Affinia Hotels -- are they kidding?
 

A friend of mine has stayed at the Beekman Towers MANY times for many years. He wanted to stay there for 4 nights in September on his way back from Europe. He called the hotel to be told they don't take reservations there, he has to call the Affinia number. For two weeks he tried calling the toll free number, each time giving up after being put on hold from 15 minutes to half an hour. I suggested we do it online, so this morning he came over and we tried. The website is working but whenever you click check availability you get "page is not available". I tried it with both Firefox and IE -- same thing. Together we tried calling. After 25 minutes of the music, we gave up. We called Beekman Towers directly. Gee, they were sorry, so many people have told them that, but they can't take reservations. They gave us a regular number -- not toll free. We called. After 15 minutes we gave up on that. He has lost interest in staying at the Beekman Towers where he was always greeted before as a "regular" and always offered a free upgrade. I guess if they're really that busy they won't miss his business.

Wow - how frustrating! I stayed there last May and I e-mailed them directly for a rate quote, and I booked by replying to the e-mail, I didn't have to bother with phone or website. They were very responsive, if your friend is not totally disgusted with what they have already gone through, try e-mailing the hotel (and specify interest in The Beekman) at: [email protected]

Or . . . If the rate is the same (or better!) see if the hotel comes up on Quikbook.com for the desired dates. They could book on that site with out a service charge or penalties for cancellation if their plans change.

Don;t know about this am but the web site is working fine now. Have tried with AOL, Safari, and IE and all worked fine. Maybe just a temporary problem.

What about trying through quikbook.com? I understand the frustration, but...sometimes quikbook rates are better. ;) I just checked and for a 3 night stay, it's $40 cheaper on quikbook than on affinia.com.

I've also found good rates for Affinia hotels on travelhero (which I have used for the Shelburne).

The Affinia website was working late yesterday afternoon. Quickbook shows the same prices. Four nights in a single at the Beekman Towers will be $1700 for four nights (including tax) anyway you look at it. My friend has decided to change his flight and just come home after Europe. He's thinking four nights in New York (where he lived for many years) just isn't worth that to him -- before some show tickets, meals, taxis, etc.

We spent some time looking at lots of other hotels, but nothing of any real value is going to save him much below that. Meanwhile that's the immediate area where he wants to stay as that's where he used to live.

Oh and Travelhero was even higher than the other two sites, as the others lowered from $399 to $349 on the weekend, but Travelhero didn't.

Try Kayak.com. It compares prices on several sites and shows the best deals.

There were some amazingly good prices a few weeks ago for the Millenium UN Plaza with a promotion from Amex. Less than $200/night. Promotion probably over but check AARP and AAA prices on their website.

Kyack still showed best price over $1700 for four nights. The problems with many of those promotions are they aren't available yet for September. In any case, he has now changed his flights to simply change planes in New York and come home to Florida. So problem solved.