New York City Hotels

[Lazymeatball]

Anyone know of a good site to look for a hotel in New York, somewhere in Manhattan below Central Park for two nights this weekend. My cousin is coming from England so she wants to do all the touristy sightseeing crap so we would like a place near all the sights. Looking for something around $180 a night at most.

Right now my cousin is leaning towards the YMCA. Would I be sleeping with bums and vagrants here, or could it actually be a safe habital place to live? Right now I'm leaning in the opposite direction of the Y.

[PoBoy321]

I know a couple of welfare hotels in the Bronx that should fit the bill for you. You don't mind sharing bathrooms with crackheads, do you?

[Lazymeatball]

Do you think the YMCA in Manhattan would be similar to this crackden you speak of. I'm trying to avoid that.

[PoBoy321]

Chances are that a YMCA in manhattan isn't going to be the best place to stay. I'm sure there would be plenty of ne'er do wells, but probably much better than the crackdens I'm thinking of.

[Ulysses]

I just checked at Expedia (their special rates are usually pretty good) and there look to be a bunch of reasonable hotels for a little over $200 (Doubletree Metropolitan, Radisson Lexington, Ramada Plaza) that are all located Midtown, which is where you'll probably wnat to be (which means I think about $250/night after taxes - you can find this out on booking). I've never heard of it, but the Ameritania for $199/nt sounds like a cool hotel. If you decide you want to splurge, there is a great rate of $296/night on one of my favorite hotels in the city, the ultra-swanky ultra-hip Royalton or you can get the same rate for traditional ultra-swankiness at the Waldorf Astoria.

If you want to do a little work, check out how you need to bid at betterbidding Priceline forum (http://www.betterbidding.com/index.php?act=SF&f=123&) or someplace like it (there are a number of Priceline forums) and use Priceline. It looks like you can get a nice 4-star midtown hotel for less than $150, maybe as low as $110.

[Lazymeatball]

My cousin is still leaning towards the YMCA at $85 a night. What should I say to convince her that is a bad idea and to shell out the money for a decent place like the Ameritania? I'll probably be researching that Priceline forum for the next couple of days.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
My cousin is still leaning towards the YMCA at $85 a night. What should I say to convince her that is a bad idea and to shell out the money for a decent place like the Ameritania? I'll probably be researching that Priceline forum for the next couple of days.

[/ QUOTE ]

I checked out the Y site. The locations look decent and the rooms look like a nice hostel. It really just depends on how old you guys are and what your travel standards are. When I travelled in college, I was all for the cheapest possible option that didn't totally suck. As I got older, my standards have changed. For me now, $100/night more for a much nicer room is a no-brainer. For me in college, $100/night more for a nicer room would have been the most ridiculous thing imaginable.

Is your cousin hot?

[bdk3clash]

Travelaxe is the bomb for finding cheap hotels.