the PATH go into? What is on your itinerary? I think they have an impact on whether you'd regret it. If a lot of what you want to see is Midtown and the train goes to Penn then you'd be OK.

It could also work well if you want to go to the outlet mall in New Jersey, sales tax is cheaper there so I shop in NJ if I can.

Would serviced apartments work out better? Not sure if this is an option in NYC.

Have you booked flights yet? If not, and you are flying with a full-service airline, then it usually works out cheaper to buy both together (plus gives you additional protection).

We are going at Easter with our DDs who will be 12 & 13 and we are staying in a room with 2 double beds and they will have to share. Got a fantastic deal with Thomas Cook actually, staying Midtown on 6th Ave, 7 night £3400 including flights which I thought was a fab deal.

Yup, flights already booked - we would usually do a fly - drive or fly-hotel to get the deals, but this time it was super cheap for flights only (under £1k for all 4of us). Booking.com isn't bringing us the best deals - it's looking difficult to get anything for less than £300 a night, except in Jersey City, which is about £200.

The PATH seems to be 7 mins to WTC, and from there presume we could get anywhere. Itinerary is varied: Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (can do from Jersey), 9/11 memorial and possibly museum (not sure I can do this, still feels too raw), Central Park, Rockefeller Centre, general meandering. So Midtown would tick all boxes really, but not sure I can get over the massive price differential.

Thanks for recommendations, most currently coming in at £300+ per night - it'll be Easter weekend, so that's probably hiking prices up a bit.

Shopping not on agenda as will have been I. Florida the week before, so will have done our shopping (if ER improves..) by then.

Stay in Manhattan but share a room - the US family rooms are up to 18 generally and are decent sized, you'll be out all the time anyway. Try the financial district, you can often get good deals during holiday times

Thanks again

Yes financial district definitely cheaper, maybe that's a good halfway house - still on Manhattan Island, but weekend cheaper rates for being in a less touristy area. Will there be anywhere to eat near the hotel though, being Easter weekend? I'm presuming so, being the city that never sleeps etc

Will investigate further. Thanks so much everyone!

Our family of 5 rented an AirBnb apartment in Union City at Easter last year which worked out WAY cheaper than a hotel. Little mini buses drove right past the door every 10 mins and it was a short trip through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Bus Terminal which is close to Times Square.

Look at the Park Lane - a room with 2 double beds will be about $260 - maybe it will he higher over easter though. Check their site for any deals (I've stayed there a few times and always got a better price via their site). Really good location.

Can I come too?

We stayed as a family of 4 in 50 Bowery Hotel on lower East Side. Very close to subway for Midtown and easy walk to Brooklyn Bridge area. We had two separate rooms for £300 a night this summer.

It might be worth looking at the Affinia Shelburne (mentioned by a previous poster) as they have 2 x double bed rooms for around $300pn.

We've stayed there 4 times (always booked direct, although always had a 1 bed suite). Hotel is extremely well-placed & you can walk just about anywhere - we only used subway for trips to Wall Street/Battery Park or north of the southern boundary of Central Park (we're old & knackered :)) It also has the advantage of being outside the main tourist area so there are plenty of local diners/pizzerias/cafes etc which are less expensive than the ones around, say, Times Square.

You've been before so you'll know where you want to go but the reduction in travel costs & times compared to staying outside Manhattan might be worth it.

I've stayed in the Salisbury in Manhattan. This was a suite and was a great location

We have just come back from staying in Hoboken in NJ and it was brilliant. Stayed in an Airb&b so had a 3 bed apartment. PATH was excellent. Some days we got the ferry into Manhattan, others the bus.

It was me and my 4 DCs (11 - 16). It was perfect for us.

What I really liked was ‘going home’ at the end of the day.

Would definitely stay there again. Lovely area.

Don't use booking.com - our main criteria when we had a night in London coming from Aus was 2 bedrooms and one had to be a twin. Arrived and got two doubles (19yo DS and 15yo DD so ended up doing boys and girls). It was also more expensive than we had been told. A friend also had a nightmare with them in Spain this year - I used to use them all the time, never again.

Air B&B is your friend in this situation. Some great apartments well under 300 a night

Isn't AirBNB outlawed in NYC?

Spoke to my brother (who lives in the US), and looks like they're going to try and join us when we're there which would be amazing. Might look for house on VRBO too since there will be 8 of us...

Thanks so much everyone for your help, it's very much appreciated and I'm looking through all the recommendations.

There are strict regulations in NYC - think the hosts need to be resident in the building or something - but NJ is different.

The hosts were fabulous. Did our airport transfers too.

And waking up to see the sun rise over the Manhattan skyline every day will stay with me forever.

Sounds lush Nickname 😍

We did AirBNB - lower floor of a townhouse, 3 bedrooms, kitchen diner and bathroom. £150 per night.

We're going next year. AirBnB isn't outlawed in NYC -this seems to come up time and time again but the truth is the city is cracking down in AirBnB as some owners have multiple properties in buildings they don't live in. A legal let is where an owner lives in one of the apartments in the same building and there aren't more than 3 apartments in the property. So many of the apartments are legal but as AirBnB doesn't ask for proof, NYC is cracking down on them, asking for all owners addresses and the like. To date though they've only fined a couple of worse case offenders. So you'd probably be fine using AirBnB - but there is a slight risk and I'd ask the owners a number of questions to check the legal bit. It is completely legal in Jersey. We're using HomeAway and I've booked an apartment in a brownstone building in what looks to be a really safe part of Brooklyn with great transport links at £150 a night. There are apartments on there in Brooklyn from £100.
Initially looked at booking.com in Manhattan - completely ridiculous! In our budget the best we could afford was so grim it almost put me off going! Depends what you're looking for & are happy with though.

"A legal let is where an owner lives in one of the apartments in the same building and there aren't more than 3 apartments in the property. So many of the apartments are legal but as AirBnB doesn't ask for proof, NYC is cracking down on them, asking for all owners addresses and the like".

Am glad they are doing that, people need to be protected here.

Many apartment residences in NYC and the 5 boroughs have strict codes relating to their tenancy agreement. There is hardly a legal let to be found and that is why I would always advise visitors to NYC to stay in hotel accommodation. Finding a supposedly legal letting online is a minefield and akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

If Airbnb and the like do not ask for proof (and you are right in that they certainly do not check the veracity of such lettings) then how does the customer know that an apartment rental is legal or it is as they say it is?. Its not unknown at all for such images to be faked and with false addresses. Many such listings are sublet illegally and such tenants are knowingly doing this contrary to the terms of their signed lease agreement.

It causes problems for both locals and tourists. For tourists people in the block more often than not notice transient visitors coming and going all the time and as a result call the Super. There have been cases over the years of visitors being told that they cannot use the dwelling or have been actively scammed. Locals have to pay higher rental costs partly as a result of the likes of Airbnb reducing supply of properties for rent. Unsurprisingly other cities around the world are now following NYCs lead and are clamping down. SF is another city that has done very similar as has Paris, Barcelona and Berlin.

New York City is Airbnb’s largest domestic market, but under state law, it is illegal in most buildings for an apartment to be rented out for less than 30 days unless the permanent tenant is residing in the apartment at the same time. The new disclosure requirements would make it much easier for the city to enforce the state law and could lead to many of the 50,000 units rented through Airbnb in the city coming off the market. After similar rules went into effect in San Francisco, listings fell by half.