I know there are special deals around in New York at the moment, but one of the internet booking sites listed the Broadway Hotel on 101st St at a price that seemed hard to believe, and I (rather hastily) booked it for our family (from Australia). Now I am worried... anything that sounds too good to be true usually is. Does anyone have any experience with this hotel (which the website says is "formerly the Malibu", though the Malibu still exists, I think, and has a different address a couple of blocks away). Thanks for all advice!

I live in the area and it is called the Upper West Side. The Malibu is on 103rd and Broadway. It is located in an ancient four story walk up (no elevator). NO services so far as I know and there are no amenities. Unless a hotel opened recently I don't know of one located on Broadway and 101st St.Will be at Broadwaiy and 100th tomorrow so I will take a look to see if there is a hotel at 101 St.

Thanks, rqf... I would appreciate that, and will look forward to your advice. The exact address they gave me is 230 W 101st. The price for a room with two double beds was, I kid you not, $39 per night, so I am not expecting the Waldorf Astoria! (Now you know why I'm worried!)

Alan: Not familiar with the hotel, but for $39 a night it has to be a dump to put it bluntly. I am familiar with the neighborhood and I wouldn't recommend it for a tourist, much too far uptown. Comming all the way from Australia, I would recommend you stay somewhere within easy proximity of the major tourist attractions. The midtown area is best, somewhere between 14th and 59th Street. If you find a deal uptown, I wouldn't recommend going above 86th Street on the East or West side. Anything much less than $100 per night should be looked at as suspect and closely investigated. You might want to try things like priceline or other internet discount sites for deals. Lots of luck.

Most of those hotels on the Upper West Side are known as SRO's...they house welfare recipients and others who are in hardship...now, I'm not saying that one is, but it could be...my father had a pharmacy in that area for many years and that is how I am familiar with them. If you don't mind commuting into the city everyday there are chain hotels in Fort Lee, New Jersey (Hilton and Best Western) and Edgewater, New Jersey has a Comfort Inn...You can take the bus or New York Waterways Ferry from any of these locations...there are also many chain hotels in Secaucus, New Jersey which is also an easy commute. Secaucus also has an outlet mall and several chain restaurants like the Olive Garden. Hope this helps.

Hiya just to let you know before you go and try booking through Priceline.com it wont accept your card details if you are non USA address, someone kindly gave me a site called biddingfortravel.com, maybe try that, also may be worth you checking out my thread of messages re cheap hotels in NYC posted yesterday which are very helpful? have a lovely hols, claire

Alan: One other thing, in doing a search on the Broadway Hotel it came up as a "Shared Bath" hotel and believe me you do NOT want to share a bath in Manhattan.

Claire - I'm a Canadian and I use Priceline all the time. The site that you refer to: www.biddingfortravel.com is a privately run site where people share advice on how to use Priceline most effectively. There is a section on FAQ's regarding bidding on hotels and I highly suggest anyone wanting to use Priceline looks at that first. There is also a section dealing with how a non-U.S. resident must enter their address to be able to use Priceline.

I did check out the Broadway Studios and, frankly, I would not stay there whatever the Price. It probably was and still is an SRO.(Single Room Occupancy) that offered short term and longer term furnished room rentals. I don't know the type of renter they cater too but the place, from the outside and looking into the lobby, was not very appealing. As was pointed out the SRo is commonplace in this area. With the tourism boom of the late 90's many SROs actually converted to hotels. They redid the lobby and renovated the rooms. There is no such evidence this has been done at the Broadway Studio. My guess is (and it is only a guess) that when a tenant moved out they started to rent the room as a hotel room. to cash in on the tourism boom.Of course the events of Sept. 11 have hotel rooms going for lower than usual prices. Their is a budget hotel in a good area (57th and Park Avenue) that has received a number of fine reviews - read only one negative review of the place and, coincidentally, that person was from Australia. Last I looked rooms were going for under $100 for those with shared bath facilities. The place is the Habitat - website: www.habitat.ny.com. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask. The New Yorkers who frequent this board are very knowledgeable.

A nice shared bath hotel is the Larchmont on East 11th Street in Greenwich Village. It's very clean and safe. The area is great. Walking distance to Village, Soho and Union Sq. sites. Also near many subways and buses to other neighborhoods. Close to many stores, restaurants, cafes. I live down the block. It's a great neighbohood. I believe it also includes continental breakfast. Their website is www.larchmonthotel.com.

thats west 11th st, not east.

Thanks to all the above posters for their advice.... I will read them all several times and act on thir recommendations. Special thanks to rqf for his first-hand inspection of the hotel in question... and, Frank, I think you are dead right about being suspicious of a price that far down.. but is sharing a bath in Manhattan really such a terrible idea? Why?

I really appreciate everyone's help... this is a great site!

Alan: Sharing baths is relatively uncommon in the U.S., much less of a practice than in other parts of the globe. Having said that, if you were staying at a small bed and breakfast in rural America, it would seem more acceptable but not in a big city. Most tourists sharing baths are generally single young people traveling alone or as couples on EXTREMELY limited budgets. Since you are comming such a long way and bringing your family, I would steer away from sharing baths and staying in out of the way neighborhoods like 101st Street.

I guess the most important question is how much can you spend on a hotel? Also how long are you staying and what month are you comming? Once we know some particulars, maybe someone will be able to make a concrete recommendation. All the best.

Hi, don't let a shared bath stop you. There are many decent budget hotels in NY that have shared bath that are just fine. My friends have stayed in the various YMCA's with shared bath as well as the Habitat Hotel on E57th Street. Just because a place has shared bath doesn't mean it's some type of horror!