A relative of mine is a graduate of Penn State and a member of the Penn Club in New York City. Over Christmas dinner, he casually mentioned that he could get a discounted room at his club for any visitors to New York City. Has anyone stayed at the Penn Club? What is it like? About what is the room charge per night? I'll be coming to New York over the Martin Luther King day weekend.

I thought the Penn club was for U of P people but here it is:

www.pennclub.org

The Park 79 and the Bedford are both $130 (plus tax) on quikbook.com for 2 people and you can often get a 4* hotel room for 1 or 2 for $120-150 using Priceline. There are some cheaper options (as low as $79) on this website
http://www.weekendhotels.com/

So use those figures to compare when you find out how much it costs.

Most of the Ivy League clubs in New York are very nice. I've never experienced this one, but the Yale and Harvard clubs are excellent and really good values. The best part of these clubs is the locations. I think the Penn Club is on 44th Street or 46th Street with the other clubs, and they are all just to the east of Times Square, which is a particularly good location to stay.

Actually Doug, I think that's changing. I think the clubs aren't keeping up the rooms as well as they used to and their prices are creeping up.

People are often confused over the difference between the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University. Penn State is the state college with campuses scattered over the state, the main campus in the Happy Valley. The University of Pennsylvania is a private ivy league university located in Philadelphia.

The price of the Penn Club rooms are on the website I posted above; the cheapest double is $205. They look nice.

mclaurie's warning is a good one to consider. If you can find someone who's actually stayed at this club, it would be best. The rate, however, is exceptional for this part of Midtown.