WOW! New York City hotels
 

We are planning a couple of days in NYC in early September. We are going the 9th through the 11th. We thought that with schools starting at that time that we could find some hotel deals, thinking folks would be staying home instead of hitting The Big Apple for vacay. Was I ever wrong! Wow, are they expensive at that time. I was lucky to book the Pod 39 for $255 per night for one of their teensy rooms. I looked at EVERYTHING and that is the best I can do. ( Post 9/11 while our daughter was at NYU we could get rooms on Priceline at the Stanhope and Waldorf for under $100 per night. ) Yikes.

You're not competing with vacationers at that time of the year,it's business bookings. Your dates are right in the middle of Fashion week http://www.mbfashionweek.com/
And there are big conferences pretty much every week in the fall.

Post 9-11 no one was traveling let alone to NYC, so hotels did anything to get people in. But NYC had over 50 million vacation and business visitors last year, so those days are over.

It's also a huge week for travel. You're not the only ones who say " now that school has started, lets go somewhere." But, yea, Fashion Week is huge!

You actually got a great deal for Sept - which is headed into high season for NYC.

Comparing to post 9/11 is pointless - not only was no one traveling then - but you have to add more than 10 years of inflation to the pre 9/11 prices.

Last year NYC had more then 53 million visitors - all looking for decent places at reasonable prices. Perhaps if you had prepaid in the spring instead of waiting so long you might have had more choices.

Ah, Fashion Week! That solves the mystery. Well, look on the bright side: you'll be in New York City :-0

There are now 90,000 hotel rooms in NYC.

Yes, but you can;t expect to get any of them for less than $100 - except possibly Priceline deals in Jan/Feb.

$100 is just not a hotel price in Manhattan for almost the whole year.

Maybe this would be a time to look at hotels in Long Island City, a short subway ride across the river from Manhattan, in Queens. just a thought. Fashion week is huge. I was in NYC two yrs ago at Fashion week time and everyone in my hotel in Soho was there in some capacity for work on Fashion Wk.

The Comfort Inn on the Lower East Side and the Newton on the Upper West Side both had sub-$300 rooms a couple of weeks ago for early September, and the room at the Newton was a suite. So I think you should look a bit harder. The tiny rooms at the Pod Hotel aren't ideal since they have bunk beds.

Long Island City hotels also have sub-$300 per night rooms, and many of them are fairly decent.

But finding something under $200 during high season is almost impossible, though occasionally rooms may pop up on Priceline a bit closer to the time of travel.

I'd recommend booking something you can cancel without a penalty and then keep looking to see if something else pops up.

If you hae bunk bed rooms at the Pod I would rethink it. I thought they did have some rooms with real beds - and private baths - but am not sure of the details.

No bunk beds! That is an option but we obviously did not choose that option. Fashion Week! So there is my answer. Ooooo, that is kind of cool. It may limit our options to get into any cool restaurants though. Thanks for the heads-up on the fashion week info!

Trust me, Fashion Week isn't upping the cost of rooms at mid-range chain hotels to $400 per night, the Fall travel season is. This is a very busy time, but also the best time to be in New York, so enjoy. But you don't have to stay at the Pod Hotel unless you want to.

Worse than Fashion Week, and few things are worse than Fashion Week, is the opening of the fall UN session which starts on Sept 18. Leaders from around the world who like to hear themselves speak come to NYC and besides Christmas Week, the traffic is the worst in Manhattan.
__

As Doug noted, there is always something going on in NYC, somethings are just better known than others.

Good news is that the US Open ends on the 9th., weather permitting.

Yes, all of the fall is busy in NYC
"You're not competing with vacationers at that time of the year,it's business bookings. Your dates are right in the middle of Fashion week http://www.mbfashionweek.com/
And there are big conferences pretty much every week in the fall."

Fashion Week, marathon weekend etc just make hotel room avalability particularly sparse so that high prices may go even higher as lower priced room or any promotipnal rates fill up quickly months or even a year in advance.

Some family members just got back from NYC yesterday and loved their hotel -- Yotel. Sounds weird, I know, but they were pleased and they are pretty picky. I believe they got it on Expedia or a similar site for about $89 a night. It is new--I think they said it was built in 2011. They showed us some pictures and it looks very simple and efficient, light and minimalist. They said it wasn't far from Times Square.

Don't know about Fashion Week rates, but I bet it is worth checking into.

Cheapest rate for Yotel for the OP's dates is an average of $314 a night (slightly cheaper Monday than Tuesday) for a room about the size of a closet.

I was pricing NYC hotels for late October. The best I got was $192 at 87th & Broadway. If I remember correctly it did say that the room was small.

Did your room at Pod39 have a private bath? I think I looked at that but I don't remember any with private baths so I skipped it.

The Pod 39 has rooms with private baths.

gardendiva, there is no hotel at 87th and Broadway, so I hope it's just that you've remembered incorrectly!