Help with Hotels in NYC over the Holidays
 

Hi Everyone,

My family (wife & kids 10, 13, 15) want to go to NYC between Xmas and New Year's. I got a flyer in the mail (Sheraton) today but when checked availability online: it said 'u have to call'. When I called: 'that special is not available'. When I asked for rooms: 'no one room can fit your 3 kids, you need 2 rooms and we can't guarantee they'll be near each other'.

Not a great start.

Do I need 2 rooms, or can I find accommodations somewhere 'reasonable' in the midtown area?

I'm thinking a 3 night SAT-MON or THU-SAT deal Dec 27-29 or Jan 1-3).

Thanks for any suggestions,

Mike

Hi Mike,
Thanks to some great advice and reviews on this board, I just booked a 1 Br suite at The Hotel Beacon in the Upper West Side for a few days before Christmas. They have a 1 br winter special for $180.00 on their website: www.hotelbeacon.com Like you, we have kids (boy and girl- 8 and 13)and were trying to find somewhere with separate beds and some room. I have looked quite extensively and called many places. The Beacon also has a kitchenette, laundry facilities and is about a 10 min. subway ride (according to fellow Fodorites) from Times Square and midtown attractions. There were a couple of other possibilities:

Doubletree Guest Suites (right in Times Square- they had a suite for $164 AAA rate)
The Kimberly ( a bit pricey for us)

put in a search for "Thinking about space..." I had sent in this question and got a couple of other possibilities but can't remember the names! :)

Hope this helps! Have fun!

You might need 2 rooms unless you want to "sneak" the 3rd kid in, the number of guests is limited by law not just hotel policy or size of the room.
Expedia.com is especially useful at pointing out which hotels might allow 5 per room. You'll probably need to find a suite hotel with 2 double beds plus sofa bed.

affinia.com is a group of suite hotels, most but not all reasonably priced. They have some 2 bedroom suites. They also have kitchens like the Beacon. You might try the Gorham hotel too. You can also try looking on quikbook.com where you can put in the number of adults & children.

PS I've noticed quikbook has some of the affinia hotels listed individually (Shelburne Murray Hill for example).

If the Beacon can in fact accommodate you, I'd strongly recommend it. It's a great hotel and right across the road from a supermarket (Fairway) which is an experience in itself.

Just want to add that you are plannng to go to NYC at THE peak tourist season, so I suggest you grab anything that'll fill your needs that comes at a decent price!

Three times I've stayed at different Affinia suite hotels. They are spacious and I liked being able to have the ability to eat-in if I wished. At least two of them had room service menus from local restaurants that deliver.

I'm sort of surprised that Howard says "at the peak tourist season". We often like to go up for four or five days during the holidays and have always found the room prices outrageous for the weeks before Christmas. But a couple of times we've gone for the days between Christmas and New Years and gotten great deals. The last time it was at the Marriott Marquis -- something like $129 a night. But of course if we had stayed for New Year's Eve it would have jumped to something like $400.

You might want to call Marriott and check about deals during that week for either the Renaissance or Marquis. I posted recently about a discount code for some dates with them -- an M-11, but think these deals ended by Christmas.

In NYC DO NOT ever assume that when the reservationist tells you not to put 3 in a room it is because of a law. It is because the room is miniscule.

I've seen hotel rooms so small in NYC that they could not accommodate anyone other than myself.

Why not try for two rooms on priceline?