I think Century 21 is fantastic but you must be prepared to spend hours there and DIG! Zero customer service.

If money isn't an issue, definitely Bergdorf Goodman is my favorite upscale department store.

For middle of the road Bloomingdales.

I think the Park South is an excellent boutique hotel in an outstanding location. Lots of great restaurants short walk away (Artisanal, Craft, Blue Smoke just to name a few). It is on top of the Lex line subway so it is very easy to get around.

It is also close to lots of downtown stuff.

Forget Little Italy

If you go to Century 21 Go First thing in the morning when the doors open and they open early. Don't miss the shoes which I think are the best part of Century 21. the store starts to fill up around 10-11ish and then it just gets overwhelming.

But I see you are doing htis on a weekend, I do not know what Century 21 is like on the weekend, but hte hours are different.

Prices fluctuate by date so unless you tell us when you're coming, there's no way to say whether a place will be $250 on your date. There are some sales listed on travelzoo.com including the Affinia hotels. The Affinia Dumont is a great hotel in a convenient location for shopping Lord & Taylor & Macy's. It's a bit south of where you stayed last time.

If you'd rather try something near Century 21 in the financial district, the Embassy Suites, Marriott Financial and Millenium Hilton are near there and usually very cheap on a weekend.

The Hotel On Rivington (THOR) may be dirt cheap for your stay and if you can get it for $250 or a little more, it is totally worth the price.

Are you all related to Mollie or Ezra Katzen? Just curious

Thank you for all your responses!! We are traveling May 23rd and returning May 24th. I will take a look at travelzoo.com as well as the hotel on rivington. SueNYC, I am not related to Mollie or Ezra - I've always loved the name Katzen so try to use it whenever I can. Thank you again for your help! Any great mom and pop type Italian restaurants? VJPBlovesitaly mentioned above to stay away from LittleItaly ....

1) I doubt the Doubletree Met. is sold out. More likely they don't want to take a 1 night Sat. night stay on a holiday weekend. It's convenient to Bloomingdales and the shopping around it but not a great hotel. If you want to stay in that area, the Affinia 50, Courtyard Midtown East and the San Carlos are near it. There are plenty of options on quikbook.com right now for that date for well under $250. What you pick will depends on whether you have to have 2 beds and where you want to stay.

What "good old" food do you want? Are you talking about veal parmigiana etc.?

The business hotels downtown will probably offer the best rates since it is a holiday weekend.

Check the Ritz-Carlton downtown, Club Quarters downtown, THOR, Wall Street Inn, and Embassy Suites. Also, whatever The Exchange Hotel has been renamed. I think it is Eurostars Wall Street.

Thank you mclaurie and GoTravel. I ordered a few maps from Red Maps and am waiting until I get those in the mail before I book a room - should be getting them this weekend hopefully. This way will be easier to look at the hotels everyone suggested and see exactly where they are located. I guess for 1 night it doesn't make that big of difference but would be nice to stay in an area that is closer to everything than not.

mclaurie, the good old food - more the mom and pops places that are very casual - not formal dining - the dishes are like what your grandmother would serve you as opposed to a high end italian place where it's somewhat fancy - I live in DC (so get enough of the more formal Italian restaurants) and am from Pittsburgh so looking for that hometown feel, if one exists in NYC.

Thank you again for your help!

Try Daffy's for shopping.

Also, Carlisle. 439 W. 55th St. Bigger discounts on the 5th floor.

maps.google.com is a great mapping website online. In most cases you just have to type the name of the hotel and add NYC to it and the map shows you where it is. Malatesta might be to your liking for Italian. http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/malatesta-trattoria/

Thank you to all who responded to my NYC post. My sister and I returned from our trip on Sunday night. We didn't realize it was Memorial Day weekend when we booked our train tickets so unfortunately did not make use of our Monday off.

We took Amtrak up from DC to NYC - no complaints. Trains were nice and arrived with no issues. We decided to book a room at the Tribeca Grande Hotel. Found a good rate on Expedia. The hotel was a very modern and nice. Our room was small but we didn't care since we were basically just sleeping there. The hotel is located 2 blocks from Soho - great location in our opinion.

Spent most of Saturday in Soho walking the streets, Saturday evening we headed to a few shops on Madison - then on Sunday we spent the day in Midtown. All our time was spent shopping - no sightseeing this trip!

Thank you again for your help!!