Hi I'll be arriving in NYC at 12pm. I would like to start looking around right away but my hotel (east midtown) won't let me check in till 3pm. Is there any solution? Such as locker facility? I don't want to drag my luggage for 3 hours. Please reply.

Usually a hotel will hold your luggage for you...have you checked with them?

You can expect your hotel to hold your bags, as Jocelyn P suggested. Also, they should let you check in early if they have a room ready.

Check your bags with the bell captain and take a walk around the neighborhood. I tip a couple of bucks per bag when I drop them off, then a couple when I retrieve them. Peace of mind....

You are assuming there won't be a room ready and there very well could be.
If a room isn't ready the hotel will store your bags for you. Worrying further about this possible NON-event is a waste of your time and sightseeing energy.

We stayed at the Beekman a few weeks ago, arriving into the city very very early. We went over to the hotel and they held our bags (in a locked store room) until our room was ready while we hit the streets. When we returned late that evening we picked up our card key at the desk and our luggage was waiting for us in our room. As rjw suggests, do tip the bellman who takes your luggage to the store room a few dollars for their effort.

I suggest you don't try to check in if it is TOO early in the day. If the hotel was sold out the night before, you'll be at the mercy of which rooms have been cleaned so far; which might not be the best rooms. It's never a good idea to check in too early or too late. Noon should be ok, as there should be a good number of checkouts that have been cleaned but were you arriving at 9am, I'd say only have them hold your bag & tell them you'll check in later.

An observation: When I'm in a new town, and I arrive early like this, I consider it an opportunity to chat up the hotel staff a bit vis-à-vis attractions, restaurants, bars/clubs and what-not in the area-- if they have a minute to chat (sometimes they're just too busy). You'll get one perspective from the front desk staff (usually young and in tune with the "high-end" stuff) and another from the bell captain (usually a bit older, a little more street-smart). But I find I get my best initial tips about a city this way. You'll get plenty of ideas, and when you come back, they'll have your room ready and you can hit them up again for hints for the evening.

Yes I've called my hotel. They said since 9/11 they don't hold luggages. They weren't too friendly either. I'll just check in early and see. Have some dollars handy to tip them also. Thanks everyone for your posting.

Wait a minute-- you can't check your baggage?! Which hotel is this?!

Sounds fishy to me too. I would also like to know which hotel is refusing to hold luggage for a guest with a reservation.

Oh, dear, that's too bad! I don't think I've ever heard of a hotel that won't hold luggage for a guest. But if it's a budget hotel, perhaps that's one of the services they cut to keep rates down? In any case, I hate it when 9/11 is used as an excuse for every darn thing--most hotels in the city do hold luggage prior to check-in.

That's weird! I've never been told that a hotel will not hold luggage until check-in time! If you don't mind me asking, where are you staying?

I find this odd too. I often Fedex packages to our employees staying in a hotel and often times the packages arrive a day before the hotel guest and we have never had a problem. That seems like it would be more risky to a hotel than having the paying guest walk in with suitcases!

I have often had a hotel hold my luggage when I arrived early & no rooms were available. It's called customer service. I have never had a problem. I also know that if I ever booked a hotel who said they don't hold luggage due to 9/11 & weren't friendly about it, I would certainly cancel my reservation & find another hotel.

My family went to NYC the summer right after 9/11. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, a hotel located in downtown Manhattan next to where the World Trade Center stood. The ES had just re-opened a few months before our visit due to extensive cleaning and some remodeling (I believe one of their cafes used to have a twin towers theme). If any hotel had the right to be nervous and say they weren't storing luggage due to 9/11, it was them. Yet they didn't. Not only did ES gladly store our luggage, they were quite pleasant about it to boot.