Everything & Anything New York City

poor_johno

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Some friends of mine stayed at the Hotel Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty awful.

I'd second that.

SueMaggie

Traincrashing wrote: »

Hotel grand union - 934 standard room
The Milford Times Square - 1102 standard room
Hudson - 1183 standard room
Hotel Pennsylvania - 1153 superior double room
Best western Times Square - 1029 standard room
Ramada eastside - 1154 queen room , free breakfast
Herald square - 1167 queen room
TriBeCa Blu - 967 deluxe room

Still looking a hotel and have compiled this list. Going away end of nov/start of dec and they're the prices I'm looking at. Anyone any experiences with these and would recommend/advise against? Or any others that I should be looking at?

If this is the Hudson hotel on West 58th Street then in it's a great location and is very chic. The bar and restaurant is nice and there's a great outdoor courtyard bar area. There's also a lovely roof terrace.

BUT the rooms are tiny - really really small. The room I had when staying there was so small there wasn't room for a proper wardrobe, just an alcove to hang up a few things. There wasn't anywhere to put our suitcase out of the way. The bed was very low and when lying in bed you could reach out and touch the walls. It apparently is meant to feel like being in a ship's cabin at sea.

The bathroom was tiny too - I'm 5 foot 8 and just barely found the loo manageable as there wasn't room for my legs!

The other thing I wasn't keen on was the noise at the weekend. There were events going on in the courtyard with loud music that went on till after 2am which meant it was very loud in the rooms even with the windows shut. I'm a bit of an old fogey, but I need my sleep.

So if you're young, hip (the hotel appeared in an episode of Sex and the City), don't intend spending any time in your room other than to sleep and aren't too tall you might like it. Otherwise, perhaps not!

TooClumsy

Hi Traincrashing, how many nights are you staying in NYC? (sorry if you've mentioned already..

DH and I are travelling to NYC for the first time and have booked a place on airbnb (legally may I add!) and the place is in Red Hook, which is a bit of a pain to get out of/get in vs staying in Manhattan. As we are aware that there are a lot of illegal apartments on airbnb, we feel we are quite lucky (with the price and the fact that it is on the right side of the law) so we shouldnt look anywhere else on airbnb.com.

However we have been having little niggles "what if we get tired during the day?", I have a bad foot (PF) and walking is a struggle-so wondering if we should stay somewhere with a metro closer...

Sorry about the rambles! I just wanted to ask you which website you got those prices from

Traincrashing

Hmm a few things to think about then! I don't really want to stay in Times Square, the prices just seemed okay for the location. Hudson sounds quite cool, I'm 24 and don't intend to be in the hotel often, just sleeping! I'm staying for 7 nights, 28th nov - 5th dec I might actually take another look at airbnb and see what I find. Booking.com seems the cheapest currently, and I used tripadvisor to check every hotel first

poormaria

Does everyone agree that I shouldn't stay in Brooklyn if its my first time? We are going to be there for 8 days so wasn't thinking everything had to be crammed in. The hotel difference in price of £500 plus the hotel standard is really swaying us to Brooklyn xx

hab92

TooClumsy wrote: »

Hi Traincrashing, how many nights are you staying in NYC? (sorry if you've mentioned already..

DH and I are travelling to NYC for the first time and have booked a place on airbnb (legally may I add!) and the place is in Red Hook, which is a bit of a pain to get out of/get in vs staying in Manhattan. As we are aware that there are a lot of illegal apartments on airbnb, we feel we are quite lucky (with the price and the fact that it is on the right side of the law) so we shouldnt look anywhere else on airbnb.com.

However we have been having little niggles "what if we get tired during the day?", I have a bad foot (PF) and walking is a struggle-so wondering if we should stay somewhere with a metro closer...

Sorry about the rambles! I just wanted to ask you which website you got those prices from

I'm not looking to go anytime soon (as I went in March), but I was wondering how do you know if the apartment you've booked is legal? I'm not being judgmental by the way, I genuinely want to know as it's something I'm considering for the next time I go.

Traincrashing

I'd also like to know about the apartment rental! I've seen a few pop up on booking.com today and I would be the kind of person who would believe that all the ones to appear on such a website are fine to use.

TooClumsy

Helloooo!

ok, so we were very nervous about the airbnb route was we found out about the illegal side of it. Basically for one thing, the hosts own the house-and they had the basement made into a gorgeous studio flat.

Where its an apartment, because it is in a block the hosts are breaching the law because they are could potentially damage the flat below or above. As the hosts own the building it is therefore legal

Although, we are going to cancel our airbnb reservation, because we of the niggles. We have had to crunch some numbers as we are now going to book a family hotel in Queens instead. It is a stones throw away from the metro and the airbnb place was in Red Hook. If I didn't have a dodgy foot, I really would have liked to stay there (metro is approx 15 mins away).

In fact, have just sent the reservation form through to the hotel. Hoping to hear back soon, just want something in "concrete".

sorry, long post!!

M4RKM

TooClumsy wrote: »

Where its an apartment, because it is in a block the hosts are breaching the law because they are could potentially damage the flat below or above. As the hosts own the building it is therefore legal

Close, but not correct. They could own the building but it could still break the law. If there are 3 or more "homes" in the building, then it's illegal regardless. We know there is two, but what if there is a top floor apartment too? Short term rentals are a minefield as there are so many pitfalls.

You could get a 2 unit apartment building, that's potentially legal.

M

poormaria

Any one any thoughts on my Brooklyn question? Could really do with some advice? Cheers