NYC 2 bdrm/2 bath suite: The Beacon or Eastgate Towers?
 

The Beacon has availability for our dates for $525/night. The Eastgate Towers is only $259/night. How can that be? Is it a dump? TripAdvisor has good comments.

We don't want to go significantly higher than The Beacon. (Affinias are too much for this trip.)

Recommendations, please?

When will you be here? Prices vary tremendously by time of year. But except for Jan/Feb the $259 sounds very low for a 2 BR suite.

I don't believe that Eastgate Towers is a dump. But the price does seem suspiciously low unless you are coming in the next 2 or 3 weeks.

It's got a fairly central location (better to me than the Beacon, but I don't prefer the Upper West Side, though for the UWS, you can't really do better for location than the Beacon).

I would also throw in a clarification. The Eastgate Tower IS an Affinia hotel. So I'm concerned there may be something wrong with the pricing here if you found much more expensive rates on the Affinia site.

They are running a special on their 2bed/2bath units through the end of June. Book by March 31st and get rates of $189 or $219 depending on when. Another posting brought it to my attention - we are looking to book it for a trip in June.
http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...y-may-2011.cfm

For the price difference I would probably pick the Eastgate Towers. I've stayed there before and it's not a dump. Small hotel, not many amentities and the rooms could stand to be updated. But the rooms are huge, you get a big kitchen and everything was very clean.

Doug's comments show the difference of what people think about the areas of NYC. I much prefer the UWS to the location of Eastgate Towers. When we stayed at Eastgate, we had to walk to Grand Central Station to pick up a subway and then transfer somewhere. When I stay on the UWS, I try to stay someplace a little more convenient to the subway lines. But that said, for the price difference I'd probably choose the Eastgate and it's not a bad walk to the subway (we were there in Dec so I'm sure the cold made the walk seem longer!!).

Thanks. I found the rate through the Affinia site and also through the Beacon site. It is listed as an Affinia affiliate on their site. I looked at the Affinia Gardens' 2 bdrm/2 bath and it is $1100/night! Can't afford that.

The price I received from Eastgate last night, was for June 2011. Maybe there is a glitch in their system. I will look it up again now and see if it is still there.

Doug, my friend lives in the UWS, so that's why I am looking to be in that neighborhood. Just want to make sure the Beacon is a good enough place. I will be there with four other girlfriends to visit.

Would you stay at the Beacon yourself?

Eastgate much better than the Beacon

Why do you like Eastgate much better?

You can find photos of both on oyster.com The Beacon was renovated in 2009 and rooms still look reasonably fresh. The Eastgate hasn't been renovated probably since the 80's. Eastgate is currently running a special promotion on those 2 bedrooms so you're getting a deal. The neighborhood of the Beacon is more attractive and more residential. It's probably a better location with kids, but frankly, $300/night can buy a lot of nice stuff in NYC. Who's traveling? What's the occasion? What are your plans?

we originally included The Beacon in our search for a 2-bd for 1 couple and 2 singles but they didn't have any rooms for our June dates. Thanks to discussions on this forum I booked at the Eastgate Towers instead. I am happy to save the extra cash for shopping and site-seeing, and I doubt that we will be spending much time looking at the rooms decor! As long as we all have abed to sleep in, it's grand! This is our first trip to New York from New Zealand and I imagine that we will be negotiating our way up and down the island of Manhattan, so we don't really care where we stay. A 10 min walk to the subway is nothing when you have to be in transit for 26+ hours to get there in the first place ;o)

let us know what you thought of your choice.

I am going to stay with the Beacon resie I have. I think we want that location, and a newly renovated hotel is worth paying more. $525 is still an awesome price for a 2 bdrm/2 bath w/kitchenette and front room. I will report back in June.