Accommodation in popular tourist destinations
Replies: 33 - Last Post: Jan 24, 2013 1:12 PM Last Post By: ianw6705
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Some of the hostels listed in NYC are not legal. Be very wary of that.For NYC, staying in Long Island City (Queens) is a very quick subway ride into Manhattan and can save a boatload of money. Country Inn and Suites in Long Island City is a good choice. When looking at other LIC hotels, make sure they are near a subway stop. Some aren't.
For Boston, there is a new and very nice Hosteling International. Depending on your travel dates, Boston could be more expensive than NYC. There are fewer options for reasonably priced hotels with convenient subway access. LastMinuteTravel.com is a good resource for Boston as lots of good area hotels list there. You can usually figure out identities by examining photos carefully, googling hotel details provided (such as number of rooms), etc.
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On our US road-trips, we use the Wyndham Group hotel website - it has a wide range of prices, and the website itself is intelligent and easy to use. Best of all - almost all its properties have free cancellation, usually right up to 6:00pm on your day of arrival, but sometimes 24-48 hours ahead. So you can have the security of a booking (which we prefer) but also the flexibility to modify your trip if you need to. We generally wind up amending about 25% of our bookings over a trip - but we don't set out to abuse the free cancellation system.The Wyndham Group hotels-motels often require a car (but not always - plenty of downtown options on their lists as well). We have also used www.airbnb.com for our up-coming trip in May-June - also a very good website, and we have found this good for finding affordable apartments in downtown areas of major cities.
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There are thousands of rooms in Las Vegas, and the place works like a futures or commodities market, based on supply and demand over a year, a month, a week, or a day. A room can change price markedly between 8:00am and 4:00pm. There are a number of Las Vegas specific websites that handle all this, but the regular hotel booking sites do so as well.Rooms are normally much dearer Friday and Saturday nights than for the rest of the week. If this is your one and only trip to Las Vegas, then staying on one of the major hotels on The Strip is fine for a couple of nights, and you put up with all the inconvenience that this entails (including resort fees that cover services that other places include in the price, and you probably won't use, long lines at check-in and check-out, truly awful carpet, a cumbersome process to park your car, and a long traipse to your room half-way to the next county).
We have used a "regular" low-rise motel the last two trips - the Desert Rose Resort - just a block or so back from the Strip, near the airport, and the sort of place where you can drive and park very close to your room. It's very convenient, and popular with overseas travellers. It has no casino attached, but has a decent pool area (not luxurious at all), free beer at sundown, and free breakfast in the morning. Perfect for us.
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Many thanks for all the spectacular advice! Exactly what I was looking for!To answer some questions:
- Yes, I mean neighbourhood not suburb. Thank you all for understanding.
- We will have a car in New Orleans, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Tahoe, San Francisco and LA. No car in Boston, DC and NYC. Well, maybe in Boston cause we'd like to check out Newport.
- Willing to spend more in NYC and Boston than other destinations, maximum $120 per room (couple sharing or 2 hostel beds) in these cities. Is that reasonable for Manhattan? In the other cities we'd like to spend maximum $60 per room but cheaper would be very attractive.
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I think $120.00 per room in NYC and Boston is too skinny (even a dorm bed at HI Boston is $50.00 pp), and outside that, $60.00 per room is a bit light as well - I think you need to budget $80.00 min per night minimum for a basic but reasonable hotel/motel room outside NYC and Boston, in your other destination points.23
In terms of NYC, you might be able to get a double with a shared bathroom for less than USD100 (somewhere like Vanderbilt YMCA and Jane Hotel perhaps). You take your chances (do check out tripadvisor) but I stayed at Carter Hotel right on Times Square for less than USD100. My personal experience (after requesting a renovated room when I turned up at 2pm and getting one) was good - the room was clean, the bathroom clean, the air con worked and I had a very pleasant experience which was (for Manhattan) brilliant value for money although the room was a bit battered.25
And if you check www.airbnb.com for Manhattan
Be aware that short term (under 30 days) rentals in NYC are illegal unless the owner is occupying it with you. Airbnb does not check the legality of the properties listed.Please do not support illegal activities.
Short term rentals are not illegal across the river in NJ, however. If you want to go this route, I suggest finding a spot near a NJ Transit stop.
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@markfawkner Hotel Carter looks ideal - *perfect location and cheap*! You don't perhaps know of a similar setup in Boston do you?27
@bzookaj Been trawling airbnb - is very tempting. Is short term rental legal in Boston, DC, San Fran or New Orleans?29
Is short term rental legal in Boston, DC, San Fran or New Orleans?
I'm not sure about SF, but I believe it is in the others.
