ita

I can get a similar rate at the Pearl Hotel that I am getting at the Salisbury. Any information about the Pearl? It is closer to Times Square. I prefer the Salisbury location, but if the hotel is much better I would be willing to switch.

nytraveler

No nothing about this place. Was it the former Novotel?

Did see a mention of a Pearl hotel downtown opening in 2009 - not sure if it ever did? Also a Pearl Hostel uptown.

Have you looked at tripadvisor?

321go

Interesting. I googled it and it appears to be a new hotel in the Empire group (Lucerne, Belvedere, Newton) located near Times Square and opening next month.

mclaurie

I would grab it. There's a special on travelzoo.com Brand new, good location, sounds excellent.

ita

the hotel opens on October 11. The rooms will be 100% ready, but not all the public spaces. I couldn't get info directly from the hotel today because their computers aren't set up until tomorrow. Any thoughts on this? Is it probably too early to try this hotel?

mclaurie

Too early for what??? You don't say when you're visiting or what's important to you in a hotel aside from the price & location. The Salisbury is a well run, well located but very tired looking hotel. Have a look at photos on oyster.com

ita

McLaurie I booked the Pearl mainly because of your input about the Salisbury. The hotel is opening on October 11. We are arriving on the 14th. I have been assured that the rooms will be 100% ready, but some of the other things might not be. The location has the advantage of being really close to the theatres, to which we will have to be rushing because of other commitments. It will have nice new bathrooms and hopefully no time to develope any infestations. What is important to me is cleanliness, location and price. I am willing to take a chance on this being good, it is not forever. But I will phone in advance of our departure to see that it is ready.

Monette_Chain

We've booked for the 15th-20th. It was a great deal and location, but a main motivator is the bed bug infestation. I'm looking forward to a hotel with brand new beds and pillows!

mclaurie

I hope it's great for both of you and you report back with glowing reviews.

travelgalfl

On September 19, 2010 I was looking for a hotel located in the Times Square Area that offered breakfast and was reasonably priced for a 3 night stay with my family in October. I went on a website called Newyorkcity.com. As I had a question about a particular hotel I saw on the website, I called NYC.com for further information. As the original hotel did not meet my needs, the NYC.com representative offered me a hotel that I was told was brand new-The Pearl Hotel on 49th St. I was a little reluctant as I had never come upon this hotel in doing my searches. The rep referred me to their website and as it looked nice, included breakfast(which was an important factor) and had a great location with a reasonable price, I booked the hotel with NYC.com after I was once again assured that it would be fine. As I was a little uneasy about the hotel, I called the hotel directly a few days later. At that point I found out that the hotel was not yet open but would be opening the week before my arrival date of October 22, 2010. I spoke with two people at the hotel and was assured that the hotel would be open & was told that I would be personally called if there was a problem.

This past Monday, October 4th, I had a case of "women's intuition" and got a bad feeling about the hotel. Once again I called the hotel directly and asked when they would be opening. I was told they would open on October 25th which is the day I would be checking out of the hotel!!!!! I told the rep I couldn't believe no one contacted me to let me know that I would not have a room upon my arrival in NYC on October 22nd. He said they had called all their guests so he would have to get back to me. He later told me that I had booked with Expedia (which I DID NOT DO) so I would have to deal with them. Since the hotel has less than 100 rooms, I found it unbelievable that they would not take it upon themselves to call all their guests, no matter how the reservations were made!!!! But basically their rep told me too bad! I then rec'd a call from Expedia. Apparently NYC.com is not a clearinghouse for NYC hotels, shows etc. as I thought it was. Apparently, the hotel part is associated with Hotels.com which in turn got my room from Expedia. None of this is on my receipt which only indicates NYC.com!!! Expedia told me they only found out about the change in opening date the night before. I was later told by the hotel rep that Expedia knew about the change two weeks earlier. So someone is lying...but who knows which one!! Either way, both parities had the information for 2 weeks and did not inform me...if I hadn't had a case of women's intuition, we would have showed up on October 22nd to an unopened hotel.

Expedia told me that the Empire Group which owns the Pearl Hotel would accommodate me in one of their other hotels or Expedia would work with me to find a new hotel. I said I would want to stay in their other hotel, the Belvedere, in the Times Square area as long as I got one of the renovated rooms...as I had seen on trip advisor.com that some of the un-renovated rooms were awful. Expedia then calls me back and tells me the Empire Group can't accommodate me at the Belvedere. At this point I had wasted over two hours because no one at the hotel or expedia ever had the courtesy to call me two weeks earlier when they knew they would be having a delay in their opening. What I ended up with was another hotel with no breakfast included. As there are four people in my family, that now means I will have to pay for 12 breakfasts in NYC...not a cheap situation. Expedia, who I never even realized I had booked with would do nothing for me with regards to a credit for the breakfasts. They told me I could stay on the phone with them and we could search for more hotels that might accommodate me with breakfast at the rate I originally paid. At this point I was going on 3 hours of wasted time and said I would call NYC.com for a credit. Well it turns out the NYC.com is really Hotels.com and they are not even in NYC...they are in Texas....

There is no way to find a human being that works for NYC.com to resolve any issues. At this point I was extremely frustrated and contacted the representative at The Pearl Hotel once again. I was basically looking for some contact information for NYC.com. However, the representative was rude and basically told me they couldn't/wouldn't help me since I booked with Expedia (which of course I really did not). I asked to speak to his boss who was actually the person I had spoken to a few weeks ago after making the original reservation. She even remembered our conversation, but said she didn't call me because it was up to Expedia, not her. At this point I got angry because of their very unhelpful attitude. I requested that the Pearl Hotel compensate me for the 12 breakfasts that I would now incur. She said they would not do this...but If I went to one of their other hotels I would get breakfast! I informed her that Expedia said that their other hotel could not accommodate us!!!!

At this point she said she would contact Expedia to see if she could get them to compensate us for the breakfasts. She did leave me a voice mail saying she had e mailed Expedia that afternoon, but I have not heard another word!!!

Bottom line is this-The Empire Hotel Group and THe Pearl Hotel dropped the ball. They knew their hotel was not opening and did not contact all their guests to inform them of the situation. There is no excuse for this situation. I don't understand the whole hotel room third-party booking system. I still can't believe I had a reservation via Expedia as no one identified themselves as such nor did any of my documentation. None of this matters to me the consumer...I planned on staying at the Pearl Hotel...it is up to them to make sure their staff and their agents who; are selling their rooms do what is right. It is not acceptable to pass the buck and have the customer suffer.

I wasted over three hours of time I should have been at work this past Monday. I will now have to pay for 12 breakfasts which in New York City will be no less than $125. How sad that no one at the Empire Group or the Pearl Hotel cares!!!!!

If this experience is any indication of the service one will receive at these hotels, I would stay away!!!!!!

ita

I was called by Pearl Hotel. The manager is my contact person and has been very helpful and done the work to obtain other accomodationl

NeoPatrick

travelgalfl, I understand your pain and this is a horrible situation. But in all honesty I would not expect any hotel to call me directly when I had booked it through any agency. Even if booked through a travel agent, I'd probably expect the hotel to call the agent rather than me. With any kind of "clearing house" like hotels.com or expedia, I would definitely expect THEM to get the information and get back to me.

I agree that it would have been nice if the hotel had called you, but I sure wouldn't expect them to.

nytraveler

Travelglfl -

I too would;t expect a hotel to contact you directly if you booked through a bookin service - it would be the job of the booking service.

I think the lesson here is to understand who you're dealing with. If you don;t book direct with the hotel (I always do - even if I first find the rates elsewhere) than determine exactly who is handling the booking. The site y ou used (which I have never heard of) should be more transparent as to what they're doing - but that's not the fault of the hotel.

Separately, many many new hotels do not open on time - that;s the risk you take when you get the very reduced introductory rate. And in that situation I would always have a back-up reservation. (I have stayed on brand new hotels twice - one opened 3 weeks late - but still right before I got there and the other was officially "open" although public areas were still being worked on. But in both cases the very low rates - both about 50% off regular rates - made the deal attractive enough to take the risk.)

travelgalfl

The issue here is that I originally spoke to the hotel directly and they assured me that the hotel would be open. I was then assured that they would call me if there was a problem. The hotel did not follow through with their promise. I only kept the reservation in the first place because they personally told me there would not be a problem.

In addition, the feedback assumes we are all experts on hotel booking services. I intentionally did not go through Expedia, Priceline, etc. and assumed I was getting a local booking service somehow associated with the local hotels...Yes I was ignorant...but again the hotel rep knew I had concerns and they didn't follow through!!! No excuses...sorry..this is a poor reflection on this hotel and the Empire Hotels!!! They knew I was booked to stay there....what were they going to do when folks showed up and they were not open for business??? S

ita

I must speak in defence of the Pearl Hotel. I knew it was taking a chance when I booked but I would probably not be able to stay there at regular price, so I took the chance. I booked through Travelzoo. The manager of the Pearl personally phoned me twice to tell me that the hotel was not ready. She personally made alternate arrangements for me, including breakfast, and we had 2 more phone calls until I was satisfied with the arrangements. I am very disappointed about not experiencing the Phillipe Starck toilet. I hope that my arrangements turn out well, but I am not planning to spend much time in the room. I will let you know what happens.

NeoPatrick

travelgalfl, sorry, you are really confusing me now.

Are you saying you booked the hotel through the agency you mentioned, then called the hotel to ask them questions and they looked up your reservation and confirmed it and they promised to call you personally? Wow. I'm impressed that any hotel would do that, rather than say they would contact your booking agency. It's especially interesting because I had the impression that many agencies would only book rooms and not even provide the person's name and personal information until just before arrival. Or did you give the hotel your name and phone number at that time?

I'm really not sure what you mean by "assumed I was getting a local booking service somehow associated with the local hotels". I'm not sure what difference it makes if it is Expedia, Hotels.com, or something called "rent New York", none of the agencies own or control the hotels and whether the agency is local or long distance really doesn't make any difference.

With ita's comments which are totally the opposite of yours, we can understand it was because she dealt with the hotel and you didn't. I honestly think your whole complaint should rest with whomever you booked with -- and not with the hotel that you didn't book with. If you booked a flight on Delta with Expedia and you never got a call that the flight was canceled, your complaint should rest with Expedia and not with Delta. It's the same thing here.

sf7307

>>

We were in line at either Gatwick or Heathrow one time and there was a problem with a flight. The person in front of us was arguing with the British Air Rep, who told him point-blank that because he made his arrangements through Priceline, there was nothing the rep could do to help him, and he'd have to contact Priceline to find out why they hadn't contacted him about the changes, etc. Same issue, same result.

ita

I think that both the ticketing agency and the host (hotel) are responsible. I booked through travelzoo and yet the hotel took responsibility. If I booked an Air Canada flight through a travel agency and they weren't available when something went wrong, I would expect the carrier to take responsibility. I often fly with Airmile points (just Canadian) and if I have a problem I expect the airline to follow through

Sometimes if ones responds to this kind of crisis politely and sympathetically instead of responding the way you really feel, you get further. I will let you know what happens

travelgalfl

Thanks for all your responses...but as I called the hotel within days of the original reservation, and they knew I had concerns, they should have told me I would have to deal with NYC.com not them. This was never communicated to me and in fact I was told they would get in touch with me. Perhaps I am naive about the booking I made as I normally always book through a hotel's website. I will say that I just rec'd a call this afternoon from the hotel seeing if Expedia has ever followed up with me...and I do appreciate that phone call as I had assumed they had just dropped the ball again. So kudos to Georgia for following up with me today.

sf7307

ita, I do think there is some misunderstanding about who is who and what they do. You did not book through Travelzoo, because travelzoo is not a booking agent....all they do is consolidate great deals for you, but when you click on the deal, you're directed elsewhere, which might be to the hotel's own website, or it might not. For example, if the Pearl were having a grand opening sale, Travelzoo might include it on their site. Or maybe Expedia is having it's own sale. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just misunderstood.