Are these good hotel prices?
 

December 2004

The 414 Hotel-$190/night-Queen-Free continental breakfast

The Belvedere-$ 177.95 -King-kitchenette with minifridge, sink, and microwave

Casablanca Hotel-$289-King Deluxe Room-complimentary continental breakfast  served each morning, assorted teas, coffees, cappuccino, espresso and cookies throughout the day, and wine, champagne and cheese each weekday evening.

For the hotel/price/month/freebies do these seem like good deals on these hotels?

We'd like to spend under $200/night if possible and be in Midtown/Times Square or walking distance to it and all the tourist attractions. We'd need atleast a Queen size bed, but really a King, and we would like breakfast to be included. Thanks in advance.

I cannot provide specifics on these hotel prices except to say that other posters staying in the Times Square area seem to be paying much less - especially if they are using Priceline. But it is too early to use Priceline for December.

The key point is that you need to think about what part of Manhattan (an island that is miles long and wide) you want to stay in. Tourist sights are spread out all over Manhattan and there is no one place to stay
that will put you within walking distance to all or even most of them. Midtown is generally a good area to stay in - although IMO Times Square is not - very loud, bright, quite tacky (tons of ratty t-shirt shops and still some peep shows) - and filled primarily with tourists rather than locals. Perhaps you want to consider putting together a list of what you want to see and then determine the best area to stay. Or, if you would prefer to stay midtown, plan on using the subway to reach a lot of important sights:

Downtown: Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, South Street Seaport, Chinatown, Brooklyn Bridge, etc

Uptown: Met Museum, Museum of Natural History/Planetarium, Frick, several other major art museums, etc

Times Square is really only near Times Square /major theaters. Even other parts of midtown are just as good for traditional department store shopping and more upscale shopping is upper east side/Madison Avenue.

Check out tripadvisor.com reviews.

Any rate, especially in December, in NYC under $200 is a find if the hotel gets decent reviews.

Of course, after Christmas the December rates are LOW! Try the Best Western President right on 48th near Broadway. Great location if you want to see shows each night. Rates are pretty good and our King room was HUGE by any standard. Also www.quikbook sometimes has good deals for NY, but I think it may be a little early to find one. Not sure.

It's not necessarily too early to use Priceline for December - posters on BFT have used Priceline for Thanksgiving in NYC already. But if you do so, I would make sure to have good travel cancellation insurance.

We have used priceline several times in the past year to book hotels in the time square/ midtown west/ central park south areas. We ussually get a four star for about $125 (sometimes a little less/ sometimes a little more.) A great website to check out what others are getting and the hotels you might get is biddingfortravel.com.

Breakfast is one of the few bargains in Midtown. Yuo can get a bagel with cream cheese and a cup of coffee just about anyplace for under $3. I wouldn't insist on the inclusion of breakfast. You can literally stumble out of any hotel and have many cheap breakfast choices.

My breakfast of choice is a peach snapple and a black and white.

There are so many factors to getting the best hotel rates, but I ran the following for the rooms you described on Expedia, using a check in date of 12/15 (weekday) & double occupancy:

Belvedere: $169
414: $189
Casablanca: $335

Expedia gives discounted hotel rates if you also need a flight - book a pkg.

PS to GoTravel: that breakfast sounds positively nauseating! :-)

Found a rate of $179.99 for a Queen at the Super 8 Times Sq., if you are a AAA memeber I think you get 10% off. Do you think it's worth it for that rate? I know Super 8 isn't a luxury hotel or anything, but it should do the job for first time visitors who won't be spending much time in the room, right? Tripadvisor gave it good ratings, as did Frommer's (I think). I did a search and found a few replies on Super 8 but does anyone else have any experience with it?

Check the cancellation policy. If you book something now, you can always cancel it if something better comes along. You can get good value with priceline as well, especially if you're coming before CHristmas week.

Although we tend to avoid Times Square, we did stay at the Casablanca once when we were in town for a trade show.

We loved it! You'd never know that one of the craziest, busiest sites in New York was right outside. I'd stay there again. The staff was very helpful and the price was quite reasonable (for Manhattan). The room and bathroom were decently sized, very clean, and rather cute with a Moorish theme.

The prices from Expedia above show again that you usually can't get a good price from them much in advance. I usually find as good or better prices directly from the hotels with the added benefit of no loss of deposit if you change your mind or find a better price last minute.

have you plugged in your dates on quikbook.com to see what is available? They usually have a good selection at reasonable rates.

Why can't people put the actual dates in the post?
The first week of December prices differently than the last week of December.
I assure you that no one will steal your identity or stalk you if you mention the dates.
You say December 2004, why not say Dec 11-16, 2004? It's only 2 extra key strokes and it makes all the difference if you are looking for accurate information.

I just didn't think about putting the dates, I am still flexible on the dates.

I'm not worried someone would stalk me, I'm more worried someone is going to be rude to me for no good reason or berate me on this message board than someone stalking me.

I'm now trying to decide where to stay OCTOBER 28-NOV. 2, instead of December, though it's so far away right now we may change our minds.

Thanks for all the helpful replies.

I think that the rates you are quoting are quite high. Many of the very nice hotel chains (Marriott, Sheraton) have specials in December, and you can probably get even cheaper rates through Priceline or other discounters. Don't be afraid of Times Square-- it's very safe and a great place to be!

Dates do make a huge difference, particularly depending upon what's "going on" in NYC during your selected dates, and are sometimes critical for comparing hotel rates.

October is "convention" month, and December is "Christmas/New Year's" prime time, though there are positive bargains from Christmas day until the day before New Year's Eve.

If you're all that flexible, you should be checking various dates through all various resources for comparison purposes.

On the other hand, you just never know what will pop up if you are diligent in your research.

For example, a few weeks ago, I booked the Marriott Marquis via Priceline for three nights over New Year's for the ridiculously low price of $110/night. Last year, when attempting to book in late November, the best I could do anywhere over New Year's was $300/night plus.

We visit NYC over long weekend dates often thoughout each year. Each booking is an entirely new endeavor.

If "we" is two people, best a couple, Hotwire and Priceline are probably your best bet. I, personally, have been much more pleased with the Hotwire hotels, but have gotten significantly lower rates with Priceline.

You know, you can just ignore any "rude" responses and enjoy the rest.

And, if you want to economize rate-wise, it's probably best not to obsess over a fridge or continental breakfast and other "freebies", as the more favorable rate will more than compensate for same (and you may get those and even more anyway).

You may to decide to either shop dates, or shop rates for your most preferable dates.

aburch78, if you think you might change your mind, that's a very good reason *not* to use Hotwire or Priceline right now, since it's nonrefundable. But I do think, if your plans are firm, that you will probably get the best deal that way.

I can't convince my husband to use Priceline or Hotwire, etc. We've never used it so he's scared of where we will end up. He's also the one who wanted to find a place with free breakfast, but I am not even going to use that a criteria for our search anyone. It's not going to save that much, I can see that now.

I don't think we will change our minds on the dates, but you just never know will pop up. Last year we had to cancel our December trip because we bought a house, we weren't really looking for a house but a perfect one popped up so we bought it and could't afford to do both.

I took a break from my "research" but I am going to start looking again this week.

Thanks very much for the helpful advice.

You might want to try www.quikbook.com as you can actually choose the hotel and they sometimes have very good rates.