Everything & Anything New York City

M4RKM

VintageToon wrote: »

Basically from what i've found out this law only prevents people buying apartments & renting them out as if they were hotels as you said. I can't see how such a hotel as this is illegal.

Looking into it, (and maybe I should have done this to help last time), the buildings departments in NYC issued them a partial building vacate order back in August 2010, for ILLEGAL HOTEL ROOMS IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, so basically, it looks as if the hotel has been an Illegal hotel for quite some time, and got away with it. Hope my other thread gives you some other ideas of where to stay.

M

M4RKM

kweelo wrote: »

Hi Guys,

i've booked hotel for 28th Jul - returning 1st Aug. Been checking regularly on flights and trying to hold my nerve. Best price I've come up with is £650 each, flying from Heathrow to any New York - I'm starting to worry now that they won't come down any further. Does anyone else have any experience, should I buy at these prices or hold my nerve for a bit longer?

Thanks in advance

Is Heathrow your only option. There are some reasonable rates via Dublin from Manchester with Aer Lingus. And by reasonable, I mean under £500.

kweelo

M4RKM wrote: »

Is Heathrow your only option. There are some reasonable rates via Dublin from Manchester with Aer Lingus. And by reasonable, I mean under £500.

Not really, to be fair it was all I had considered and thought that would be the cheapest. Ideally I wanted a direct flight and wanted to leave as early as possible on Day 1 and return as late as possible on Day 5 to maximise time in NYC!

I worry that by adding another variable, like stopping at Dublin, then that is something else that could go wrong!

I had kind of hoped to pay max of £500 per flight (it's for my wives 40th) and wasn't sure that by holding my nerve I might get a cheaper flight?

bb69

M4RKM wrote: »

VintageToon, I really hope this helps.

So, going on the new exchange rate, and as I did before - £1500 is $2475 inc tax

Eastgate Tower - it's now $3,784.35 for 10 nights, way over what it was back in March when you last asked.

Aloft Brooklyn is still available, just not as cheap. 2 Rooms, 1 with a king bed, one with 2 Double Beds. The costs work out like this. $160 per night, per room, including taxes, making it $3200 or £65 per night per person.

I've looked at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which is a budget hotel in TriBeCa. I've stayed here plenty of times. $2445 for a room with 2 double beds in. That's if you decide you have to share a bed. Don't worry, I can direct you to bars to get very drunk at! (Book through hotelconxions.com)

Hotels over in Long Island City, another part of NYC that are cheap.

There is the La Quinta inn, just off Queens Boulevard. Near the Subway, perfectly safe. Again, 2 rooms, one with 2 beds, one with 1 bed. This works out to be the following.

$1322 for the room with 1 bed
$1437 for the room with 2 beds.

$2759 total inc tax. (275.90 per night, or £55 per night per person)

The Comfort Inn Long Island City, on a prepaid rate for a room with 2 double beds, (for 2 people to occupy) and a room with 1 king bed (for 1 person to occupy), comes out oat $2676.94 inc taxes.

Finally, the Holiday Inn Manhattan View, using the Friends and Family rate that is available through this very site. Room with 2 queen beds is $1,651.28 and a room with 1 king bed is $1,365.56 giving you a total of $3007.

It's even tougher than before to get things in your price range, and this time I honestly can't find anything, even remotely close. Maybe prices will drop in the next week or so. I dunno.

I'm not one normally to recommend staying out of NYC, and can't remember what airport you're flying into, but Ramada, Jersey City, is right near Journal Square on the PATH. It's not part of the NYC Subway, but it's cheap and convenient to get in and out of NJ, into NYC. The Ramada Jersey City is near there, and I think we might have something working looking at prices toda.y

$1,249.44 for a Queen Suite - 1 bed and 1 sofa bed.
$1,194.72 for a King or Queen room - 1 bed.

That's $2444.16 including taxes. So, you have a hotel, but it's not on the NYC subway, so you have to factor in costs getting back and forth every day. I always say, you'll probably end up crashing for a bit before heading out in the evening, so 4 single trips a day, each. So over 10 days, that's $70 each, so you have to factor that in as well. Even with that, your total is $2654 (hotel plus extra travel costs),

Out of all of these, I've stayed at the Cosmopolitan, but it doesn't give you 3 beds, just 2. The other hotels, in Long Island City, are really where I think you will be fine, and the Comfort Inn LIC is probably your best bt. It's actually in New York City, and you can easily get a subway (the G train) to Williamsburg for awesome nightlife, and during the day hop on the subway, into Manhattan, and you can come and go as you please, with your unlimited weekly metrocards at only $29 per week each.

*phew*

M

Wow that is brilliant work Mark!

Vintage Toon - Just a thought have you considered emailing hotel and asking for a rollaway bed? Not sure how space there is in the Cosmo and other hotels - but they might be able to allocate you a 'larger' type room to accomodate? Not sure of the cost Hope you get something sorted out

Edit - Also have a look on Expedia I have seen a hotel called the Grand Union a triple room for £1257 not sure whether shared bathrooms http://www.expedia.co.uk/Hotels?eapid=0&rfrr=-13019&#sb=10&sf=x&pf=x&st=0&nm=0&ar=6141525&am=x&pg=0

Checkout reviews on tripadvisor http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g60763-d122015-Reviews-Hotel_Grand_Union-New_York_City_New_York.html

M4RKM

bb69 wrote: »

Wow that is brilliant work Mark!

Vintage Toon - Just a thought have you considered emailing hotel and asking for a rollaway bed? Not sure how space there is in the Cosmo and other hotels - but they might be able to allocate you a 'larger' type room to accomodate? Not sure of the cost Hope you get something sorted out

I know you couldn't squeeze a rollaway in any of the rooms at the Cosmo, and on their website the room with 2 beds and a sofabed is already sold out (and probably over budget anyway).

Not many hotels in NYC offer a rollaway, mainly because the rooms are small, and also fire regulations. There was one hotel (i forget now) that had 2 queen beds in, so theoretically a maximum of 4 people, but fire regs made it a maximum occupancy of 3. It's just the weird and wonderful laws of NYC Hotels.

M4RKM

kweelo wrote: »

Not really, to be fair it was all I had considered and thought that would be the cheapest. Ideally I wanted a direct flight and wanted to leave as early as possible on Day 1 and return as late as possible on Day 5 to maximise time in NYC!

I worry that by adding another variable, like stopping at Dublin, then that is something else that could go wrong!

I had kind of hoped to pay max of £500 per flight (it's for my wives 40th) and wasn't sure that by holding my nerve I might get a cheaper flight?

Dublin isn't too bad for a hop, I've done it once and having to consider it myself as an option for September when I'm planning to go next. I think my costs are £480 vs £670 from Manchester.

Last September I got flights for £450 in September 2010 from LHR, so it's a HUGE jump in costs for this year if they're not coming down.

M

phatbear

bb69 wrote: »

Edit - Also have a look on Expedia I have seen a hotel called the Grand Union a triple room for £1257 not sure whether shared bathrooms http://www.expedia.co.uk/Hotels?eapid=0&rfrr=-13019&#sb=10&sf=x&pf=x&st=0&nm=0&ar=6141525&am=x&pg=0

Checkout reviews on tripadvisor http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g60763-d122015-Reviews-Hotel_Grand_Union-New_York_City_New_York.html

Grand union is a decent cheap hotel, if you are just looking for somewhere to lay your head, its close to a subway and esb/macys, however the rooms are a tad small and can be shabby'ish but if you can get it cheap enough then i would recommend it, in fact i did!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g60763-d122015-r16613735-Hotel_Grand_Union-New_York_City_New_York.html

M4RKM

One thing with the Grand Union Triple room is that the someone would still have to share a bed. You could go for the Quad room, which would give 2 twin beds and a double bed, gives you a cost of £1558.

For 10 days holiday though, you could easily split your time between Manhattan and Long Island City. I personally wouldn't want to spend 10 days sleeping on a twin bed, because for someone over 6ft tall, they're just too short, so comfort is something to consider too, rather than just price.

M

M4RKM

Over on TripAdvisor, someone else has mentioned about their hotel now closing, since the law brought in on 1st May. This is surprising to the people who have booked obviously, but it does highlight the number of hotels and hostels that have been operating illegally in NYC.

This post will be updated with a list of hotels that have suddenly closed. Hopefully it won't get over the 3 that we have currently.

• Amsterdam Inn / 340 Amsterdam Avenue
• Broadway Hotel & Hostel / West 101st Street
• Hotel 99 / 244 West 99th Street

I don't have a list - but ny1 are reporting up to 15 illegal hotels are now closed. http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/139147/crackdown-closes-15-city-illegal-hotels

MOLLYBRUSH

Thanks for sharing that with us and welcome to MSE !