I am planning a trip in late October with two girlfriends and would love a great hotel find. Something up to $200/night would be great but we can go higher. Am looking for the best value with comfort and ambience. Any suggestions? Near Soho would be lovely but upper east side or midtown is great as well. Thanks!

I did a quick search on tablethotels.com and the cheapest I found was $349/night which is your intro rate with each successive night going up to $419...

You might either want to change your hotel selection (ie non boutique) or time period.

$200 is very low for NY either way..

Check out kayak.com and travelzoo.

But for October in NYC $300 per night is a basic chain hotel, clean bu not much else - Red Roof or La Quinta - and boutique hotels will be $400 and up - up for great ones.

SoHo has relatively few hotels. For "grat" ones, the Gansevoort shows rates starting at $630 plus tax per night, the Mercer is $720. But - you could go to the web sites and look at the special packages.

If you find a "cool boutique" hotel for $200 or even for $300 please let us know. Most would "kill" for such a thing in New York.

I did get the Muse late last August for $169. But in October, at high season for conventions, great weather, and just a lot of people going gto NYC for work, you will not find any deals like that, or even $100 more than that!

Reality check...change your expectations.

Thanks for the feedback. I was last in new york 4 years ago and found a great hotel for about a $100! It was safe, clean, spacious and well located. That's why I thought for double that, there might be something cool as well. I love the Kimpton hotels so the Muse is high on my list but I got my reality check last night upon quick perusal of the typical hotel sites like orbitz.com.

I have found the Park South Hotel to be a bit more reasonable during difficult time periods and it is a great boutique hotel.

Very small rooms.

Is each person going to have their own room, or are you talking $200 total for three people?

ROTFLMAO.
1)First, most boutique hotels have small rooms with only 1 bed for 2 not very large people, so finding any boutique hotel with a room for 3 is difficult.

2)Next, $200/night for a room for 2 in NYC is now almost impossible without some special deal and you won't find deals in late Oct. which is very expensive. There's Halloween (yes folks come for the parade) and Nov 4 is the NYC Marathon and hotels are already booked, some a year in advance.

3) There are really only 3 decent hotels in Soho (Soho Grand, the Mercer and 60 Thompson). None are ever $200/night. The options on the upper east side are also fairly limited.

Your best bets if you can't change your timing are
>try the Cosmopolitan in Tribeca
cosmohotel.com
It will be a bit over $200.
>check staythenight.com a b & b on the UES
>check http://www.thegracieinn.com/ another b & b on the UWS
>no one has mentioned quikbook.com, a good place to look for the Park South and perhaps some other options but you won't find it for $200
>If it's a weekend and you're willing to stay in the financial area, you might find something at the Millenium Hilton.
>Depending on how long you're staying, you could consider renting an apartment, but even that would be hard for $200/night in a decent place.

At this late date, my recommendation would be to shop like the dickens and books the best room you can find forthwith. Then, keep shopping.

We're staying at Beekman Tower Suites at the end of October for $149/night with Hotwire, but I booked that back in February.

Thanks so much for all the input. The great place I stayed at last time was The Majestic and unfortunately it underwent tremendous renovation and is now about $400/night. I did some research today and found the La Quinta Inn is in a lovely historic architectural building, in central location, nicely decorated, and is $300/night. I am looking for just one room for three people. Smartertravel.com also had a great article with helpful hints and I found a couple of other hotel chains that are merely expensive as opposed to outlandish. The Gracie Inn and the cosmo is already booked for those dates.

I'm glad you were able to find something, even if it is 50% higher than you wished. But let's be honest here -- however nice LaQuinta ends up being, there is no way one could ever call it a "cool boutique" hotel.

mclaurie: what do you think of the graandsvoort (?sp) in soho?

The La Quinta would not be my pick.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev..._New_York.html

The Gansevoort is fantastic! Very trendy, very nice.

It's in the meatpacking district, btw, which is on the edge of the village and Chelsea. Very cool area with lots of bars and restaurants.

The Gansevoort is fantastic, but do you know a secret? Their rooms average somewhere between $600 and $900 a night. Are they having a Halloween sale or something?

Well, I have long ago given up my initial pipe dream. I want the nicest place for the best value. I can spend whatever I want so it's not that I can't afford it. I found the Gaansvort for $675 per night on one of the sites; I think it was Travelocity. It is interesting how much prices can range; pays to shop well. I am okay with worth the splurge....I just hate splurging and thinking it was not worth the extra cost. I don't mind paying for a unique experience but I am also okay with generic nice and don't like paying for hype and the "hot" place. McLaurie: thanks for the tip on La Quinta, I will avoid it. I might look into the Affinia hotels as well.

So with 3 girlfriends,
Suite hotels
>the Surrey on the UES is an all suite hotel near the museums (www.affinia.com and also check prices elsewhere)
>Affinia Gardens (same website) near Bloomingdales and most recently renovated
>Affinia Dumont has in-house spa
>Benjamin is supposed to be the nicest Affinia and well located for shopping in midtown
>San Carlos very nice in midtown--quikbook.com has a 1 bedroom with 2 double beds and a sofabed for $539/night fully cancelable
>the London NYC is very trendy suite hotel in midtown but I don't think the suites sleep 3

trendy midtown hotels that should have rooms for 3
W Tuscany or W Court
Chambers
Bryant Park

You have the names of the Soho hotels. In addition to the Gansevoort is Soho House in the meatpacking district, also very nice and pricey.

Only other areas we haven't mentioned
Chelsea--the Maritime is trendy but miniscule rooms unless you get a suite.
Lower East Side-Hotel on Rivington very cool but maybe too cool for school.

You might like hipguide.com

Forgot the upper west side. Ontheavenue.com might be nice

whoops, sorry
ontheavenuehotel.com